When Marco Polo travelled to Hangzhou, China 700 hundred years ago, never had he thought he'd be creating a job of social media ambassador in the 21st century in China.
On May 20, one lucky foreigner would be selected to become the modern-day Marco Polo, getting a free 15-day trip to the scenic city of Hangzhou in China, and rewarded $55,000 in the next year for working part-time to promote the city to the global audience. Five finalists from Australia, Romania, U.S., Switzerland and France were in the final race. They came from a pool of 700 applicants from around the world, carefully selected by the Hangzhou Tourism Commission on their familiarity with China, social media presence and adventurous spirit.
Located about 100 miles southwest to Shanghai, Hangzhou is home to 844 million population and among China’s richest cities as measures by per-capita GDP. Traditionally, Hangzhou is known for its charming West Lake, a UNESCO world heritage site with traditional Chinese stories and tales, and the Grand Canal, which travels from Hangzhou to Beijing and was a key route of transportation in ancient China. The city’s mild climate and charming environment drew 97 million tourists last year, contributing to 6.5% of the city’s GDP.
The lucky winner would start an all-expense-paid trip to Hangzhou, which, in addition to visits to tourist sites and tastings of delicious food, also would include a four-day ride along the Grand Canal and three evenings spent at a local resident’s home.
“It is in fact a part-time job. How you work that out efficiently is your problem,” Liam Bates, perhaps the strongest competitor because of his fluent Chinese, said. “We will see how hard it is to meet these numbers.”
1.The purpose of Hangzhou choosing a social media ambassador is to ______.
A. keep Marco Polo in people’s memories
B. attract more foreign tourists to China
C. encourage more foreigners to speak Chinese
D. explore a new route of transportation
2.From paragraph 3, we know that ______.
A. Hangzhou is 100 miles northwest to Shanghai
B. 8.8 million visitors came to Hangzhou in 2015
C. tourism plays an important in the GDP of Hangzhou
D. the Grand Canal travels from Hangzhou to Shanghai
3.Liam Bates was most likely to get the job mainly due to his ______.
A. travel experienceB. fluent Chinese
C. adventurous spiritD. excellent videos
4.Which of the following might be the best title for this passage?
A. Hangzhou rewards international visitors to China
B. Liam Bates creates a dream job of social media ambassador
C. Dream job in China—$55,000 to the contemporary Marco Polo
D. Hangzhou, a famous city for West Lake and the Great Canal
Whenever something looks interesting or beautiful, there is a natural desire of us to capture (捕捉)and preserve it—which means, in this day and age, that we are likely to reach for our phones to take a picture.
Though this would seem to be an ideal solution, there are two big problems associated with taking pictures. Firstly, we are likely to be so busy taking pictures that we forget to look at the world whose beauty and interest encourage us to take a photograph in the first place. And secondly, because we feel the pictures are safely stored on our phones, we never get around to looking at them, so sure are we that we’ll get around to them one day.
The first person to notice the problems was the English art critic(评论家), John Ruskin. He was a keen traveler who realized that most tourists make a poor job of noticing or remembering the beautiful things they see. He argued that humans have a natural tendency to respond to beauty and desire to have it, but there are better and worse expressions of this desire. At worse, we get into buying souvenirs or taking photographs. But, in Ruskin’s eyes, there’s just one thing we should do—attempting to draw the interesting things we see, regardless of whether we happen to have any talent for doing so.
Ruskin said, “Drawing can teach us to see: to notice properly rather than gaze absent-mindedly. In the process of recreating with our own hand what lies before our eyes, we naturally move from a position of observing beauty in a loose way to one where we acquire a deep understanding of its parts.”
Ruskin deplored the blindness and hurry of modern tourists, especially those who prided themselves on travelling around the whole Europe in a week by train, “No changing of places at a hundred miles an hour will make us stronger, happier, or wiser. There was always more in the world than men could see, if they ever walked slowly; they will see it no better for going fast. The really precious things are thoughts and sights, not pace.”
1.According to Paragraph 2, when taking pictures, people tend to ________.
A. forget to appreciate something attractive on the spot
B. find it hard to learn skills of taking good pictures
C. find a good way to keep things in their minds
D. have a chance to meet the challenge of new technology
2.According to Ruskin, what should travelers do to best express their appreciation of and desire for something beautiful?
A. To speak it out openly.
B. To photograph it instantly.
C. To purchase it directly.
D. To paint it immediately.
3.From the fourth paragraph, we can infer that Ruskin encourages us to be ________.
A. considerate and determined
B. active and adventurous
C. creative and thoughtful
D. sensitive and ambitious
4.The underlined word “deplored” in the last paragraph is closest in meaning to ________.
A. appreciatedB. criticizedC. favoredD. ignored
A cat with his own Facebook page and Instagram account is taking the Internet by storm thanks to his expressive eyebrows. Curious-looking Sam has racked up 150,000 Instagram followers and 530,000 likes on Facebook since bursting onto the scene in 2012.
Owner Amanda Collado, 26, from New York, has been handling the large amount of requests from fans and media for the past three years. She said, “There have definitely been situations where I have had to ignore friends, family or work to take the time to do Sam's posts or answer emails on his behalf. Everyone gets a little annoyed when I'm on my phone and not paying attention to them. I never thought Sam would be so popular.”
Amanda's mum, Ivette Rodriguez, noticed the abandoned cat outside her home one evening.
Ivette said, “I saw a little niche (壁龛) next to the house and there was a cat in there. He willingly gave himself up to me—I guess he was so tired of being outside.”
Amanda created an Instagram account for Sam after a friend pointed out his expressive brows. She said, “I didn't notice his eyebrows initially.”
“He had about 800 followers at first—but in February someone posted his photo on Reddit and he blew up overnight—I woke up with 1600 followers. From there we made a Facebook and all other social media accounts.”
Amanda posts pictures to Sam's account every two days, but spends most of her day keeping up with all of his fans. But the effort she puts into her pet's social media has paid off—and she has bigger plans for Sam's future, including merchandise (商品).
“Right now we're trying to share him in a free way. Eventually we'll sell Sam merchandise, because I know many people do like having cute little mugs, Sam mugs, or posters, T-shirts.”
1.Why does Amanda sometimes ignore her friends?
A. She is absorbed in her work.
B. She is popular with her fans.
C. She gets along badly with her friends.
D. She is busy with Sam's business.
2.How did Amanda get the cat called Sam?
A. She bought it from her friend.
B. One of her friends gave it to her.
C. Her mother found it and adopted it.
D. The text didn't mention it.
3.What does Amanda plan to do about Sam?
A. She plans to post Sam's photo on Reddit on the Internet.
B. She plans to post pictures to Sam’s account every day.
C. She plans to buy more cats.
D. She plans to sell Sam products.
快餐在现在的中国很流行，但快餐对人的身体却没什么好处。请你根据下面要点以“Fast Food”为题写一篇英语短文。
注意：
1．快餐在中国十分流行，人们，尤其是儿童和青少年喜欢吃快餐。
2．快餐受欢迎至少有三个方面的原因；
⑴方便、节约时间；
⑵既可在快餐店里吃又可带回家吃；
⑶店里的环境干净、舒服；
3．从营养角度讲，快餐食品却不尽人意；
4. 建议：如时间来不及可考虑吃快餐，但以偶尔品尝为宜；孩子要尽 量少吃快餐。
词数100左右。 参考词汇：营养(nutrition)
短文改错
假如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：在错的词下面划一横线，并在该词下面写出改正后的词。
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。
Hunter likes to go traveling in summer, but he had bad lucky this time. Last week he went to an old temple on a high mountain alone. On the way there it suddenly began to rain heavily, so he ran down the mountain quick. When he got to the foot of the mountain, he found that the wooden bridge was under of the water. He had to spend the rain night in a broken house. He was so cold that he could hardly fall sleep.
The next morning the rain stopped and the bridge was damaged. He thought the river was not deep, so he tried to swim. In the center of the river, the water nearly washed he away. Luckily, he was saved by two man, but he lost his bag. Then they gave him some foods and dry clothes.
阅读下面材料，在空白处填入适当的内容（不多于3个单词）或括号中的单词的正确形式。并将答案填写在答题卡标号为36-45的相应位置上。
W: Hello! May I speak to Mr. White, please?
M: Mike White speaking.
W: Hello. 1.___ is Alice Green, Tom’s neighbor.
M: Hello. 2. _____ can I do for you?
W: Well, Tom said he’s been taking piano lessons from you for two years, and I wonder if I can learn from you, 3.____.
M: I don’t think that’s a problem. Have you had any musical4.______ (experience) before?
W: Well, when I was a college student, I spent about half a year 5._____ (learn) to play the guitar. But that was almost ten years ago.
M: Good. 6.___ that case we don’t have to start from the very 7.____ (begin).
W: Then can I go with Tom to your next class?
M: I don’t think 8.____. All the people in that class 9.________ (study) with us for about two years, and they come on Sunday mornings. But you can come to another class, on Saturday evening 10.___ Sunday afternoon.
W: Saturday evening is better for me. See you then.
