1 . About 12,000 years ago — long before the famous Roswell UFO crash made headlines in America — an alien (外星人的) spaceship crashed in China. And their descendants are still living in a faraway Chinese village today! That is the mind-bending claim made in the new book Out of Time and Place, a collection of reports from the files of Fate, a magazine edited by Terry O’Neill.
The story first came to light in 1937 when an expedition led by Chi Pu-Tei came across a group of caves deep in the Bayan-Kara-Ula Mountains. In the caves were found strange-looking skeletons with big heads and small, slender bodies —closely matching typical descriptions of space aliens. The explorers also uncovered 716 mysterious stone discs with strange hieroglyphics (象形文字) on them.
In Qinghai province, where the mountains lie, ancient stories tell of small, skinny beings with oversize heads who came from the sky long long ago. And to this day, locals live in fear of attack from strange-looking creatures from above.
And there’s more. In 1947, British scientist Karyl Robin-Evans led an expedition into the mountains and discovered a group of dwarfs (侏儒) who called themselves the Droza. “They told him that their ancestors came from a planet in the Sirius (天狼星) system and crashed in this mountain area a long time ago,” writes Hausdorf, “Many of them were killed, but survivors adapted themselves to living on this rough planet far from home.”
For decades, Robin-Evans’ claims were dismissed as nonsense. But in 1995, the Associated Press reported that in the region a village named Huilong had been recently discovered — populated by 120 dwarfs ranging from 3-foot-10 to 2-foot-1 tall. Hausdorf asks, “Could these people be the last living descendants of the survivors of the legendary UFO crash — the Chinese Roswell?”
1. What is the meaning of the underlined word “descendants”?| A．Ancestors. | B．Siblings. |
| C．Intelligent people. | D．Later generations. |
| A．Many people are curious about aliens from outer space. |
| B．Chinese are descendants of the survivors of the alien spaceship crash. |
| C．The UFO crash in the Byan-Kara-Ula Mountains has recently been seen. |
| D．This passage is a piece of science news recently issued. |
| A．Robin-Evans’ claims. |
| B．Chi Pu-Tei’s discovery in China. |
| C．News stories about Rosewell UFO Crash. |
| D．Recent research about the Chinese Rosewell. |
2 . 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. |
| 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. |
| 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. |
| 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 |
On the eve of the Chinese Lunar New Year,
Jade Rabbit is probably the most famous rabbit in China. It features on the special stamps
The image of a white rabbit often leaves
Lord Rabbit, known as Tu’er Ye in Chinese, is an auspicious (吉利的) clay toy for children in Beijing.
| tell shout reply greet weep speak |
We were in Rome when World War Ⅱ ended. The first we knew of it was when we heard bells ringing and people running into the streets. Everyone was
5 . Deep within the Yukon, one of the most densely wooded areas of Canada, sits a patch of land that is unlike any other forest on the planet. Instead of a canopy of treetops spreading across the horizon, tens of thousands of signposts perch haphazardly one on top of the other. They are all part of the Signpost Forest, the largest collection of signs from places around the world. At last count, the Signpost Forest in Watson Lake, located about 10 miles north of the U.S.-Canadian border, contains 91,000 signs from spots near and far.
The tradition began during the Alaska Highway Project in 1942, when U.S. soldier Carl K. Lindley spent time in Watson Lake recovering from an injury. A commanding officer asked him to repair and erect the directional signposts, and while completing the job, the homesick soldier added a sign that indicated the direction and mileage to his hometown: “Danville, Illinois, 2,835 miles.” Others followed suit, and the trend caught on. Each year, an average of 1,000 new signs are being added to the collection. Lindley’s original sign has since been lost to time. Fifty years later, in 1992, Lindley and his wife Elinor made the pilgrimage back to Watson Lake to place a replica, which is still there.
The Signpost Forest takes up a couple of acres, with huge panels snaking through the trees. There are street signs, welcome signs, signatures on dinner plates, and license plates from around the world. There are also a lot of familial signs; for example, a grandfather will put up a sign and then years later family will come back and try to find it. A lot of these are personal signs to literally say that they are here. Though the visitor center has wood and paints on hand to help create a sign, many people opt to bring their own signs, though illegally, by snatching a metal sign from their hometown and nailing it to one of the wood posts. The forest has grown so vast that the visitor center no longer tries to keep a detailed list of the signs.
1. What does “The tradition” in the second paragraph refer to?| A．Counting the number of signs in the Signpost Forest. |
| B．Replacing the natural forest with signs of different kinds. |
| C．Putting directional signposts on the highways of the Yukon. |
| D．Bringing signs to the Signpost Forest from around the world. |
| A．It remained in the Forest until 1992. |
| B．It was erected by an American soldier. |
| C．It was first put on the Alaska Highway. |
| D．It was brought from Lindley’s hometown. |
| A．List. | B．Trunk. | C．Copy. | D．Border. |
| A．The origins and sizes of the signs in the Signpost Forest. |
| B．The quantity and variety of the signs in the Signpost Forest. |
| C．The difficulty of categorizing the signs in the Signpost Forest. |
| D．The practice of nailing illegal signs to the posts in the Signpost Forest. |
6 . February 13, 2022, marked the 25th anniversary (纪念日) of the Great LEGO Spill — the worst toy-related environmental disaster of all time. On this important day in 1997, the Tokio Express was hit by a huge, 28-foot high wave off the United Kingdom’s southwestern coast, tilting the ship by 60 degrees and causing it to drop 62 containers into the sea. One was filled with about 5 million colorful LEGO bricks!
Shortly after the incident, LECO pieces began washing ashore the beautiful beaches of Cornwall and Devon in southwest England. Many locals rushed to hunt for the toys. Cornwall resident Tracey Williams was among the thousands of locals that searched the beaches regularly to find the little sea-themed pieces.
In 2010 Williams moved to Cornwall and came across some LEGO pieces on her first trip to the beach. Wondering where else they had been found, she created a Facebook group. Called “Lego Lost at Sea”, it allowed her and hundreds of other collectors to share their discoveries. As it turned out, the LEGO bricks were not just washing ashore English beaches. They had also been found in Wales, Ireland, the Channel Islands, France, Belgium, and Holland, showing just how far ocean currents had carried them.
“What we’re finding now are the pieces that sank as well as the pieces that floated,” Williams says. “It’s providing us with an insight into what happens to plastic in the ocean, how far it drifts (漂移) — both on the surface of the ocean and also along the seabed—and what happens to it as it breaks down.”
No one knows when the LEGO bricks will stop appearing on the beaches. But one thing is for sure, that is, the plastic pieces will be around for centuries. A 2020 study analyzing the structure of the washed-up LEGO bricks concluded that the five million pieces could take as long as 1,300 years to degrade (降解) completely. And like all plastic products, the iconic toys will never entirely disappear. Instead, they will break down into tiny “microplastics” and be eaten by ocean animals. They will make their way up the food chain to humans.
1. What does the underlined word “tilting” in paragraph 1 probably mean?| A．Speeding up. | B．Leading something to fall. |
| C．Damaging seriously. | D．Making something not flat. |
| A．It resulted in many deaths. |
| B．It was caused by the pilot’s mistakes. |
| C．It made many LEGO bricks lost. |
| D．The ship dropped most containers. |
| A．To exchange toy blocks. | B．To collect LEGO toys. |
| C．To track the LEGO bricks. | D．To trade in toys worldwide. |
| A．They will break down completely. |
| B．They will influence human health. |
| C．They will be recovered by the maker. |
| D．They will soon disappear from the beaches. |
7 . Discoveries in Greenland indicate that Vikings ( 维 京 人) lived there for hundreds of years, trading with the European continent before they disappeared.
Settling in Greenland posed an enormous challenge. Shelter, food, and clothing were, of course, essential to survival. There were no trees large enough to produce wood for housing. These settlers had to build homes of driftwood, stone, and sod (草皮). The summer was too short to grow grain crops, so they farmed domesticated animals imported from Europe and mainly relied on secondary products, such as milk and cheese.
At some point during the fourteenth century, Greenland’s climate grew colder. Glaciers (冰川) began moving slowly over the land, bringing with them a runoff of sand, mud, and stones. These things slowly robbed the settlers of valuable grassland.
| A．Who were the Vikings? |
| B．Besides, they netted fish and hunted deer. |
| C．However, the Greenlanders learned to adapt. |
| D．Sports were also widely practiced by the Vikings. |
| E．Well, what became of these early settlers in Greenland? |
| F．Only 14 boats survived the seas, and about 450 people set foot ashore. |
| G．A central figure in this story was Erik the Red, who grew up in Iceland. |
Queen Elizabeth II was farewelled at an hour-long state funeral in London’s Westminster Abbey, with her body later moved to her final
About 2,000 people attended the funeral, most notably the Queen’s children: King Charles, Princess Anne, Prince Andrew and Prince Edward. Her grandchildren,
As well as foreign royals and state
The service
On the top of the coffin (棺材) was a wreath of flowers
Queen Elizabeth Ⅱ will be buried alongside her late husband, Prince Philip.
Abraham Lincoln’s position on slavery is one of
Lincoln never called for this, and focused instead
Lincoln, with partial compensation to owners, did end slavery in the District of Columbia in l862. During 186l-1862 Lincoln tried unsuccessfully to get Kentucky and Maryland to do likewise. He
Elon Musk Tweets an Ancient Chinese Poem. Here’s What It Means.
The world’s richest man caught up in Twitter spats (小争吵), now wants some peace. In a Monday tweet, Elon Musk wrote “humankined,” followed by the Chinese poem The Quatrain of Seven Steps, a widely known classical poem used
Beans a simmer on a beanstalk flame
From inside the pot expressed their ire:
“Alive we sprouted on a single root — What’s your rush to cook us on the fire?”
The verses were attributed to Cao Zhi, the son of famous warlord Cao Cao,
Cao Zhi then made the bean-themed verses
In China, the poem is taught to primary school students and is often quoted by people to describe unnecessary rivalries. Interest users, including people in China, are confused over what Musk
