Of all the places stray (流浪的) cats can live in Beijing, perhaps none provides greater companionship than an underground facility known as the “Cat Shed”. A variety of cats are spread across the shed’s 100 square meters. They jump and play on toy towers or rest on cotton blankets on iron-framed beds.
Since the facility was established in 2012, some 150 cats have lived there. More than 100 volunteers attend to the strays. Many claim that they gain greater benefit from the interaction than the cats, because the animals offer not just companionship, but also a kind of healing.
The “housekeeper” is Yin Yi, a doctoral candidate at the Central Iron and Steel Research Institute in Beijing. When the 29-year-old arrived in the capital in late 2015, he faced huge pressure from his studies and personal relationships, while the alien environment exacerbated his feeling of loneliness.
After gaining a master’s from a university in Inner Mongolia, Yin relocated to go for a doctorate in material sciences. Accustomed to having friends around, he was not used to a lonely life, especially working by himself and spending up to 10 hours in a lab most days. To improve his mood, he decided to contact animal bases, looking for opportunities to care for stray cats. When he heard that a stray cat basement near his campus was looking for volunteers, he contacted Wu Xinhua, who organizes activities at the Cat Shed, and was soon surrounded by furry friends. His favorite moment is when he dishes out food and a dozen strays gather round, with several rubbing against his feet. When he graduates, Yin plans to house three strays in his apartment.
1.What does the underlined word “exacerbated” in Paragraph 3 mean?
A.Worsened B.Improved
C.Replaced D.Touched
2.What can we learn about the Cat Shed?
A.Yin Yi has rented the basement and provided facilities for the Cat Shed.
B.The Cat Shed is a relaxing and warm place for volunteers.
C.Wu Xinhua raises money to run the Cat Shed.
D.The Cat Shed only allows volunteers to adopt cats there.
3.What is the best title for the text?
A.Stray cats enjoy themselves at the Cat Shed
B.Volunteers make stray cats live a better life
C.“Stray” youngsters in Beijing need healing
D.Furry friends promote stress-free lives
When did you last buy something? Maybe you are looking forward to a shopping trip at the weekend, but will it make you happy? In the short term, the answer might be yes. However, some people think it might not be good for our health and happiness in the long term.
One of the busiest shopping days of the year in the USA is Black Friday (the fourth Friday of November), which has spread around the world. However, not everyone will be queuing for a bargain. In 1992, Buy Nothing Day started in Canada and now more than sixty countries take part. Their message is simple: “Participate by not participating.” For twenty-four hours on the fourth Friday of November, people do not buy anything at all. Some people choose to spend time with friends and family instead. Others join protests. But what’s the point?
Every single purchase that you make has some kind of an effect on the planet. Making the products and transporting them to the shops use a lot of natural resources. When they are no longer in fashion, the products will end up in the dustbin. All this contributes to air and water pollution, the destruction of our environment and social inequality.
The social influence of our spending habits is also serious. People in consumerist culture are more likely to suffer from financial problems and stress. In order to buy expensive products, people work long hours and therefore spend less time with family and friends.
Critics of Buy Nothing Day say it’s meaningless because people will just buy more the following day. But the organizers argue that Buy Nothing Day makes people think about the consequences of consumption and maybe make some changes to their life style.
1.Why is the question “When did you last buy something?” asked?
A.To remind us of the approaching of Black Friday.
B.To attach importance to our health and happiness.
C.To introduce the topic of shopping too much.
D.To encourage us to participate in Buy Nothing Day.
2.How can people participate in Buy Nothing Day?
A.By not participating in any advertisement for Black Friday.
B.By not buying anything on four Fridays of November.
C.By spending time shopping with friends and family.
D.By not going shopping on Black Friday.
3.What’s NOT the point of Buy Nothing Day?
A.Saving time spent on working.
B.Saving the environment and our earth.
C.Saving money for charity.
D.Saving our relationship with friends and family.
4.What’s the organizers’ opinion on Buy Nothing Day?
A.It can make a difference in some way.
B.It won’t have a lasting effect.
C.It can help people choose goods more reasonably.
D.It can cure people’s shopping addiction.
I grew up in a home with a mother who believes that vaccines (疫苗) cause brain damage, and do not contribute to the health and safety of a society. The only shot I received was for tetanus (破伤风) when I was two months old. After that, nothing.
At the beginning of each school year, I was very nervous. Delayed term paper? Mischievous (捣蛋的) behavior? Late for school? None of them. I’d be pulled out of class and brought to the headmaster’s office. The school doctor would tell me I hadn’t received any of the necessary shots to attend school. But the same thing occurred each time: my mom would free me from the shots and nothing would happen.
After doing a lot of research, I found although people who don’t vaccinate their children make up only a relatively small group, they can cause major consequences. People who, for health or age reasons, cannot receive vaccines are at a higher risk of catching a preventable disease.
Eventually, I turned 18. In Ohio, where I live, I had to wait until I became a legal adult to make the decision to receive vaccine shots. A huge factor in taking the step to ensure my health was the message board website Reddit. Last November, I asked Reddit users for advice about what vaccines to ask for and how to go about getting them from a doctor. After my post received more than 1,000 comments, I made an appointment with my family physician. Despite how strongly my mother felt, I went through with it anyway.
I did something every person should do. It wasn’t special in any way. Vaccines protect the health and safety of not only yourself but also other people. Vaccination is important because someone could die if you don’t get vaccinated. This was the biggest reason I got vaccines despite the opposition.
1.Why was the author called to the headmaster’s office at the beginning of each school year?
A.He was late for school.
B.He didn’t behave himself at school.
C.He couldn’t hand in his term paper on time.
D.He was hardly ever vaccinated.
2.How might the author’s mother have felt about his appointment with the family physician?
A.Annoyed. B.Grateful.
C.Thrilled. D.Guilty.
3.What does the author mainly want to tell us through his story?
A.Listening to your mother pays off.
B.Doing the right thing matters.
C.Keeping fit is the best policy.
D.Asking for advice helps.
假定你是李华，你的美国朋友Peter想提高中文水平，进一步了解中国文化。请给他写一封信，推荐学习资源(resource)。内容包括：
1．学习资源：报纸、杂志及其他途径；
2．推荐理由；
3．表达祝愿。
注意：1．词数100左右；
2．可以适当增加细节，以使行文连贯；
3．开头和结尾已给出，不计入总词数。
Dear Peter，
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Yours,
Li Hua
假定英语课上老师要求同桌之间交换修改作文，请你修改你同桌写的以下作文。文中共有10处错误，每句中最多有两处。错误涉及一个单词的增加、删除或修改。
增加：在缺词处加一个漏字符号(Λ)，并在其下面写出该加的词。
删除：把多余的词用斜线(＼)划掉。
修改：在错的词下划一横线，并在该词下面写出修改后的词。
注意：1．每处错误及其修改均仅限一词；
2．只允许修改10处，多者(从第11处起)不计分。
Every morning and evening, many people gather to dance in our community square, where is designed to improve living quality. Although dancing could do good to their health, but the long-time dancing and loud noise causing by the loudspeaker really brought the neighbors inconvenience. I couldn’t rest or sleep well, which made me terrible upset. I felt such sleepy in class that I performed badly in study. To solve a problem, I communicated with the organizers and suggested that they should shorten the dance time and reduced the music noise. Only doing so can they have fun and let others enjoy life. To their delight, they adopted my advices.
阅读下面短文，在空白处填入1个适当的单词或括号内单词的正确形式。
The national college entrance exam in Russia，Unified State Exam，will include Chinese as 1. elective foreign language starting from 2019．Chinese will become the fifth elective test item for the Unified State Exam 2. (follow)English，German，French and Spanish．
The number of Chinese learners in Russia 3. (grow)quickly in the past decade，according to a survey 4. (conduct)by a linguistic research center in Russia．
Approaches to learning Chinese vary from person to person，5. more and more people choosing university courses in Russia．
The three-hour-long Chinese test will quiz students on 6. (they)listening，reading，and writing abilities and a fourth section will examine students on grammar，vocabulary and Chinese 7. (character)．Some parts in the exam are even a little bit difficult for native Chinese speakers．
According to the Office of Chinese Language Council International(Hanban)7 as of 2017， some 100 million people，excluding native speakers，use Chinese 8. (global)．
The United Nations(UN)in 2010 suggested a Chinese Language Day 9. falls on April 20 each year 10. (celebrate)cultural diversity as well as to promote the equal use of a11 official languages．
