题型：阅读理解 题类：模拟题 难易度：易
年份：2018
Welcome to Holker Hall & Gardens
Visitor Information
How to Get to Holker
By Car： Follow brown signs an A590 from JB6, M6.Approximale travel times: Windermere-20 minutes, Kendal-25 minutes, Lancaster-45 minutes, Manchester-I hour 30 minutes.z.x.xk
By Rail: The nearest station is Cark-in-Cartmel with trains to Carnforth, Lancaster Preston for connections to major cities & airports.
Opening Times
Sunday-Friday (closed on Saturday)11:00 am-4:00pm,30 March-2nd November.
Admission Charges
Hall & Gardens Gardens
Adults: £12.00 £8.00
Groups £9 £5.5
Producers: Market 13th April
Join us to taste a variety of fresh local food and drinks. Meet the producers and get some excellent recipe ideas.
Holker Garden Festival 30th May
The event celebrate its 22nd anniversary with a great show of the very best of gardening, making it one of the most popular events in gardening.
National Garden Day 28th August
Holker once again opens is gardens in aid of the disadvantaged. For just a small donation you can take a tour with our garden guide.
Winter Market 8th November
This is an event for all the family. Wander among a variety of shops selling gifs while enjoying a live music show and nice street entertainment.
| A. 20minutes. |
| B. 25 minutes. |
| C. 45 minutes. |
| D. 90 minutes.
|
| A. £l2.00. |
| B. B.19.00. |
| C. A8.0 |
| D. 45.50
|
| A. Producers' Market. |
| B. Holker Garden Festival. |
| C. National Garden Day. |
| D. Winter Market. |
题型：阅读理解 题类：模拟题 难易度：中档
年份：2018
The popular TV program Readers has prompted more people in China to practice reading aloud in booths（小间）set up in big cities across the country.
As the latest TV show to help people’s love for literature recover, the CCTV program Readers invites people from all walks of life to read aloud their favorite poems, essays and books, or even personal letters they wrote to their loved ones. Just as the weekly show has been well-received, its reading booths, equipped with professional recording devices and cameras, have become instant hits.
A crowd of more than 200 people were pictured lining up outside the Shanghai Library at 11 am on March 4-the first day of the booth’s opening to the public in Shanghai. The deadline for registrations was brought forward to 2 pm instead of the scheduled 5:30 pm, as the number of waiting readers continued to grow. Some waited more than nine hours for a tryout in the booth, according to library management.
“There is an old photo in the late 1970s capturing people lining up outside the Shanhai Library before it opens. If that was a spring of reading in Shanghai, now I think another spring has arrived again,” library manager Zhou Deming, told The Paper.
The reading booth is the only one of its kind in the city of economic center at the moment, but more are expected to be put into use in the coming months, according to the library’s website.
The program has also led to booths in other cities including Beijing, Hangzhou, Guangzhou and Xi’an to appeal to more people to read and share their life stories.
With the recent boom of culture-themed TV shows such as Readers and Chinese Poetry Congress, some are optimistic that this will help the country love literature and reading again in general.
| A. teach people what to read |
| B. attract people’s attention to CCTV |
| C. invite people to read aloud in the booth |
| D. arouse people’s enthusiasm for reading
|
| A. some people watied for a long time to read in the booth |
| B. March 4 was the first day of the opening of Shanghai Library |
| C. on March 4,200 people read in the booth |
| D. the time for registrations was lengthened for three and a half hours
|
| A. many people line up to read aloud in reading booths |
| B. more reading booths will be set up in the future |
| C. Readers has become popular all over China |
| D. Readers has inspired more people to read aloud in reading booths |
题型：阅读理解 题类：模拟题 难易度：中档
年份：2018
We have most friends at the age of 26 after having spent the first quarter of our lives building up our friendship circle, a new research has claimed.
The research into friendship shows that our social circle peaks at 26 years and 7 months，at which we typically have five close friends. Women are most popular at 25 years and 10 months，with men hitting the highest friendship point a little later at 27 years and 3 months.
The research, by Forever Friends, shows that about a third of adults meet their closest friends while at school, with about a fifth saying they meet them at work.
Social networks such as Facebook and Twitter now also play a major role in building new friendship. The research points out that 25 to 34-year-olds make 22 friends via Facebook, compared to 18 to 24-year-olds who make 12, and 35 to 44-year-olds who make just four.
Forever Friends’ relationship coach Sam Owen says: “It is no coincidence that over a third of us meet our best friends at school. It is a key time in our lives when friendship is growing through sharing notes, giving gifts, seeing each other regularly and laughing a lot. As adults we can often forget how powerful these small things are and how the little things can make a difference.”
Later in life we find ourselves losing friends. Over half of us lose friendship through moving, while 36% say that over time they grow apart from close pals. Having children also causes 19% to drift away from childhood friends.
With growing pressures being put on friendship these days, it’s important to make time for our friendship.
| A. 4 | B. 12 |
| C. 18 | D. 22
|
| A. how important making friends is |
| B. that friendship is not easy to keep |
| C. how much has been done to keep friendship |
| D. that friendship at school is important
|
| A. make sense of | B. lose contact with |
| C. feel sorry for | D. make up with
|
| A. Facebook or Twitter | B. an advertisement |
| C. a textbook | D. a newspaper |
题型：阅读理解 题类：模拟题 难易度：较易
年份：2018
Four Great Railway Journeys
Travelling by rail holds a romantic and old-fashioned appeal that can’t be matched by flying or driving. By taking the slow route, you get to experience and interact with an area in a completely different way.
The Rocky Mountaineer
Where: Canada, from Vancouver to Banff, Jasper and Calgary.
When: In June, which is springtime in the Rockies, complete with blooming flowers and abundant wildlife.
Duration: Between two and eight days, travelling only in daylight, staying in luxury hotels.
Highlights: Splendid views of the Rocky Mountains, incredible luxury at every stage of the trip, traditional native storytelling, wine classes and natural history workshops.
The Chepe
Where: Mexico. It begins its journey in the mountains of Chihuahua and finishes on the Sinaloa coast.
When: In the rainy season, from June to October, you’ll get lush vegetation（丰富的植被）and blooming cacti（仙人掌）, although mid-summer (July) temperatures can reach 44℃.
Duration: Doing the route straight through takes 14 hours, but you’ll want to stop off overnight and explore traditional towns along the way.
Highlights: The train winds its way down through 656 km of the spectacular Copper Canyon (which is deeper than the Grand Canyon), over 37 bridges and through 86 tunnels. Local people sell crafts and foods along the route.
The Ghan
Where: Australia, from Adelaide to Darwin via Alice Springs.
When: Going during the wet season (December, January and February) will allow you to see more wildlife and tropical splendour in the north, though peak season is usually the winter.
Duration: Going straight through takes 52 hours. There are disembarkation points（下车点）from which you can take tours.
Highlights: Going through Australia’s Red Gentre with blue skies, red earth and not much else—a beautiful and serene（宁静的）experience.
The Royal Scotsman
Where: Travels around the Scottish Highlands or all the way around Great Britain.
When: Warmer weather and up to 20 hours of daylight in June makes it the perfect time to watch ospreys soaring（鱼鹰飞翔）over mirror-like lochs（湖）, or go in October for autumn colors.
Duration: Trips can be as short as two days or as long as seven.
Highlights: Possibly the most expensive train journey in the world. You’ll be treated like a member of the monarchy（王室）. Indulgent（放纵的）cuisine, fine wines and carriages that look like rooms at Balmoral Castle await those willing to part with a minimum of £ 2350 per person for a two-night trip.
| A. The Chepe. | B. The Ghan. |
| C. The Rocky Mountaineer. | D. The Royal Scotsman.
|
| A. The Royal Scotsman and The Chepe |
| B. The Royal Scotsman and The Ghan |
| C. The Rocky Mountaineer and The Chepe |
| D. The Rocky Mountaineer and The Royal Scotsman
|
| A. The Chepe. | B. The Ghan. |
| C. The Rocky Mountaineer. | D. The Royal Scotsman. |
题型：阅读理解 题类：模拟题 难易度：较难
年份：2018
The most important determining factor of success or failure – at work and in life – is self-awareness, the ability to understand who we are, how others see us, and how we fit into the world.
For millions of years, the ancestors of humans evolved painfully slowly. However, about 150,000 years ago there was an explosive development in the human brain where, among other things, we gained the ability to examine our own thoughts, feelings and behaviours, as well as to see things from another’s point of view. Not only did this transformation create the foundation for art, spiritual practices and language, but it came with a survival advantage for our ancestors, who had to work together in order to survive.
Though we may not face the same day-to-day threats to our existence, self-awareness is no less critical. There is strong scientific evidence that people who know themselves and how others see them are happier. They are smarter, superior students. They raise more mature children. They also tend to be more creative, confident and less aggressive.
But for most people it is easier to choose self-delusion（自我欺瞒）rather than the cold hard truth. Our increasingly “me” focused society makes it easier to fall into this trap. Recent generations have grown up in a world obsessed with self-esteem（自负）, constantly being reminded of their special qualities. Not only are our assessments often flawed（有缺陷）, but we are usually terrible judges of our own performance and abilities – from leadership skills to achievements at school and work. What’s scary is that the least competent people are usually the most confident in their abilities.
How can we avoid this fate? We must work on two specific types of insight. Internal self-awareness is an inward understanding of our passions and aspirations, strengths and weaknesses and so on. And external self-awareness, knowing how others see you, means understanding yourself from the outside in.
It would be easy to assume that someone with internal self-awareness would also be externally aware – that being in touch with our feelings and emotions helps us tune into how we’re seen. Strangely, research has often shown no relationship between the two–some studies have even revealed an inverse（相反的）one.
For those looking to gain true insight, remember that other people often see us more objectively than we see ourselves and that self-examination can have hidden pitfalls（陷阱）that make insight actually impossible.
| A. the intelligence gap between modern men and their ancestors |
| B. the sharp contrast between self-awareness of today and the past |
| C. the significance of self-awareness in human survival and advancement |
| D. the necessity of a shift in self-awareness to satisfy the needs today
|
| A. It’s difficult to obtain an objective assessment of ourselves. |
| B. People’s performance and abilities are overlooked. |
| C. Competent people tend to be unconfident of their leadship skills. |
| D. Modern people fail to bring their special qualities into full play.
|
| A. Understanding ourselves inward contributes to a better fate. |
| B. Knowing how others see us is the key to success. |
| C. Self-examination helps us gain true insight into ourselves. |
| D. Internal self-awareness and external self-awareness are closely related. |
题型：阅读理解 题类：模拟题 难易度：较易
年份：2018
Princess quiz time! How did Snow White survive? How did Cinderella (《灰姑娘》) leave her evil stepmother? How did Sleeping Beauty finally wake up?
A kind-hearted person always comes to save the princess, like a prince or a godmother. Princesses cannot protect themselves, though they are very pretty and nice. They always need the help of others.
However, in fact, women can’t put their life in the hands of a prince-like man. They need to work and even fight for their own happiness. The traditional image(形象) of a princess is getting out of date.
Recently, Disney, a company famous for its princess movies, posted the “top 10 rules for being a modern princess”. You will not find any rules related to beauty or looks. The rules focus on loyalty, honesty and other moral values. The rules say princesses need to believe in themselves and try their best to get out of trouble, instead of waiting for a prince’s help.
It’s not the first time Disney princesses have caught up with society’s development. In 1950, when people’s hearts were broken by World War II, Disney created Cinderella. In 1990, Princess Belle from Beauty and the Beast (《美女与野兽》) loved reading when education was a man’s special right in the past. Belle showed the improvement of women’s position in society. Now is Elsa from the film Frozen (《冰雪奇缘》), a symbol of modern princess.
“This is brilliant – ‘The top 10 rules of being a modern princess’ – (it’s) about time,” a group named Confidently Mom said on social media website Twitter. Princesses are still very beautiful, but inner character is the key to being a princess.
| A. They should turn to others for help. |
| B. They should depend on men to do most things. |
| C. They don’t need to care about their appearances. |
| D. They should depend on themselves for their own happiness.
|
| A. looks | B. education |
| C. moral values | D. position in society
|
| A. Godmother | B. Cinderella |
| C. Belle | D. Elsa
|
| A. Meaningless | B. Fantastic |
| C. Historic | D. Social |
题型：阅读理解 题类：模拟题 难易度：易
年份：2018
Mr Peter Johnson, aged twenty-three, battled for half an hour to escape from his trapped car yesterday when it landed upside down in three feet of water. Mr Johnson took the only escape route—through the boot(行李箱)．
Mr Johnsonˈs car had finished up in a ditch(沟渠) at Romney Marsh, Kent, after skidding on ice and hitting a bank. “Fortunately, the water began to come in only slowly，” Mr Johnson said. “I couldnˈt force the doors because they were jammed against the walls of the ditch and dared not open the windows because I knew water would come flooding in.”
Mr Johnson, a sweet salesman of House Sitting, Kent, first tried to attract the attention of other motorists by sounding the horn and hammering on the roof and boot. Then he began his struggle to escape.
Later he said, “It was really a half penny that saved my life. It was the only coin I had in my pocket and I used it to unscrew the back seat to get into the boot. I hammered desperately with a hammer trying to make someone hear, but no help came.”
It took ten minutes to unscrew the seat, and a further five minutes to clear the sweet samples from the boot. Then Mr Johnson found a wrench and began to work on the boot lock. Fifteen minutes passed by. “It was the only chance I had. Finally__it__gave,__but as soon as I moved the boot lid, the water and mud poured in. I forced the lid down into the mud and scrambled clear as the car filled up.”
His hands and arms cut and bruised，Mr Johnson got to Becketts Farm nearby, where he was looked after by the farmerˈs wife, Mrs Lucy Bates. Trembling in a blanket, he said, “That thirty minutes seemed like hours.” Only the tips of the car wheels were visible, the police said last night. The vehicle had sunk into two feet of mud at the bottom of the ditch.
| A. Book review. | B. News report. |
| C. Campus life. | D. Continued story.
|
| A. luckily the door was torn away in the end |
| B. at last the wrench went broken |
| C. the lock came open after all his efforts |
| D. the chance was lost at the last minute
|
| A. the ditch was along a quiet country road |
| B. the accident happened on a clear warm day |
| C. the police helped Mr Johnson get out of the ditch |
| D. Mr Johnson had a tender wife and was well attended |
题型：阅读理解 题类：模拟题 难易度：中档
年份：2018
Bad news sells. If it bleeds, it leads. No news is good news, and good news is no news. Those are the classic rules for the evening broadcasts and the morning papers. But now that information is being spread and monitored（监控）in different ways, researchers are discovering new rules. By tracking people’s e-mails and online posts, scientists have found that good news can spread faster and farther than disasters and sob stories.
“The ‘if it bleeds’ rule works for mass media,” says Jonah Berger, a scholar at the University of Pennsylvania. “They want your eyeballs and don’t care how you’re feeling. But when you share a story with your friends, you care a lot more how they react. You don’t want them to think of you as a Debbie Downer.”
Researchers analyzing word-of-mouth communication—e-mails, Web posts and reviews, face-to-face conversations—found that it tended to be more positive than negative（消极的）, but that didn’t necessarily mean people preferred positive news. Was positive news shared more often simply because people experienced more good things than bad things? To test for that possibility, Dr. Berger looked at how people spread a particular set of news stories: thousands of articles on The New York Times’ website. He and a Penn colleague analyzed the “most emailed” list for six months. One of his first findings was that articles in the science section were much more likely to make the list than non-science articles. He found that science amazed Times’ readers and made them want to share this positive feeling with others.
Readers also tended to share articles that were exciting or funny, or that inspired negative feelings like anger or anxiety, but not articles that left them merely sad. They needed to be aroused（激发）one way or the other, and they preferred good news to bad. The more positive an article, the more likely it was to be shared, as Dr. Berger explains in his new book, Contagious: Why Things Catch On.
| A. News reports. | B. Research papers. |
| C. Private e-mails. | D. Daily conversations.
|
| A. They’re socially inactive. |
| B. They’re good at telling stories. |
| C. They’re inconsiderate of others. |
| D. They’re careful with their words.
|
| A. Sports news. | B. Science articles. |
| C. Personal accounts. | D. Financial reviews.
|
| A. Sad Stories Travel Far and Wide. |
| B. Online News Attracts More People. |
| C. Reading Habits Change with the Times. |
| D. Good News Beats Bad on Social Networks. |
题型：阅读理解 题类：模拟题 难易度：中档
年份：2018
| A. Merseyside Maritime Museum |
| B. Royal Liver Museum |
| C. Tate Liverpool |
| D. International Slavery Museum |
| A. Enjoy breakfast at Puccinos. |
| B. See contemporary and modern art at the Walker Art Gallery. |
| C. Listen to the choir at the Roman Catholic Church. |
| D. See the Three Graces from the early 20th century.
|
| A. Bold Street | B. Mathew Street |
| C. the Albert Dock | D. Canada Boulevard
|
| A. positive | B. Disappointed | C. objective | D. indifferent |
题型：阅读理解 题类：模拟题 难易度：易
年份：2018
Best Bookshops in London
Looking for the latest bestsellers? London has every shop a booklover could possibly need for browsing (浏览), reading or shopping for gifts: from specialist bookshops and book markets for rare treasures at rewarding prices, to second-hand bookshops, academic bookshops and high street chains.
Daunt Books
Founded by James Daunt, this small chain has been feeding the souls of literary and non-fiction lovers for years. It is an Edwardian bookshop on Marylebone High Street. Books from the same country are arranged together, so guides, maps, non-fiction and fiction all sit alongside one another, for a unique browsing experience.
Hatchards
No booklover’s trip to London is complete without visiting Hatchards on Piccadilly, the oldest bookshop in the UK. Established in 1797, Hatchards houses a large range of fiction and non-fiction, as well as signed and special editions. There’s also a separate section on religious books.
Stanfords
Stanfords flagship Covent Garden store is still a must-visit for lovers of travel books and has been since it opened in 1853. The shop has the world’s largest selection of maps and travel books under one roof.
Waterstones
A literary shopping center, Waterstones Piccadilly is Europe’s largest bookshop. Spread over eight floors, it’s more than just a bookshop. In addition to more than 13km of book shelves, there’s the 5th View Bar, a gift shop and regular events like book signings by famous authors, artists, musicians, politicians and sports stars.
| A. By content. | B. By country. |
| C. By alphabet. | D. By subject.
|
| A. Daunt Books. | B. Hatchards. |
| C. Stanfords. | D. Waterstones.
|
| A. Music events are regularly organised. |
| B. Both have a long historical standing. |
| C. Readers can buy souvenirs and gifts. |
| D. Readers can get signed books there. |
