Edinburgh: a city of culture
Edinburgh, 1.(locate) in the southeast of Scotland, is the capital city of Scotland.
With its museums, shops, wonderful historic castles, and many restaurants, there are many interesting things for visitors 2.(enjoy) all year round.
However, there is more to Edinburgh than tourism. Each year, the Edinburgh International Festival 3.(take) place in the city. In late summer, for three weeks, the festival presents classical music, theatre, opera and dance throughout the city. Whatever your cultural 4.(taste) are, you are sure to find something to enjoy.
So far, the Edinburgh International Festival5.(earn) its reputation (声誉)as one of the world’s 6.(great)celebrations of the arts. The founders believed that the programmes should be of the highest possible artistic standard presented by7.best artists in the world, that the festival should enrich the cultural life of Europe 8. that it should provide a platform(平台)for the flowering of the human spirit.
The popularity of the festival led 9.the birth of another festival soon—the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Both of them have been 10.(wide) popular over the past 70 years.
During my childhood, one of my favorite fruits was watermelon. Because I loved it so much, I was _____to grow my own. When I told my mother, she ______. She told me that it would never grow in such a cold climate, yet I_______to give up.
Lacking my mother’s support. I________my grandmother instead. She told me that if I wanted to ______watermelons, then I should just do it. I can still remember her ______, “Jeanne Marie, if you_______something in life, you have to work for it. If you don’t reach for your ______, they’ll fly away.” She spoke to my heart,_______me. I became more determined. I dried the ______from one of my pieces of fruit, and then ______them in the earth behind my home. Day after day, I ______and checked the soil for any signs of growth; ______, day after day, I was ____. My grandmother ______me not to give up. She said, “In today’s world, Jeanne Marie, your dream is the thing that no one can take away.”
Though what my grandmother said sounded reasonable, I was still_______. Then, just as I was about to give up my hope, a ______came up. I watched its growth by the minute and ______every inch it grew until one day I was eating my home-grown watermelon _____.
My grandmother has a great influence on my life. She teaches me if one has the________to do something, he will achieve it in good time.
1.A. determined B. surprised C. excited D. honored
2.A. cried B. laughed C. shouted D. agreed
3.A. asked B. hoped C. refused D. decided
4.A. turned to B. referred to C. looked after D. belonged to
5.A. sell B. enjoy C. eat D. grow
6.A. words B. reasons C. stories D. answers
7.A. want B. limit C. accept D. understand
8.A. gifts B. dreams C. fruits D. goods
9.A. preventing B. challenging C. inspiring D. protecting
10.A. flowers B. roots C. seeds D. leaves
11.A. planted B. cut C. destroyed D. hid
12.A. mixed B. trained C. controlled D. watered
13.A. however B. thus C. so D. besides
14.A. amazed B. worried C. disappointed D. curious
15.A. encouraged B. promised C. forced D. ordered
16.A. angry B. happy C. puzzled D. brave
17.A. chance B. problem C. watermelon D. plant
18.A. recorded B. found C. concluded D. explained
19.A. quickly B. proudly C. smoothly D. gently
20.A. desire B. ability C. opinion D. time
Most people know how difficult it is to get along with others. 1.If one doesn’t get along with himself, how could he be expected to get along with others?
Getting along with self is the most important point in getting along with others in this world. So first and foremost you must learn truly to appreciate and love yourself. 2.Some people live in the worst situations but are wonderful in their ability to get along with themselves. Others have every chance in the world, but they cannot get along with themselves. 3.You must not wait for your situations to change. If you wait for that, you will never make any progress. There is no excuse that you cannot correct yourself because of any other conditions.4.If you want to meditate(冥想), you will find a way to meditate in spite of your surroundings. If you want to study to improve your English, you will do so regardless of (不管)outer conditions.
5.So you are the only one who knows whether you can get along with yourself. That is why it is up to you to struggle every day to find out whether you are at peace with yourself. When you learn to get along with yourself, you will know how to get along with everybody.
A. They are constantly at war with themselves.
B. You hide yourself very cleverly from others.
C. We should learn to show concern for others.
D. You can tell yourself you’re all right in spite of your environment.
E. Children should be taught how to get along with others.
F. But I do not mean love for your selfishness or self-interest.
G. But have you ever given thought to getting along with yourself?
There is no doubt that many parents want to mold (塑造)their child to be better, faster, smarter and more skilled. Even though human parents can’t do that, a robot that builds its own children can. Scientists at the University of Cambridge in England have created a mother robot that not only creates its own children, but tests out their performance.
The mother robot analyzes(分析)the performance of each of the “children” it creates, and passes down good characters to the next generation
For example, as the mother creates them and puts them to work, she measures how they’re behaving, and she uses data from this behavior to create the next generation of robots.
The mother robot can actually build hundreds of child robots and see the performance of these child robots. And if their performance is good, keep their design for the next generation. And if bad, just let it go.
“We program the robots based on some functions that define(规定)the reward the robots are going to get, depending on the construction that they make. They cannot change their own reward. For the child robot, the longer the distance the robot walks, the better the reward it receives,” said Fumiya Iida, the lead researcher.
After several generations, the “children” were running twice as fast.
“The mother robot produced 500 robots to see which one is good and which one is bad,” said Iida.
The researchers believe that the machines can be used in a car factory, for example, where robot cameras examine each ear in production line, find out any mistakes, and then design a better car.
1.What is special about the mother robot?
A. It can analyze data
B. It can create child robots
C. It’s smarter than human mothers
D. It can build and improve its own children.
2.How does the mother robot mold her own children to be better?
A. It teachers them how to behave better.
B. It reprograms the bad ones after analyzing their performance
C. It copies hundreds of child robots and then chooses the best ones.
D. It keeps the good characters for the next generation to create a better robot.
3.What is the key point in influencing the child robot to receive a reward?
A. Size B. Distance.
C. Behavior D. Speed.
The Ocean Awareness Student Contest(International)
We invite middle and high school students from around the world to attend the 2017 Ocean Awareness Student Contest! The theme is Making Meaning out of Ocean Pollution, and it challenges you to research, explore, explore interpret, and say something meaningful about the connections between human activities and the health of our oceans.
This year, we challenge you to concentrate on one type of ocean pollution and “make meaning” of it through art, poetry or film. We encourage you to connect it with your own life, your own local community, or something else that is personally meaningful to you, but what’s most important is to pick a topic that inspires you.
To take part:
(1)Research
Do research on your own. Ask tough and complex questions, and think about the way science and society help you explain the topic
(2)Create
To explain your topic, create your own work of art, writing, poetry or film.
(3) Submit(提交)
The closing date for entries is on June 13, 2017, at 11:59pm.
Submit as an individual: This means that you are the only creator of your submission .
Submit as a group: Groups can be of unlimited size, but you must provide the names of each group member. There will be one group leader who will be the contact(联系)person for the group and prizes will be awarded to the group as a whole.
Prizes:
The winners will receive scholarships (up to $ 1,500), and each year we give out over 140 prizes(totaling up to $80,000) as well as chances to the winners to work with us and to get their works exhibited and published.
1.The purpose of the contest is to______.
A. encourage more people to explore the ocean
B. direct students to receive more scholarships
C. draw students’ attention to the health of the oceans
D. help students complete their works in various styles
2.The contest is designed for______.
A. college students B. teenagers
C. art students D. people of all ages
3.To take part in the contest, students are asked to______.
A. submit their works in groups
B. experience the life in a local community
C. exhibit or publish their works in advance
D. do research and explain their topics
4.Which of the following prizes is not mentioned in the passage?
A. Scholarships will be offered to the winners
B. The organizers will let the winners work with them
C. The winners will be admitted to famous universities
D. Chances are that the winners can get their works published
Do you know sand has been used to draw pictures since ancient times? Today, sandpainting, an interesting art, will be produced to you.
Sandpainting is an art of using the sand to make a fixed or unfixed painting. Maybe we all played fixed sandpainting as we were young. We first painted a simple picture, then we brushed glue(胶水)to the section, and at last we poured colored sand onto the glue in order to make it fixed.
Unfixed sandpaintings have a long cultural history around the world. People poured sand on a surface to make paintings or use some tools to draw pictures in the sand directly. They are often temporary(临时的). Different people draw sandpaintings to express different meanings: love of nature, admiration for God or love of beauty.
Nowadays, sandpainting becomes a performance art and its popularity has risen. On the stages, sandpainting performers make a series of images(图像)by drawing lines and figures in the sand with their fingers and hands. The series of images are used to tell a story.
Kseniya Simonova, who is from Ukraine, is one of the greatest sandpainting performers in the world. People call her “The Lady of the Sand”.
Simonova said that she never dreamed she’d become a sand artist, and when she began practicing, she nearly gave it up. But she persevered, caring for a household and her baby by day and training every night. You Are Always Nearby is one of the most famous performances of Simonoova. It is a story about a young couple separated by a war in which the solider is tragically killed, but returns in spirit to watch over his wife and child. This performance makes all audience cry.
Art is everywhere and is not far away from common people. Art of painting is in our life, even in the sand.
1.Which of the following is necessary to make a fixed sandpainting?
A. Glue B. A printed picture
C. Colored paper D. Water
2.What do we know about Simonva?
A. She is the best painter in the world
B. Being a sand artist is her biggest dream
C. She once gave up performing for her family
D. Her performances are popular with people
3.What does Paragraph 4 mainly talk about?
A. How sandpainting is becoming popular
B. Why sandpainting is becoming popular
C. How an image is created in the sand
D. What sandpainting tries to express
4.The underlined word “persevered” can be replaced by _______.
A. set off B. gave out
C. held on D. ended up
