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Museums are an important means for cultural exchange and enrichment as well as the development of mutual understanding and cooperation among people. Then how many of these places have you visited? It’s time to decide your next travel destination.
The Musée du Louvre, Paris, France.
It is the world’s largest art museum and a historical landmark of Paris. Housed in the Louvre Palace, the museum has been extended many times since its opening in 1793. Its glass pyramid in the main courtyard was designed by Chinese American architect Ieoh Ming Pei, and it later became a signature design of the museum. Visitors to Paris’s paragon(典范), which houses nearly 35, 000 works of art, including Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa, can spend hours, days or even weeks exploring the beloved treasure.
National Museum of China, Beijing, China.
Near Tiananmen Square in Beijing, it’s one of the largest museums in the world and the second-most visited art museum in the world, just after the Louvre. Covering a time span from the Yuanmou Man of 1.7 million years ago to the Qing Dynasty(1644-1911), it is devoted to display of treasured collections in the form of various thematic exhibitions, such as the Arts of bronze, porcelain, Chinese calligraphy and paintings, furniture, coins, etc in ancient China.
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, US.
Commonly known as the Met, the museum is among the must-visit attractions in New York City. It stands on the eastern edge of Central Park at Manhattan’s Upper East Side. The Met maintains extensive holdings of African, Asian, Oceanian, Byzantine and Islamic art. Every May, the museum holds the luxurious, blockbuster Met Gala, drawing global attention like the Oscars.
British Museum, London, UK.
Established in 1753, the British Museum is largely based on the collections of the Irish physician and scientist. At present, its comprehensive permanent collection has reached 8 million works. It was the first public national museum in the world. If you go, remember to take a picture under the Great Court.
1.What makes the Musée du Louvre different from other museums?
A.It has the longest history of all.
B.It is a public national museum.
C.It owns masterpiece like Mona Lisa.
D.It collects works of music throughout the world.
2.Which museum most probably displays the bed of Ming dynasty?
A.Metropolitan Museum of Art. B.National Museum of China.
C.The Musée du Louvre. D.British Museum.
3.What are visitors suggested doing if they go to British Museum?
A.Taking photos of museum’s exhibits. B.Keeping the voice down.
C.Exploring museum’s history. D.Having themselves photographed.
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Guana was born from a family with 7 children. His parents had two jobs to make ends meet and struggled to pay for basic expenses. Guana was once a cleaner at a school but now he is a superintendent(教育学监), leading the Byron Union School District in rural northern California.
Guana always remembers when he wanted to give up, someone would encourage him. One was the cleaner at his school when he was a boy. He called her “Nike” because she wore Nike shoes. Guana wanted those kinds of shoes, too, but his parents could not afford them. Young Gauna liked how Nike made everything so clean. He told her he wanted to be a cleaner, too. Nike said, “it’s good if you want to be a cleaner, but make sure that you go to college and make this as one of your steps there.”
Guana also looked up to the principal(校长), the leader at his school. He was a tall, friendly and good-looking man. He told Guana about his job helping students and teachers. And he said, “Well if you don’t give up, you’ll get there.” Guana did get there, and two men remain friends. But before Guana became a school principal, he followed in Nike’s footsteps and become a cleaner. He worked for three schools in Lodi, California, which helped him earn the money needed for his first two years of college. He earned a high-level university education and gained a doctor’s degree. Then he worked as a campus safety officer, teacher, counselor, administrator, and now superintendent.
Even though Guana has had a successful career, he never forgets where he came from, or how he felt. He uses his life experiences to guide him as a leader.
For example, Guana’s younger sister needs a wheelchair to get around. To this day, her disability helps him as a school administrator to help and support special children. In Guana’s school system today, everyone is important and invited to parties and events.
1.What made Guana have the idea to become a cleaner?
A.He appreciated Nike’s excellent cleaning work.
B.He wanted to buy Nike shoes with his efforts.
C.He planned to work to support his poor family.
D.He was eager to earn money to go to college.
2.What is the third paragraph mainly about?
A.How Guana overcame the difficulties.
B.How Guana received the doctor’s degree.
C.How Guana became a leader from a cleaner.
D.How Guana got help from the previous principal.
3.Why did the author mention Guana’s sister in the last paragraph?
A.To tell us that Guana was a kind and considerate man.
B.To encourage us to help those in need like Guana.
C.To inform us that Guana’s sister had such a difficult life.
D.To show Guana’s experiences were beneficial to his success.
4.What can we learn from the text?
A.Strike while the iron is hot. B.Where there is a will, there is a way.
C.A friend in need is a friend indeed. D.Great minds think alike.
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Over the past ten years, stand-up comedy(独角喜剧) clubs have become common on college campuses in America. The culture of stand-up has gotten a lot of media attention. These clubs allow students to explore their abilities and develop interests beyond their field of study.
They give funny speeches, tell jokes and make humorous body movements. Their humor entertains and helps ease the stress of crowds of busy, young people. However, club member Ariella Shua says comedy is serious work. She says she has become a better observer of what is going on around her ever since. She does not go anywhere without bringing something on which she can take notes. Students write all their own materials. Then, in weekly club meetings, they try out that material to see what works and what doesn’t. So, it starts as an individual project for themselves and becomes a group effort.
Last year, Harry Kuperstein joined the club and discovered it was a natural fit. Noticing the funny qualities of different situations improved his way of looking at the world. Becoming an active member also helped him work on the future skills he will need as a medical doctor. It helps him talk to patients as a doctor and make him a better public speaker.
Despite the group meetings, rewrites and rehearsals, some ideas just are not funny. Club member Benjamin Monteagudo said performing in front of a group of students does not mean comedians will not receive strong criticism. Last year, they came up with an idea to keep the audience involved and get their opinions.
They called it “Tomato Show”, where if they were performing very badly on stage, they just let the audience throw tomatoes at them to kind of roll with the joke. So, they spent their entire budget on a big box of 300 soft tomatoes. They gave them to the audience, and it was the best show ever.
1.Ariella Shua thinks comedy is serious work because it ________.
A.has to be approved by all of the members
B.takes much time and is boring sometimes
C.requires her to take a lot of notes
D.needs personal efforts and teamwork
2.What does the underlined phrase “a natural fit” in Paragraph 3 mean?
A.convenient. B.suitable.
C.funny. D.attractive.
3.Why is Tomato Show a great success?
A.It allowed audience to participate and respond.
B.Comedians avoided receiving strong criticism.
C.Club members were very skilled in acting.
D.The performance itself was very humorous.
4.What is the main idea of the text?
A.The rise and fall of stand-up comedy clubs.
B.The influence of stand-up comedy clubs.
C.The popularity of stand-up comedy clubs.
D.The future of stand-up comedy clubs.
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With the arrival of the ABC(AI, big data, and cloud computing) era, AI is seemingly leading innovation(创新) trends. It’s believed that with the increasing application of deep learning algorithms(计算程序), AI will play a growing role in assisting human beings to complete various tasks in a range of fields.
Domestic internet giant Baidu recently announced that its public welfare Baidu Artificial Intelligence People Searching program successfully reunited more than 10, 000 lost people with their families over the past three years, which is a good example of how technology benefits people. Baidu launched this project using its artificial intelligence(AI) face-recognition technology.
Zhu Guang, senior vice president of Baidu, said, “Baidu has opened up a lot of data processing capabilities in such aspects as voice, picture, video, and natural language processing, which are all beneficial.”
And in cooperation with the Ministry of Civil Affairs(民政部) and nongovernmental organizations, Baidu’s system matches the photographs provided by seekers with those in the population database to achieve highly efficient search results.
After going through 200 million face-training sample photos, Baidu’s AI-based face-recognition technology has achieved a recognition accuracy rate of as high as 99.7 percent. It also supports across-age image comparisons, thus helping parents find their lost children after several years on the basis of their childhood photos.
Many parents whose children were lost at a young age have only their childhood photographs, making the search difficult as features change once a child grows up. But many such lost people have been reunited with their families as AI’s face-recognition technology can match an adult with his/her childhood photograph.
Baidu said it will further improve its program by deepening cooperation with the Ministry of Civil Affairs to cover all the 2,068 grassroots rescue centers, and expand the program to help more people.
This innovative new technology realizes the true goal of technological progress: to make people’s lives better. Applying AI technology for public welfare not only helps people in need, but also improves efficiency and saves costs. It is also a good way for enterprises to demonstrate their corporate social responsibility and contribute to society. It is hoped that more high-tech companies will innovatively apply their technologies to help the public.
1.The first paragraph is mainly to tell us ________.
A.the influence of ABC
B.the importance of AI technology
C.the trend of technology innovation
D.the wide use of Al face-recognition
2.What can we learn about AI face-recognition from text?
A.Its efficiency of search results is not satisfactory.
B.Its accuracy rate greatly needs improving.
C.It has trouble finding lost families only using childhood photos.
D.It’ll help find more children with the support from government.
3.From the passage, we know technological progress is intended to ________.
A.help people accomplish complicated tasks
B.prove the companies’ devotion to society
C.get people to lead a better life
D.offer assistance to the disabled
4.In a newspaper, this text may appear in the section of ________.
A.Science B.Health
C.People D.Lifestyle
