It’s quite a time for the strange weather, and it does not get much stranger than snow falling in one of the hottest places in the world.

On Sunday morning, Ain Sefra, a desert town in Algeria known as the “Gateway to the Sahara”, experienced a large amount of snow for reportedly the third time in 40 years. Some reports said parts of the area got as deep as 15 inches of snow, but Ain Sefra officially reported less than one inch in some places. Some people were very excited about it. It was strange enough to provide some very special pictures from an area that usually sees some of the hottest temperatures on earth during the summer.

Now, it’s not uncommon for the temperature across even the hottest of deserts to drop tens of degrees Fahrenheit at night, meaning any unusual snow could stay there around for a while. But photographers at the scene said the snow actually stayed intact (完好无损的) for a good portion of the day.

“We were really surprised when we woke up to see snow again,” photographer Karim Bouchetata told Shutterstock. “It stayed all day on Sunday and began melting at around 5 p. m.” While snow is not often falling down in the desert area, a similar snow phenomenon happened just last year. Before that, it had been 37 years since Ain Sefra’s last snowfall.

1.Why were some people in Ain Sefra excited?

A.The snow was one inch deep in some places.

B.They could take some wonderful pictures.

C.They never experienced a snow before.

D.They knew nothing about Ain Sefra.

2.Which of the following statements is NOT true about Ain Sefra?

A.It belongs to Algeria.

B.It has witnessed 3 snowfalls in 37 years.

C.It is one of the hottest places in the world.

D.It is referred to as the “Gateway to the Sahara”.

3.Why could the snow stay for a while?

A.It was unusual to snow.

B.Nobody touched the snow.

C.It fell in the coldest of deserts.

D.The temperature was low enough at night.

4.What is the best title for the text?

A.Snowfalls in One of the Hottest Places in the World

B.Happiness Coming from the Strange Weather

C.The Gateway to the Sahara — Ain Sefra

D.The Hottest Places in the World

    My mother used to ask me what is the most important part of the body. Through the years I would guess at what I thought was the correct answer.

When I was younger, I thought sound was very important to us as humans, so I said, “My ears, Mommy.” She said, “No. Many people are deaf. But you keep thinking about it and I will ask you again soon.”

Several years passed before she asked me again. Since making my first attempt, I had contemplated (仔细考虑) the correct answer. So this time I told her, “Mommy, sight is very important to everybody, so it must be our eyes.” She looked at me and told me, “You are learning fast, but the answer is not correct because there are many people who are blind.”

Over the years, Mother asked me a couple more times and always her answer was, “No, but you are getting smarter every year, my child.”

Then last year, my Grandpa died. Everybody was hurt. Everybody was crying. My Mom looked at me when it was our turn to say our final good-bye to Grandpa. She asked me, “Do you know the most important body part yet, my dear?”

I was shocked when she asked me this now. I always thought this was a game between her and me. She saw the confusion on my face and told me, “This question is very important. It shows that you have really lived your life.” I saw her eyes well up with tears. She said, “My dear, the most important body part is your shoulder.”

I asked, “Is it because it holds up your head?”

She replied, “No, it is because it can hold the head of a friend or loved one when they cry. Everybody needs a shoulder to cry on sometimes in life, my dear. I only hope that you have enough love and friends that you will have a shoulder to cry on when you need it.”

Then and there I knew the most important body part is not a selfish one. It is sympathetic to the pain of others.

1.Why did the writer first think “ears” were the most important part of body?

A.Because he thought that the sound was sweet to hear.

B.Because he thought that the sound was essential to humans.

C.Because he thought that the sound can be heard by people.

D.Because he thought that the sound can pass through quickly.

2.What happened to the writer’s family last year in the passage?

A.His house was burnt.

B.His mother left home.

C.His grandpa passed away.

D.His father was hurt in an accident.

3.Where did the writer get the correct answer from his mother?

A.At home. B.At the school.

C.At the station. D.At the funeral.

4.What can we learn from the passage?

A.We should learn to understand others’ pain.

B.We should listen to our mothers’ words.

C.We should hold up our head high.

D.We should often cry in life.

    To ensure an excellent experience during your tour of the Mark Twain House, here are some guidelines and general information:

The House is Shown Only by Guided Tour.

To ensure an optimum (最佳) experience, house tours are limited to 14 people, first-come, first-served. If your group has more than 10 people, call (860) 280-3130 to reserve a discounted group tour in advance of your visit. If you have a party of fewer than 10 people feel free to purchase tickets online: We will hold them at Will Call. The tour schedule is usually online about a month in advance.

Our site is made up of three buildings

The Webster Bank Museum Center at the Mark Twain House & Museum is always your first and last stop as it houses our ticket counter, museum store, film, exhibits and cafe. All tours gather in the museum center before heading over to Mark Twain’s historic 1874 home. Mark Twain’s historic carriage house is the third building on our property, but is generally not open to the public. The hayloft (干草棚) has been repurposed into offices and the main floor of the barn is a space available for rent for parties and meetings.

Coupons & Discounts

The Mark Twain House offers only a few coupons and discounts. The price you pay for admission helps us maintain the beauty of this icon of American architecture. If you are lucky enough to find one of those special offers online or at your local library, keep in mind they are good only for the general Mark Twain House Tours. No passes or discounts may be applied to our specialty tours.

1.What kind of tour booked beforehand enjoys a discount?

A.Specialty tour.

B.Guided tour

C.Group tour with 9 people.

D.Group tour with 13 people.

2.Which place is not available to tourists?

A.The Webster Bank Museum Center.

B.Mark Twain’s historic carriage house.

C.The hayloft.

D.Mark Twain’s historic 1874 home.

3.What is the purpose of charging admission fees?

A.To earn more money.

B.To well preserve the house.

C.To support Mark Twain’s family.

D.To offer parties and meetings.

假定你是李华，你市图书馆将举办中国茶文化展览。你校外教Smith先生对此很感兴趣，请用英语给他写一封邮件，邀请他参加该活动。内容包括：

1. 展览时间及地点；

2. 展览内容：中国茶的历史、文化；茶叶、茶具等；

3. 观看茶艺表演、品茶。

注意：1. 词数100左右；

2. 可以适当增加细节，以使行文连贯。

参考词汇：茶具tea set；茶艺the art of tea-making

Dear Mr. Smith,

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

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处语言错误，每句中最多有两处。每处错误仅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（∧），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。

Last summer, our class paid for a visit to a local nursing home. After arrive there, we saw some elder practicing Tai Chi. They gave us a good impression of being dynamic and healthy. But there were also some old people seating in the wheelchairs. They were out of shape，what made me a bit sad. They must have experienced hard life in the past. During the visit, we chat with the old and did some cleaning and washing here. We had such a good time. This year, we plan to visit it from time to time but hope more people will care about the old so that they can be healthy, peace and happy for the rest of their life.

    There was snow last night, followed by a freezing rain. It _________ everything with a thin layer of ice，including the highways，creating a _________ situation.

Going to the store to buy some goods, I had _________ in crossing the highway because of the ice. After I struggled to cross it, a woman came up in her car, _________ across the crosswalk, through the other lane, almost going into the ditch (沟). She was unable to do anything, with her eyes wide open in _________ and brakes locked. After she got control of her car, she slowly _________. So then watching her away, I thought that it was a _________ corner.

I got in touch with the businesses around and asked if I could fill the corner. Finally, I got _________. And then I found a bucket, filled it with sand and put the sand on that corner. This took me eight buckets, and _________ I got this comer sanded. People __________ their horns (喇叭) as they drove by to show honor to me. An officer thanked me and the paving company where I got the sand thanked me, too. A woman driver __________ over to give me a bottle of fruit juice, and another gave me a chocolate bar.

I wasn’t __________ anything, so I appreciated these. As one of the snow angels here in my community, I __________ a chance of cleaning up sidewalks for elders and those in wheelchairs last year because of a __________ shoulder injury. So this time I intended to make up for it, __________ with one good shoulder. It was __________, though. After I finished sanding this busy comer, __________ as it was，the sun came and started to __________. Someone drove by and told me that at the moment the sun was shining only in one __________. Yet this ray of sunlight was only shining where I was, coincidence? And strangely the ice started to __________ quickly.

1.A.ruined B.covered C.protected D.stopped

2.A.familiar B.different C.dangerous D.tight

3.A.luck B.interest C.fun D.difficulty

4.A.sliding B.walking C.struggling D.flying

5.A.vain B.alarm C.amazement D.relief

6.A.got off B.woke up C.drove off D.gave up

7.A.blind B.threatening C.quiet D.distant

8.A.permission B.confidence C.praise D.encouragement

9.A.purposely B.nearly C.eventually D.actually

10.A.kept B.played C.showed D.sounded

11.A.stayed B.rushed C.pulled D.turned

12.A.expecting B.deserving C.changing D.suffering

13.A.seized B.preferred C.regretted D.missed

14.A.serious B.slight C.bodily D.personal

15.A.never B.even C.still D.ever

16.A.interesting B.promising C.tiring D.worrying

17.A.sunny B.dark C.cold D.mild

18.A.hide B.rise C.fade D.shine

19.A.place B.moment C.way D.city

20.A.increase B.melt C.move D.block

    Whenever I moved to a new city, the first thing I did was to hire a bicycle. Why? 1. You travel much faster than on foot and you notice so much more of your surroundings than when in a bus or a car. It's more appealing to wander down small streets if they seem interesting, as you can quickly get back to the main road. Besides, I soon discovered more benefits of cycling.

A bicycle means that fewer places, especially in a small city like the one where I live now, feel far away. For example, cycling to work takes me half the time that it would to walk, 2.

Of course, there are obvious health benefits of cycling — a bit of extra movement as part of your daily routine can help you keep fit and healthy. Cycling on my way to work also makes me feel more energetic in the mornings.

3. While cars pollute the environment，bicycles are carbon neutral (碳平衡的). Furthermore, thanks to being petrol-free, bicycles are cheaper to run, buy and fix than cars. Even if you don't own a car，a bicycle can pay for itself when compared to the price of bus tickets.

4. Always wear a helmet, pay attention to other traffic and don't forget your lights at night. Make sure you know the road rules, especially in a new place. Some cities are more bicycle-friendly than others. 5. Luckily, where I live now is quite easy to ride a bicycle around, thanks to having lots of cycle lanes and not too many hills!

A.However, be careful when you are cycling.

B.But sometimes city roads are difficult for cyclists.

C.I should learn to ride safely on the right of the road.

D.Importantly, cycling also helps to decrease your carbon footprint.

E.Cycling to work is fit for whoever wants to save their pocket money.

F.Riding a bicycle also means you aren't limited by the bus timetables.

G.Seeing a city by bicycle is perfect for settling in and learning your way around.

    The remains of an ancient ape (猿) found in Bavaria suggest that humans' ancestors began standing upright millions of years earlier than previously thought.

An international team of researchers said the fossilized skeleton (化石骨骼) of a male ape that lived in the warm and damp forests of what is now southern Germany was quite similar to modem human bones. In a paper published by the journal Nature, they concluded that the previously unknown species — named Danuvius guggenmosi — could walk on two legs but also climb like an ape.

''The findings raise fundamental questions about our previous understanding of the evolution of the great apes and humans, '' said Madelaine Boehme, who led the research.

The question of when apes could walk on two legs has fascinated scientists since Charles Darwin first argued that they were the ancestors of humans. Previous fossil records of apes with an upright move — found in Crete and Kenya — dated only as far back as 6 million years. These apes are called Toumai.

Boehme, along with researchers from Bulgaria, Canada and the United States, examined more than 15,000 bones recovered from the archaeological remains found. Among the remains they were able to piece together were primate (灵长目动物) fossils belonging to 4 individuals that lived 11.62 million years ago. The most complete, an adult male, likely stood about 1 meter tall, weighed 31 kilograms and looked similar to modern-day bonobos, a species of chimp.

Like humans, Danuvius had an S-shaped backbone to hold its body upright while standing. Unlike humans, though, it had a powerful big toe that would have allowed it to grab branches with its foot easily.

Fred Spoor, a biologist at the Natural History Museum in London, called the fossil finds ''fantastic'', but said they would likely be denied or suspected by others, especially because they could challenge many existing ideas about evolution.

1.Where did the scientists find the fossilized ape skeleton?

A.Germany. B.Canada.

C.Bulgaria. D.Kenya.

2.What can we infer about Danuvius guggenmosi?

A.It was a species of chimp.

B.It lived in Crete and Kenya.

C.It could walk with a backbone.

D.It existed much earlier than Toumai.

3.How does Spoor feel about the finding?

A.It is the most fantastic one.

B.It is a support to evolution.

C.It may cause lots of debate.

D.It denies the previous ideas.

4.What might be the best title for this text?

A.Legend of Humans' Ancestors

B.The Secrets Uncovered from Fossils

C.The Oldest Example of Upright Ape Found

D.Recent Findings against the Theory of Evolution

    Scientists have created the world's first living, self-healing robots using stem cells (干细胞) from frogs. Named xenobots after the African clawed frog from which they take their stem cells, the ''machines'' are less than a millimeter wide — small enough to travel inside human bodies. They can walk and swim, survive for weeks without food, and work together in groups. ''These are entirely new life forms, '' said the University of Vermont, which conducted the research with Tufts University's Allen Discovery Center.

The researchers removed living stem cells from frog embryos (胚胎), and left them to hatch. Then, the cells were cut and reshaped into specific ''body forms'' designed by a supercomputer — forms ''never seen in nature''，according to a news release from the University of Vermont.

Xenobots even have regenerative abilities. When the scientists sliced into one robot, it healed by itself and kept moving. They don’t look like traditional robots - they have no shiny clothing or robotic arms. Instead, they look more like a tiny drop of moving pink flesh. The researchers say this is deliberate — this ''biological machine'' can achieve things typical robots of steel and plastic cannot. ''Traditional robots degrade over time and can produce harmful ecological and health side effects, '' researchers said in the study. ''As biological machines, xenobots are more environmentally friendly and safer for human health.''

According to the researchers, these robots could be used to clean up radioactive waste, collect microplastics in the oceans, or even carry medicine inside human bodies. Aside from these immediate practical tasks, they could also help researchers to learn more about cell biology - opening the doors to future advancement in human health and longevity. This sounds like something from a sci-fi movie. Some people even voiced their concern that humans might be taken control of by those xenobots. However, the researchers in the study say there is no need for alarm. They can't reproduce or evolve (进化).

1.What is this passage mainly about?

A.The advantages of a medical robot.

B.The application of robots in biology.

C.The general introduction of a living robot.

D.The medical value of African clawed frogs.

2.The underlined word ''regenerative'' in Paragraph 3 probably means ''________''.

A.living longer B.growing again

C.replacing old cells D.defending against attacks

3.What can we know about xenobots?

A.They can do everything that traditional robots can.

B.They can break up steel and plastic while degrading.

C.They are able to cure people of all kinds of diseases.

D.They are harmless to the environment and human health.

4.What is the researchers' attitude to the development of xenobots?

A.Doubtful. B.Positive.

C.Cautious. D.Casual.

    Harper Lee was an American novelist widely known for To Kill a Mockingbird, published in 1960, which won the 1961 Pulitzer Prize and has become a classic of modern American literature. The 1962 film adaptation starring Gregory Peck won three Academy Awards.

For decades, the book was Lee’s only major work of published fiction, but it was hugely influential for generations of US readers. It has sold more than 10 million copies, and is one of the most widely taught novels in the US schools. In 2007 she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom for her contributions to literature.

Lee wanted to live a simple life and was never comfortable with the attention the novel won her, and she practically disappeared from public life after it appeared. The world, however, continued waiting for a new novel from her, and on occasion she suggested that she had a story in progress.

In 2015, a book did come out. Go Set a Watchman was more of a first draft, featuring Scout, the young girl who was the main character of To Kill a Mockingbird. Go Set a Watchman tells a story of Scout as an adult. Accusations arose that the 89-year-old Lee was not able to agree to the manuscript’s release，and that various parties had signed on her behalf.

Though Lee moved to New York in 1949, she spent many years guarding her privacy (隐私) in Monroeville, which served as the clear inspiration for the setting in To Kill a Mockingbird.

In 2007, Lee suffered a stroke (中风), but recovered and later settled in Monroeville permanently to care for her sister, Alice, who died in 2014. She was said to eat breakfast every morning at the same fast-food spot, and was friendly with her neighbors. The countless Americans knew her only through her works，and they will undoubtedly miss her.

1.What can be learned about Harper Lee from the first two paragraphs?

A.She was regarded the greatest writer in America.

B.She made great contributions to American literature.

C.She once starred in a film adapted from her own novel.

D.She got her novels well accepted in most American schools.

2.Why did Harper Lee disappear from public life after her first novel came out?

A.She tried to get out of accusations.

B.She wanted to write another novel.

C.She intended to avoid being bothered.

D.She wasn’t comfortable with her novel’s influence.

3.What can we learn about Harper Lee’s Go Set a Watchman?

A.It tells her own life story.

B.It is adapted into a famous film.

C.It won her lots of honors and awards.

D.It continues the story of her earlier one.

4.What can be inferred about Harper Lee from the last paragraph?

A.She died of a stroke in 2014.

B.She will be remembered forever.

C.She cared much for her neighbors.

D.She led a lonely life in her later life.