It was Sunday, December 7, 1941. It looked like it was going to be a normal day
The surprise attack came as
For centuries, people dreamed about leaving Earth and travelling to other worlds. Then, in 1957, the Soviet Union
Early space activities were conducted
During the last 60 years, unmanned probes（探测器）have been sent towards many of the planets
More than 500 people have flown in space since Yuri Gagarin paved the way in 1961. 20 people have travelled to the moon, 12 of
3 . A perfectly preserved wreck (沉船) that has lain unnoticed in the icy Baltic Sea for over 500 years has finally been confirmed. The European ship was first observed in 2009, when a sonar(声呐) exploration by the Swedish Maritime Administration (SMA) indicated a large object in the area. However, it was not until early 2019 that researchers from Soton and MMT found evidence of the sunken ship using underwater robotic cameras.
When the team observed the pictures of the 60-foot-long shipwreck, they were surprised to discover it was 99 percent complete. The scientists considered that the wreck's good condition is due to its place in the Baltic Seabed, where the oxygen levels are low. Oxygen is key to most ocean life's survival. Therefore, such an environment where the shipwreck stays reduces or completely removes the creatures that feed on rotting wood.
So although this ship is contemporary to the times of Christopher Columbus, it shows a remarkable level of preservation after 500 years at the bottom of the sea. Dr. Pacheco-Ruiz, who led the MMT effort, said,“It's almost like it sank yesterday. It's a truly astonishing sight."
The scientists are unsure what let the ship sink. However, the ship's guns, which are in their"ready to fire" positions, indicate it may have been the victim of a naval battle. Since the ship dates back to the early 16th century, historians predict it may have sunk during Sweden's three year independence war with its Danish rulers between 1521 and 1523. Alternatively, it could also have been involved in the border dispute (争端) between Russia and Sweden from 1554 to 1557.
The ship is by far the best-preserved shipwreck ever found from the Age of Exploration, when Europeans explored the world by sea.
What's more exciting is that the ship is similar to the Pinta and La Nina, which Comlubus famously sailed toward North America. The scientists, who continue to observe the shipwreck hope the boat's design will expose some of the technologies available to the Italian explorer during his 1492 voyage of discovery.
1. What scientific achievement did Soton 's and MMT' s researchers make?| A．Discovering a wreck using sonar. |
| B．Getting the wreck out or icy water. |
| C．Identifying the object found by SMA. |
| D．Making the ancient wreck well preserved. |
| A．It is generally unfit for creatures to live in. | B．It is tough for scientists to do research. |
| C．It contains too many harmful gases. | D．It is filled with rotting wood. |
| A．his curiosity about the time when the ship sank |
| B．his amazement at the ship's previous grandness |
| C．his surprise at the wreck's well-preserved condition |
| D．his shock at the sinking of the great European ship |
| A．The damage to the ship. | B．The causes of the ship's sinking. |
| C．The construction of the ship. | D．The possible function of the ship. |
| A．Recovering the ancient ships, the Pinta and La Nina. |
| B．Finding every aspect of life in the Age of Exploration. |
| C．Exploring the role the ship played in Columbus' exploration. |
| D．Leaning about Columbus' voyage according to the ship's design. |
4 . Unearthing the Importance of the Life-Sized Terracotta Warriors
The unexpected unearthing of the Terracotta Army is renowned as one of the world’s greatest archaeological events. Discovered in northwestern China and dating back to its first dynasty, the ceramic(陶制的)figures have shed light on the country’s ancient artistic practices and age-old burial traditions.
In addition to offering a glimpse into Imperial China’s distinctive approach to
Here, we present the history of the Terracotta Army, including its creation in the third century BCE and its
History
In 246 BCE, Qin Shi Huang, China’s first emperor, took
To celebrate his triumphs and
Historians theorize that the heads and bodies of the warriors were made through
Discovery
For centuries, Qin Shi Huang’s massive necropolis remained undetected. However, in 1974, workers stumbled upon a large
Designed with an impressive level of detail, each figure is a one-of-a-kind work of art. The life-sized sculptures are
| A．funerary | B．fancy | C．unique | D．routine |
| A．in relation to | B．on behalf of | C．in terms of | D．in case of |
| A．discovery | B．routine | C．description | D．origin |
| A．part | B．effect | C．over | D．power |
| A．organization | B．unification | C．exploration | D．inspiration |
| A．admire | B．reflect | C．decorate | D．memorize |
| A．defend | B．preserve | C．energize | D．challenge |
| A．position | B．destination | C．site | D．facility |
| A．self-disciplined | B．assembly-lined | C．cutting-edge | D．well-off |
| A．transported | B．dismissed | C．fired | D．improved |
| A．sculpture | B．status | C．knot | D．packaging |
| A．amazing | B．different | C．selective | D．senior |
| A．historically | B．equally | C．currently | D．realistically |
| A．In addition to | B．Other than | C．In response to | D．with regard to |
| A．Typically | B．Actually | C．Similarly | D．Contrarily |
American Mikah Meyer has an unusual goal. He wants to visit all of the more than 400 properties operated by the National Park Service.
He spent January 2017 visiting historic areas in the southeastern United States.
One of his first stops was Fort Sumter,
After years of rising tensions between Northern and Southern states, the two sides clashed in Charleston Harbor on April 12, 1861. That was when the Southern army launched an artillery attack on Fort Sumter. Federal troops surrendered the fort a short time later. Union forces eventually fought
As he stood inside the large walls of Fort Sumter National Monument, Mikah Meyer looked across the water to the port at Charleston. He imagined what the area must have looked like more than a century and half ago. “You’ll see across that bridge, Charleston, South Carolina. It was under siege at one point for 17 months. There were cannons that
During his travels in January, Meyer had a surprise. Barack Obama, in his last few days as president, named a new national park site in Beaufort, just south of Charleston. It is called the Reconstruction Era National Monument. The Reconstruction Era National Monument will help tell the story of post-Civil war America.
The Reconstruction Era
6 . Sometimes it’s hard to let go. For many British people, that can apply to institutions and objects that represent their country’s past-age-old castles, splendid homes… and red phone boxes.
Beaten first by the march of technology and lately by the terrible weather in junkyards (废品场), the phone boxes representative of an age are now making something of a comeback. Adapted in imaginative ways, many have reappeared on city streets and village greens housing tiny cafes, cellphone repair shops or even defibrillator machines (除颤器).
The original iron boxes with the round roofs first appeared in 1926. They were designed by Giles Gilbert Scott, the architect of the Battersea Power Station in London. After becoming an important part of many British streets, the phone boxes began disappearing in the 1980s, with the rise of the mobile phone sending most of them away to the junkyards.
About that time, Tony Inglis’ engineering and transport company got the job to remove phone boxes from the streets and sell them out. But Inglis ended up buying hundreds of them himself, with the idea of repairing and selling them. He said that he had heard the calls to preserve the boxes and had seen how some of them were listed as historic buildings.
As Inglis and, later other businessmen, got to work, repurposed phone boxes began reappearing in cities and villages as people found new uses for them. Today, they are once again a familiar sight, playing roles that are often just as important for the community as their original purpose.
In rural areas, where ambulances can take a relatively long time to arrive, the phone boxes have taken on a lifesaving role. Local organizations can adopt them for l pound, and install defibrillators to help in emergencies.
Others also looked at the phone boxes and saw business opportunities. LoveFone, a company that advocates repairing cellphones rather than abandoning them, opened a mini workshop in a London phone box in 2016.
The tiny shops made economic sense, according to Robert Kerr, a founder of LoveFone. He said that one of the boxes generated around $13,500 in revenue a month and cost only about $400 to rent.
Inglis said phone boxes called to mind an age when things were built to last. “I like what they are to people, and I enjoy bringing things back,” he said.
1. The phone boxes are making a comeback ______.| A．to form a beautiful sight of the city |
| B．to improve telecommunications services |
| C．to remind people of a historical period |
| D．to meet the requirement of green economy |
| A．They were not well-designed. | B．They provided bad services. |
| C．They had too short a history. | D．They lost to new technologies. |
| A．their new appearance and lower prices | B．the push of the local organizations |
| C．their changed roles and functions | D．the big funding of the businessmen |
A period of important agricultural development began in the early 1700s in Great Britain and the Low Countries(Belgium, Luxembourg. and the Netherlands, which lie below sea level).
One of the most important of these developments was an improved horse-drawn seed drill invented by Jethro Tull in England. Until that time，farmers sowed seeds by hand. Tull’s drill made rows of holes for the seeds. By the end of the 18th century, seed drilling was widely practiced in Europe. Many other machines were developed in the United States.
Along with new machines，there were several important advances in selective farming. By selectively breeding animals (breeding those with desirable traits), farmers increased the size and productivity of their livestock. Plants could also be selectively bred for certain qualities. In 1866, Gregor Mendel’s studies in heredity (遗传) were published in Austria.
New crop planting methods also evolved during this time. Many of these were adopted over the next century or so throughout Europe. For example，the Norfolk four-field system, developed in England，proved quite successful. It involved the yearly rotation (轮作) of several crops, including wheat, turnips, barley, clover, and ryegrass.
Not all parts of the world benefited from these developments instantly. However，farmers in other parts such as Australia and Africa continued to use old ways of agriculture for a long time.
| A．This could add desired nutrients to the soil thanks to the rich variety of crops. |
| B．Over centuries, the growth of agriculture contributed to the rise of civilizations. |
| C．In experiments with pea plants, he learned how traits were passed from one generation to another. |
| D．In the 1830s Cyrus McCormick’s harvesting machine helped modernize the grain-cutting process. |
| E．This helped to produce extra food to trade for other goods and allowed people to work at other tasks. |
| F．New agricultural inventions dramatically increased food production in Europe and European colonies. |
8 . 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. |
The celebrations with the military parade for China's 70th anniversary（周年纪念日）on National Day have clearly shown
On the one hand, National Day
The parade also told the
Under the leadership of the CPC, the Chinese people have created
10 . Mr.Selfridge, the Wisconsin-born retailer (零售商) who left school at 14, rose to become a partner in Marshall Field’s, Chicago. Founded in 1852, it was one of the first and most ambitious US department stores. Mr.Selfridge had done well with Marshall Field’s. He liked to say, “The customer is always right,” which made the Chicago store popular. And he is believed to have invented the phrase “Only (so many) Shopping Days until Christmas”.
When he visited London on holiday in 1906 he was surprised to find most of the city’s department stores were no match of their American and Parisian competitors. This led Selfridge to leave the US and establish Selfridges, a department store named after him, at the west end of London’s Oxford Street. In Oxford Street, Selfridge’s design team shaped an ambitious classical palace building with a wall of plate glass windows.
Opened in 1909, Selfridges offered customers a hundred departments along with restaurants, a roof garden,reading and writing rooms, reception areas for foreign visitors, a first aid room and most importantly, a small army of knowledgeable floor-walking assistants who served as guides as well as being thoroughly instructed in the art of making a sale.
Mr.Selfridge did much to make the department store a destination rather than just a big and comprehensively stocked city shop. It became a place to meet and for ladies to lunch. Mr.Selfridge later introduced the department store as a key element of the 20th Century culture, and Chaplin acknowledged the growing trend for shopping in the department store in his film The Floorwalker.
1. What can be learned about Mr.Selfridge from Paragraph 1?| A．He was well-educated. | B．He was a modest man. |
| C．He was a gifted businessman. | D．He was dishonest. |
| A．The broad choice of goods. | B．The large number of departments. |
| C．The small group of guards. | D．The well-trained sales guides. |
| A．To encourage shoppers to spend more. | B．To introduce the history of Selfridges. |
| C．To compare different department stores. | D．To explain how to start a department store. |
