Machu Picchu is considered to be a truly extraordinary archaeological(考古学的) discovery and is one of South America’s largest tourist sites. As many as one thousand visitors visit the ancient Incan（印加文化的） ruins daily. What draws vacationers and adventurers to this remote location high in the Andes Mountains of Peru（秘鲁）? A large part of the attraction is the mysteries that surround Machu Picchu. For example, Machu Picchu is considered “the lost city” of the Incas because it was never found by Spanish invaders and was known to only a few local peasants for almost four hundred years.
The “city in the clouds”, Machu Picchu’s lasting beauty comes from the careful blending of its striking architecture with its mountaintop environment. Its greatest skill shows are in the stone structures, which equals that of the ancient Egyptians. The stone blocks were so appropriately cut that they fit together without the need for mud. The largest stones at Machu Picchu weigh as much as fifteen tons! It has been difficult to explain how the huge blocks were transported. The buildings, including many that have survived lots of earthquakes, contain stones which interlock so perfectly that a knife cannot be forced between them. When compared to other ancient civilizations, it is difficult to understand how Machu Picchu could have been missed by the Spanish and lost from history for four hundred years.
For many of the mysteries of Machu Picchu being unsolved, it is clear why Machu Picchu remains “the most famous ruins in all of South America”. Which of the followings is NOT a mystery of Machu Picchu?
| A．Machu Picchu is called the “city in the clouds”. |
| B．Machu Picchu remains “the most famous ruins of South America”. |
| C．Machu Picchu is “the lost city” of the Incas. |
| D．Machu Picchu is the largest stone city of the world. |
The underlined word “interlock” probably means _________
| A．put | B．fit | C．meet | D．lie |
From the passage we can learn that __________.
| A．Machu Picchu has gone through lots of earthquakes |
| B．all of the mysteries of Machu Picchu have been solved |
| C．the city has never been discovered by people outside |
| D．Machu Picchu is the most valuable ruins in history. |
The purpose of writing the passage is to __________.
| A．ask us to pay a visit to Machu Picchu |
| B．show us the beauty of Machu Picchu |
| C．introduce Machu Picchu’s mysteries |
| D．make the ancient Incan ruins known |
| The following are the sculptures in the Underwater Museum, which are accessible in person by glass boat, orscuba diving. |
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The Archive of Lost Dreams The Visual:It describes an underwater archive of messages in bottles. The Meaning:The bottles contain messages of dreams for future generations. The Hope:The statue is placed with the purpose of helping draw visitors away from the healthy parts of the reef. The Location:The Archive of Lost Dreams was placed 8 meters deep at Manchones Reef, close to Isla Mujeres. Behind the Scenes:The collection of bottled messages were provided by various communities who wrote about today’s values and their dreams for the future generations. |
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The Gardener of Hope The Visual:Here a young Mexican girl lies in a garden surrounded by pots which will be grown with live coral. The Meaning:The young girl in the sculpture represents a model for hopeful future generations. The Hope:The base of the Gardener of Hope was built to attract various marine creatures. The coral in the pots is also expected to grow. The Location:The Gardener of Hope was placed 4 meters deep at Punta Nizuc near the coast of Cancun. Behind the Scenes:The pots here are filled with live coral cuttings that were saved from areas of the local reef system. |
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Man on Fire The Visual:Man on Fire describes a lone male figure covered in live fire coral to resemble fire. The Meaning:The sculpture symbolizes the unawareness of the “fire” our generation has started with the over use of limited natural resources. The Hope:Man on Fire has 75 holes planted with small live cuttings of fire coral which are expected to grow like fire. The Location:Man on Fire was installed 8 meters deep at the Manchones Reef nearby to Isla Mujeres. Behind the Scenes:The sculpture was cast from a local Mexican fisherman and it weighs over 1 ton. |
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The Silent Evolution The Visual:Here more than 400 sculptures depict the timeline of human nature. The Meaning:It is a documentation of how society and people have changed over time. It is also to remind us of how we are connected to nature. The Hope:The installation is designed for forming a complex reef structure that marine life will claim as its own and inhabit. The Location:The Silent Evolution will be installed 8 meters deep behind the Manchones Reef. Behind the Scenes:The total installation will expand over 150 square meters and will weigh over 120 tons. |
| Attention:Guided tours are a must. You can catch a tour fromAquaworld, which leaves every hour from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. daily. |
Which of the following is true according to the passage?
| A．You can tour individually without a tourist guide by glass boat. |
| B．The Gardener of Hope will remind us of the relationship with nature. |
| C．Bottled messages are filled with live coral cuttings for future generations. |
| D．Man on Fire can educate us to protect the limited natural resources. |
Which sculptures are installed in the same area?
| A．Man on Fire & The Silent Evolution |
| B．The Archive of Lost Dreams & Man on Fire |
| C．The Gardener of Hope & The Silent Evolution |
| D．The Archive of Lost Dreams & The Gardener of Hope |
The writer introduces the sculptures to _______.
| A．defend Mexican Tourism Industry |
| B．call on us to go on a tour to Aquaworld |
| C．appeal to readers to protect Marine Life |
| D．attract tourists to the Underwater Museum |
The slavery drama “12 Years a Slave” won the Academy Award for best picture on Sunday, making history as the first movie from a black director to win the film industry’s highest honor in 86 years of the Oscars. British director Steve McQueen’s brave portrayal of pre-Civil War American slavery won two other Oscars, including best supporting actress for newcomer Lupita Nyong’o and best adapted screenplay based on the memoir of Solomon Northup, a free man tricked and sold into slavery in Louisiana. “Everyone deserves not just to survive but to live. This is the most important legacy of Solomon Northup,” said McQueen in his acceptance speech.
“12 Years a Slave” was better over space thriller “Gravity” from Mexican filmmaker Alfonso Cuaron, which nevertheless got the most Oscars of the night with seven, including the best director honor for Cuaron, a first for a Latin American director.The film starring Sandra Bullock as an astronaut lost in space swept the technical awards like visual effects and cinematography, a reward for its groundbreaking work on conveying space and weightlessness. Referring to the “transformative” experience he and others undertook in the four-plus years spent making “Gravity”, Cuaron, whose hair is graying, said, “For a lot of these people, that transformation was wisdom. For me, it was just the color of my hair.”
In one of the strongest years for film in recent memory, the 6,000-plus voters of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences scattered golden Oscar statuettes among the many acclaimed movies in contention.
It was a good night for the scrappy, low-budget film “Dallas Buyers Club”, directed by Jean-Marc Vallee, a biopic of an early AIDS activist two decades in the making that won three Oscars, including the two male acting awards.
Matthew McConaughey, in a validation of a remarkable career turnaround, won best actor for his portrayal of the homophobe who turned AIDS victim and then turned treatment crusader Ron Woodroof, a role for which he lost 50 pounds (23 kg). His co-star, Jared Leto, won best supporting actor for his role as Woodroof’s unlikely business partner, the transgender woman Rayon, for which he also slimmed down drastically.
Australia’s Cate Blanchett won the best actress Oscar for her acclaimed role as the socialite unhinged by her husband’s financial crimes in Woody Allen’s “Blue Jasmine.” “As random and subjective as this award is, it means a great deal in a year of, yet again, extraordinary performances by women,” said Blanchett, who beat out previous Oscar winners Bullock, Amy Adams, Judi Dench and Meryl Streep.The film which won the largest number of Oscar awards this year is ______.
| A．12 Years a Slave | B．Gravity |
| C．Dallas Buyers Club | D．Blue Jasmine |
Which director spent the least money in making the film?
| A．Steve McQueen. | B．Alfonso Cuaron. |
| C．Jean-Marc Vallee. | D．Woody Allen. |
How many Oscar best actresses are mentioned in this passage?
| A．One. | B．Three. | C．Five. | D．Six. |
Which of the following statements is WRONG?
| A．“12 Years a Slave” won two Oscar awards altogether. |
| B．The director of “Gravity” is from Latin America. |
| C．The character Rayon is played by Jared Leto. |
| D．The woman film star Cate Blanchett comes from Oceania. |
I was now in my twenty third year of residence in this island and was accustomed to the place and to the manner of living. If it had not been the savages（野人）who had come to the place to disturb me, I could have been content to spent the rest of my time there, even to the last moment, till I had laid me down and died, like the old goat in the cave.
I had also arrived to some little recreations and amusements, which made the time pass more pleasantly with me a great deal than it did before．
At first, I had taught my Poll to speak. And he did it so familiarly and talked so clearly and plain that it was very pleasant to me. And he lived with me no less than twenty six years. How long he might live afterwards, I don’t know; though I know they have an idea in Brazil that they live a hundred years. Perhaps poor Poll may be alive there still, calling Poor Robin Crusoe to this day. I wish no other English man had the bad luck to go there and hear him. But if he did, he would certainly believe it was the devil（魔鬼）.
My dog was a very pleasant and loving companion to me, for no less than sixteen years of my time, and then died of mere old age.
As for my cats, they multiplied to that degree that I had to shoot several of them at first to keep them from eating up all I had.
Besides these, I had two more parrots which talked pretty well and would all call Robin Crusoe, but none like my first. Nor indeed did I take the pains with any of them that I had done with him.
I had also several sea-fowls, whose names I don’t know, that I caught upon the shore and cut their wings. And the little stakes which I had planted before my castle wall being now grown up to a good thick bush, these fowls all lived among these low trees and bred there, which was very agreeable to me; so that as I said above, I began to be well content with the life I led if not worried about the threat from the savages.What does the passage mainly talk about?
| A．Robin Crusoe treated animals kindly. |
| B．Robin Crusoe led a hard life on the island. |
| C．The animals raised by Robin Crusoe brought him much pleasure. |
| D．The savages always spoiled Robin Crusoe’s happy life. |
How many parrots did Robin Crusoe mention in this passage?
| A．2 | B．3 | C．4 | D．5 |
According to the passage, which of the following statements is true?
| A．Robin’s dog may be still alive on the island. |
| B．Robin Crusoe lived in harmony with savages. |
| C．Robin Crusoe met an English man while on the island. |
| D．Parrots raised by Robin could talk very well. |
What is the “sea-fowl” mentioned in the last paragraph?
| A．A bird living on the coast. |
| B．A fish living in the sea. |
| C．A creature without a name |
| D．An animal feeding on tree leaves. |
The £109 Nest Protect Smoke Alarm promises Internet alerts（警报）and an end to the low battery chirp（短而尖的叫声）. Besides, it uses a voice to tell you where the fire is.
The alarm is the first UK product from Nest, which is run by iPod-inventor Tony Fadell. The company claims the device’s batteries will last for up to seven years. The device will offer a spoken warning before it sounds a major alarm. Also it will use text messages and apps on your phones to alert users to low-level risks.
The present smoke alarms constantly alert users to non-existent threats, which will make many users annoyed and finally remove their batteries altogether. “We’ve all experienced the smoke alarm going off while we’re cooking. Sometimes, we need to search for the source of that non-stop low-battery chirp at midnight,” said Fadell. “Therefore, every time a smoke alarm cries wolf, we trust it a little less, and then — in a moment of frustration — we take the batteries out to stop the beep（嘟嘟声）. And that leaves us and our families at risk.”
If the Protect smoke alarms are used, they can be set up in up to ten zones, so that the clear warnings tell users where the risk has been detected.
“Safety shouldn’t be annoying,” said Matt Rogers, Nest founder and vice president of engineering. “It was unacceptable to us that one in eight houses in the UK has a non-functioning smoke alarm. These products are required by law and are supposed to keep us safe, yet people hate them. We wanted to change that.”For what purpose did Nest create the Protect Smoke Alarm?
| A．To predict low-level fire risks. | B．To experiment with a new battery. |
| C．To improve present smoke alarms. | D．To avoid the low-battery chirp. |
What did Tony Fadell really want to tell us in Paragraph 3?
| A．One of his cooking experiences. |
| B．Disadvantages of present smoke alarms. |
| C．His growing distrust of smoke alarms. |
| D．His source of annoyance to crying wolf. |
Which of the following are the advantages of the Protect Smoke Alarm?
a. Rechargeable batteries b. A talking smoke alarm
c. Longer battery life d. Going off constantly
e. Internet connection
| A．a, b, c | B．c, d, e | C．a, c, e | D．b, c, e |
What can we know from the last paragraph?
| A．In the UK people seldom set up smoke alarms. |
| B．Matt Rogers didn’t like the safety requirements. |
| C．Non-functioning smoke alarms make people annoyed. |
| D．The government should pay attention to safety issues. |
| Bulletin Board Workshops are held at Women’s Health Centre, 1441 29 St. N.W. If you are interested, please call 944-2260 or visit www.womenhealthcentre.ca. |
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| Eating to Get to Your Healthiest Weight |
If you are seeking professional help with your weight-loss efforts, then this workshop series, presented by Dawn Peacock, BSc, RD, is for you. The workshop will take place on Fridays, July 10 between 1:30 p.m. and 3:30 p.m. or July 24 between 7 p.m. and 9 p.m. Fee: $120 |
| How to Reduce Depression & Anxiety |
Depression and anxiety are two disorders that often affect women at the same time. They may go unrecognized and cause needless suffering. This four-part class, offered by Elizabeth Miles, MSc, Rpsych, will help reduce the suffering. The classes will be held on Wednesdays, July 8, between 1:30 p.m. and 3:30 p.m. or July 22 between 7 p.m. and 9 p.m. Fee: $120. |
| How Do I Protect My Bones? |
Osteoporosis (骨质疏松) is a serious health condition that affects women as they age. Come to this workshop, presented by Irene Jackson, RN, MN, to find out more about osteoporosis and learn how you can reduce your risk factors and protect your bones. The workshop will take place on Tuesday, Aug. 16, 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Fee: $150. |
| Raising Your Child in a Weight Obsessed World |
We live in a world where television and restaurants are pushing super-sized hamburgers and soft drinks, while magazines feature pencil-thin models. This presentation, by Keri Sullivan, MSc, RD, Eating Disorder Program, will offer ways to build healthy environments and behaviours for children. The presentation will be offered on Wednesday, Aug. 24, 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Fee: $150. |
You are not free on Wednesdays. To help your child be in good shape, you need to join in _______.
| A．Eating to Get to Your Healthiest Weight |
| B．How to Reduce Depression & Anxiety |
| C．How Do I Protect My Bones |
| D．Raising Your Child in a Weight Obsessed World |
A woman with weight and bone problems can go to the evening classes _______.
| A．on July 10 & Aug. 16 | B．on July 8 & Aug. 24 |
| C．on July 24 & Aug. 16 | D．on July 22 & Aug. 24 |
Which of the following is TRUE, according to the ad?
| A．To lose weight, women can attend the class offered by Elizabeth Miles. |
| B．Women may not be aware of the depression and anxiety they are suffering. |
| C．Hamburgers and soft drinks are the main causes of children’s bad behaviours. |
| D．Pencil-thin models are always shown on televisions. |
We can infer from the ad that osteoporosis is likely to happen to _______.
| A．the middle-aged women |
| B．women who are easily depressed |
| C．those who are getting old |
| D．overweight children |