【推荐1】A girl became a volunteer in the activities of Deathbed Care, which meant visiting and taking care of a patient suffering from an incurable disease with days numbered.

The girl was assigned to look after an old man suffering from cancer whose children lived abroad. Their living conditions were not satisfactory while the old man had a lot of savings. She was expected to comfort him and keep up his spirits. Every Saturday the girl came on time to keep his company, telling him stories. When he was having an intravenous drip (静脉滴注), she would help massage his arms. The doctor found the patient much improved mentally. The old man began to involve himself actively in the medical treatment and he seldom shouted at others.

But something that happened made the doctor uneasy and puzzled. Each time the girl left, the old man would give her some money. The doctor did nothing to interfere (干涉), unwilling to offend the old man. A month later the old man showed evident signs of decline after suffering coma (昏迷) a few times. When rescued from the latest coma, the old man told the doctor his last wish, “ I have deep sympathy for the girl. Will you be kind enough to help her finish her studies?” But the doctor knew that her family was well-off and she had no difficulty pursuing her studies. Sometimes she even came to the hospital in her father’s car.

When the girl came at the weekend after the death of the old man, the doctor told her the bad news. She was very sad and burst into tears. Then she handed $ 500 to the doctor, saying, “ The old man had all along thought I came to do the job because of poverty. He gave me money so that I could continue my schooling.” Now he got the answer to the puzzle. In the last period of his life, the old man found it a real pleasure to be able to help a girl badly in need.

1. What kind of people do volunteers attend to in Deathbed Care?

A．The patient in need of operations.

B．The people suffering from cancer.

C．The people suffering from diseases.

D．The patient without many days left.

2. What can we infer about the old man according to Paragraph 2?

A．He had abundant savings and he was cheerful.

B．He frequently lost his temper before he met the girl.

C．He was suffering from cancer and helped a poor girl.

D．He asked the doctor to help the girl finish her study.

3. What is the real reason resulting in the old man’s mental improvement?

A．His children’s progress in their career.

B．The intravenous drip that he had every Saturday.

C．The pleasure of being helpful to people in need.

D．The girl’s good comfort and care in his daily life.

4. Why did the girl take the old man’s money?

A．To keep him in high spirits.

B．To continue her schooling.

C．To gather experience on voluntary work.

D．To involve him actively in the treatment.

【推荐2】Throughout our daily lives, we have known plenty of people and will know more. But how can we tell if someone is trustworthy? In a paper published recently in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, researcher gave us the answer.

The researchers asked 401 adults from the United States to fill out a questionnaire measuring their guilt-proneness(内疚倾向) in different situations as well as several other qualities, and then play a short online game. In this game, Player 1 is given $1, which they can choose to give to Player2. Any money given to Player 2 is then automatically increased to $2.50. Player 2 can then decide whether to keep all of the money or behave in a trustworthy way by returning a portion of the money to Player 1. The researchers found more guilt-prone people were more likely to share the money with Player1. Actually, in follow-up studies, guilt-proneness predicted trustworthiness better than other personality qualities the researchers measured.

Why might guilt lead to trustworthy behavior? The researchers found people who were guilt-prone also reported feeling an obligation to act in ethical(合乎道德的) and responsible ways while interacting(互动) with their partners in the game. People who are guilt-prone tend to avoid engaging in behavior that might harm or disappoint others. If they do something bad, guilt encourages them to try to make things right again.

Then， how can we use this research to ascertain whether someone is trustworthy? “One way to do this might be observe how they respond to experience regret,” lead author Emma Levine, assistant professor at the University of Chicago Levine, explains. Another way is to ask them to describe a difficult dilemma they faced in the past, suggests co-author Taya Cohen, associate professor at Carnegie Mellon University. This is particularly effective, Cohen and her colleagues have found, because it allows us to see if they’re concerned about the effects their actions have on others.

1. What may make others feel that we are reliable according to the text?

A．Our good qualities to help them out.

B．Our tendency to experience guilt.

C．Our kind attitude towards them.

D．Our team spirit in the game.

2. What may connect guilt with trustworthy behavior?

A．A sense of responsibility.

B．A feeling of disappointment.

C．The way one interacts with others.

D．The ability to tell right from wrong.

3. What does the underlined word “ascertain” in the last paragraph mean?

A．Ask	B．Express
C．Describe	D．Determine

4. How is the text organized and developed?

A．By providing background.

B．By making a lot of comparisons.

C．By answering the raised questions.

D．By analyzing effects of guilt-proneness.

【推荐3】Having worked at a 7-Eleven store for two years, I thought I had become successful at what our manager calls “customer relations”. But the other night an old woman shattered my belief that a glib(非诚恳的) response could smooth over the rough spots of dealing with other human beings.

The moment she entered the store, the woman presented a sharp contrast to our shiny store with its bright lighting and neatly arranged shelves. On a zero-degree night, she was wearing only a faded print dress, a thin sweater too small to button, and black slippers with the backs cut out to expose heels. There were no stockings or socks on her blue-veined legs.

After strolling around the store for several minutes, the old woman stopped in front of the rows of canned vegetables. She picked up some corn niblets and stared with a strange intensity at the label. At that point, I decided to be a good employee and asked her if she needed help.

“I need some food,” she muttered(嘟囔) in reply to my bright “Can I help you?”

“Are you looking for corn, ma’am?”

“I need some food,” she repeated. “Any kind. But I can’t pay.” She said.

For a second, I was tempted to say, “Take the corn.” But the employee rules flooded into my mind. I responded dutifully, “ I’m sorry, ma’am, but I can’t give away anything for free.”

The old woman’s face collapsed a bit more, and her hands trembled as she put the can back on the shelf. She shuffled(蹒跚) past me toward the door, her torn and dirty clothing barely covering her bent back.

Moments after she left, I rushed out the door with the can of corn, but she was nowhere in sight. For the rest of my shift, the image of the woman kept coming to my mind. I had been young, healthy. She had been old, sick and desperate. Wishing with all my heart that I had acted like a human being rather than a robot, I was saddened to realize how fragile a hold we have on our better instincts(本能).

1. What does the underlined world “shatter” in Paragraph 1 probably mean?

A．Maintain.	B．Hold.
C．Break.	D．Lose.

2. What do we know about the old woman according to the text?

A．She was attracted by the shiny store with neatly arranged shelves.

B．She left the store in disappointment without any food.

C．She declined the writer’s offer of a can of corn.

D．She was very healthy and was not afraid of the cold weather.

3. Why didn’t the writer give the old woman the food for free?

A．He was actually very mean.

B．He followed the employee rules.

C．He disliked the woman’s appearance.

D．He wanted to give her after she went out of the store.

4. What’s the best title for the text?

A．A Lady and I	B．Working at A Store
C．Sadness	D．If Only ……

【推荐1】What may well be the oldest metal coins in the world have been identified at an ancient abandoned city known as Guanzhuang in China. Like many Bronze Age (青铜时代) coins from the region, they were cast in the shape of spades (铲) with finely carved handles. These ancient coins existed during an in-between period between barter (以物易物) and money, when coins were a novel concept, but everybody knew that agricultural tools were valuable.

Reading about this incredible discovery, I kept thinking about the way modern people represent computer networks by describing machines as having “addresses”, like a house. We also talk about one computer using a “port” to send information to another computer, as if the data were a floating boat with destination. It’s as if we are in the Bronze Age of information technology, grasping desperately for real-world reference to transform our civilization.

Now consider what happened to spade coins. Over centuries. metalworkers made these coins into more abstract shapes. Some became almost human figures. Others’ handles were reduced to small half-circles. As spade coins grew more abstract. people carved them with number values and the locations where they were made. They became more like modern coins, flat and covered in writing. Looking at one of these later pieces, you would have no idea that they were once intended to look like a spade.

This makes me wonder if we will develop an entirely new set of symbols that allow us to interact with our digital information more smoothly.

Taking spade coins as our guide, we can guess that far-future computer networks will no longer contain any recognizable references to houses. But they still might bring some of the ideas we associate with home to our mind. In fact, computer networks — if they still exist at all — are likely to be almost the indispensable part of our houses and cities, their sensors inset (嵌入) with walls and roads. Our network addresses might actually be the same as our street addresses. If climate change leads to floods, our mobile devices might look more like boats than phones, assisting us to land.

My point is that the metaphors (比喻) of the information age aren’t random. Mobile devices do offer us comfort after a long day at work. In some sense, our desire to settle on the shores of data lakes could change the way we understand home, as well as how we build computers. So as we cast our minds forward, we have to think about what new abstractions will go along with our information technology. Perhaps the one thing we count on is that humans will still appreciate the comforts of home.

1. Why were many Bronze Age coins made into the shape of a spade?

A．These coins also served as agricultural tools.

B．This stylish design made the coins valuable.

C．A lot of emphasis was put on agriculture.

D．The handles made the coins easily exchanged.

2. Why does the author relate computers to spade coins?

A．To show they both used to be new concepts when first invented.

B．To highlight their same importance in our civilizational transformation.

C．To suggest computers will experience dramatic changes as coins did.

D．To explain abstract digital worlds are different from concrete coins.

3. What does the underlined word “indispensable” in Paragraph 5 probably mean?

A．Flexible.

B．Wasteful.

C．Essential.

D．Alternative.

4. Which of the following would be the best title for the passage?

A．How Agriculture Loses to Digital Industry

B．What Coins and Computers Bring Us

C．What Bronze Age and Information Age Have In Common

D．What Ancient Money Tells Us About the Future Digital World

【推荐2】Donald Trump has been known to do it in the middle of the night. Kim Kardashian has done it more than 22,000 times. Many people don't understand why you would want to do it at all.

We’re talking about tweeting and, unlike posting your entire life on Facebook, this social media activity demands a particular set of skills.

Why use Twitter? It’s a way to have a one-on-one virtual connection with your heroes and anybody who interests you. Likewise, you can share your life and views with an almost limitless number of people. And it all has to be done within the limit of 140 characters of text – plus photos, videos and links – which really helps you focus your mind.

Katy Perry has the most Twitter followers, with 95.6 million of the micro-blogging site’s 317 million monthly active users. Justin Bieber isn’t far behind with 91.5 million, followed by Barack Obama and Taylor Swift with around 83 million each. The heaviest hitters of Twitter are pop stars, heroes of sport and other celebrities. But you don’t need to be famous to create a buzz with the right tweets at the right time.

In fact, Katy Perry is a great example of how to do it well. She has a bubbly tweeting style that mashes up chat about her tours and her music, insights into her emotional roller coaster over the US election, and playful descriptions about her daily life. "Done with my Christmas shopping", she tweeted, and posted a link to her Instagram page that featured crazy gadgets like a "pet emergency jacket" and a "chocolate donut camera".

To get started on Twitter, pick a simple, memorable user name like @KatyPerry, post a short profile and choose a photo. Some tips: post your own photo (not a photo of your dog, it’s not Facebook) and don’t be an “egg person” – referring to the absent egg-shaped image when a user hasn’t posted their own picture. In that case, Twitter won’t get you any followers or respect.

Then, it’s time to start tweeting by sending your updates (“what’s happening?”) and following people. Building up an army of followers can take time. Generally, the more people you follow and the more you tweet, the more followers you’ll get. To become a Twitter star, you need to carve out a reputation for posting original, eye-catching tweets on trending topics – and maximise your visibility by mastering the use of hashtags.

Twitter Analytics will show you how your tweets are performing and who is following you – right down to their age category, country, income bracket, gender and interests. If your popularity is flagging and your Twitter ego is keeping you awake at night, you can turn to the business of buying thousands of "followers" from online sites. But do be ware – there may be a lot of fake profiles in there and, at the end of the day, it’ll feel like paying a crowd of people you don’t know to come to your birthday party.

Happy tweeting!

1. Twitter is social media activity to ________.

A．share your life and opinion with others	B．post your entire life on it
C．make photos and videos	D．follow your heroes

2. ________ have the most twitter followers.

A．Heroes of sport	B．Most common people
C．Active users	D．Katy Perry

3. Paragraph 5 to Paragraph 7 show ________.

A．the advantage of twitter	B．the reason to use twitter
C．the skills to use twitter	D．the user of twitter

4. You can find this article in the part of ________.

A．Education	B．Lifestyle
C．Health	D．News

【推荐3】The first time I heard about my classmates engaging with social media was in the fourth grade. A lot of my friends and classmates had excitedly jumped onto platforms like Instagram at such a young age. On the other hand, I hesitated. I only knew the basics, but was foreign to some words on social media.

All throughout middle school, I stuck with the same thinking. And now, as a freshman in college, I am looking back and wondering why I, unlike my classmates, have never been naturally interested in social media.

Scanning Instagram, you ought to find dozens of pictures of people in beautiful countries, taking part in exciting activities, and spending time with friends and family, among many other things. The thought of doing this has never related to me. I respect and understand those who do believe using social media allows them to express themselves and share aspects of their lives with others. However, I have never had any interest in doing the same. In my eyes, when not shared with others, family gatherings and friend get-togethers are just as meaningful, if not more so.

Most people have experienced feeling insecure (不安全) and unconfident on social media. Images that are changed represent unrealistic beauty standards that can only be obtained through dangerous ways. Even without using social media, I knew that using apps like Instagram and Facebook would make me embarrassed about all the aspects that make me a unique individual. I’ve never wanted to look at a post on social media and immediately compare myself and my life.

I constantly observe my classmates getting easily distracted (使分心) by social media.While trying to complete their homework, they have a powerful urge to open up Instagram or Facebook to see if there are any new messages. With homework and after-class activities consuming the majority of my day, I cannot wait to finish every task on my to-do list, so I can finally spend time with my family or have some time for myself to relax from my busy day.

1. What can we know from the first two paragraphs?

A．Social media are popular in schools.

B．Young pupils suffer from social media.

C．The author has no access to social media.

D．Social media contribute to students’ study.

2. From paragraph 3, we can know that ________.

A．students get easily distracted by social media

B．pictures of people taking part in exciting activities are not real

C．family gatherings are not meaningful if not shared with others

D．the author never shares aspects of his lives with others on social media

3. Why do people using social media might feel insecure?

A．They post their images on social media.

B．They follow other people’s beauty standards totally.

C．Social media change the way they look at themselves.

D．Social media encourage them to be a unique individual.

4. What can be inferred from the last paragraph?

A．A to-do list can stop people using social media.

B．Social media can waste people’s valuable time.

C．Spending time with family always enjoys first priority.

D．Students pay more attention to social media than to study.