【推荐2】You can either travel or read, but either your body or your soul must be on the way. The popular saying has inspired many people to read or go sightseeing. Here are four books that you can take on your trip.

1. On the Road, 1957, by Jack Kerouac

The book is a popular spiritual guidebook about youth. The main character in the book drives across the US continent with several young people and finally reaches Mexico. After the exhausting and exciting trip, the characters in the book begin to realize the meaning of life.

2. Life Is Elsewhere, 1975, by Milan Kundera

Jean-Jacques Rousseau once said, "Man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains." The book describes a young artist's romantic but miserable life, about how he reads, dreams and has a relationship during his trip to Central Europe. The book invites you to deeply reflects on your current life and to honor the Czech-born writer Kundera.

3. My Name Is Red, 1998, by Orhan Pamuk

The book, a masterpiece of the Nobel Prize winner for Literature Orhan Pamuk, has been translated into more than 50 languages and published around the world. It tells a story of a young man, who was away from home for 12 years, coming back to his hometown in Istanbul. What embraces him is not only love, but a series of murder cases as well.

4. The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, 2013, by Rachel Joyce

The novel tells a story of a 60-year-old man who lived a boring and unhappy life, until one day, he received his old friend's letter who got cancer. In deep shock and sorrow, he went out to send his reply letter. 627 miles in 87 days, he walked depending on one belief that “his friend can survive as long as he walks”.

1. Whose book can make you rethink your own life?

A．Jack Kerouac.

B．Milan Kundera.

C．Orhan Pamuk.

D．Rachel Joyce.

2. Which of the following books was sold globally?

A．On the Road.	B．Life Is Elsewhere.
C．My Name Is Red.	D．The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry.

3. Why did the old man walk 627 miles to send a letter?

A．He walked to keep healthy.	B．He was in deep shock and sorrow.
C．He expected his friend to live longer.	D．He lived a very boring and unhappy life.

【推荐2】Things to do in Miyakojima

Famous for its sunny beaches and natural wonders, Miyako Island welcomes many visitors during holidays.

Unique beaches

Yonaha Maehama Beach is the most famous beach in Miyakojima, where whites and stretches for seven kilometers. The ocean is colored in blue, attracting visitors with its beauty. Compact Sunayama Beach, known for its arch-shaped(拱形的) rock, is hidden in a small cove(小海湾), and can be reached by walking through a narrow tunnel of trees.

Different kinds of colorful fish

Snorkeling(浮潜) is a must-try in Miyakojima, where there are thick coral reefs, all kinds of tropical(热带的) fish, and plenty of space to free div e to depths of 8 to 15 meters close to the shore.

For beginners, Aragusuku and Shigira are a good choice but advanced snorkelers may see Waiwai Beach and Shimojishima as their favourite spots.

The bridges

Irabu Bridge connects Miyakojima and Irabujima, stretching for 3540m. It is the longest vehicle-only bridge in Japan. On Shimoji Island, there is a boardwalk around Tooriike, two sea ponds connected to each other and the sea by an underwater cave system.

Fresh island taste

Delight your senses with melt-in-your-mouth Miyako beef, delicious Miyako noodles, or fresh fruit. Okinawa district have the highest mango products in Japan, and Miyako Island’s warm climate is best for growing fresh, juicy mangoes. Ice cream with a bit of salt known as “yuki shio (snow salt)” does more than simply keep you cool.

1. What can visitors do in Miyakojima?

A．Enjoy the arch-shaped rock on the Yonaha Maehama Beach.

B．Appreciate different kinds of tropical fish and thick coral reefs.

C．Take a walk on the Irabu Bridge, the longest bridge in Japan.

D．Taste the fresh j uicy mangoes and play with snow to keep cool.

2. Which is the best place for experienced snorkelers?

A．Aragusuku	B．Irabu
C．Waiwai beach	D．Yonaha Maehama Beach

3. Where is this text probably taken from?

A．A travel leaflet.	B．A geography book.
C．An academic article.	D．A nature report.

【推荐1】Just when we thought we had seen all the magical things that 3D printing can do, here comes another—a working artificial leg has transformed the life of a little Canadian duckling(小鸭) called Dudley, who had been struggling to get by after losing a leg.

The story began on August 19th, 2013, when the newly-born healthy Dudley and his brother were placed inside a chicken coop(笼子) at the K9-1-1 Animal and Rescue Services in Sicamous, British Columbia. Within a few hours, an aggressive chicken attacked the two, killing Dudley's brother and leaving him with a disability!

While Dudley could swim with his single leg, he had a hard time walking on the firm ground. Determined to help him, Doug Nelson, the owner of the shelter decided to consult Terence Loring, the founder of a design firm that among other things also offers 3D printing designs.

Given that he had just launched 3 pillar designs, Terence somewhat hesitated to take on a duckling as his first client(客户). But as soon as he saw brave little Dudley walking around on one leg, Terence knew he had to do something. Using his biomedical engineering training, Terence spent the next few weeks creating a 3D template(模板), after he found out how ducks' legs work in YouTube videos about ducks. Once ready, he sent them to Ontario-based 3D engineering firm Proto3000, who agreed to print the leg.

The second artificial leg was much stronger than the first one. When the artificial leg that is printed from strong ABS, a thermoplastic(热塑性塑料) that becomes soft and moldable when heated and attached to a foot designed from soft and flexible robber-like plastic, was fitted to Dudley, his whole manner changed. He wagged his tail and showed it off to his best friend一a pig called Elsie.

Of course, as Dudley has been growing, the leg and foot have had to be replaced. But that hasn't bothered Terence who continues to improve the design. The best part is that Terence has put all the designs on his website so that anyone wishing to help out an animal suffering from a similar injury can do so, by simply hitting the print button on his/her 3D printer!

1. How did Dudley lose his leg?

A．He wasn't well looked after.

B．He lost it in a traffic accident.

C．He lost it in a chicken attack.

D．He was born with a disability.

2. What do we know about Terence Loring's design firm?

A．It is the first one to offer 3D printing designs.

B．3D printing designs are only part of its services.

C．Its main clients are injured animals.

D．It often cooperates with Proto3000.

3. What did Terence first do to make an artificial leg for Dudley?

A．Consulting Dudley's owner about the solution.

B．Creating a 3D template with the help of Proto3000.

C．Being trained in biomedical engineering.

D．Watching YouTube videos about ducks.

4. To Terence's great satisfaction, ________.

A．Dudley has got a permanent artificial leg

B．a possible solution has been found to help suffering animals

C．he succeeded in his first attempt to make Dudley an artificial leg

D．his design has become widely known online

【推荐2】Social media can be a convenient way to extend your network, staying in touch with your grandma, or sharing photos of your new puppy. Nevertheless, social media can be temible for your health. It’s our use of it that’s out of control.

British anthropologist and evolutionary psychologist Robin Dunbar developed the idea that 150 people is the maximum number of meaningful connections anyone can have. You may have 800 friends on Wechat, but we’re not connecting with them in person. Your QQ connections may be vast, but how many of them do you have meaningful interactions with?

If you’re using social media to feel more connected, a recent study published in the American Joumal of Health Promotion suggests that it’s not working, and it an also contribute to unfavorable connections and even depression. Positive interactions on social media don’t help people feel happier. Negative interactions, on the other hand, bring more feelings of sadness. The same goes for comparison, which social media encourages. Another study, published by the American Psychological Association, shows comparing yourself to others via social media also has negative effects, leading to symptoms of depression.

Reaching for your cell phone as a mental break is also a bad idea. Research by Rutgers University compared participants in the midst of completing a task who took a break with their cell phones, with paper and pencils, and who took no break at all. Those who used their cell phones during their break solved 22% fewer problems and took 19% longer to complete their tasks than those under the other two conditions.

So how should you manage your social media usage?

First, know your time and purposes of use. Use the tracking function on your device to find out how much you’re using it and what you’re using it for. After this, get away from your device unless you have to use it. As tough as it might be, turn off and tune into the world around you.

Then, be in charge of your device, rather than let it be in charge of you. Your phone s rings or vibrations don’t mean you must respond to them. Remind yourself that you’re in charge, not your device or the people on the other end of it who’ve just contacted you.

Finally, consider using your device as a relationship builder. Use your apps to find your friends and make your dinner reservation so you can catch up face-to-face your favorite restaurant, where you’ll keep your phone out of sight.

When you’re in control of your digital consumption, social media becomes a tool to enrich your life and not a distraction (分心) that makes you feel miserable.

1. The author might agree that ________.

A．social media is immediate and interactive

B．it is hard to live without digital devices

C．friends on QQ are not friends indeed

D．improper social media use is harmful

2. American Journal of Health Promotion suggests that using social media ________.

A．can’t promote your expected connections

B．breaks up the meaningful communication

C．causes the unnecessary comparison

D．can’t bring more positive interactions

3. From the research by Rutgers University, we might conclude that ________.

A．participants without cell phones had quicker and deeper thinking

B．using cell phones couldn’t give participants mental breaks

C．cell phone users couldn’t complete their task successfully

D．mental breaks reduce efficiency of solving problems

4. To use social media as a relationship builder, you can ________.

A．call your friends to play online games together

B．book movie tickets for family time through apps

C．look through WeiBo when you have a family reunion

D．reply messages on We Chat while having dinner with friends

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

A．Is social media killing your health?

B．How does social media affect your life?

C．Social media: to be or not to be?

D．Social media: use it wisely!

【推荐3】The term “Iron Man” has many connotations(内涵), including references to a song, a comic book icon, even a movie. Yet only one definition of the term truly lives up to its name: the Ironman triathlon held annually in Hawaii, a picturesque(独特的)setting for a challenging race, which demands amazing physical prowess and the ability to swim, bike, and run a marathon, all in less than 12 hours with no break. Very few individuals are up to the task.

However, Gordon Haller is a notable exception. Growing up in the 1950s, Haller developed an interest in many sports categorized as endurance(耐性)athletics and welcomed their physical demands. As he pursued a degree in physics he drove a taxi to pay the bills, but competitive training proved his passion. So when he heard about the race in 1978, the first year it was held, he immediately signed up.

The race originated in a somewhat amusing way. The members of the two popular sports clubs, the Mid-Pacific Road Runners of Honolulu and the Waikiki Swim Club of Oahu, had a long-standing and good-natured debate going over who made better athletes: runners or swimmers. However, some local bikes thought both clubs were wrong, claiming that they, in fact, deserved the title. Wanting to settle the dispute (争论)once and for all, they decided to combine three separate races already held annually on the island into one massive test of endurance. Thus, the Waikiki Roughwater Swim of 2.4 miles, the Around-Oahu Bike race of 112 miles, and the Honolulu Marathon of 26.2 miles were all put together to form the Ironman Triathlon.

Haller was one of only fifteen competitors to show up that February morning to start the race. He quickly scanned the few pages of rules and instructions, and on the last page he discovered a sentence that would become the race’s famous slogan: “Swim 2.4 miles! Bike 112 miles! Run 26.2 miles! Brag(吹牛)for the rest of your life!” Haller took that to heart, and at the end of the day, he became the first Ironman champion in history. Haller’s physical strength enabled him to do what no one else in the past had accomplished.

In the approximately thirty years since that very first race, the Ironman has become a tradition in Hawaii and now boasts approximately 1500 entrants every year. The competitors who complete the race don’t have to be the first across the finish line to claim success: just finishing is a victory onto itself.

1. The “Iron Man”in the passage above refers to ____________.

A．a folk song	B．a movie character
C．a triathlon athlete	D．a sports event

2. What do we know about Gordon Haller from the passage?

A．He had a great interest in all kinds of sports.

B．He was a member of the Waikiki Swim Club of Oahu.

C．He became a taxi driver after he graduated from school.

D．He was the champion in the first Ironman Triathlon.

3. What does the underlined word “prowess” in the first paragraph mean?

A．muscles

B．skills

C．balance

D．reaction

4. The Ironman race was born due to the fact that__________.

A．The two clubs fought over who made better athletes.

B．Gordon Haller wanted to show his great endurance.

C．The combined race can help choose the most athletic.

D．Club members wanted to improve their physical abilities.

5. What can we infer from the passage about the first Ironman Triathlon?

A．Participants had to choose two from the three races in the first Ironman Triathlon.

B．Haller may not have known the rules of it before he showed up for the event.

C．No other competitors other than Haller finished the races in the end.

D．Sixteen competitors in total participated in it on February morning.

6. What does the last paragraph try to tell us?

A．It is the participation rather than victory that counts.

B．The current Ironman Triathlon is different from the original one.

C．The victors respond excitedly when crossing the finish line.

D．The event attracts many people because it creates good fortune.

【推荐1】In many aspects, nowadays business environment has changed greatly since the late 1980s. The end of the cold war completely altered the very nature of the world’s politics and economics. In just a few short years, globalization has started a variety of trends with profound consequences: the opening of markets, true global competition, widespread deregulation (解除政府对……的控制) of industry, and an abundance of accessible capital. we have experienced both the benefits and risks of a truly global economy, with both wall street and main street (平民百姓) feeling the pains of economic disorder half a world away.

At the same time, we have fully entered the information age, starting breakthroughs in information technology, which have irreversibly altered the ability to conduct business unconstrained by the traditional limitations of time or space. Today, it’s almost impossible to imagine a world without intranets, e-mail, and portable computers. With amazing speed, the internet is profoundly changing the way we work, shop, do business, and communicate.

As a consequence, we have truly entered the post-industrial economy. We are rapidly shifting from an economy based on manufacturing and commodities to one that places the greatest value on information, services, support, and distribution. That shift, in turn, attaches great importance to “knowledge workers,” a new class of wealthy, educated, and mobile people who view themselves as free agents in a seller’s market.

Beyond the field of information technology, the increasing pace of technological change in virtually every industry has created entirely new business, wiped out others, and produced a great demand for continuous innovation (创新).New product, process, and distribution technologies provide powerful levers for creating competitive value. More companies are learning the importance of destructive technologies-----innovations that hold the potential to make a product line, or even an entire business segment, virtually outdated.

Another major trend has been the consumer and business markets. There’s a growing appreciation that superficially similar groups of customers may have very different preferences in terms of what they want to buy and how they want to buy it. Now, new technology makes it easier, faster, and cheaper to identify and serve targeted micro-markets in ways that were physically impossible or prohibitively expensive in the past. Moreover, the trend feeds on itself, a business’s ability to serve sub-markets fuels customers’ appetites for more and more specialized offerings.

1. According to the first paragraph, the changes in the business environment in the past decades can be due to __________.

A．technological advances	B．worldwide economic disorder
C．the fierce competition in industry	D．the globalization of economy

2. What idea does the author want to convey in the second paragraph ?

A．The rapid development of information technology has taken businessmen by surprise.

B．The internet, intranets, e-mail, and portable computers have entered every corner of the world.

C．Information technology has removed the restrictions of time and space in business transactions.

D．The way we do business today has brought about startling breakthroughs in information technology.

3. If a business wants to boom in the post-industrial economy, ________.

A．it has to invest more capital in the training of free agents to operate in a seller’s market

B．it should try its best to satisfy the increasing demands of mobile knowledgeable people

C．it should not overlook the importance of information, services, support, and distribution

D．it has to provide each of its employees with the latest information about the changing market

4. In the author’s view, destructive technologies are innovations which _________.

A．demand a radical change in providing services

B．can eliminate an entire business

C．may destroy the potential of a company to make any profit

D．call for continuous improvement in ways of doing business

5. With the consumer and business markets, ________.

A．an increasing number of companies have broken down

B．manufacturers must focus on one special product to remain competitive in the market

C．it is physically impossible and prohibitively expensive to do business in the old way

D．businesses have to meet individual customers’ specific needs in order to succeed

【推荐2】Norm lives in a rural area some distance from the nearest city and a much longer distance from the nearest big hospital so when his wife got cancer several years ago Norm was faced with a four and a half hour drive to where she could be treated．That meant lots of expense for meals，fuel，hotels and so on but in the end the cancer took his wife anyway．
Norm was obviously very stricken by his wife’s passing but he was also very angry because he realized that other people were facing the same sorts of hardships．He wanted to do something but he didn’t want to give money to the charities(慈善机构)that support cancer research because he didn’t know how much of it would actually get to the researchers．What he did was start to hold parties．
About every three weeks on Saturday evenings there is a party in Norm’s garden．Neighbours，friends and relatives come and bring snacks and drinks；many bring instruments，there is music and lancing and at some point during the evening Norm tells about a family he has found who are having difficulties meeting the cost of supporting a cancer patient undergoing treatment far from home．Then a honey-pail is passed around and the money collected，every cent of it，goes directly to that family．
Norm’s passion to help the families of other cancer patients was born out of his grief but Norm’s personal loss has resulted in an act of kindness that honours the memory of the wife he has lost．He makes the world a better place．
1. What do we know about Norm’s wife?

A．She died for lack of money．

B．She worked in a distant hospital．

C．She lost the battle against cancer．

D．She took good care of her family．

2. How does Norm help others?

A．By giving money to charities．

B．By supporting cancer researchers．

C．By telling stories to his friends．

D．By raising money through parties．

3. At Norm’s party，the“honey-pail”is used to contain______．

A．snacks

B．drinks

C．honey

D．money

4. Through what he does，Norm probably wants to____________．

A．remember his wife	B．hide his anger
C．regain his personal loss	D．change the world

【推荐3】Researchers recently found that hackers took control of 300,000 home routers(路由器). Once your home router has been controlled, hackers could redirect your network to malicious websites controlled by hi-tech thieves who could then steal your online back details and other sensitive data. However, there are some simple steps you can take to protect your router.
Say no to 12345 passwords
First, never leave your router open without a password and make sure you change both your Wi-Fi and router login password from the default one it comes with. If you use the default password , this could give someone access to the router setup, which could allow them to change your router settings, including viewing any security keys.
Don't broadcast it
Make sure you don't show up in other people's wireless network scans. Know your network name so you can easily enter it into any devices you want to access that network. Other people do not need to know your network name. To prevent outsiders from seeing your network's name and attempting to join your wireless network, turn off broadcasting in your router's settings.
Invite only please
One way you can ensure no one else joins your network without your permission is to enable your router to only allow certain devices to connect, and ban all others. To do that you can filter by media access control (MAC) addresses.
Turn it off
This is a simple piece of advice that can go a very long way in keeping you safe. Simply turn off your router when you're not using your network. If you're at work all day and no one's home, why keep it running?
Build a firewall
The firewall built into your router prevents hackers on the internet from getting access to your PC so it's always worth enabling it to help add an extra layer of security. However, it does nothing to stop people in range of your Wi-Fi signal from getting onto your network – and as said, a router in the wrong place means your Wi-Fi signal could reach pretty far.
For further protection, you should run software firewalls on the individual PCs on your networks.
1. If you use the default password, ______________.

A．your home router will be linked to some bad websites

B．you will find it’s very convenient to surf the Internet

C．your home router will be changed for new settings

D．you will fail to use your own login password

2. What should be done to shelter your wireless network?

A．To build a firewall into your router.

B．To think out a complicated login password and use it.

C．To shut off your router when you find it not safe.

D．To switch off broadcasting in your router settings.

3. The purpose of the passage is to tell____________.

A．how to keep your Wi-Fi network secure

B．how to deal with your home router efficiently

C．how to locate the hackers on the Internet

D．how to prevent others from joining your network.