For centuries, people have tried to invent a perfect universal written language and Chinese has actually been considered before. Francis Bacon used to assume that a language like Chinese and its writing system would have qualified. Chinese doesn’t use an alphabet based on sounds, but symbols indicating meaning.
Chinese character has its special relationship between the sign and what it symbolized. Each character represents a word or a concept and you pile them up together like Lego bricks, children’s plastic building toys, to build more words. Some of them also look like what they represent. For example, a mountain may look just like a mountain with a peak in the middle. And fire resembles some blazing (燃烧的) logs. When you put them together and you get volcano. Isn’t that amazing?
While some of them look like what they represent, most of them really don’t. In fact, some of them are incredibly complicated. For instance, “Biang” is the name of a kind of noodle, which has 57 strokes (笔画). It is very hard for people to pronounce or recognize this character, let alone writing it out correctly. Chinese is so complicated that since the 1950s, a simplified system of characters has been used in mainland China. But there is a problem. Chinese characters often represent whole works, and there are a lot of them. In the Chinese dictionary there are around sixty four thousand characters.
So Chinese characters might not become a universal writing system soon. The trouble is not just inventing one, but getting people to use it. It wouldn’t be easy for the whole world to agree on the same set of meanings. After all, language needs a cultural context. You cannot really just use a universal language as you like.
1.What can we learn from Francis Bacon?
A. He believed that Chinese writing system was perfect.
B. He managed to invent a universal written language.
C. He recommended Chinese to use alphabets based on sounds.
D. He thought written Chinese language could be used globally.
2.How does the author explain the characteristic of Chinese character?
A. By analyzing structures of toys. B. By comparing concepts.
C. By giving examples. D. By collecting data.
3.Why do Chinese people use a simplified system of Chinese characters?
A. It is hard to pronounce Chinese characters.
B. It is difficult to recognize or write Chinese characters.
C. It is fashionable to use simplified Chinese characters.
D. It is complicated to look up Chinese characters in the dictionaries.
4.What is the passage mainly about?
A. How to write simplified Chinese characters.
B. Why people need a universal written language.
C. Chinese is a perfect universal written language.
D. Whether Chinese are suitable to be a world language.
Plants on Earth have grown for hundreds of millions of years, yet President Donald Trump’s pick to lead his new climate team insists that they need more carbon dioxide (CO2) to boom.
Princeton physicist and carbon dioxide-advocate William Happer has been selected to head the brand new Presidential Committee on Climate Security. The atomic scientist, who achieved recognition for his work on atomic collisions (原子碰撞), not climate science, declared that the planet’s atmosphere needs significantly more CO2, which is reported to speed up climate change. Happer said plants use CO2 to live and more CO2 is actually a benefit to the Earth. He also stressed that Earth is experiencing a “CO2 starvation”, and concludes that “If plants could vote, they would vote for coal.”
Earth and plant scientists, however, find Happer’s insistence that the plant kingdom would benefit from increased CO2 wrong-headed and it lacks evidence. For example, Earth’s CO2 levels have increased sharply in the last century, and are now at their highest levels in at least 800,000 years—though other measurements show CO2 levels are higher than they’ve been in 15 million years. “The idea that increased CO2 is universally beneficial ‘to plants’ is very misguided,” Jill Anderson, an evolutionary ecologist specializing in plant populations, said in an interview. Data shows the evolution of global average temperature and CO2 concentration from 1850 to 2019. Though 2019 is a bit cooler than recent years, it still is one of the warmest years ever and lies close to the trend line of global warming.
Both independent academic organizations and government agencies around different parts of the world concluded more CO2 will bring many negative impacts to plant environments. And they added that “If someone is going to claim it is good, it’s necessary for them to show evidence.”
1.Why does Happer think plants need more CO2?
A. Plants vote for more CO2. B. CO2 speeds up climate change.
C. Plants need more CO2 to live. D. CO2 is actually a benefit to the Earth.
2.What can be inferred from paragraph 3?
A. 2019 is a bit warmer than recent years.
B. CO2 levels must be the highest in history.
C. The plant kingdom must benefit from increased CO2.
D. There are adequate evidence to support Happer’s insistence.
3.What does the underlined word “it” in the last paragraph probably refer to?
A. More CO2. B. The plant.
C. The world. D. The US government.
4.The author’s attitude in writing this passage can be described as ________.
A. critical B. objective
C. positive D. negative
It’s not common that a grandmother aged 89 is crowned Queen of Icebergs in north America, but when it does happen it’s quite the sight.
On a recent trip to Iceland, Judith Streng became that grandma after her son attempted to take a photograph of her sitting on an ice structure that looks like a throne (宝座) at Diamond Beach in Jokul. Shortly after Streng sat down to pose, the piece of ice broke off and floated into the water.
“I thought it was safe. One girl had been on it and then two girls at the same time, and it was very secure with them. When I got on it, it started to shake and a wave was coming in. A very large wave came in and made the throne kind of shake, and I could tell that I was slipping off,” Streng told ABC News.
Streng’s story went hot after her 24-year-old granddaughter Catherine tweeted a text message exchange she had with her father about the incident. “My grandmother almost got lost at sea in Iceland today!”
Catherine, who teaches English in Seoul, South Korea, explained via Twitter that her father described the scene vividly. He has a PhD in English, and described the event in the following words, “She climbed to the throne after a wave had pulled back and left it briefly exposed on the beach. Then a wave washed in and removed the ice throne, rocking it from side to side. When the wave left, it lifted the throne and carried her out into the sea with the tide.”
Luckily for the Streng family, Randy, a licensed boat captain from Florida with knowledge of water rescue strategies witnessed the whole thing, and was able to save the day.
1.Where was the grandma when her son was taking a picture for her?
A. On a crown. B. In an iceboat.
C. At a throne beach. D. On an iceberg.
2.How did Catherine spread this accident?
A. By drawing a vivid picture.
B. By exchanging tweeter account.
C. By talking with her father in Seoul.
D. By posting the text message exchange with her father.
3.Who saved the grandmother?
A. Catherine. B. Streng.
C. Randy. D. Judith.
4.What can be a suitable title for the text?
A. Taking Pictures Must be Very Dangerous
B. A Grandma Floated out to the Sea on an Iceberg
C. An Optimistic Family Who Love Iceberg
D. The Licensed Boat Captain Went Hot Slowly
Do you want to read some new books? Here are a few of Bill Gates’ favorites in 2018.
21 Lessons for the 21st Century
Author: Yuval Noah Harari
Price: $20.2
The author, who is a really strong thinker, makes it clear that big problems are not solvable by a single country. He finds that human mind wants to worry about the dilemmas we face today. The book is a better framework for all the problems that people are worrying about.
Meditation and Mindfulness
Author: Andy Puddicombe
Price: $18.5
When you meditate, they sometimes say you should empty your mind, but that really never happens. So the author’s analogy (比喻) is ideas that are like clouds coming across your head. You should just push away gently. If the book can get people doing 10 minutes daily meditation, that is fantastic for relaxing your mind.
Army of None
Author: Paul Scharre
Price: $46.1
It is about what armies are going to look like in the future. Should a drone (无人机) be able to go out and find enemies and attack them? Should the software be letting the humans make the decisions or not? The author is warning that we need to hold back and not go all the way to robotic warfare. The author thinks we should not give up human involvement in these weapons.
Bad Blood
Author: John Carreyrou
Price: $43.4
It is a story of secrets and lies in a Silicon Valley start-up. Theranos, the founders were doing diagnostics (诊断) that can be very cheap, not need as much blood, read out even your DNA. But when it all was revealed, they really didn’t have what they were talking about. In fact, they had been giving patients diagnoses, which were actually dangerous because they were so wrong. It is a thriller with a tragic ending.
1.Which book is suitable for a person who wants to find a way to get relaxed?
A. 21 Lessons for the 21st Century. B. Meditation and Mindfulness.
C. Army of None. D. Bad Blood.
2.Who wrote a thriller in 2018?
A. Yuval Noah Harari. B. Andy Puddicombe.
C. Paul Scharre. D. John Carreyrou.
3.How much will you pay for Army of None?
A. $20.2. B. $18.5.
C. $46.1. D. $43.4.
假如你是李华。最近，美国笔友Peter 发来电子邮件，说他在汉语学习中遇到了困难，感到非常着急。请根据下面的写作提纲给他回复一封电子邮件。
内容包括:
1) 同情他的处境 2) 给他提出几点建议 3) 希望他情况好转。
注意:
1.可以适当增加细节，以使行文连贯
2.词数100左右。
3.开头和结尾已给出，不计入总词数
Dear Peter,
Learning that you are having a hard time learning Chinese, I’m writing...
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Sincerely 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 week I got the first prize in the English Speech Contest hold in our school, that made me very excited. I used to be too shy not to speak English in public. It was Susan who asks me to practice several times in her office and corrected my pronunciation and intonation. Besides, she encouraged me be confident and brave whether I wanted to show my talent before others. I followed her advices. That was why I won the first prize. I am deep moved by what he has done for me. I owe her a thousand thanks with her kindness.
