It was the biggest night of my life—opening night. Hours of ______ and daily rehearsals had gone into this production. I had recited my line a thousand times, ______ that my one sentence would be the highlight of the show.
As a 7-year-old boy, I was ______ to perform in an actual musical. The night before I had ______ my costume on the bed： a white shirt, blue jeans, and my handmade necklace. My ______ was going to be specially done. My lips would be in beautiful red. I was ______ prepared to be the shining star in my class’s performance of the musical One Big Happy Family.
A little time before the play, the backstage was complete ______. My friend and I, dressed in our costumes, were giggling. Children were running around madly. Some were ______ about forgetting lines; others were singing various songs out of tune. It was a big group of ______ second graders about to make their first performance.
Soon the big moment came, and we all filed onto the stage, ______ the audience of parents and relatives. The ______began, and my second grade class started singing with sweet seven-year-old voices. I sang my little heart ______, hoping to make the show as perfect as I d ______.
My turn to speak! The kid standing next to me handed over the microphone to me. As I started to speak, I noticed something had gone horribly ______ —the microphone was not turned on. The blood rushed to my face immediately. ______, I turned it over and switched the device on. After saying my line as quickly as possible, I handed the microphone off and I just felt that I had ______.
“Everybody is excellent!” the teacher ______ us in the backstage. “I’m sorry, Miss Alex. ” I said to her. “______ to be sorry about, Honey. ” She smiled to me, “Not every surprise in our life is always so pleasant. You did a good job!”
I felt so ______ in a minute and I can hardly wait to tell my dad and mum the story of “the unpleasant ______”.
1.A. experiments B. preparations C. descriptions D. introductions
2.A. informed B. confirmed C. amazed D. convinced
3.A. eager B. grateful C. scared D. accustomed
4.A. laid out B. hung up C. turned out D. made up
5.A. head B. heart C. hair D. feet
6.A. deliberately B. thoroughly C. possibly D. nervously
7.A. party B. silence C. tension D. chaos
8.A. panicking B. arguing C. greeting D. thinking
9.A. relaxed B. timid C. excited D. confused
10.A. leaving B. facing C. playing D. greeting
11.A. show B. line C. rehearsal D. practice
12.A. in B. down C. of D. out
13.A. found B. imagined C. declared D. calculated
14.A. blank B. wrong C. numb D. mad
15.A. Impatient B. Enthusiastic C. Embarrassed D. Determined
16.A. picked up B. mixed up C. cheered up D. messed up
17.A. admired B. criticized C. praised D. taught
18.A. Everything B. Something C. Nothing D. Anything
19.A. proud B. relieved C. puzzled D. interested
20.A. surprise B. lesson C. program D. performance
Nowadays people tend to digitalise everything from watches to fridges. It seems you can choose any item labeled as “smart”. 1. However, there are plenty that can be used to reduce emissions and save money.
If you’re a part of the digitalisation movement，you might be interested in the concept of smart homes. It means that every element of your house can be controlled from a panel on the wall or your phone.2. Use your mobile to power them on or off，and you may feel truly modern or truly lazy. Asides from the benefits of living a more comfortable life, this presents an opportunity to cut down on your electrical bills.
Electricity generation today represents 31% of total global fossil fuel use and around 40% of all energy-related CO2 emissions.3. It is considered as the first step to prevent global climate change. Connect a smart thermometer to the heating and cooling system and set a specific temperature at which the heating begins to work. Doing so, the room will be at a desired temperature when necessary and switches on a power-saving mode when not occupied. Similarly, by installing a CO2 sensor, you can have an automated ventilation (通风) system.4..
In a 150,000m2 office complex near Munich， called Campeon, energy costs of up to 117,067 Euro were saved after the use of environmental control devices this year. In this way, they are contributing to a large decrease in CO2 emissions. Clearly, smart homes are about much more than just living a comfortable life.5..
A. It is actually about living a green life.
B. Smart devices have been installed worldwide nowadays.
C. It starts working only when CO2 concentrations reach a certain limit.
D. There seem to be an ocean of such so-called “smart” inventions.
E. Bearing this in mind, measures should be taken to make buildings more energy-efficient.
F. Alternative energy must be discovered before the fossil fuel runs out in the future.
G. This includes basics such as heating and lighting and many other appliances.
More than 40 percent of the species that help with pollination (植物传粉) are under threat due to the polluted environment. So some researchers have been searching for ways to protect the bees and other crucial pollinators while some engineers have thought perhaps an army of robotic pollinators could keep humans well-supplied in these foods. A team of researchers has recently designed a small drone capable of pollinating flowers. They tested their device on the large, pink flowers of lilies. And it worked.
Exciting as this success was, it is only the first step. The team has yet to figure out how to apply the concept on the massive scale. Could a fleet of robo-pollinators replace the bees?
“Although the answer isn’t a straightforward no, it would be a challenging leap to go from this one little drone pollinating one large flower to an army of drones spreading across fields of crops,” says Scott Swinton, an agricultural economist at Michigan State University.
“The successful pollination was fascinating,” Scott Swinton says, “but the device itself might damage the flowers. I wonder how you make sure you’re not doing more harm than good to flowers when you have a drone.”
“Furthermore,” he points out, “a lily is a particularly easy flower for a drone to pollinate. To make this more broadly applicable for smaller and more complex flower structures, the drones would need to be particularly agile.”
Still, Joshua Campbell, an expert at the University of Florida, says “Pollination systems are extremely complex and will always require insects. There is no substitute for bees.”
“As for the technology itself, it is a promising new development in existing drone technology,” he added. Yet he still sees some hurdles ahead before drones can be applied on a large scale.
1.What makes those scientists invent pollinating drones?
A. There are no satisfying pollinators.
B. Humans need more food supplies.
C. Pollinating species are being endangered.
D. Drone technology is well-developed now.
2.What problem does Scott think scientists have to solve for the robo-pollinators?
A. Making them look like bees. B. Using them in quantity.
C. Keeping them flying non-stop. D. Instructing them to tell plants.
3.The underlined word “agile” in Para 6 can be replaced by “________”.
A. cheap B. catchy
C. lovely D. smart
4.What’s the best title for the passage?
A. Will pollinating drones take over for honeybees?
B. What is leading pollinating honeybees to decline?
C. Why does pollinating need a money-saving option?
D. How did researchers invent pollinating drones?
The world is a greener place than it was 20 years ago. A study published in the journal “Nature Sustainability” said that recent satellite data reveals a greening pattern that is strikingly prominent in China and India. The study shows that human activity in China and India dominates this greening of the planet, thanks to tree planting and agriculture. The effect comes mostly from ambitious tree-planting programs in China and intensive agriculture in both countries.
“China and India account for one-third of the greening, ” said lead author Chi Chen of Boston University. “ That is a surprising finding, considering the vague idea of land degradation (毁坏) in populous countries from overexploitation, ” added Chen.
China alone accounts for 25 percent of the global net increase in leaf area with only 6.6 percent of global vegetated area. The greening in China is from forests (42 percent) and croplands (32 percent), but in India, it is mostly from croplands (82 percent) with minor contribution from forests (4.4 percent).
China’s outsized contribution to the global greening trend comes in large part from its programs to conserve and expand forests with the goal of preventing land degradation, air pollution, and climate change.
“Once people realize there is a problem, they tend to fix it,” said Rama Nemani, research scientist and co-author of the study. “In the 1970s and 80s in India and China, the situation around vegetation loss was not good. In the 1990s, people realized it, and today things have improved. Now we see that humans are contributing.”
Land area used to grow crops is comparable in China and India—more than 770, 000 square miles—and has not changed much since the early 2000s. Yet these regions have greatly increased both their annual total green leaf area and their food production.
This was achieved through multiple cropping practices, where a field is replanted to produce another harvest several times a year. Production of grains, vegetables, fruits and more have increased by about 35%～40% since 2000 to feed their large populations.
1.What did the study mainly find?
A. India and China are leading the global greening effort.
B. Intensive agriculture is the cause of global land degradation.
C. China and India has got the largest forest coverage in the world.
D. Agriculture is more helpful in expanding green areas than tree-planting.
2.How is China different from India in contributing to the global greening?
A. India reduced cropland to prevent the overexploitation.
B. India increased forest by planting around croplands.
C. China changed more lands into forest by planting trees.
D. China controlled the increase of its population.
3.What does Nemani think about humans in China and India in protecting the Earth?
A. Ambitious. B. Responsible.
C. Passionate . D. Tolerant.
4.What does the passage finally suggest humans should make good use of?
A. Forest. B. Trees.
C. Cropland. D. Food
Across Europe, where visitors can outnumber residents in the summer months, the complaints have started. Last week, in Barcelona, an open-top bus was spray-painted across its windscreen with the words “Tourism Kills Neighbourhoods”. The message is clear: such cities are under pressure. In tourists and residents’ battle for shared spaces, local authorities are uncomfortably in the middle. The tourism is one of the largest employers in the world, with one new job created for every 30 new visitors to a destination—but at what cost to locals’ quality of life?
More people are travelling than ever before, and lower barriers to entry and falling costs mean they are doing so for shorter periods. The rise of “city breaks”—48-hour bursts of foreign cultures—has increased tourist numbers. “Too many people do the same thing at the exact same time,” says Xavier Font, a professor at the University of Surrey, “For locals, the city no longer belongs to them.”
Compounding the problem is Airbnb, which has made tourists more casual in their approach to international travel, but added to residents’ headaches. Those permanent citizens who share their apartment blocks with Airbnb hosts have lost their patience, “No longer do we have to share the streets with tourists, we have to share our own buildings!” To ease the congestion around the main attractions, many cities are taking immediate action. Venice is proposing a new concept of “ detourism”: sustainable travel tips and alternative routes for exploring a different Venice. A greater variety of guidance for future visitors—ideas for what to do in off-peak seasons, for example, —can guide them from overcrowded landmarks. Repeat visitors have a better sense of the culture and it is much easier to integrate their behaviour with residents of the cities.
“But the locals should learn to take tourists as a part of urban life. Tourists do not have to be considered passive players, but rather as visitors with rights and duties,” says Font, “Everyone has a part to play in promoting that change.”
1.What problem do the local authorities often have in a tourist city?
A. The challenge creating more business for local people.
B. The conflict taking place among tourists from different countries.
C. The dilemma between tourism and living quality of the locals.
D. The competitions among the most popular attractions.
2.Why do the local residents reject “city break” according to Paragraph Two?
A. Too many visitors have damaged the quality of life.
B. The locals fail to benefit from the city break economically.
C. The local authorities lack adequate operation guidance.
D. They are reluctant to share anything with coming tourists.
3.What is Airbnb most probably?
A. A new travelling map with more street information.
B. A solution by Font to improve the local living quality.
C. A small town having the same complaints about tourism.
D. A website to help travellers find a homestay.
4.Under the concept of Detourism, which of the following should be encouraged?
A. Developing a city break during on-seasons.
B. Shifting visitors from busy attractions.
C. Attracting more first-time visitors.
D. Taking tourism as a passive part of urban life.
Green Book—a touching story of friendship against all odds Need a warm break from cold Oscar films? Try “Green Book”, a film that leaves you feeling good instead of like a disaster victim. The lighthearted drama, about a road trip by two men—one white, one black—is absolutely optimistic. | |
| The movie, set in 1962, is based on the true story of two New Yorkers. Tony Lip is a bodyguard from Italy, where he’s famed for his ability to silence fights. Don Shirley, a black pianist, asked him to be his driver on a performance tour to the Deep South of America, where racism was most serious then. Lip is fine behind the wheel, but what’s more useful to his passenger is his talent for ending conflicts with his fists. Cities such as Birmingham, Ala., and Macon, were dangerous during the era of the early 60s. The book of the film’s title is “The Negro Motorist Green-Book”, which helped black travelers find safe accommodations. |
In the film, the ups and downs of their journey are told with the changing settings. They start out in Pittsburgh and Cleveland, in nice hotel rooms and at fascinating parties. It’s when they reach Louisville, Ky., that the first “Colored Only” hotel sign appears, and the attitudes turn hateful, even for the Italian. Anyway, a partnership is born during the trip: Shirley tickles the keys while Lip strikes the thugs(暴徒). The loving screenplay of “Green Book”—written by Lip’s son, Nick Vallelonga, and directed by Peter Farrelly — doesn’t shy away from Lip’s casual racism. Yet for all his kindness toward Shirley, Lip had a long way to go when it came to tolerance. “Green Book” could be accused by some critics of the story not being true. But the actors’ honest chemistry takes Farrelly’s movie to the next level. This small tale of American goodness deserves your full attention. |
1.What was “Green Book” originally in the 1960s?
A. A documentary recording the life of the blacks.
B. A guidebook for African-American road trippers.
C. A book teaching the blacks to to be tolerant.
D. A story about a black and a white on a tour.
2.What does “tickles the keys” suggest about Shirley in Para 3?
A. He performs in his tour.
B. He helps Lip to give the thugs a beat.
C. He gets used to Lip’s behaviors.
D. He drives the car.
3.Who does the author think highly of in the end?
A. The author of the film. B. Green Book in the 1960s.
C. The critics. D. The film actors.
