If you’re a foreigner looking for a place that has everything, there’s only one place to visit, and that’s New York. It’s a whole world in a city.
The World of Theater
All of New York is a stage, and it begins with Broadway. Where else can you find so many shows in one place? Only in New York !
The World of Music
Spend an evening with Beethoven at Lincoln Center. Swing to the great jazz of Greenwich Village. Or rock yourself silly at the hottest dance spots found anywhere.
The World of Art
From Rembrandt to Picasso. From Egyptian tombs to Indian teepees. Whatever kind of art you like, you will find it in New York.
The World of Fine Dining
Whether it is roast Beijing Duck in Chinatown, Lasagna in Little Italy, or the finest French coq au vin(chicken cooked in wine) found anywhere, there is a world of great taste waiting for you in New York.
The World of Sights
What other city has a Statue of Liberty? A Rockefeller Center? Or a Bronx Zoo? Where else can you take a horse-drawn carriage through the Central Park? Only in New York!What do you think the underlined word Rembrandt was / is?
| A．A musician. | B．A place in the World of Art |
| C．A place in New York. | D．An artist. |
Which of the following programs can a visitor have only in New York?
| A．To spend an evening with Beethoven. |
| B．To see the Statue of Liberty. |
| C．To taste the finest French coq au vin. |
| D．To enjoy the Beijing roast duck. |
The purpose of writing this text is to ___________ .
| A．help the readers get a better understanding of New York |
| B．supply the readers with some information about New York jobs |
| C．try to persuade the readers to visit New York |
| D．tell the readers where New York lies |
As more and more books become movie adaptations (改编), I can’t help but think how this will affect English classes in America. Thinking back to my years in middle and high school — ten years ago, I would be rewarded if I had read a number of classics. Today, a majority of those books are now also movies Life of Pi, The Great Gatsby, Much Ado About Nothing and Anna Karenina, to name a few.
Even modern books such as The Hunger Games and Harry Potter have been adapted for the big screen. In discussion with my students, I often hear them say they are not going to read books because movies will come out soon, which makes me wonder what effect movie adaptations have on modern-day students. Will the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) encourage them to read books more carefully or to use movies to improve their understanding of the text?
The CCSS requires students to provide text-based evidence when reading and discussing a book. By focusing on such evidence, teachers can pull specific details from a book that may have not made the final cut when the book was adapted for the big screen. For instance, after reading and watching The Hunger Games, there were a number of details from the book that were missing from the film — many people were disappointed with Rue’s meek (温顺的) movie role. A student who failed to read The Hunger Games would not quite understand Rue’s impact on the games in the same way as someone who had read the book and remembered all the details that went into her death.
I am not saying the CCSS will stop students from cutting corners, but I believe if teachers use the support the CCSS provides, it can be a great roadway to ensure all students are digging deep into texts and not just hitting the play button.Ten years ago, students in America were .
| A．fond of reading all kinds of novels |
| B．forbidden to discuss movies in class |
| C．not allowed to watch movies in the cinema |
| D．encouraged to read many literature works |
Which of the following might be the effect that movie adaptations have on modern-day students?
| A．They spend less time in studying. |
| B．They can’t understand English texts. |
| C．They discuss movies more frequently. |
| D．They spend less time in reading. |
What can we learn from the third paragraph?
| A．The Hunger Games is the worst movie adaptation. |
| B．It is a waste of time reading and discussing a book in class. |
| C． Rue’s impact on the games is perfectly presented in the movie. |
| D．Movie adaptations may bring trouble in understanding the books. |
According to the text, it seems that the CCSS .
| A．prevents students watching movies |
| B．provides students with well-known movies |
| C．encourages students to write novels |
| D．provides guidance on teaching and learning |
Art classes about animals & wildlife
All Creatures Large and Small
Animals bring something special to our life and give us inspiration for paintings that we will treasure. This workshop will focus on how to bring animals to life through color, lighting and good composition (构图). We will be working from photographs, so you will need to bring several good photos of your pets or wildlife animals.
Location Scottsdale, AZ
Instructor Phil Beck
Pet Portraiture (肖像画法) with Christine Fifer
Nothing teaches us to live in the moment more than our furry and feathered friends, and this workshop emphasizes (强调) the technical aspects of drawing and painting animals. Fifer is a long-time painter whose realistic style is simple and clear. No live models allowed (only a favorite picture or two)!
Location Key West, FL
Instructor Christine Fifer
Nature & Wildlife in the Field with Rafael Galvez
Limited to 12 students. Have a guided walk through a natural reserve and explore Charlotte’s wilderness with an experienced naturalist and bird painter, while learning about the region’s wildlife and habitats, and learning to paint from live subjects. Galvez emphasizes process rather than product.
Location Charlotte, NC
Instructor Rafael Galvez
Animal Drawing
A rare opportunity to work with live animals in the PAFA studios! Work with a horse and a dog served as models, learn skills and develop techniques for the graphic depiction (图形描绘) of animals. Explore a variety of drawing materials and techniques.
Location Philadelphia, PA
Instructor Peter van DyckPhil Beck will teach students to paint animals from .
| A．live models | B．his works |
| C．Pictures | D．famous paintings |
Where should you go if you want to learn to paint in the open air?
A. Scottsdale, AZ. B. Charlotte, NC.
C. Key West, FL. D. Philadelphia, PA.If you like to paint in a realistic style, you will learn from .
| A．Phil Beck | B．Peter van Dyck |
| C．Rafael Galvez | D．Christine Fifer |
People have always been wondering about what our future will look like. Go on reading this text, and you will know what will happen in the next fifty years.
How can we know what the future will look like? To be able to understand the future, you must know the past. What has taken us to where we are today and what has changed along the way? The world has changed a lot in the last 150 years, but we humans are driven by the same basic needs as we were 150 years ago. Will this change in the next 150 years? No.
What inventions have really made a difference in the last 150 years? In the past years, the inventions that have affected most people around the world for everyday living are the telephone, electricity, radio, television, computer, the car and the ability to communicate through the Internet. Then we of course have a lot of inventions that have made life easier, like new medicine, faster transports etc. In general, human beings have been working hard in the last 150 years to make the inventions so that they will be able to get control of the time and the world. Since there is still much to do in this area, this will be the focus at least for the next 150 years.
Why do we need to predict the future? Predicting the future is important for two reasons first we need to start to think about what kind of future we would like for ourselves and to pass on to the next generation, and then we need to know what decisions we need to make today that will give the best result in the future.What does the author try to tell us in the second paragraph?
| A．The world is quite different from what it was. |
| B．Our basic needs will not change in the future. |
| C．Humans will no longer enjoy food in the future. |
| D．The world will be completely changed tomorrow. |
Our past inventions have made .
| A．it easy for us to live |
| B．our daily life more stressful |
| C．our work easily done |
| D．us work less time |
What will humans do in order to keep the world under control?
| A．To produce more cars for transportation. |
| B．To focus on making more inventions. |
| C．To work much harder to achieve their goals. |
| D．To spend more time working on the Internet. |
What is the main idea of the last paragraph?
| A．What result we’ll receive in the future. |
| B．The decisions we make for our future. |
| C．The importance of predicting the future. |
| D．The two reasons of predicting the future. |
Daniel Hillel developed drip irrigation (滴灌) techniques. The techniques make farming possible in places where there is not enough water. Because of this, he won this year’s World Food Prize.
Hillel is using the techniques in his orchards (果园) near his home in Israel.
Irrigating drop by drop — called drip irrigation — has changed agriculture by greatly reducing the amount of water needed.
Farmers now rely on it in places from Spain, to Africa, to America. “We in California grow about 50 percent of the fruits and vegetables of the continental United States,” says Jan Hopmans from University of California at Davis. “And these drip irrigation techniques make it possible.”
Hillel got his start in dry land farming in Israel’s Negev Desert in the 1950s. “The key was making good use of water,” he says. “There’s much land. Water is limited.” These farmers did not have the advantage of running irrigation water through channels (水渠) to their crops. So Hillel and others gave plants just what they needed and just where they needed it.
“The idea is to use water little by little,” Hillel says. It worked so well that Hillel was soon traveling around the world, showing others how to do it. Experts say drip irrigation’s importance is growing, as climate change and rising population make water supplies become few in many parts of the world.
“This is where water use, climate change and crop production all meet at one point,” Hillel says. “And this has been really the essence (本质) of my career.”
A career whose importance can be measured drop by drop.What’s the main idea of Paragraph 4?
| A．Daniel Hillel is becoming popular worldwide. |
| B．Drip irrigation has greatly affected agriculture. |
| C．Jan Hopmans takes pride in American agriculture. |
| D．Drip irrigation plays a key role in American agriculture. |
Drip irrigation is popular because .
| A．it can make the most use of water |
| B．it can be used all around the world |
| C．it can provide plants with what is needed |
| D．it is more advanced than channel irrigation |
What makes drip irrigation seem increasingly important?
| A．Dry land farming. | B．Environmental pollution. |
| C．Food shortages. | D．Water shortages. |
The writer considers Daniel Hillel’s career to be .
| A．worthy of respect | B．worthy of understanding |
| C．brief | D．hard |
Are you the type of person who always says yes? However, it’s OK to say no! People are still going to like you. They may even respect you more because they know you are honest.
I’m not saying that you should say no to someone who really needs your help. I’m talking about turning down the meeting that you really do not want to go to or the birthday party that you don’t want to be a guest at.
Think for a moment how you feel when you say yes to something that you really don’t want to do. If you’re like what I once was, you can’t sleep at night and you think about it too much. It weighs on your mind. You try to find ways out. If you really want to go, you will not have all of these thoughts.
So, why not just say no from the beginning? Maybe you think if you don’t show up at the meeting (by the way, it is not one you must go to), your boss isn’t going to like you or your co-workers won’t respect you. Maybe you feel as if your mom, dad or sisters won’t love you as much if you don’t do everything for them.
If these people are your true friends, family members, or a good boss, they will like or love you the same. People treat you the way you teach them to, and if you’re someone who always says yes then that’s what they’re expecting.
You need to do what is right for you. Of course we do have real obligations (责任) in life to meet, but we do not have to do everything others want us to do.In the writer’s opinion, .
| A．we must do what is right for other people |
| B．it is not always easy to win friends’ trust |
| C．saying yes is the best way to win others’ respect |
| D．learning to say no is very important in our life |
The underlined sentence “It weighs on your mind” in the third paragraph probably means “ ”.
| A．you are worried about it very much |
| B．you try to find excuses to refuse it |
| C．you are too busy to care about it |
| D．it fills your mind with good ideas |
According to the writer, if you always say yes, .
| A．your family members will love you more |
| B．your friends will soon get tired of you |
| C．people will expect you to do what they want you to do |
| D．you will have little chance of success in your life |
We can learn from the passage that the writer .
| A．seldom said no to people around him/her at one time |
| B．gets along badly with his/her boss and co-workers now |
| C．always makes his/her parents angry by refusing them |
| D．thinks it his/her own obligation to help those in need |