From Antigua to Zanzibar, these spots promise an incredible trip for 2019.
Antigua, Guatemala
“Antigua is worth every penny, but that doesn’t mean you’ll have to empty your wallet,” says Hudson. There are plenty of budget-conscious activities. It won’t cost you a coin to visit Santo Domingo del Cerro, an outdoor sculpture park. Wanting something sweet? Head to ChocoMuseo. Admission is free and so are the samples!
Odessa, Ukraine
Odessa is having a bit of a tourism boom nationwide-not that we’re surprised, given its sandy beaches and pastel-colored buildings-but it’s still fairly under the order for international audiences. You can also count on this port city for affordable fun. Tickets to the Odessa Opera House start at a mere $ 2!
Bogotá, Colombia
“Travelers on budget will find Colombia’s vast capital far more of a bargain and every bit as fascinating,” says Hudson. “It’s free to visit Museo de Oro and on Sundays many of the big roads are closed to accommodate food carts, street entertainers, and pedestrians.”
Zanzibar
Zanzibar attracts vacationers with its white sand beaches, greenish-blue tides, colorful coral reefs, and oceanfront seaside. Of course, wandering in historic Stone Town is pretty appealing too. Either way, you needn’t spend a penny in this amazing place. It’s also worth noting that Jozani Forest is the only place in the world you can see endangered red colobus monkeys.
1.Which of the following requires admission fee?
A.ChocoMuseo. B.Odessa Opera House.
C.Museo de Oro. D.Stone Town.
2.Where can you enjoy seaside scenery and visit historical sites?
A.Antigua, Guatemala B.Odessa, Ukraine
C.Bogotá, Colombia D.Zanzibar
3.What do the four destinations have in common?
A.They are coastal cities.
B.They welcome street entertainers.
C.They are inexpensive to visit.
D.They will make your wallet empty.
难度: 简单查看答案及解析
“O gentle sleep!\Nature’s soft nurse, how have I frightened thee\That thou no more wilt weigh my eyelids down.”Henry IV, as portrayed by Shakespeare, would have sympathized with people who struggle with insomnia (失眠). Now a major publisher has come up with a novel idea.
In a project to be launched this week, Penguin Random House has cooperated with the Sleep Council and the Children’s Sleep Charity in creating collections of “Sleep Tales” for adults and children. Combining “cutting-edge technology and the ancient art of storytelling to help solve an age-old problem”, these audiobooks are part soundscape, part descriptive narrative, with softly spoken voices to calm anxieties and take listeners to the land of nod.
Each story lasts about 15 minutes, enabling listeners to set their sleep timer. The stories draw on the Sleep Council’s research into sounds that help people wind down, such as waves lapping on a shore, soft rainfall and birdsong.
Richard Lennon, publisher at Penguin Audio, told the Guardian the project was inspired partly by the realization that increasing numbers of people were listening to audio books “as they’re going to sleep or as part of their bedtime routine”. He said both adults and children respond to something comforting and familiar as they are nodding off.
Asked whether a boring story could have the same effect, he said the stories needed to be “engaging enough not to put you off”: “This is about creating the right environment and headspace for you … to go to sleep. Strangely, if you’re bored, it doesn’t have that effect.” Audience research had been very positive, Lennon said. One listener reported: “The story made my mind stop racing.”
1.Why is the poem mentioned at the beginning of the passage?
A.To introduce the works of Shakespeare.
B.To appreciate the rhythm of the poem.
C.To lead to the topic of the passage.
D.To offer an example of people with insomnia.
2.What’s the character of the audio books of “Sleep Tales”?
A.Their target readers are children.
B.Every story is long and interesting.
C.They are read vividly in different tones.
D.They can make listeners sleepy.
3.What can we learn from Richard Lennon’s words?
A.Not many people prefer listening to audio books before sleep.
B.A boring story is more likely to make people sleepy.
C.The environment is very important for reading stories.
D.The audio books prove effective in helping people sleep in the research.
4.Which is the best title for the passage?
A.Releasing audio books to send listeners to sleep
B.The new trend of people’s reading habit
C.Audio books are becoming more and more popular
D.Ways to help people sleep easily
难度: 简单查看答案及解析
Just a year ago, the colors were bright under the waves. Now it’s gray — the Maldivian reef is dead. The coral is killed by the pressure of rising temperatures.
Coral reefs are areas underwater where small creatures live. The coral is hard material formed on the bottom of the sea by the skeletons of those creatures. But the world has lost about half its coral reefs in the last 30 years. Scientists are working to prevent their destruction. Due to global warming, over 90 percent of corals are expected to die by 2050. “To lose coral reefs is to fundamentally undermine the health of a very large proportion of the human race,” said Ruth Gates, director of the Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology.
Why are coral reefs important? Coral reefs support a fourth of all marine species, as well as half a billion people worldwide. They serve as barriers to protect coastlines from the storms. They provide billions of dollars from tourism, fishing and other trade. They are also used in medical research for cures for diseases. “Everyone should be concerned,” said biologist Ove Guldberg at Australia’s University of Queensland. “This is not just some distant dive destination. This is the basic structure of the ecosystem we depend on.”
The ocean is getting warmer. A rising temperature of just one to two degree Celsius can force coral to expel the algae (驱逐海藻) that live there. This leaves their white skeletons uncovered. It is a process called “bleaching”. Sixteen percent of the world’s corals died of bleaching in 1998. The problem has become much worse in recent years.
“We’ve lost 50 percent of the reefs, but that means we still have 50 percent left,” said Ruth Gates, who is working in Hawaii to breed corals that can better withstand increasing temperatures. She is also trying to “train” corals to survive rising temperatures. Gates says it is time to start “thinking outside the box”— find creative ways to help them.
1.What does the underlined word “undermine” in paragraph 2 mean?
A.Regain B.Weaken
C.Promote D.Develop
2.What can we learn from Ove Guldberg’ words?
A.People won’t find a dive destination in the future.
B.The effort to save corals will turn out to be fruitless.
C.The bright sea has lost its charm because of those dead corals.
D.The destruction of coral reefs will affect the earth ecosystem.
3.What’s the fourth paragraph mainly about?
A.The harm of algae. B.The importance of coral reefs.
C.The process of “bleaching”. D.The change of ocean temperature.
4.What is Ruth Gates’ attitude towards the protection of corals？
A.Worried B.Positive
C.Casual D.Curious
难度: 中等查看答案及解析
Joseph Goldberger was a doctor for the United States Public Health Service and he was an advocate for scientific and social recognition of the links between poverty and disease. In 1914, Goldberger was asked by US Surgeon General Rupert Blue to study a skin disease that was killing thousands of people in the South. The disease was pellagra (糙皮病)．
Goldberger traveled to the state of Mississippi where many people suffered from pellagra. He studied the victims and their families. Most of the people lived a hard life. The doctor came to believe that the disease didn’t pass on from one to another, but was instead related to food. He received permission from the state governor to test this idea at a prison. Prisoners were offered pardons if they took part. One group of prisoners received their usual foods, mostly corn products. A second group ate meat, fresh vegetables and drank milk. Members of the first group developed pellagra. The second group did not.
But some medical researchers refused to accept Goldberger’s idea. For the South, pellagra was more than simply a medical problem. There were other things, including Southern pride.
So Goldberger had himself injected (注射) with blood from a person with pellagra. He also took liquid from the nose and throat of a pellagra patient and put them into his own nose and throat. He even swallowed pills that contained skin from pellagra patients. An assistant also took part in the experiments. So did Goldberger’s wife. None of them got sick.
Joseph Goldberger died of cancer in 1929. He was fiftyfive years old. Several years later, researchers discovered the exact cause of pellagra: a lack of vitamin B3 known as niacin.
1.Who were likely to get pellagra according to Goldberger?
A.People in the south of America.
B.People having a poor diet.
C.People in prison.
D.People touching pellagra patients.
2.What did Goldberger want to prove by the experiments mentioned in Paragraph 4?
A.Pellagra wasn’t so terrible.
B.Pellagra could be cured.
C.Pellagra didn’t spread.
D.Pellagra wasn’t a medical problem.
3.Why did some medical researchers refuse to accept Goldberger’s idea?
A.Goldberger’s idea sounds ridiculous.
B.They have done their own research.
C.The result hurt their pride.
D.Goldberger didn’t do enough research.
4.Which words can be used to describe Goldberger?
A.Selfless and friendly. B.Devoted and determined.
C.Patient and expert. D.Stubborn and enthusiastic.
难度: 中等查看答案及解析
You have the grades, the test scores, and the English proficiency (水平) to get into college in the United States. 1.
In the US, scores alone can’t guarantee a place at a college. Indeed, it’s normal for admissions (招生) officers to turn away students who have high scores. This is where the essay comes in. 2.
This is your opportunity to show the admissions committee the person behind those numbers– the real you. 3. No matter what your topic is, the essay should not be a description of events. It should say something you’ve learned about life.
Here is what Harvard’s Dean of Admissions is looking for in an essay: how well you can think; whether you have a questioning nature; whether you are open to ideas; whether you have a unique way to express your ideas. No matter how great your English is, your ideas and the ability to connect them to events will distinguish you among the other applicants.
4.
Some students use cliches (陈词滥调) like “expanding my horizons (眼界)”, which are so overused. Colleges would think you don’t care enough to make original phrases. The worst is plagiarizing (抄袭). It’s the easiest way to get rejected. Only lazy students copy and paste other’s works such as some internet resources called “successful essays”. Finally, beware of empty words. 5. If a college asks “Why this college?”, don’t reply weightless words like “for football games on campus”.
A.And many experts agree with this.
B.It shows schools that you can communicate through writing.
C.What are some of the most common mistakes students make?
D.Now you need the essay.
E.When students don’t know what to say, they often make it up with meaningless things.
F.Sometimes, essay makes no difference.
G.You can show your character, values, beliefs and aspirations (抱负).
难度: 中等查看答案及解析
Time spent in a bookshop can be most enjoyable, whether you are a book-lover or merely go there to buy a book as a present. You may even have entered the shop just to find ______from a sudden shower.
Whatever the ______, you can soon become totally unaware of your surroundings. The desire to ______ a book with an attractive cover is irresistible but you might end up with a rather ______ book. A book-lover ______ adopts this method of selection. All too often you soon become ______ in some book or other, and usually it is too ______when you realize you have spent far too much time there and must ______ to keep some forgotten appointment — without buying a book, of course.
This opportunity to escape the reality of everyday life is, I think, the main ______ of a bookshop. There are not many places where it is ______ to do this. A music shop is very much like a bookshop. You can wander round such places to your heart’s content. If it is a good shop, no assistant will ______you with the unavoidable greeting: “Can I help you, sir?” You needn’t buy anything you don’t want. In a bookshop an assistant should remain in the ______ until you have finished browsing. Then, and only then, are his services _______ Of course, you may want to find out where a particular section is, but when he has ______you there, the assistant should retire considerately and look as if he is not interested in ______ a single book.
1.A.direction B.shelter C.way D.comfort
2.A.weather B.place C.reason D.time
3.A.pick up B.pass on C.write D.buy
4.A.special B.creative C.surprising D.dull
5.A.often B.nearly C.rarely D.easily
6.A.absorbed B.bored C.tired D.forgotten
7.A.easy B.late C.lucky D.happy
8.A.take away B.rush off C.put off D.make up
9.A.function B.value C.attraction D.purpose
10.A.important B.popular C.friendly D.possible
11.A.approach B.help C.warn D.support
12.A.office B.distance C.way D.shop
13.A.obvious B.necessary C.refused D.realized
14.A.gave B.made C.put D.led
15.A.finding B.showing C.reading D.selling
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。
Imagine you are thinking about attending a college, and you find a school you would like 1. (attend) . So you go to the school’s website to find information about admission process.
Time goes by and you still do not have the answers. You almost feel like giving up. But then 2.message appears on your computer. It 3. (say) something like: “How can I help?” Writing back to the website, you try to explain 4. (you) problem. Then, almost immediately, the person with whom you are in contact provides the information you are seeking.
In fact, you are not 5. (actual) communicating with a school official. You are in contact with a computer program, or chatbot.
This might sound strange，but chances are this would not be the first time you have communicated with a computer program without knowing 6.. In recent years, chatbots 7. (become) a common tool for banks and large companies around the world.
Having human beings available to answer people’s questions can be costly, requiring many workers. And in most 8. (case), employees can only work a set number of hours in a day, 9. (increase) the amount of time customers wait for a response. So not just companies, 10. a growing number of colleges and universities have also begun using chatbot technology.
难度: 简单查看答案及解析
假定你是学生会主席李华, 学生会举办了英语演讲比赛，得到了外教Miss Smith的大力帮助。活动圆满结束后，请给她写一封感谢信, 内容包括：
1. 表达感谢；
2. 回顾外教的帮助；
3. 总结同学们的收获。
注意：1. 词数80左右;
2. 可适当增加细节, 以使行文连贯。
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难度: 中等查看答案及解析
阅读下面短文，根据所给情节进行续写，使之构成一个完整的故事。
David and Roy decided to go for a bicycle ride with three other students: Robert, Helen and Betty. But Robert’s father couldn’t afford to buy a bike for him. So they were going to borrow one for him.
The students had planned to meet at 8 o’clock. But Robert, Helen and Betty were half an hour late, for they had to come a long way since they found the bridge over the stream had been washed away.
When they told the bad news to David and Roy, David said nothing and kept silent for a moment. After a while, an idea came into his mind. “Do you think we could rebuild it?”
All of them agreed and started to consider this seriously. They decided to rebuild the bridge before they went for the bicycle ride. Betty said she could ask her brother to make a plan for them.
The biggest problem was to get enough wood. The next day they visited nearly every house in the village. Mr. Robinson agreed to supply the wood so long as they did the work. Several people promised to give money if they could build a new bridge because it was a short cut for them.
The students worked for nearly a week under Mr. Robinson’s guidance. At the end of a
week of hard work, the bridge was completed. They all agreed to ask Mr. Robinson to officially open the bridge. “He has helped us most,” David said.
“And tomorrow morning we can go around to all the houses,” added Roy, “and tell the people that the bridge will be officially opened at six o’clock. Then we can remind them about their promises about money,” Roy added.
“But we don’t really want that, do we?” said Robert.
“Yes,” said Helen. “We need it and I think we should collect it.” She glanced quickly at the others, who nodded.
The next day, the students visited all the houses again. They were surprised when they saw how pleased the people were with them. By two o’clock they had collected over a hundred dollars. By five o’clock, unknown to Robert, they had spent it.
注意：1. 所续写短文的词数应为150左右；
2. 应使用5个以上短文中标有下划线的关键词语；
3. 续写部分分为两段，每段的开头语已为你写好；
4. 续写完成后，请用下划线标出你所使用的关键词语。
Paragraph 1：
At six the students gathered at the bridge.
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Paragraph 2：
David turned to Robert and said, “We have a surprise for you!”
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难度: 困难查看答案及解析