【推荐1】When I was going home to India last year, I called up my mother to ask if she wanted anything from China.

When India had not opened up its markets to the world, I carried suitcase loads of dark glasses and jeans. Thankfully, we can get all these anywhere in India now. Still, her answer surprised me, “Green tea”.

As long as I can remember she didn’t even drink Indian tea. I dutifully bought a big packet of Longjing and headed home to hear the story. My mother and her brother, both regular newspaper readers, believed that Chinese green tea was the wonder drug for all illnesses.

At the turn of the century, China was not really familiar to the average Indian. It was a strange country.

How things change! And how soon! Now every town of any size seems to have a “China Market”. And everyone is talking about China.

The government of India has planned to send a team to China to see how things are done. A minister once said that India must open the doors for more foreign investment and such a step would “work wonders as it did for China.”

But it’s a two­way street. I just heard about a thousand Shenzhen office workers who have gone to Bangalore to train in software. Meanwhile, all the Indian IT majors are setting up a strong presence in China.

No wonder that trade, which was only in the millions just ten years ago, was expected to hit about US $15 billion for last year and US $20 billion by 2008, a goal set by both governments.

No wonder, my colleague wrote some weeks ago about this being the Sino-Indian century as the two countries started on January 1st the Sino­Indian Friendship Year.

But what is still a wonder to me is my mother drinking Chinese tea.

1. Why did the mother ask for Chinese green tea?

A．She believed it had a curing effect.	B．She had a son working in China.
C．She was tired of Indian tea.	D．She was fond of Chinese products.

2. What does the author mean by “it’s a two­-way street” in Paragraph 7?

A．The exchanges between India and China benefit both.

B．Tea trade works wonders in both India and China.

C．Chinese products are popular in both China and India.

D．China and India have different traffic rules.

3. What do we know about the Indian IT industry?

A．It will move its head office to Shenzhen.	B．It has attracted an investment of US $15 billion
C．It is seeking further development in China.	D．It caught up with the US IT industry in 2008.

4. In the text the author expresses________.

A．his concern for his mother’s health	B．his surprise at China’s recent development
C．his support for drinking Chinese green tea	D．his wonder at the growth of India’s IT industry

5. What does the underlined word “it” refer to?

A．the government of India	B．sending a team to China
C．opening doors for foreign investment	D．China market

【推荐2】EDINBURGH, Scotland (AP) —they arrived before polling stations even opened, dressed for the school day in striped ties and blazers, dress slacks and tartan skirts, book bags over their shoulders —and, for the first time in British history, ballot (选票) cards in hands on September 18.
Scotland’s experiment of allowing more than 109,000 Scottish teenagers aged 16 to 17 took part in the Scottish independence referendum (公民投票), in which Scotland finally decided not to become independent.
The age group only made up a small part of the 4.29 million total voters, but they have “demonstrated how the youngest voters can be some of the most enthusiastic in a mature democracy”, commented The Associated Press. Casting their ballots, they were “proud and passionate” to help their nation decide whether to break away from the UK after 307 years in union.
At age 16, Scottish residents are allowed to join the military, get married, and work. Eighteen is the legal drinking age, as well as the UK’s voting age. But in 2013, Scottish law was changed to allow 16- and 17-year-olds in Scotland to vote in the referendum. The government pushed for the change because “younger voters are more likely to vote with their hearts, not their heads—and embrace fundamental change by voting for the pro-independence Yes Scotland campaign”, NBC News said.
But when the decision was handed down, some worried that high school students might not be as informed as adult voters. However, many experts said that assumption was wrong.
Professor Jan Eichhorn of the University of Edinburgh insisted that Scottish teenagers were as likely to read newspaper articles and campaign materials as their parents. They would simply get these resources through social media.
“There’s no evidence to suggest that they’re less capable than adults of voting, from a research point of view,” Eichhorn told NPR.
Scotland’s move to let younger teenagers vote in the referendum has led to a discussion about whether the voting age ought to be lowered to 16, both in the UK and the US.
“By 16, most people have about as stable an ideology (思想意识) as they are going to get,” Professor Jason Brennan of Georgetown University wrote for CNN, arguing that the US should also think about allowing younger US citizens to vote.
1. The Scottish independence referendum was held on Sept. 18 ______.

A．to encourage youngsters to be concerned with politics

B．to lower the minimum voting age to 16 for the referendum

C．to decide whether Scotland would become independent from the UK

D．to elect who would be the new leader of Scotland

2. According to the passage, we can learn ______.

A．Scotland gained its independence from the UK eventually.

B．It is possible for the USA to lower the voting age to 16 in the future.

C．All the people in Scotland thought highly of the government’s decision to lower the voting age to 16.

D．Scottish teenagers aged 16 are allowed to join the military, get married, work and drink alcohol now.

3. What does the underlined word “embrace” (in para.4) probably mean?

A．Admit to	B．Object to
C．Know about	D．Approve of

4. What is Jan Eichhorn’s opinion of the Scottish teenagers aged 16 to 17?

A．They are as informed and capable as adults of voting.

B．They make no difference to the voting result.

C．They are too enthusiastic to make informed decisions.

D．They are unwilling to be involved in the decision of the country’s future.

【推荐3】七选五。根据短文内容，从短文后的选项中选出能填入空白处的最佳选项。选项中有两项为多余选项。

The First Americans

There was a time long ago when a land bridge connected Asia and North America. The first settlers in North America crossed this land bridge from what is now Siberia to Alaska. The people who made this initial crossing were probably following the animals they used for food. Finally, the oceans rose and the land bridge between the continents disappeared. The settlers, who I shall call the “First Americans”, could not return to their homeland.     1    For the next few thousand years, the First Americans moved south and east throughout North and South America. They made the journey all the way from Alaska to the southern tip of South America, a distance of more than 10,000 miles.     2    In the far north, above the Arctic Circle, the First Americans became hunters of the ocean.     3     In the summer, they gathered berries and other plants. In the winter, they stayed in lodges much of the time preparing for the next summer. It was a hard life, but they learned to survive in these terrible conditions. Farther south, in what is now Arizona, Utah, Colorado, and New Mexico, the First Americans became cliff dwellers. They began by living in caves that already existed in the cliffs.     4     The dwellings they built in many ways resembled today’s apartment buildings.    5     They built a system of dams and canals so they could store and use water almost any time of the year. They were so successful that they could raise fruits and vegetables that were not found naturally in the desert.

A．They also discovered foods like corn and potatoes.

B．Along the way, they established many different civilizations.

C．They discovered how to add to the caves by building structures of wood and stone.

D．People living near each other tended to share similar environments and customs.

E．They built boats of animal skins and hunted or fished for their food.

F．They would have to survive in the New World they had discovered.

G．The First Americans of the Southwest learned to water the desert.

【推荐1】Technology seems to discourage slow, careful reading. Reading on a screen tires your eyes and makes it harder for you to keep your place. Online writing tends to be more skimmable (易略读的) and list-like than print. The neuroscientist Mary Walt argued recently that this new standard of skim reading is producing“an invisible, game-changing transformation”in how readers process words. The neuronal circuit (神经回路) that maintains and supports the brain’s ability to read now prefers the rapid absorption of information.

We shouldn’t overplay this danger. All readers skim. From about the age of nine, our eyes start to skim quickly across the page, reading only about a quarter of the words properly, and filling in the gap s by inference. Nor is there anything new in these fears about declining attention spans (持续时间). So far, the anxieties have proved to be false alarms. “Quite a few critics have been worried about attention spans lately and see very short stories as signs of cultural decline,” the American author Selvin Brown wrote. “No one ever said that poems were evidence of short attention spans.”

And yet the Internet has certainly changed the way we read. For a start, it means that there is more to read, because more people than ever are writing. And digital writing is meant for rapid release and response. This mode of writing and reading can be interactive and fun. But often it treats other people’s words as something to be quickly taken as materials to say something else. Everyone talks over the top of everyone else, eager to be heard.

Perhaps we should slow down. Reading is constantly promoted as a source of personal achievement. But this argument often emphasizes “enthusiastic” “passionate” or “eager” reading, non e of which words suggest slow, quiet absorption. To a slow reader, a piece of writing can only be fully understood by immersing oneself in the words and their slow understanding of a line of thought.

The human need for this kind of deep reading is too tenacious for any new technology to destroy. We often assume that technological change can’t be stopped and happens in one direction, so that older media like “dead-tree” books are kicked out by newer, more virtual forms. In practice, older technologies can coexist with new ones. The Kindle has not killed off the printed book any more than the car killed off the bicycle. We still want to enjoy slowly-formed ideas and carefully-chosen words. Even in a fast-moving age, there is time for slow reading.

1. Which statement would Selvin Brown probably agree?

A．Online writing harms careful reading.	B．Fears of attention spans are unnecessary.
C．The situation of cultural decline is serious.	D．Poetry reading helps lengthen attention spans.

2. What is TRUE about digital writing?

A．It demands writers to abandon traditional writing modes.

B．It depends heavily on frequent interaction with the readers.

C．It leads to too much talking and not enough deep reflection.

D．It prepares readers for enthusiastic, passionate or eager reading.

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

A．Deep-rooted.

B．Widely-acknowledged.

C．Slowly-changed.

D．Rarely-noticed.

4. Which can be the best title for this article?

A．Slow Reading is Here to Stay	B．The Wonder of Deep Reading
C．The Internet is Changing the Way We Read	D．Digital vs Print: A Life-and-Death Struggle

【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:每个空格只填 1 个单词。请将答案写在答题卷上相应题号的横线上。

One of the most efficient ways to promote peace and jump-start flagging economies is to empower girls and invest in their education. Today, girls’ lack of access to basic education is compounded when it comes to the use of digital technology, leaving them far behind boys. And because the world is ever more digital, those who lack basic Internet skills will find it increasingly more difficult to participate in the formal economy, to obtain a quality education, to access health care, information and psychosocial support, to have their voices heard.

Since 2013 the global gender gap in male and female access to the Internet has actually increased from 11 to 12 percent. Worse yet, women and girls living in the poorest countries are 31 percent less likely than men and boys to have access to the Internet. In developing countries, some 200 million fewer women than men own a mobile phone, the most common means of Internet access there. This digital divide is increasing, and should it continue at the present pace, it is projected that over 75 percent of women and girls will lack internet access and digital skills.

There are many causes for the digital gender gap. They include girls’ exclusion from basic education writ large, from specific technology education and design, high costs of both devices and Internet access, scarcity of content relevant for women and girls, and socio-cultural biases and discrimination, such as barriers to women speaking freely and privately both online and offline. Indeed, one of the most insidious reasons why girls may be discouraged from learning how to access and use digital technology is also a groundless one: that girls are simply not good at using technology.

The   United   Nations   has   affirmed   that   human   rights   online   are   human   rights   offline.   These stereotypes reinforce harmful norms that keep women and girls from enjoying their human rights.

According to the International Institute for Sustainable Development, an independent, non-profit and non-governmental research organization, the gender digital divide is a major roadblock to women’s economic empowerment and participation in the economy. Without a major increase of policy effort and investment, most of the benefits of technological change will be enjoyed only by men, worsening gender inequality.

In the words of USAID Senior Gender Coordinator Michelle Bekkering, a girl’s future should be defined not by her sex, but by her commitment to hard work and ability to access the resources she needs to succeed.

Girls are left far behind boys in terms of digital technology
1    situation	●Lacking basic Internet skills makes girls less likely to be       2     in the economic activities, to get well-educated, to access health care, information and psychosocial support, and to voice their opinions. ●The gender gap has increased by 1% since 2013       3     and in the poorest countries, the       4     of females accessing the Internet are lowered by 31%. ●In developing countries, fewer women own the mobile phone and the great     5     cannot be bridged if it should continue at the present pace.
Causes and effects	●Girls are    6     from some different forms of education and both devices and Internet access are expensive for girls. ●There’s a lack of proper content and biases and discrimination still exist. ● Some   people   hold   the   view   that   girls   are   simply   not   good   at   using technology, which doesn’t make any       7     .
	●Benefits   brought   by   technological   changes   are   mostly   enjoyed   by   men, making gender inequality         8       of a problem.
Opinions and solutions	●Empowered   and   offered   a   quality education,   girls   will   make   significant    9           to peace and the economic recovery. ●What           10           a girl’s future is her devotion, hard work and ability rather than her sex. ●Women and girls are supposed to enjoy more human rights both online and offline.

【推荐3】Social media can lead to mental exhaustion (疲惫). And when mentally exhausted, you are more likely to be influenced by a high number of likes on posts - even to the point of clicking on ads for products you don’t need.

As a professor of advertising, I have studied social media behaviors for years. In late 2022, my colleague Eric Haley and I conducted three online studies on Americans aged 18-65 to test how people under various mental loads respond to ads differently.

The control group in each study were given no introductory task- we just had them look at an ad. A second group had to memorize a nine-digit number and then look at the ad. The third group looked through the Internet for 30 seconds and then looked at the ad. Participants randomly saw an ad with a few hundred likes or tens of thousands of likes. After viewing the ad, each participant rated how willing they would be to buy the product, and how much mental effort it took to think about the information.

The group that used the Internet first were the most likely to want to buy the featured product when there were lots of likes or comments, and they also reported using the most mental effort to assess the ad. Researchers refer to this mentally exhausted state as “cognitive (认知的) overload”. Using social media puts them in this state because they are constantly evaluating different types of texts, photos and video posts from so many different people. All of this evaluating leaves them feeling frazzled.

Imagine asking your roommate if they want to get pizza. Under normal conditions, the roommate might consider several factors such as cost, hunger, timing or their schedule. Now imagine asking your roommate the same question while they are on the phone with a sick relative. They no longer have the mental energy to logically consider whether pizza for dinner is a good idea. They might just yell “Yeah, sure!” while running inside to clean their shoes.

By understanding how social media influences them, consumers can be more thoughtful in regulating their use and hopefully will not buy yet another water bottle they don’t need.

1. How did the author conduct the studies?

A．By questionnaire.

B．By interview.

C．Through the Internet.

D．Through observation.

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

A．Excited.

B．Depressed.

C．Annoyed.

D．Tired.

3. Why does the author mention “your roommate” in paragraph 5?

A．To further explain cognitive overload.

B．To stress the importance of relationships.

C．To strongly call on people to eat healthily.

D．To remind people not to rely on mobile phones.

【推荐2】Research done at the University of California－Irvine shows that young children taking music lessons have a greater ability to learn math and science. Coordination and concentration are also improved. Mastering a song or technique allows children to feel a sense of achievement and a desire to move on to the next challenge. These feelings of pride can also improve their confidence in the classroom.

The lazy days of summer are a great time to introduce and expose your child to all sorts of music.

·Introduce babies to music by singing lullabies(摇篮曲) to them.

·Help younger children relate to music by asking about the sounds they hear.Does that drum sound happy or sad？Would an elephant sound like that high flute(长笛)，or that deep bassoon(低音管)?

·Look into a wide variety of musical toys and records of songs that are available for children.

·Take your family to performances at local schools or universities.

·If you and your child decide on music lessons，look for a teacher who can get along well with children.

·Talk to other parents whose children take lessons for suggestions，or consult with the music teacher at your child’s school. Keep your child’s personality in mind，too.An active child might enjoy singing with a choir or playing with a band more than music lessons.

·If you want to learn to play the piano yourself，you’d better take some lessons. Show your child that it takes time and practice to master a new skill. Just make sure not to turn this into a competition.

·Encourage your child by asking her/him to play for you.

·Never use music practice as punishment!

1. What’s the main idea of the first paragraph?

A．How children learn math and science.

B．Music lessons will do good to children.

C．Mastering a song is important for children.

D．How to improve children’s confidence.

2. Which of the following ways is NOT mentioned?

A．Host a music playing competition.

B．Ask about the sounds children hear.

C．Take the whole family to performances.

D．Find a variety of songs available for children.

3. What should parents do to encourage their children to learn music?

A．Choose happy music for them.

B．Select a teacher at their school for them.

C．Punish them if they don’t learn music well.

D．Choose lessons or activities according to their personalities.

【推荐3】“The Lord of the Rings”, one of the best sellers in the new millennium（千年）, was made up of three parts——“The Fellowship of the Ring”, “Two Towers”, and “The Return of the King”. Millions upon millions of people have read it in over 25 different languages, but fewer know about the author and the history of the composition of the creative masterwork.
John Ronald Reuel Tolkien was born in South Africa in 1892. His parents died when he was a child. Living in England with his aunt, Tolkien and his cousins made up his mind to play languages, a hobby that led to Tolkien’s becoming skilled in Welsh, Greek, Gothic, Old Norse and Anglo-Saxon.
After graduating from Oxford, Tolkien served in World War I. In 1917, while recovering from trench fever, he began composing the mythology（神话） for The Rings. As a professor of Anglo-Saxon in 1930s at Oxford, Tolkien was part of an informal discussion group called the Inklings, which included several writers. The group was soon listening to chapters of Tolkien’s imaginative work “The Hobbit”.
Hobbit was a name Tolkien created for a local people that could best be described as half-sized members of the English rural（乡村的）class. Hobbits live in hillside holes. One of them, Bilbo Baggins, looks for treasures with a group of dwarves（侏儒）. On the way, he meets the twisted, pitiful creature Gollum, from whom he sees a golden ring that makes the holder invisible.
One of Tolkien’s students persuaded her employer, publisher Allen & Unwin, to look at a draft（草稿）. The chairman of the firm, Stanley Unwin, thought that the best judge for a children’s book would be his ten-year-old son. The boy earned a shilling for reporting back that the adventure was exciting, and “The Hobbit” was published in 1937.
It sold so well that Unwin asked for a continuation. Over a dozen years later, in 1954, Tolkien produced “The Lord of the Rings”, a series of books so creative that they hold readers—new and old —after their publication.
1. What can we learn from the text?

A．Tolkien was quite familiar with Old English.

B．People know better about Tolkien himself than about his works.

C．“The Lord of the Rings” didn’t sell well in the last millennium.

D．Tolkien knew very well about different kinds of local languages in Africa.

2. What can we learn about “Hobbit” that Tolkien created in his works?

A．Hobbit was a race living in English downtown areas.

B．Hobbit was a group of people who were mostly dwarves.

C．Hobbit was a social group of people who lived in old castles.

D．Hobbit was a local people who were very tall and strong.

3. Which of the following helped most in making “The Hobbit” published?

A．One of Tolkien’s students.	B．Allen & Unwin.
C．Stanley Unwin’s son.	D．Bilbo Baggins.

4. What is mainly discussed in the text?

A．a famous professor at Oxford University.

B．A completely new masterwork in the new millennium.

C．“The Lord of the Rings” and its writer.

D．The power of the magic ring.

5. Which of the following shows the right order of Mr J.R.R.Tolkien’s life experience?
a．He had his “The Hobbit” published.
b．He became a member of the lnklings.
c．He served in World WarⅠ
d．He became an undergraduate at Oxford.
e．His work “The Lord of the Rings” came to the world.
f．He moved to England to live with his aunt.

A．f-d-b-c-a-e	B．d-f-c-a-b-e
C．f-c-d-b-e-a	D．f-d-c-b-a-e