【推荐2】It was not until I was 9 years old that I found out my father was ill. It was 1994, but I can remember my mother's words as if it were yesterday: "Kernel, I don't want you to take food from your father, because he has AIDS. Be very careful when you are around him." AIDS wasn't something we talked about in my country when I was growing up. From then on, I knew that this would be a family secret. My parents were not together anymore, and my dad lived alone. For a while, he could take care of himself. But when I was 12, his condition worsened. My father's other children lived far away, so it fell to me to took after him.

We couldn't afford all the necessary medicine for him, and because Dad was unable to work, I had no money for school supplies and often couldn't even buy food for dinner. I would sit in class feeling completely lost, the teacher's words muffled as I tried to figure out how I was going to manage. I did not share my burden with anyone. I had seen people reacted to AIDS. Kids laughed at classmates who had parents with the disease. And even adults could be cruel. When my father was moved to the hospital, the nurses would leave his food on the bedside even though he was too weak to feed himself.

I had known that he was going to die, but after so many years of keeping his condition a secret, I was completely unprepared when he reached his final days. Sad and hopeless, I called a woman at the nonprofit National AIDS Support. That day, she kept me on the phone for hours. I was so lucky to find someone who cared. She saved my life.

I was 15 when my father died. He took his secret away with him, having never spoken about AIDS to anyone, even me. He didn't want to call attention to AIDS. I do.

1. What does Kernel tell us about her father?

A．He had stayed in the hospital since he fell ill.

B．He worked hard to pay for his medication.

C．He told no one about his disease.

D．He was carefully attended by the nurses on his deathbed

2. What can we learn from the underlined sentence?

A．Kernel found what the teacher said hard to understand.

B．Kernel had special difficulty in hearing.

C．Kernel was too tired to hear her teacher's words.

D．Kernel was too troubled to focus on the lesson.

3. Why did Kernel keep her father's disease a secret?

A．She wanted to obey her mother.

B．She was afraid of being looked down upon.

C．She found no one willing to listen to her.

D．She thought it was shameful to have AIDS.

4. What’s the author’s purpose in writing the text?

A．To tell people about the sufferings of her father

B．To prove how little people knew about AIDS.

C．To draw people’s attention to AIDS.

D．To recall a hard time of her childhood.

【推荐3】The deadliest Ebola(埃博拉病毒) outbreak in recorded history is happening right now. The outbreak is unprecedented(空前的) both in the number of people who have gotten sick and in the geographic scope. And so far it’s been a long battle that doesn’t appear to be slowing down.
Ebola is both rare and very deadly. Since the first outbreak in 1976, Ebola viruses have infected thousands of people and killed roughly killed 60 percent of them. Symptoms can come on quickly and kill fast.
The current outbreak started in Guinea sometime in late 2013 or early 2014. It has since spread to Sierra Leone and Liberia, including some capital cities. And one infected patient traveled on a plane to Nigeria, where he spread the disease to several others and then died. Cases have also popped up in various other countries throughout the world, including in Dallas and New York City in the United States.
The Ebola virus has now hit many countries, including Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Nigeria, Senegal, and the United States. The virus, which starts off with flu-like symptoms and sometimes ends with bleeding, has infected about 6,500 people and killed more than 3,000 since this winter, according to the World Health Organization on September 30, 2014.
There are some social and political factors contributing to the current disaster. Because this is the first major Ebola outbreak in West Africa, many of the region’s health workers didn’t have experience or training in how to protect themselves or care for patients with this disease.
Journalist David Quammen put it well in a recent New York Times article, “Ebola is more dangerous to humans than perhaps any known virus on Earth, except rabies(狂犬病) and HIV. And it does its damage much faster than either.”
Hopefully, researchers are working to find drugs, including a recent $50 million push at the National Institutes of Health. And scientists are working on vaccines(疫苗), including looking into ones that might be able to help wild chimpanzees, which are also susceptible to the disease. The first human Ebola vaccine trial is scheduled to start in the spring of 2015.
1. According to the passage, which of the following about Ebola is true?

A．The Ebola outbreak now is the biggest one in history.

B．Ebola breaks out quickly but it is under control now.

C．Ebola is deadly and common so it kills a lot of people.

D．Ebola killed about 60 thousand people quickly in 1976.

2. The Ebola virus was brought to Nigeria by         .

A．a flying bird	B．an infected passenger
C．hot African weather	D．a health organization

3. The last paragraph mainly tells us that         .

A．it will be a huge waste when researchers spend lots of money finding a cure

B．the vaccines can be effective to wild chimpanzees but not to the humans

C．there will be an optimistic future in which we can defeat the disease

D．we can use the vaccine to cure the patients completely in 2015’s spring

4. What is the best title of the passage?

A．Ebola ---- The African Local Disaster

B．Ebola ---- The Newly-Found Disease

C．Ebola ---- A More Effective Vaccine

D．Ebola ---- The Deadly Virus Outbreak

【推荐1】In the past few months, Sam Altman, the father of ChatGPT, has become the hottest face in the world of AI. Many industry leaders, AI researchers see ChatGPT as a fundamental technological shift, as significant as the creation of the web browser or the iPhone. But few can agree on the future of this technology.

Some believe it will deliver a utopia (乌托邦) where everyone has all the time and money ever needed. Others believe it could destroy humanity. Still others spend much of their time arguing that the technology is never as powerful as everyone says it is, insisting that neither heaven nor hell is as close as it might seem.

Mr. Altman, a slim, boyish-looking, 37-year-old businessman and investor from the suburbs of St. Louis, sits calmly in the middle of it all. As chief executive of OpenAI, he somehow embraces each of these seemingly distinct views, hoping to balance the numerous possibilities as he moves this strange, powerful, unperfect technology into the future.

He believes that artificial intelligence will happen one way or another, that it will do wonderful things that even he can’t yet imagine and that we can find ways of reducing the harm it may cause. It is an attitude that mirrors Mr. Altman’s own path.

He is not necessarily motivated by money. Like many personal fortunes in Silicon Valley that are tied up in a wide variety of public and private companies, Mr. Altman’s wealth is not well recorded. But he said the only money he stands to make from the company is a yearly salary－ “whatever the minimum for health insurance is,” he said.

Georgeann Kepchar, who taught Advanced Placement computer science course, saw Mr. Altman as one of her most talented computer science students－and one with a rare knack for pushing people in new directions. “He had creativity and vision, combined with the ambition and force of personality to convince others to work with him on putting his ideas into action,” she said.

1. Which of the following is the latest technological shift?

A．iPhone.

B．ChatGPT.

C．Web browser.

D．AI.

2. Which of the following word can best describe people’s attitude toward ChatGPT?

A．optimistic

B．pessimistic

C．similar

D．contradictory

3. What can we infer from paragraph 3?

A．Altman is very thin and well-looking.

B．Altman can accept different views quietly.

C．AI will be a destructive technology.

D．AI probably has few possibilities.

4. How does Mr. Altman like AI technology?

A．AI will be fantastic.	B．AI will be harmful.
C．AI will be visualizable.	D．AI will bring him fame.

5. What does the underlined word “knack” mean in the last paragraph?

A．Vision.

B．Skill.

C．Discovery.

D．Thought.

【推荐2】In February,   FEDEX   launched   a   robot   capable   of   replacing   a   pizza   delivery driver   by bringing food right to your door, which indicates more companies may soon automate (使自动化) not only processes, but full business lines.

These types of moves could be disastrous to work. Between 1987 and 2017, manufacturing output grew 80 percent, but the number of workers dropped dramatically. This hit cities hard, leading to shrinking populations and the wide difference between urban places we see now. Numerous studies show that automation isn’t equally affecting the workforce across all sectors. While it has negatively impacted a portion of the economy, it has helped to lift up other sectors, such as computer science and health care.

The real question is how you counteract inequality.

To start with, we should train people with the skills they need. To minimize job losses and embrace positive changes, we need to focus on the great value humans bring to the table. Jobs requiring soft skills like time management, active listening, cooperation, and judgment and decision-making, and jobs that are in high-touch industries are much less likely to be automated.

We must make joint efforts to strengthen and fix the holes in the safety net. While the 2020 presidential candidates are starting a conversation about how to accomplish this, cities are already leading by experimenting with basic income, passing higher minimum wage laws, carrying out paid family leave and driving policy solutions that support workers and families.

In the end robots won’t take all the jobs, but they might take yours. What we do about it, though, is up to us.

1. What will possibly happen if companies use robots in full business lines?

A．There will be a sharp drop in manufacturing output.

B．There will be a shrink in population across China.

C．The negative impacts will outweigh the positive ones.

D．The workforce in various fields may be affected differently.

2. Which of the following is more likely to be automated?

A．Bringing dishes to the table in a restaurant.

B．Helping to manage one’s time efficiently.

C．Communicating effectively with co-workers.

D．Helping make the right judgement and decision.

3. How is Paragraph 5 developed?

A．By providing data.	B．By giving examples.
C．By comparison.	D．By analyzing.

4. What does the underlined sentence in the last paragraph mean?

A．It is up to us whatever we do with the robots.

B．It is up to us what jobs the robots will replace.

C．We need to adapt ourselves to the changes accordingly.

D．We have the confidence that robots will replace no jobs.

【推荐1】I grew up eating eggs from white shells; I didn't know they could be any other color.

Our eggs came from the grocery store in styrofoam packaging, and the eggs in the refrigerators at all my friends' houses were exactly the same. Life in the 1970s and 1980s meant no farmer's markets, no trips to farms and no concept of food variety.

When I began buying my eggs at the farmer's market, things changed. The eggs were brown and usually in paperboard cartons or Styrofoam cartons that were clearly being reused.

I know I'm not the only one who had that experience with eggs, so it's no wonder that many people assume brown eggs are more nutritious. If we're working off the assumption that all white eggs at the grocery store come from big factory farms and that all brown eggs come from local farmers who raise free­range chickens... sure. Brown is better.

But is that true?

Eggshell color is determined by the breed of the hen, not by the conditions in which the chicken is raised. Generally speaking, you can tell whether eggs will be white by looking at a hen's earlobes, the colored skin on the side of the head. Hens with white earlobes generally lay white eggs. Hens with brown or reddish earlobes generally lay eggs that are brown, or sometimes light green, blue or a speckled creamy color, according to Michigan State University Extension.

No one breed of hen, however, is proven to lay a more nutritious egg than another, despite the color of the eggshell. Not all eggs are created equal because not all hens are raised the same way.

A test done by Mother Earth News on eggs taken from 14 flocks around the country whose hens were allowed frequent access to fresh pasture, land covered with grass, found that true free­range eggs were nutritionally superior to eggs sold in grocery stores.

“True” free­range means just that eggs from the grocery store that are marketed as free range do not necessarily come from hens that have spent their days wandering the barnyard, getting fresh air and eating a natural diet. When “Free­range” is on an egg carton, it means that the chickens can move around their building and have access to the outdoors “during their production cycle”．

But access doesn't guarantee time outside. There's no regulation that says getting to that door has to be easy, how big the outdoor area must be, or that a chicken ever has to get outside. A chicken in a crowded henhouse may never get to the door, and if it manages to go through it, it may find there's no room for it in the small area outside.

That's why it's so hard to determine if free­range eggs at the store come from truly free­range chickens. At a farm or farmers' market, you can ask about the conditions that the hens' are raised in before you buy.

Another factor in the nutrition of an egg is the hens' diet. Although chickens are not vegetarians by nature—bugs and worms are part of their natural diets—Consumer Reports tested grocery store eggs and found that “hens fed vegetarian diets tended to have more of certain vitamins and omega­3s than those from hens fed a conventional diet”.

So when you're choosing eggs and aiming for nutrition, don't judge an egg by its shell color. White eggs can be just as nutritious as brown eggs. Hens that are kept in conditions that are natural to them—with access to the outdoors, sunlight and exercise—and fed a good diet are what you're looking for. To find them, you'll need to ask some questions and, perhaps, pay a little more, because raising hens in pastures costs more than raising them at factory farming.

1. When the author first saw eggs at a farmers' market, ________.

A．they were fresher than those in grocery stores	B．they had an unusual colour
C．they cost less than those he had bought before	D．they were variously packed

2. It is implied in the passage that nowadays ________.

A．true free­range chickens can no longer be found anywhere

B．so­called free­range hens remain in henhouses all day long

C．the word “free­range” is only used as a means of cheating

D．the definition of “free­range” can sometimes be ambiguous

3. We can learn from the passage that ________.

A．nutritional value of eggs depends on nothing but what hens eat

B．a diet mixed with plants and worms makes eggs more nutritious

C．farmers should feed hens scientifically to get high­quality eggs

D．the breed of hens should be improved for the purpose of nutrition

4. To get eggs richer in nutrition, you need to ________.

A．analyse their nutritional composition	B．investigate how the hens are raised
C．assure yourself of the eggs cost price	D．discover where the eggs come from

【推荐2】Most solar panels (太阳能电池板) acquire sunlight from only one side, meaning they can get more or less of it depending on where the sun is in the sky. In recent years, they’ve become far more effective, generally turning around 22 percent of the light they acquire into energy. In a new study published in the journal Joule on Tuesday, scientists introduce a way to increase that percentage even higher: double-sided solar panels that can move to follow the sun.

Basically, these panels can acquire sun from not only their sun-facing side but also from the light reflected off the ground onto their dark undersides. At the same time, a GPS allows them to move on an axis (轴) from east to west in order to always be pointed at a best angle to acquire the sun’s rays. Though double-sided solar panels and sun-following solar panels are both in use currently, models that combine the two technologies aren’t widely available for commercial use. Solar experts predict rapid growth in the market soon, though.

The study authors determined that these two-sided sun-tracking panels produce an average of 35 percent more energy than single-panel systems that don’t move, and are 16 percent cheaper. That holds true even when taking into account changes in weather conditions.

“This means that investing in double-sided and tracking systems should be a safe bet for the future, ” Carlos Rodriguez-Gallegos, the study’s lead author, said.

The same warnings for solar panels and their effect on the local environment apply to the double-sided, moving systems as well, if not more so. Lead used in solar panels can be one source of local pollution, and Dustin Mulvaney, an associate professor of environmental studies, told Earther in an email double-sided panels could mean “twice as much lead” as traditional solar systems.

Since these new panels are more energy efficient, they could save not only money but also land. That would require changing how solar contracts work today.

1. What does most solar panels rely on to acquire sunlight according to the passage?

A．The amount of sunlight.	B．The location of the sun.
C．The quality of solar panels.	D．The size of solar panels.

2. What does the underlined word “them” in the second paragraph refer to?

A．The sun’s rays.	B．The panels’ undersides.
C．The double-sided panels	D．The panels’ sun-facing sides.

3. What’s Carlos Rodriguez -Gallegos’ attitude towards the two-sided solar panels?

A．Uncertain.

B．Supportive.

C．Doubtful.

D．Negative.

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

A．Double-Sided Solar Panels that Follow the Sun

B．Advantages of the Double-Sided Solar Panels

C．Application of the Double-Sided Solar Panels

D．Double-Sided Solar Panels and Single-Sided Solar Panels

【推荐3】John Otway

John Otway has been playing music and making records in the UK for more than 40 years. Over the years he has released more than ten albums. He has played hundreds of concerts. He has written two autobiographies. He has worked with some of the country’s best musicians and he has even made a film about his life. But despite all of this, most people have never heard of him.

Otway released his first record in 1972, but it was the Punk Movement a few years later that really gave him his big chance. Otway wasn’t the greatest musician but his songs were always fun, and his performances on stage were always entertaining - there was a good chance he would fall off the stage at least once in each show. The punks liked him, and in 1977 he had a small hit when his single Really Free made it to No. 27 in the UK top 40 charts. Otway really enjoyed his success but unfortunately, no more came. Not one of his records over the next 30 years was a hit.

Although he never had much commercial success, Otway had a lot of very loyal fans. When someone asked him what he would like for his 50^th birthday, his reply was: “A second hit.” His fans went out and bought as many copies of the new single Bunsen Burner as they could. And in October 2002, Otway finally saw his wish come true. In a chart that featured international superstars like Pink, Will Young and Oasis, Bunsen Burner made it to No. 9. Many high street shops refused to sell the record, saying that Otway was too old and unattractive for the teenage market. Otway didn’t care. He celebrated his success with an appearance on TV’s biggest music show Top of the Pops.

These days John Otway continues to play his music around the country, and there are always plenty of people who are happy to go and watch him perform. He’s a great example for anyone who loves making music. You don’t have to be young, good-looking (or even very talented) to enjoy a long career in the music business.

1. From paragraph 1, we know that ________.

A．John Otway has released hundreds of albums

B．John Otway never worked with best musicians

C．John Otway has written hundreds of autobiographies

D．John Otway is not well-known in the UK as a musician

2. John Otway saw his wish come true when he released ________.

A．Really Free	B．Bunsen Burner
C．Top of the Pops	D．his first record

3. Why were some street shops unwilling to sell his single Bunsen Burner?

A．They thought it was terrible.

B．It wasn’t a very big hit.

C．John Otway didn’t want them to have it.

D．They thought teenagers would not like to buy it.

4. What can we learn from the passage?

A．Musicians have to be young and attractive.

B．Success isn’t important in our life.

C．We should be determined to do what we love.

D．Musicians do much better as they get older.

【推荐1】We are admitted into the full-time school called “life”. Every day in this school, we have opportunities to learn new lessons. No matter whether we like these lessons or not, we have to take them, because they are our lessons.

Why are we here in this world? What is the purpose of life? Humans have tried to discover the meaning of life for thousands of years, but failed to get the answer, because the meaning of life is different from person to person.

Each one of us has his or her special purpose and path, unique and different. As we travel on our life path, we will learn many great lessons in order to fulfill that purpose. Learning our lessons well is the key to discovering the real meaning of our own life.

As we travel through our lifetime, we may be taught hard lessons that others don’t have to face, while others spend years struggling with problems we don’t need to deal with. We may never know why we love English, not physics, which indicates that our path is different. While traveling on our own path, sometimes alone, we should, first of all, take a basic lesson in openness.

Openness means being receptive. Life will present us with so many lessons, none of which are useful to us unless we can recognize them and are open to their values. These lessons are not easy to learn, but we should regard them as gifts. But how can we recognize these lessons? It is a matter of what “glasses” we are wearing at the time. It is not difficult to spot them if we take them as opportunities. So when we are not open to learning our lessons, failing a weekly English test might be like a disaster rather than an opportunity to us. Of course, the hard lessons may not be fun, but they can actually be the biggest gifts we receive from life.

1. The author may be in favor of the viewpoint that all men are born _______.

A．equal	B．challenging
C．opportunistic	D．different

2. The example of “we love English, not physics” is mentioned to show that _______.

A．we choose our own path in life

B．people have to face the same lessons

C．we should travel on the same path

D．we should enjoy the meaning of life

3. Whether we can see life lessons as gifts depends upon our________.

A．angles of view	B．experiences from life
C．common value system	D．willingness to face challenge

4. What would be the best title for the passage?

A．Life in School	B．Gifts from Life
C．Life School and Students	D．Life as School

5. What does the author imply at the end of the passage?

A．People always learn the same lessons.

B．Life is a lesson as one in the classroom.

C．Hard lessons are fun.

D．People should be open to the life.

【推荐2】The mirror self-recognition test was dreamed up in the 1960's by Gordon Gallup, Jr., _a scientist now with the State University of New York. Back then, he was a graduate student taking a course in psychology, and the students were asked to come up with an idea for an experiment.

“I was washing my face in front of a mirror one day, says Grallup. It occurred to me wouldn't il be interesting to see if other animals could recognize themselves in mirrors?"

Still looking at the mirror, he realized he could test an animal by secretly marking its face with some kind of red dye （染料）,to see if it could use the mirror to access these strange red marks.

No such test had been done before, even though people had long observed animals looking into mirrors. Most species tend to treat a mirror image as a stranger to be courted （献殷勤）or attacked. Some scientists thought that primates （灵长类）might do better. Charles Darwin once watched with interest as an orangutan （红毛猩猩）named Jenny made faces at a mirror.

When Gallup started doing experiments with chimps （黑猩猩）.a few years after he came up with his test, he found that at first the chimps acted as if the mirror image were another animal. But then, after a couple of days they began using the mirror to examine parts of their bodies like their teeth.

When Gallup put red dye on their faces, the chimps later woke up and reacted to the unexpected mirror image as if they understood that the marks were on their own faces.

In Gallup s view, only three species have mirror self-recognition： chimps, orangutans, and humans. Others, though, think the list is longer. Diana Reiss, a scientist at Hunter College, has tested both dolphins and elephants and believes that both show signs of recognizing themselves in mirrors.

1. Who first came up with the idea of the mirror self-recognition test?

A．A university student.	B．A zoo keeper in New York.
C．A teacher in Hunter College.	D．A scientist in a research organization.

2. What did Gordon Gallup intend the red dye for?

A．Marking his image in the mirror.

B．Marking his own face before washing.

C．Marking the face of the animal to be tested.

D．Marking an animal without self-recognition ability.

3. How did chimps react to their image in the mirror?

A．They showed no interest in it.

B．They examined that image carefully.

C．They took it as another animal al first.

D．They immediately recognized what il was.

4. Which of the following have been tested by Diana Reiss?

A．Orangutans.

B．Chimps.

C．Humans.

D．Elephants.

【推荐3】It's not unusual for a person to help someone else but without getting anything in return. But this behavior is thought to be rare among animals. Up to now, that kind of behavior hasn't been seen in birds. So scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Omithology created an experiment to test whether African grey parrots could behave that way.

The first step in the experiment was to teach the parrots how to trade “token” for food. The tokens were small metal rings about the size of coins. When the parrots gave these tokens back to the researchers, the parrots were given walnuts, which they enjoyed.

Once the parrots knew how to trade tokens for walnuts, the scientists began the next part of the experiment. Two parrots were put in clear plastic cages next to each other, with a connecting window between the two cages. There was a feeding window in both cages, which allowed the scientists to give walnuts to the parrots. Then the feeding window was closed for one of the parrots that had been given ten tokens.

The results showed that most of the time, the parrot that couldn't trade for walnuts would pass a token, beak to-beak, to the bird in the next cage that could then trade it for a walnut. The parrots that passed the tokens got nothing. They simply watched as the other parrots got food. Still, seven out of the eight parrots tested passed the tokens over and over again. And it wasn't because they liked passing tokens. If the parrot with the tokens saw that their partner's feeding window was also closed, they rarely passed tokens.

The scientists believe that helping others may be useful to the parrots in the wild, where they live in large groups that change often. The scientists think that helping others could give a parrot a good “reputation” and make it more likely that the parrot will get help from the group when it needs it.

1. What would the scientists do if they were given back the token?

A．Give the token to another parrot.	B．Give the parrot's partner a walnut.
C．Give the parrot some food as a reward.	D．Give the parrot some coins to play with.

2. The parrots pass tokens to others because__________________.

A．they were trained to do that	B．they liked playing with tokens
C．they hoped their partners got food	D．they expected something in return

3. What do we learn about African grey parrots?

A．They dislike living in large groups.	B．They can benefit from helping others.
C．They often receive help from other birds.	D．They have a very good reputation in Africa.

4. In the passage, the writer wants to show__________________.

A．parrots quickly learn to share things	B．parrots seem to be happy to help others
C．parrots love playing games with each other	D．parrots and humans have something in common