While high school does not generally encourage students to explore new aspects of life, college sets the stage for that exploration. I myself went through this ________ process and found something that has changed my ________ at college for the better: I discovered ASL — American Sign Language(美式手语).
I never felt an urge to ________ any sign language before. My entire family is hearing, and so are all my friends. The ________ languages were enough in all my interactions(交往). Little did I know that I would discover my ________ for ASL.
The ________ began during my first week at college. I watched as the ASL Club ________ their translation of a song. Both the hand movements and the very ________ of communicating without speaking ________ me. What I saw was completely unlike anything I had experienced in the ________. This newness just left me ________ more.
After that, feeling the need to ________ further, I decided to drop in on one of ASL club’s meetings. I only learned how to ________ the alphabet that day. Yet instead of being discouraged by my ________ progress, I was excited. I then made it a point to ________ those meetings and learn all I could.
The following term, I ________ an ASL class. The professor was deaf and any talking was ________. I soon realized that the silence was not unpleasant. ________, if there had been any talking, it would have ________ us to learn less. Now, I appreciate the silence and the ________ way of communication it opens.
1.A. searching B. planning C. natural D. formal
2.A. progress B. experience C. major D. opinion
3.A. choose B. read C. learn D. create
4.A. official B. foreign C. body D. spoken
5.A. love B. concern C. goal D. request
6.A. meeting B. trip C. story D. task
7.A. recorded B. performed C. recited D. discussed
8.A. idea B. amount C. dream D. reason
9.A. disturbed B. supported C. embarrassed D. attracted
10.A. end B. past C. course D. distance
11.A. showing B. acting C. saying D. wanting
12.A. exercise B. explore C. express D. explain
13.A. print B. write C. sign D. count
14.A. slow B. steady C. normal D. obvious
15.A. chair B. sponsor C. attend D. organize
16.A. missed B. passed C. gave up D. registered for
17.A. prohibited B. welcomed C. ignored D. repeated
18.A. Lastly B. Thus C. Instead D. However
19.A. required B. caused C. allowed D. expected
20.A. easy B. popular C. quick D. new
Several things Beijingers do during wintertime
In winter, Beijing offers the city’s fun-seekers many appealing options, from royal gardens to winter resorts. Your sweet tooth and palate for fine art can also be satisfied by the abundant choices in food and art exhibitions. Here are some recommendations for you.
1.
The Summer Palace was designed as a summer resort for the Emperor Dowager Cixi in the Qing Dynasty (1644 — 1911). Recently it has attracted thousands of tourists hoping to catch sight of the setting sun shining through the Seventeen-Arch Bridge over the frozen Kunming Lake.
Mutton hot pot with family and friends.
2. Eating mutton, according to Chinese traditional medicine, is able to drive out the coldness inside the body and nourish your vitality.
A weekend at Ice skating & ski resorts.
Surrounded by historical mansions and natural beauty, Shichahai is a must-go scenic area in Beijing. In winter, I he frozen lake becomes n giant ice rink (溜冰场), offering skating, sleigh riding and ice bicycles for beginners who don’t want to miss out on the fun.3. You can ski, participate in snow activities, or just sit in a cozy bar and appreciate the snow-covered landscape.
Hot spring resort getaway.
It is said that a hot spring bath is good for the body and the soul.4. Gathered in the northern part of Beijing, especially Xiaotangshan town in the Changping district, these resorts offer a great experience for a weekend getaway.
Culture tours at museums.
Going to a museum certainly is much nicer and warmer than staying outdoors. Luckily, cultural agencies like the National Museum and the National Art Museum recently displayed several important exhibitions.5.
A. Sightseeing at Summer Palace.
B. Add ski resorts to your list of fun.
C. As winter chill takes hold in Beijing, hot pot becomes more popular.
D. As the temperature goes down, swimming turns out to be a good choice.
E. No matter whether you are an experienced skier or not, you can make a perfect holiday there.
F. For more information, please go to the National Museum and National Art Museum websites.
G. For those who search for relaxation from stresses and strains, the city’s hot spring resorts are life-savers.
When the kids are out of school, parents are eager to use the holidays for some quality family time. 1. While there’s great concern among parents about the impact of screens on physical activity and face-to-face communications, parental use of screens is often overlooked. One recent report found that parents spend over nine hours per day with screen media. It s no wonder that families find it hard to have high-quality social interactions.
Want our kids to put down the phones and tablets?2. It’s necessary that we unplug when we ask our kids to do the same. Some family activities we create can help us engage with our kids without the concern of screen time.
Why not leave the devices at home and go for a tech-free nature walk? It will be an opportunity to make us more connected to the world beyond the screen. Focus on being in the moment and kids may enjoy collecting plant seeds or stones.3.
A board game night is ideal for bringing family members together and being engaged. Moreover, playing games together fosters social interaction, cooperation, and the development of Social Emotional Learning (SEL).4.
Some other family activities are wonderfully fun without the use of electronic devices. For example, take the kids swimming, or bring them to an indoor rock climbing gym. Bake a cake for a neighbor or plant a garden.5.Your kids will get lost in the activity, forgetting the devices.
To be clear, technology has many benefits to parents and children. However, creating some tech-free time can help parents and kids feel more connected to each other.
A. We parents must model that behavior.
B. Even so, too much of a good thing can be bad for family time.
C. However, many of us find it hard to compete with electronics.
D. Parents may learn from their kids about science and nature as well.
E. Best of all, family members can enjoy being engaged in a shared experience.
F. The kids are more likely to have buy-in when they feel like they have a say.
G. All these activities require family members to focus their attention on the task at hand.
Secret codes (密码) keep messages private. Banks, companies, and government agencies use secret codes in doing business, especially when information is sent by computer.
People have used secret codes for thousands of years. 1.Code breaking never lags (落后) far behind code making. The science of creating and reading coded messages is called cryptography.
There are three main types of cryptography. 2.For example, the first letters of ＂My elephant eats too many eels＂ spell out the hidden message ＂Meet me.＂
3.You might represent each letter with a number, for example. Let’s number the letters of the alphabet, in order, from 1 to 26. If we substitute a number for each letter, the message ＂Meet me＂ would read ＂13 5 5 20 13 5.＂
A code uses symbols to replace words, phrases, or sentences. To read the message of a real code, you must have a code book. 4.For example, ＂bridge＂ might stand for ＂meet＂ and ＂out＂ might stand for
＂me.＂ The message ＂Bridge out＂ would actually mean ＂Meet me.＂ 5.However, it is also hard to keep a code book secret for long. So codes must be changed frequently.
A. It is very hard to break a code without the code book.
B. In any language, some letters are used more than others.
C. Only people who know the keyword can read the message.
D. As long as there have been codes, people have tried to break them.
E. You can hide a message by having the first letters of each word spell it out.
F. With a code book, you might write down words that would stand for other words.
G. Another way to hide a message is to use symbols to stand for specific letters of the alphabet.
If anyone had told me three years ago that I would be spending most of my weekends camping, I would have laughed heartily. Campers, in my eyes, were people who enjoyed insect bites, ill-cooked meals, and uncomfortable sleeping bags. They had nothing in common with me. 1.
The friends who introduced me to camping thought that it meant to be a pioneer. 2. We slept in a tent, cooked over an open fire, and walked a long distance to take the shower and use the bathroom. This brief visit with Mother Nature cost me two days off from work, recovering from a bad case of sunburn and the doctor’s bill for my son’s food poisoning.
I was, nevertheless, talked into going on another fun-filled holiday in the wilderness. 3. Instead, we had a pop-up camper with comfortable beds and an air conditioner. My nature-loving friends had remembered to bring all the necessities of life.
4. We have done a lot of it since. Recently, we bought a twenty-eight-foot travel trailer complete with a bathroom and a built-in TV set. There is a separate bedroom, a modern kitchen with a refrigerator. The trailer even has matching carpet and curtains.
5. It must be true that sooner or later, everyone finds his or her way back to nature. I recommend that you find your way in style.
A. This time there was no tent.
B. Things are going to be improved.
C. The trip they took me on was a rough one.
D. I was to learn a lot about camping since then, however.
E. I must say that I have certainly come to enjoy camping.
F. After the trip, my family became quite interested in camping.
G. There was no shade as the trees were no more than 3 feet tall.
Disneyland calls itself the happiest place in the world, but to keep visitors happy in its five locations across the globe, each theme park is adjusted to cater to local cultures and tastes. Outside of the two original resort areas in the US, Disneyland in California and Walt Disney World in Florida, the Disneylands in Paris, Tokyo and Hong Kong offer subtly different layouts to make their millions of visitors each year feel at home.
Disneyland Paris
After excitedly entering Disneyland Paris, which opened in 1992, visitors are greeted with an arcade(拱廊) that features a small replica(复制品) of the Statue of Liberty—a gift from France to the US in 1886, making it a fitting introduction to Europe’s only instance of this American theme park. The arcade also offers essential cover from the cold and rain that typically hit Paris.
As you venture further into Disneyland Paris, you will see a lot of European visionaries, such as Leonardo da Vinci with the Orbitron attraction, a unique theater show featuring French director and actress Julie Delpy on screen with synchronized live actors, and the character Remy, a French chef rat from the Disney cartoon Ratatouille with an attached restaurant to match the cartoon's fine-dining kitchen.
Tokyo Disneyland
Opened in 1983, Tokyo Disneyland is the third most visited of any theme park in the world after the two Disney parks in the US. Like Walt Disney World in Florida, Cinderella’s Castle is located at the center of the park, said to have been chosen because the princess's qualities of duty and a strong work ethic would resonate more deeply in Japanese culture than Sleeping Beauty, whose castle is featured in the center of Disneyland California.
Hong Kong Disneyland
The Hong Kong Disneyland, opened in 2005, incorporates feng shui and traditional Chinese elements into its design to attract tourists from the Chinese mainland.
Feng shui balances the elements of wood, fire, earth, metal and water to create positive energy, and these elements can be seen throughout the theme park. Rocks represent stability and prevent good luck from flowing away, so two gigantic boulders have been placed at the park's entrance to stop energy from flowing out of the resort. Water stimulates fortune and wealth, and the theme park is full of lakes, ponds and streams—not to mention the large fountain featuring Disney characters placed at the main entrance of the park.
1.From the text, we can conclude that in Disneyland Paris ________.
A. the arcade is a symbol of friendship between France and the US
B. there is a theater that shows the popular Disney cartoon Ratatouille
C. a theater shows famous French characters in great movies in different times
D. the Statue of Liberty replica reflects Disneyland's status as the latest moment in the historical relationship between France and the US
2.The text discusses how Hong Kong Disneyland ________.
A. is the oldest Disney theme park outside of America
B. has deep connections with traditional Chinese culture
C. has two boulders at the entrance to bring in good luck
D. provides many water-related entertainment activities
3.The main purpose of the text is to ________.
A. offer visitors some money-saving tips for visiting Disneyland theme parks
B. show how Disneyland parks outside of the US are adjusted to local people’s tastes
C. show the development of Disneyl and theme parks around the world throughout history
D. tell visitors how to enjoy themselves at Disneyland theme parks
