【推荐2】请认真阅读下列短文，并根据所读内容在文章后表格中的空格里填入一个最恰当的单词。
注意：请将答案写在答题卡上相应题号的横在线。每个空格只填1个单词。

Today and every day we are the targets of salespeople, marketers, advertisers, fundraisers and politicians trying to persuade us to buy something, do something or think a certain way. Over the years, they’ve learned a lot about which features to build into a communication to increase its success. But, by concentrating on the message itself, they’ve missed a crucial component of the process. Research done in the last 15 years shows that the best persuasion is achieved through good presuasion: the practice of arranging for people to agree with a message before they know what’s in it.

Presuasion works by focusing people’s preliminary(开始的) attention on a selected concept—let’s say softness—which encourages them to overvalue related opportunities that immediately follow. In one study, visitors to an online sofa store were sent to a site that illustrated either soft clouds or small coins in the background of its landing page. Those who saw the soft clouds were more likely to prefer soft, comfortable sofas for purchase, whereas those who saw the small amounts of money preferred inexpensive models.

A following study showed the primitiveness of the presuasive mechanism. Subjects became three times more likely to help a researcher who “accidentally” dropped some items if, immediately before, they’d been exposed to images of figures standing together in a friendly pose. If this tripling of helpfulness doesn’t seem remarkable enough, consider that the subjects were 18 months old — hardly able to reason or review or reflect.

Long before scientists started studying the process, a few notable communicators had an intuitive understanding of it.

In February 2015, the financial investor Warren Buffett had a problem. It was 50 years since he had taken control of Berkshire Hathaway Inc., guiding it to amazing levels of value, along with his brilliant partner Charlie Munger. Many investors were worried that, because Buffett and Munger were getting older, these levels couldn’t be maintained in the future, perhaps making it time to sell Berkshire stock.

To respond to these concerns, Buffett wrote a letter to shareholders in which he described various reasons for confidence in Berkshire’s continuing profitability. But, before the description of strengths, he declared with characteristic sincerity that what he was about to state was ‘what I would say to my family today if they asked me about Berkshire’s future.” The result was a flood of favorable reaction to the letter as well as a per-share increase for the year of nearly five times that of the S&P.

With considerable success, practitioners of social influence have always placed persuasive prods(刺激)—small gifts, emotional draw, last-chance opportunities—inside their appeals. Perhaps because of that success, they’ve mostly missed an accompanying truth. For maximum impact, it’s not only what you do; it’s also what you do just before you do what you do.

Passage outline	Supporting details
A     1     in communication	People often fail to realize that the secret to     2     people over doesn’t lie in the message itself, but in the key moment before it is delivered.
Meaning of pre-suasion	It’s a practice where people are made to     3     to a message before it is conveyed.
Studies about pre-suasion	●When it comes to buying sofas, customers’     4     is related to the background he saw before. ●Having received some     5     to friendly pictures, subjects are ore likely to do others a     6    .
A typical     7	●Despite Berkshire’s success, investors intended to sell the stock,     8     continuing profitability. ●In the letter     9     to the concerns, Buffett got what he would say to his family across to investors, for which he got all credit.
Conclusion	Practitioners should keep in mind that pre-suasion can enhance the power of     10    .

【推荐3】One of the most striking findings of a newly research in the UK is that of the people interviewed, one in two believes that it is becoming more difficult to meet someone to start a family with.

Why are many finding it increasingly difficult to start close relationships? Does modern life really make it harder to fall in love? Or are we making it harder for ourselves? It is certainly the case today that contemporary couples benefit in different ways from relationships. Women no longer rely upon partners for money or status. A man doesn’t expect his wife to be in sole (唯一的) charge of running his household and raising his children.

But perhaps the knowledge that we can live perfectly well without a partnership means that it takes much more to persuade people to abandon their independence.

In theory, finding a partner should be much simpler these days. Only a few generations ago, your choice of soul mate was limited by geography, social convention and family tradition. Although it was never clear, many marriages were essentially arranged. Now those barriers have been broken down. You can approach a builder or a brain surgeon in any bar in any city on any given evening. When the world is your oyster (牡蛎), you surely have a better chance of finding a pearl.

But it seems that the old conventions have been replaced by the limitation of choice. The expectations of partners are raised to an unmanageable degree: good looks, impressive salary, kind to grandmother, and right socks. There is no room for error in the first impression.

We think that a relationship can be perfect. If it isn’t, it should be ended. We work to protect ourselves against future heartache and don’t put in the hard emotional labor needed to build a strong relationship. Twelve-hour work at the office makes relaxed after-hours dating difficult. The cost of housing and child-raising creates pressure to have a stable income and career before a life partnership.

1. What is a contemporary family like in UK today?

A．Couples share the burdens.

B．Men begin to depend on women.

C．Women are responsible for housework.

D．It is difficult to take care of a family.

2. Why do people preserve their independence?

A．To live alone happily.

B．To have more choices.

C．To avoid marriages.

D．To ignore traditions.

3. What makes it hard for people to date?

A．Mental headache in dating.

B．The pressure to survive.

C．Bad luck in finding a partner.

D．The faith between life partners.

4. What is the author trying to inform us in this text?

A．Perfect marriages conflict with independence.

B．People should spend more money on marriages.

C．The expectations and reality separate the lovers.

D．Independence is much more important than love.

【推荐1】A good modern newspaper is an extraordinary piece of jumping from here to there, in and out, glancing at one piece, reading another article all the way through, reading just a few paragraphs of the text. A good modern newspaper offers a variety to attract many different readers, but for more than the reader is interested in. What brings this variety together in one place is its topicality(时事性), its immediate relation to what is happening in your world and your locality now. But immediacy and the speed of production that goes with it means also that much of what appears in a newspaper has no more than transient (短暂的) value. For all these reasons，not two people really read the same paper: what each person does is to put together, out of the pages of that day's paper, his own selection and sequence, his own newspaper. For all   these reasons, reading newspapers efficiently, which means getting what you want from them without missing things you need and without wasting time, demands skill and self­awareness as you modify and apply the techniques of reading.

1. A modern newspaper is remarkable for all the following EXCEPT its ________.

A．wide coverage

B．uniform style

C．speed in reporting news

D．popularity

2. According to the passage, the reason why no two people really read the same newspaper is that ________.

A．people scan for the news they are interested in

B．different people prefer different newspapers

C．people are rarely interested in the same kind of news

D．people have different views about what a good newspaper is

3. It can   be concluded   from   the   passage   that   newspaper readers ________.

A．apply reading techniques skillfully

B．jump from one newspaper to another

C．appreciate the variety of a newspaper

D．usually read a newspaper selectively

4. Which can be a suitable title for the passage?

A．How to read newspaper?

B．Where to find a good newspaper?

C．What is a good newspaper?

D．Newspaper.

【推荐3】On March 28th, The New York Times will begin charging all but the most infrequent users to read articles online.

In a letter to readers, Arthur Sulzberger, Jr., the publisher of the paper, laid out the details of the paywall, which he said will go into effect immediately in Canada and on March 28th for the rest of the world. He called the move “an important step that we hope you will see as an investment in The New York Times, one that will strengthen our ability to provide high-quality journalism to readers around the world and on any platform.”

Sulzberger said that readers will be able to read 20 articles per month at no charge. Once they click on the 21st piece, however, they’ll be presented with three payment options: $15 for four weeks of online and mobile application access, $20 for access to the site and the iPad application, or $35 for access to everything. People who already receive the printed paper through home delivery will enjoy free and unlimited access to The New York Times on all platforms.

These details largely agree with earlier reports on how the paywall would work. The New York Times had made it clear that it did not want to imitate the total paywalls put into effect by papers such as The Times of London and Newsday, which block access to all contents unless the reader pays.

The paper also signaled that it wants to stay relevant in the social media world. According to Sulzberger’s announcement, people who come to The New York Times site from Facebook, Twitter or from blogs will be able to read those articles even if they have gone over their monthly limit.

However, Sulzberger said that a limit will be placed on “some search engines”, meaning that after readers have accessed a certain number of articles from search engines, any further articles they access from there will be added to their monthly count. It was reported that the only search engine that will be affected this way is Google, where there will be a five-article limit. This marks a clear attempt by The New York Times to close what could be a giant loophole ( 漏 洞 ), since so much online traffic is directed through Google. But it also presents a risk for the paper for the same reason.

Sulzberger seems well aware of the risk. “The challenge now is to put a price on our work without walling ourselves off from the global network,” he said, adding that The New York Times must “continue to engage with the widest possible audience.”

1. The author’s main purpose in the text is to______ .

A．describe research findings	B．make advertisements
C．report a piece of news	D．suggest a solution

2. Why will The New York Times charge their online readers?

A．It is the only way to offer better service to its readers.

B．It wants to stay relevant in the social media world.

C．It has too many readers coming from the other sites.

D．It is seeking new financial sources for its development.

3. Which group of people cannot read unlimited number of The New York Times articles?

A．Those subscribing to the printed newspapers.

B．Readers clicking through from Facebook.

C．Those using Google research engine.

D．Readers paying $35 a month.

4. What challenge may the paywall bring to The New York Times?

A．It may bring The New York Times more competition with the other media.

B．It may lead to a giant loophole online for The New York Times.

C．It may result in huge drops in papers’ online readership.

D．It may block the readers from the other websites.

【推荐1】The well-known Spanish painter Pablo Picasso once said, “Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once he/ she grows up.”

This is both encouraging and discouraging. The fact that we were all born to be artists is surely exciting. But the reality has proven that remaining to be an artist is a task that many of us have failed. Fortunately, some people have seen the problem and want to solve it. Western educators have suggested that we introduce the concept of “STEAM” instead of “STEM”—traditional “core majors including science, technology, engineering and math—since the “A”, which stands for “art”, is just important as well. And so did the China’s Ministry of Education. It required colleges and universities to provide more art-related courses for students. They need to earn a certain number of art credits (学分) in order to graduate.

These efforts came after many scientific studies had found that art education helps students develop self-confidence and teamwork skills, as well as habits of mind such as problem solving and critical thinking.

It’s true that none of these skills is directly connected with jobs. But as former US ballet dancer Damian Woetzel told The Atlantic, the purpose of art is “to give kids the tools to become adults who are creative, adaptable and expressive— capable of having their eyes and ears and senses alive. And we can now see how we lost track of our born “artist self” on our way to growing up: we failed to keep our capabilities to see, hear and feel, and became blind, deaf and insensitive adults.

Hopefully, art education can help turn things around.

1. What’s the purpose of the first paragraph?

A．To introduce a famous painter.	B．To summarize the whole passage.
C．To inspire us to be artists.	D．To lead in the topic.

2. According to the passage, why should “STEAM” be introduced?

A．Art is as equally important as “core majors”.

B．Western education is more useful.

C．Traditional “core majors” are out of date.

D．All of us should learn art in college.

3. The passage mainly tells us ________.

A．every child is an artist.	B．bringing art to life is essential.
C．life is full of art.	D．artists are talented

【推荐2】Asia’s mountain glaciers (冰川) will lose at least a third of their mass through global warming by the century’s end, with serious consequences for millions of people who rely on them for fresh water, researchers have said. The high mountains of Asia consist of a geographical region surrounding the Tibetan Plateau, holding the biggest store of frozen water outside the poles. It feeds many of the world’s great rivers, including the Ganges, the Indus and the Yarlung Zangbo River, on which hundreds of millions of people depend.

Nearly 200 nations adopted the Paris Agreement in 2015, which sets the goal of limiting warming to a level of “well below” 2°C, while “pursuing efforts” to achieve a lower ceiling of 1.5°C. Earth’s surface has already warmed by about 1°C, according to scientists.

The Asian high mountains, the new study said, were already warming more rapidly than the global average. A global temperature rise of 1.5°C would mean an average increase in the region of about 2.1°C, with differences between mountain ranges — all of which will warm by more than 1.5°C. The Hindu Kush mountain range would warm by about 2.3°C and the eastern Himalaya Mountains by 1.9°C, the study forecast.

“Even if temperatures stabilize at their current level, (glacier) mass loss will continue for decades to come,” the researchers added. “For the high mountain glaciers to survive, it is vital to reduce the global temperature increase to the lowest possible level.”

A study in July in the journal Nature Climate Change said there was only a 5% chance of holding global warming under 2°C. For 1.5°C, the chance was about 1%. On current trends, some experts project Earth is on track to warm by about 3°C.

1. What is stressed about Asia’s mountain glaciers in the first paragraph?

A．The reason for its melting.

B．Its importance.

C．Its geographical condition.

D．The consequences caused by its decrease.

2. What do we know about the temperature on the earth’s surface?

A．It keeps up its normal level.

B．It has risen too much since the Paris Agreement was made.

C．It is far below the level that the Paris Agreement demands.

D．It is near the lower ceiling that the Paris Agreement demands.

3. How may we guarantee these glaciers, continued existence, according to researchers?

A．Hold global warming under 2°C.

B．Try to save water as much as we can.

C．Keep global temperature increase to a minimum.

D．Make the global temperature stable at its current level.

4. How does the author develop the passage?

A．Giving examples.	B．Describing.
C．Presenting data.	D．Comparing.