【推荐1】A remote control is seemingly capable of invisible magic to most of us. We just assume it should. And the longer a given technology exits, the more we take it for granted.

Consider for a moment a split screen showing modern remote control users versus the first remote control users: the original users would be carefully aiming the remote directly at the television, reading the names of the buttons to find the right one, and intentionally pressing the button with a force that adds nothing to the effectiveness of the device. The modern users would be leaning on a sofa, pointing the remote any which way instinctively（本能的）feeling for the button they desired,intuiting（凭直觉知道）its size,shape, and position on the remote.

Humans are known for being handy with tools, so it is no surprise that we get so comfortable with our technology. However, as we become increasingly comfortable with how to use new technologies, we become less aware of how they work. Most people who use modern technology know nothing of its underlying science. They have spent neither mental nor financial resources on its development. And yet, rather than be humbled（使谦逊）by its originality, we consumers often become unfairly demanding of what our technology Should do for us.

Many of the landmark inventions of the twentieth century followed predictable tracks: initial versions of each technology (television, video games, computers, cell phones, etc.) succeeded in impressing the general public. Then, these wonderful new inventions quickly became commonplace. Soon, the focus of consumer attitudes towards them changed from gratitude with respect to discriminating preference.

Televisions needed to be bigger and have a higher resolution. Video games needed to be more realistic. Computers needed to be more powerful yet smaller in size. Cell phones needed to be smaller yet capable of performing other tasks such as taking pictures, accessing the Internet, and even playing movies.

For children of the last twenty years born into this modern life,these technological marvels seem like elements of the periodic table: a given ingredient that is simply part of the universe. Younger generations don't even try to imagine life without modern conveniences. They do not appreciate theunprecedented（史无前例的）technology that is in their possession; rather, they complain about the ways in which it fails to live up to ideal expectations. “My digital video recorder at home doesn't allow me to program it from my computer at work.” “It's taking too long for this interactive map to display on my portable GPS”.

If it sounds as though we're never satisfied, we aren't. Of course, our complaints do actually motivate engineers to continually refine their products. After all. at the root of our tool-making instinct is the notion (观念）that “there must be a better way.” Thus, the shortcomings of any current version of technology are pinned on the limitations of its designers, and the expectation is that someone, somewhere is working on how to make the existing product even better.

1. The second paragraph is used to suggest that______________.

A．modern humans do not pay enough attention to instructions

B．remote controls have become far more effective over the years

C．consumer behavior toward new forms of technology changes over time

D．the first consumers of new technology used new devices with ease and comfort

2. The passage states that original users of remote controls likely__________.

A．have no instinctive feeling for sizes and shapes

B．press the buttons harder than it is necessary

C．don't trust on the effectiveness of remote control

D．have difficulty reading the names of the buttons

3. Which of the following can illustrate people's discriminating preference?

A．People take a given technology for granted.

B．Consumers expect more powerful computers.

C．Children lack patience with the shortcomings of technology.

D．Original users unfairly demand of what technology should do.

4. What does the underlined statement in paragraph 6 probably mean?

A．Space exploration provides us with new technology.

B．Adults learn technology while they are doing household chores.

C．High expectation makes up for the limitation of technology designers.

D．Consumers regard many technological inventions as unremarkable

5. The writer thinks the way people consider technology____________.

A．encourage designers' creativity	B．limit humans’ productivity
C．raise consumers' expectation	D．guarantee users' satisfaction

【推荐2】All across the nation，in Americans’backyards and garages and living rooms，wild animals kept as pets live side by side with their human owners．It’s believed that more exotic animals live in American homes than are cared for in American zoos．The exotic-pet business has drawn criticism from animal welfare advocates and wildlife conservationists alike，who say it’s not only dangerous to bring wildlife into households but it’s cruel and criminal．Yet the issue is far from black or white．

The term exotic pet has no firm definition．It can refer to any wildlife kept in human households or simply to a pet that’s more unusual than the common dog or cat．Privately owning exotic animals is currently permitted in a handful of states with no restrictions in America．Adam Roberts of Born Free USA keeps a running database of deaths and injuries caused by exotic-pet ownership：In Connecticut a 55-year-old woman’s face was permanently disfigured by her friend’s lifelong pet monkey；in Ohio an 80-year-old man was attacked by a 200-pound kangaroo；in Nebraska a 34-year-old man was strangled(勒)to death by his pet snake．And that list does not include the number of people who become sick from coming into contact with zoonotic(动物传染的) diseases．

Some people see wild animals as pets as a way to connect with the natural world．Other exotic-pet owners say they are motivated by a desire to preserve threatened species．They believe climate change and human population growth could wipe out a species in record time，so having a backup population is a good idea．   

But some groups like Born Free USA and the World Wildlife Fund gay that captive breeding(圈养)of endangered species by private owners—whether for commercial，conservation，or educational reasons—serves only to continue a booming market for exotic animals．That，in turn，results in a greater risk to animals still living in their natural habitat．

1. Which word can replace the phrase“far from black or white”in Paragraph 1?

A．contradictory	B．ridiculous
C．controversial	D．universal

2. Why does the writer list some deaths and injuries in the text?

A．To give us a clear and firm definition of exotic pets．

B．To show keeping exotic animals can be very dangerous．

C．To prove humans can not be infected by animal diseases．

D．To tell us it’s illegal to have exotic-pet ownership in USA．

3. What’s the main idea of Paragraph 3?

A．The reasons for keeping exotic animals as pets．

B．Worries about the endangered wild animals．

C．The differences between people who keep exotic pets．

D．The disadvantages of privately owning exotic animals．

4. The last paragraph of the text is intended to_______．

A．introduce some animal protection groups

B．argue against keeping exotic animals in captivity

C．warn people of the danger of animals being caught

D．prove captive breeding can encourage exotic-pet business

【推荐1】Today the Nobel Prize in Literature awarded journalist Svetlana Alexievich approximately $970,000 in recognition of a lifetime of excellence. The 67-year-old author of Voices From Chernobyl and War's Unwomanly Face was praised by the Swedish Academy “for her polyphonic(复调式的) writings, a monument to suffering and courage in our time.”

Prizes like the Nobel inspire much expectations before the announcement. People give their best guesses as to who will win, look back on past winners, and even place bets as if spectators at a Derby(赛马会).

Literary prizes reward artistic brilliance. They help writers earn a decent living. But is the public’s fascination with prize-winning authors healthy? Our impulse seems to increasingly contribute to a culture of turning authors into celebrities, where readers follow the author instead of the book.

A story should stand on its own, as a considered, complete book, without biographical information from author. It’s an idea perhaps best conveyed in Roland Barthes’s 1968 essay The Death of the Author. “The image of literature to be found in contemporary culture is arbitrarily centered on the author, his person, his history, his tastes, his passions.”

Nearly 50 years later, a few still agree. “I believe that books, once they are written, have no need of their authors,” New York Times bestselling author Elena Ferrante once wrote. “If books have something to say, they will sooner or later find readers; if not, they won’t,”she continued. “True miracles are the ones whose makers will never be known.”

①But the rules for submission for the Man Booker International Prize, for example, strongly encourage authors to “make themselves available for publicity”. And the foundation behind the National Book Award requires finalists to participate in their “website-related publicity”.

② In 2007, a reporter who showed up uninvited at Doris Lessing’s house was the first to inform her that she had been awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. Today the Twitterati came knocking on Alexievich’s digital door hour before the award was even official. To be considered for a prize is to be a public figure.

③ Harry Potter series author J. K. Rowling, with over 5.6 million Twitter followers, has actively addressed readers through public appearances and social media, revealing much more than we could have imagined when we closed the final Harry Potter book. We now know the house Harry's children will be sorted into, that Dumbledore is gay,“Voldemort” is actually pronounced with a silent “t”, and a whole host of the other minor and major details about the backstory of the characters.

The magical world Rowling created in her books—a relatively tight mystery with well-laid clues that led to a satisfying conclusion, which had to prove their merits to the reader based on an internal logic—is being unraveled by her own hand.

④ Of course, public attention also has very important benefits for authors. For three months after receiving the 2011 Pulitzer Prize in fiction, Jennifer Egan’s A Visit from the Goon Squad sold about triple its print sales from before the prize, Publishers Weekly reports. On Oct. 5, 2010, in the first FT/Oppenheimer Funds Emerging Voices Awards, as Nigerian-born Chigozie Obioma accepted the prize for fiction with an easy smile, his excitement was appreciable. Given the cash prize of $40,000 for each winner, it’s hard to downplay the importance of such an honor. Such awards bring necessary visibility and funding to writers facing a literary landscape dominated by white men.

But our culture of celebrity is often too wrapped up in the way we read: How might the meaning of a work change if the author really didn’t grow up in a poor neighborhood, or if he or she was abused in childhood? Readers studied the author’s life as if it were the key to interpreting his or her novels.

Behind our fascination is the question that drives all such questions: What did the author intend? By all means, let us praise brilliant work and in doing so trust that the author has already told us enough, and that the story he or she meant to tell ended with the final page.

1. What can we learn from the passage?

A．People wait for the Nobel Prize announcement calmly and patiently.

B．Roland Barthes thinks it necessary to read literature centered on authors.

C．Elena Ferrante holds that books should be read independently of authors' life.

D．The Man Booker International Prize discourages authors from publicity.

2. What does the underlined word “unraveled” in Paragraph 9 probably mean?

A．Underlined.

B．Unfolded.

C．Updated.

D．United.

3. Which of the following is NOT the benefit of prize winning for authors?

A．It reveals more details about the characters in the book.

B．It dramatically increases the sales of the book.

C．It brings in necessary funding to authors.

D．It brings about changes in dominance in literary landscape.

4. Where can the sentence “Some authors satisfy, even encourage their fans. ” be best put in the passage?

A．①

B．②

C．③

D．④

5. What is the author's attitude towards our fascination with prize-winning authors?

A．Approval.

B．Critical.

C．Indifferent.

D．Neutral.

6. What is the main idea of the passage?

A．To be awarded a prize is to be a public figure.

B．Public fascination with authors brings benefits.

C．Turning authors into celebrities is a bad culture.

D．There are big challenges for prize-winning authors.

【推荐1】Paintings and sculptures can be a feast for the eyes of visitors to art museums, but today their viewing is also an unconventional treatment for people with mental illness.

Last month, a group of Canadian doctors started to write a new kind of prescription（处方）,which gives patients free access to the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts（MMFA）. There, they will have a "relaxing, revitalizing experience" looking at the museum's collections, according to MMFA.

Nathalie Bondil, the museum's director general, believes that being in contact with culture and arts can help with wellbeing. "In the 21st century, culture will be what physical activity was for health in the 20th century," she said.

Each prescription will allow not only the patients but also their families or friends to go with them. In the museum, the visitor can appreciate the artworks, and take part in a wide range of activities including drawing, sewing（缝纫）and making a sculpture with recycled materials.

The new treatment is said to be the first of its kind in the world. But there's increasing evidence that the display of visual art, especially art depicting（描绘）nature, can have positive effects on people with depression, anxiety and self-esteem（自尊）problems.

In 2017, the UK's All Party Parliamentary Group on Arts, Health and Wellbeing（APPGAHW）also released a report stating that "the time has come to recognise the powerful contribution the arts can make to our health and wellbeing".

Is it possible for art to improve overall health? We may not know the answer yet. But one thing is certain, more and more people today are persuaded by the idea that "art is good medicine".

1. What prescription did the group of Canadian doctors give to mental patients?

A．Get conventional treatment.

B．Relax by experiencing nature.

C．Join in some physical activities.

D．Appreciate paintings and sculptures.

2. What might Nathalie agree with?

A．Contacting culture and arts can make people rich.

B．Visiting art museums can help keep people healthy.

C．Culture will replace physical activities in the 21st century

D．Mental patients should go to museums with their families.

3. What do we know about the new treatment?

A．It can help with mental problems.

B．Nothing has proved it right so far.

C．It was used before by visual artists.

D．APPGAHW doubted its value.

4. What is the best title for the passage?

A．Will MMFA be open to patients?

B．Is there a new treatment for artists?

C．Will fine arts improve mental health?

D．Is there a better medicine than art?

【推荐2】An old man in a faded yellow shirt sat in a windowless room on a raised concrete form. The only source of heat came from somewhere beneath the plastic mattress and the rough blanket the blank-faced police woman had handed him after taking his thumb prints. He heard voices and metallic clang as the cell door swung open.

At the front desk a tired looking policeman handed the old man back his belongings, his worn-out cap and the Seiko watch that had stopped working the day his beloved Evelyn left. The policeman dramatically held the blue plastic bag at an arm's length to the old man who took it and made sure its contents were undamaged: the goat meat, palm oil, leaves and spices. He ignored the confused expression on the officer’s face and signed the document declaring he had been returned the possessions they had taken off him the night before.

No one spoke to him as he walked slowly towards the exit.

''Mr. Easy-nwa? '' He stopped and prayed to the God who now took care of Evelyn to please take him far away from this unhappy place of expressionless faces, clipped accents and people who did not even attempt to pronounce his name right.

''Ezenwa,'' He said and looked at a woman with tangerine lips, her name tag said Jessica Harlow, Social Services. ''A bit far from home'' she said as she drove fast and with confidence the way Evelyn used to. He wondered if she meant the 50 miles from Liverpool or the 50,000 miles from Enugu，a city in Nigeria. He did not bother replying as this woman had plenty to say about the weather, bad drivers, her daughter's school play...

At last she drew up outside the block of flats where he lived.

''Got here in the end''，said she seriously, ''Really Mr. Easy-nwa, if you keep getting lost, we will have to consider moving you into a home''.

''No need, I was not lost, '' he answered. He carefully rolled up the sleeves of the oversize bomber jacket he wore and turned on the tap to wash his hands, relieved the pipes were not frozen.

In a clean pan he placed the chopped pieces of goat meat. The herbs and spices that had taken him three months to track down, the uziza seeds had taken him into the heart of Granby Market in Liverpool, his uchanwu leaves down a shady back alley in Manchester, and yesterday, among other food items, the finest goat meat from a Sierra Leonean Butcher in Birmingham. That had taken some time, so much he missed the last train and when the police found him shivering outside the locked-up station, so cold he couldn't answer loudly enough the pink-faced big copper who yelled in his face, ''What's your name sir? '' spraying his face with spittle (唾沫)as he did so, leaving them with no choice but to search an exhausted, frozen old black man and finding him in possession of mysterious condiments (调味品)including a bag of dried bitter-leaf which could of course be mistaken for anything that resulted in him getting read his rights and charged with ...possession???

He lifted the lid of the bubbling soup, the room was filled with the rich and spicy scent of his culinary (烹饪的)effort. He served two bowls, taking the chipped one and placing the other opposite where Evelyn would have sat. He would tell her about his adventure, it was their anniversary and this was the perfect pepper soup to celebrate.

Ken Onyia, UK (Nigeria) Commonwealth Sport Short Story Prize

1. Why was Mr. Ezenwa taken to the prison for a night?

A．He was too weak to move.

B．He couldn't find his way back home.

C．He then had nowhere else to go.

D．He was suspected of possessing drugs.

2. When Mr. Ezenwa was to leave the prison,          .

A．his thumb print was taken immediately

B．the policeman was confused about what he had

C．a social worker was assigned to drive him back home

D．the policeman was so kind as not to damage his belongings

3. What did Mr. Ezenwa do for his wedding anniversary?

A．He collected all sorts of valuables as presents.

B．He cooked native food as a surprise for his wife.

C．He prepared a special Nigerian pepper soup carefully.

D．He travelled a lot, attempting to get his wife back.

4. What words can be used to describe Mr. Ezenwa?

A．Hopeless and pessimistic.	B．Affectionate and persistent.
C．Mysterious and troublesome.	D．Energetic and sympathetic.

【推荐3】Examining the classroom practices of National Teacher of the Year winners and finalists, the study, by Michigan State University scholars, suggests successful educators aren’t afraid to push the boundaries by adding real world, cross-disciplinary（跨学科的）themes into their lessons.

The study, published online in the journal Teachers College Record, is one of the first in depth investigations of how teachers use creativity in the classroom.

“The best teachers are taking their own creative interests – from rap music to cooking to kickboxing – and are finding ways to include these into the curriculum,” said Danah Henriksen, lead author of the study. “They’re bringing together different subject matters and finding areas of connections so students can learn both in interesting ways.”

America’s test-driven educational policy, Henriksen argues, has impeded creativity in teaching and learning. Many teachers today struggle to balance high-stakes（高风险）testing and responsibility to act flexibly and independently in their classrooms.

“I think that there’s a lot of fear.” one of the award-winning teachers says in the study, “And when teachers are teaching in fear, they take few risks, for they have to consider exams and academic performance.”

The findings have major implications（含意）for teaching and learning. Teachers’ unique creative interests should be brought into classroom lessons, along with arts and music across varied academic content. Teacher education programs and professiona1 development courses should include a focus on real world. Administrators and policymakers should support opportunities for teachers to take creative and intellectua1 risks in their work.

“If we want teachers to be creative, we need to provide them with opportunities to bring those outside interests into their professional life,” said Mishra, study co-author and MSU professor of educational psychology and educational technology. “The point is to find what works for you, what is your passion and interest and how can you put that into what your students are learning. Finally, we teach who we are. That’s the most powerful finding.”

1. According to the study, what are successful teachers like?

A．They can creatively help students learn about the real world.

B．They concentrate on developing students’ academic performance.

C．They encourage students to take more risks in life.

D．They tend to lead students to outdoor activities.

2. What does the underlined word “impeded” in paragraph 4 mean?

A．admitted.

B．prevented.

C．doubted.

D．encouraged.

3. Many teachers are teaching in fear because ________.

A．they don’t want to take risks in classroom

B．the students are always troublesome

C．administrators and policymakers don’t support them

D．they’re worried about students’ academic records

4. What would be the best title of the text?

A．American perfect teaching system

B．How teachers use creativity in the classroom

C．A great finding: Best teachers get creative

D．Teaching is about science and art