If you're not one of the record 1. 9 million British holiday makers who went on a cruise (海上航游) last year, isn't it high time you walked up the gangway?
We've rounded up all of the best packages you need to know about, as well as picking out some of our top favourite late deals.
US Transatlantic From £629 per-person: Sail 13 nights with stops including Boston, New York. Price is on a full-board basis and includes accommodation as well as on board entertainment and activities. Based on an interior cabin(船舱) but upgrade to Ocean View for an extra £ 177per-person.
Cuba from £400 per-person: Sail five nights on board Majesty of the Seas with stops in Havana» Cuba and Mexico. Price is on a full-board basis and includes accommodation as well as onboard entertainment and activities.
Portugal, Spain and Italy from £479 per-person：Sail seven nights with stops including Madeira, and Malaga on a full-board basis. Price includes meals, afternoon tea, late-night snacks, luxury en-suite accommodation, all onboard activities and entertainment.
European cities from £579 per-person: Sail on board MSC Meraviglia from Barcelona to visit Marseille, Genoa, Civitavecchia, Palermo and Valetta, and make the most of MSC's all-inclusive drinks package including coffees, cocktails, wine, beer, spirits and soft drinks for over 18s. Price is on a cruise only basis with two people sharing a cabin.
While there are plenty of great late deals available to customers, the cruise industry often has some of its best deals months in advance. Going forward, cruise lines are looking to change the way the booking system works so the prices go up closer to the departure.
1.Who is the passage written for?
A.sailor. B.A holiday designer.
C.An advertiser. D.A potential tourist.
2.How much should a couple pay for US Transatlantic Ocean View cabin?
A.£1612. B.£1258.
C.£806. D.£629.
3.Whose price doesn't include entertainment?
A.Cuba. B.Portugal, Spain and Italy.
C.European cities. D.US Transatlantic.
难度: 中等查看答案及解析
I was 11 years old when I asked my mom for piano lessons in 2010. We were in the economic decline. She said a polite “no”.
That didn’t stop me. I Googled the measurements for a keyboard, drew the keys on a piece of paper and stuck it on my desk. I would click notes on an online keyboard and “play” them back on my paper one-keeping the sound they made on the computer in my head. I spent six months playing without touching a real piano. Once my mom saw that I was serious, she borrowed money and bought me 10 lessons.
I still remember the first one. I was struck by how real the sound of the piano was. I sat my grade one after eight lessons. Once I started secondary school, we couldn’t afford lessons again. I passed grade three, then grade five, practicing only on my piece of paper.
One evening, when I was about 13, my mom said she had a surprise for me; it was an electronic keyboard, bought with more borrowed money. It was the first time I’d played for her. She was in shock.
My school didn’t offer music A-level. I found the Purcell School for young musicians. But I had to pass a difficult test. Some of the questions involved an evaluation of the composer or when some piece was written. I felt overwhelmed. To my amazement, I was offered a place.
At Purcell, I spent two years working as hard as I could. I performed to raise money and saved enough to buy my first piano.
When I left Purcell, I was awarded the senior piano prize and senior academic music prize. I am now at the Guildhall School in London. I feel proud: it’s been 10 years since I drew my paper piano, and I’m at one of the world’s leading music schools.
The irony is that I continue to do a lot of my practice away from the piano-what we call mental practice. The paper piano helped arouse my curiosity about how music works, the building blocks that form the pieces.
1.Why did the author’s mom buy him lessons at last?
A.She was shocked by his first performance.
B.She had no doubt of his talent for piano.
C.She realized he meant what he said.
D.She suddenly made a fortune.
2.Which of the following can best describe the author?
A.Honest. B.Determined.
C.Humorous. D.Optimistic.
3.The underlined word “irony” in the last paragraph shows that the author felt .
A.surprised B.proud
C.satisfied D.disappointed
4.What’s the author’s main purpose of writing this article?
A.To introduce the method of mental practice.
B.To share how he convinced his mom to buy a piano.
C.To describe how costly it is to learn an instrument.
D.To encourage people to stick to their dreams.
难度: 中等查看答案及解析
It’s funny how readily we “take the advice of complete strangers” when shopping online. More than 80 percent of Americans say they read online reviews at least some of the time. But on sites such as Amazon and Yelp, businesses have learnt to “making the most of the rating system to the seller’s or the platform’s advantage”, eventually “making the star-rating scale useless”. Even in the case of confirmed reviews, it can be hard to know what the stars mean.
Amazon has stepped up the effort to provide transparency said Louise Matsakis in Wired.com. Its “Vine voices” program sends free products for testing to an invite-only community of “trusted reviewers”. Amazon has also started ranking its Top 10,000 Contributors on a daily leaderboard not “just by the number of reviews a person has but also by how many customers found their feedback to be helpful”. The current No.1 reviewer, a 45-year-old from North Dakota who has posted nearly 2,500 comments since 2002, has owned a bakery in Oregon, worked for a small newspaper, and had a 10-year stretch in the Navy as a nuclear welding inspector. Now he spends his time testing everything from fryers to popcorn makers, though he exceeded its weight limit by 70 pounds.
But sellers are still finding ways to deceive prospective buyers, said a reviewer. He said, “I identified more than 150 private Facebook groups where sellers openly exchange free products for five-star reviews. I joined four of them and was annoyed with a flurry of private messages from sellers. One offered to pay me $10 for a splendid review of what was already ‘one of the highest-ranked iPhone chargers’, with 3,971 five-star reviews and a trusted ‘Amazon choice’ label. When it arrived, the charger broke within minutes. I reached out to Amazon and those thousands of five-star reviews for the charger disappeared.”
The product now has 11 reviews and holds a rating of 2.5 stars. But before all those five-star reviews disappeared, how many shoppers spotted this $ 13.99 charger pack on Amazon’s first-page results and fell for the trick?
1.What action has Amazon taken to make the star-rating scale useful?
A.Provide effectively checked comments for consumers.
B.Give priority to the advantage of customers.
C.Decide on contributors’ rank by the quantity of reviews.
D.Get reliable reviewers to test products before their release.
2.What does the underlined word “deceive” in the third paragraph most probably mean?
A.Persuade. B.Instruct.
C.Interest. D.Cheat.
3.What do we know about the charger seller in the last two paragraphs?
A.He convinced buyers to obtain free products.
B.He attempted to obtain excellent reviews by purchase.
C.He was in hot water and deleted all untrusted reviews.
D.He tricked buyers and disappeared from Amazon.
4.Which of the following would be the best title for the passage?
A.The Efforts of Amazon
B.The Application of Rating System
C.Not Every Star Shines So Bright
D.Don’t Fall for the Trick of Sellers
难度: 中等查看答案及解析
In the 19th century, an Arab physician known as Zuhr Ibn conducted some animal research to assess the surgical procedures that could be applicable in humans. Since then, animal testing has been considered to be the most efficient way to develop new drugs. New medical treatments and drugs are tested in animals first to determine their effectiveness or safety levels before they are finally tested on humans. However, it remains controversial whether it is morally right or wrong to use animals for medical or commercial experiments.
Use of animals for medical purposes is seen to be necessary by many scientists. Researchers usually begin their trials using rats. If the tests are successful, further tests are done on monkeys before using human beings. For testing, such tiered(分层的) rounds are important because it reduces the level of error and any negative side effects. Some argue that animal testing has contributed to many life-saving cures and treatments and there is no adequate alternative to testing on a living, whole-body system. Moreover, there are regulations for animal testing that limit the misuse of animals during research, which serves as evidence that animals are well taken care of and treated well instead of being intentionally harmed.
However, some other experts and animal welfare groups have opposed such practice, terming it as inhumane(不人道的) and claiming it should be banned. According to Humane Society International, animals used in experiments are commonly subjected to force feeding, radiation exposure, operations to deliberately cause damage and frightening situations to create depression and anxiety. They also hold the view that animals are very different from human beings and therefore make poor test subjects. Drugs that pass animal tests are not necessarily safe. Animal tests on the arthritis(关节炎) drug Vioxx showed that it would have a protective effect on the hearts of mice, yet the drug went on to cause more than 27,000 heart attacks before being pulled from the market.
It’s safe to say that using animals for tests will continue to be debated in many years to come. Despite the benefits of animal testing, some of the animal welfare organizations’ concerns need to be addressed with adequate regulations to ensure that animals are treated humanely.
1.Why is animal testing considered necessary?
A.Because rats are more similar to humans than monkeys.
B.Because other testing alternatives may not replace the need for animals.
C.Because animal testing can spare humans any side effect.
D.Because animal testing has been in practice since the 19th century.
2.What suffering do animals go through during experiments?
A.Eating poisonous food.
B.Being killed deliberately.
C.Breathing in polluted air.
D.Having unnecessary operations.
3.What does the example Vioxx in paragraph 3 tell us?
A.Arthritis is hard to cure.
B.Some drugs need to be withdrawn from the market.
C.Animals can not necessarily produce accurate results.
D.A drug should be tested many more times before its release.
4.What action will the author probably agree with?
A.Experts try hard to determine whether animal tests are harmful.
B.The authorities issue a new law to guarantee animal rights during research.
C.Scientists reduce the number of animals used in research.
D.Relevant organizations show more concern about the animals’ welfare.
难度: 中等查看答案及解析
When it comes to green buildings, we tend to think of new ones – the kind of high-tech, solar-paneled masterpieces that make the covers of architecture magazines. 1.They are the witness of the country. And it would be incredibly wasteful to tear them all down and replace them with greener versions. 2.What’s more, it would take an average of 65 years for the reduced carbon emissions from a new energy-efficient home to make up for the resources lost by destroying an old one. 3.
But there is an unavoidable fact that nearly half of U. S. carbon emissions come from heating, cooling and powering those aged houses. "You can't deal with climate change without dealing with existing buildings," says Richard Moe, the president of the National Trust. With some exceptions, the oldest homes tend to be the least energy- efficient. 4.Houses built before 1939 use about 50% more energy per square foot than those built after 2000.
5.Historic ones like Lincoln's Cottage can be transformed through efficiency upgrades. They can not only help protect property owners from rising power costs; They can save the earth.
A.But how to change their conditions?
B.But the U.S. has more than 100 million existing homes.
C.Some effective measures should be taken by government.
D.So some people say that the greenest way is to maintain old ones.
E.Fortunately, some relatively simple changes can green older homes.
F.Vast energy and resources went into the construction of those houses.
G.The main cause is the cracks that expand over time and let outside air in.
难度: 中等查看答案及解析
The other day I was shopping at a local store. And then I came upon a lady squatting (蹲) on the floor looking for a certain product on the ____shelf. She sprang up when she saw me as if to get out of my _____. Apologetically she explained that she was a _________at a nearby store and was on her lunch break, _____to get a few needed items before her time was up.
I told her with a smile, “I am ______. Go ahead and do what you need to do.” While she ______for a particular brand she said that sometimes customers were ______to her at the store and she really ______my kindness. I told her that I had noticed cashiers being treated rudely by some people and that those people needed to be more ________.
It is _______for the cashier when people are glaring at them when the cashier is doing the best they know how. I explained to her that I was a retired nurse and ___what she was saying first hand. Sometimes patients, families, or doctors could be very rude or even _____. But I tried to understand why they were feeling that way and let it _______.
She thanked me for being so nice and _______. I told her, “The world would be a ________place if we all acted kindly toward each other.” She ______and with a big smile she said thank you and walked away.
It felt so good that I have helped _____someone for even a few seconds. In a brief exchange I _____her there are good and kind people in the world and may have promoted her _____in humanity. Maybe she would think about that later in the day when someone was treating her _____.
1.A.top B.long C.bottom D.wooden
2.A.way B.sight C.room D.mind
3.A.manager B.cashier C.waitress D.shopkeeper
4.A.trying B.pretending C.learning D.remembering
5.A.on the go B.at a loss C.in no hurry D.out of patience
6.A.paid B.waited C.applied D.searched
7.A.close B.rude C.nice D.grateful
8.A.doubted B.mistook C.deserved D.appreciated
9.A.considerate B.patient C.generous D.concerned
10.A.pleasant B.stressful C.appropriate D.impossible
11.A.recalled B.minded C.understood D.questioned
12.A.mean B.helpful C.stubborn D.thoughtful
13.A.work B.go C.stay D.turn
14.A.careful B.lucky C.grateful D.friendly
15.A.larger B.quiet C.better D.practical
16.A.refused B.relaxed C.jumped D.nodded
17.A.comfort B.direct C.rescue D.serve
18.A.proved B.showed C.told D.persuaded
19.A.doubt B.understanding C.satisfaction D.faith
20.A.impatiently B.casually C.unkindly D.seriously
难度: 中等查看答案及解析
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。
Tim Hollingsworth, 1. well-known American chef, learned to cook at his mother’s side when he was growing up. He would measure ingredients to help her make dinner. He would talk with his mother and taste the food as they 2. (cook).
He still cooks with his mother, but it is 3.(differ) now. She struggles with memory 4. (lose). She sits with him as he prepares “comfort foods” from her favorite recipes, ones that fill your stomach and warm your heart with happy memories, while 5. (fill) a home with a pleasant smell.
His mother does not cook anymore. But being present at the cooking 6. (help) close the distance that dementia(痴呆) can create. Dementia affects older people's memories. Over time, patients lose their memories, piece by piece. 7. (be) with family and doing things together can help. It helps them feel like part of a family or community. It’s not what they eat 8.the comforting experience of sitting around the table that matters.
This year, the Alzheimer's Association has been spreading the word about the 9. (connect) power of mealtime through their Around the Table program. "We make memories over good food 10. has been made with “thought and love.”
难度: 中等查看答案及解析
假设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一下作文。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：在缺词处增加一个漏字符号（^）,并在其下面写出该单词。
删除：把多余的词用（\）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。
Congratulations on the five anniversary of Global Mirror! I am the regular reader of your newspaper. The reason of which I like it is that it covers both national and international news. By simply turning page, I can learn all important things that had happened during the week. Presented some viewpoints in an objective and humorous way, it deserves the popularity. Therefore, equally attractive are the stories of world-famous people that help me understand which makes them succeed. As a young student, I suggest that Global Mirror would carry articles guiding us in our English learning, and I hope that it will become even popular.
难度: 中等查看答案及解析
假如你是李华，你的外国朋友Peter写信询问有关武汉新冠状病毒肺炎的情况。请你给Peter写一封回信。内容包括：
1.肺炎简况；2.应对措施；3.战胜疫情的信心。
开头和结尾已给出。词数100左右.
相关词汇：novel coronavirus pneumonia 新型冠状病毒肺炎（NCP） epidemic 疫情 Dear Peter,
Knowing that you are concerned about the situation about NCP in Wuhan. I'd like to tell you something about it.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Yours
Lihua
难度: 中等查看答案及解析