【推荐3】As a young adult, Noah Webster was a teacher. At that time, the colonies were fighting for independence from Britain, yet the books that American children used in school all came from Britain. The books were all about British people and British places. Webster wanted books that would mean more to American children. So he wrote three books that used American examples — a grammar book, a spelling book, and a reader. These books were very popular, and millions of them were sold.

Webster was interested in changing the spellings of words. He wanted words to be spelled the way they were pronounced. For example, he thought the word “head” should be spelled “hed”, and the word “laugh” should be spelled “laf ”. People liked Webster’s suggestions.

However, few words were actually changed. One group of words that were changed were words in which an unpronounced “u” followed an “o”. That is why Americans write “color” and “labor”, while the British write “colour” and “labour”.

With the money he made from his books, Webster was able to write. It was the first American English dictionary, published in 1828. Webster’s dictionary had over 70,000 words and gave the meaning and origin of each. To this day, Webster’s work is the example that most dictionaries of American English follow.

1. What was Noah Webster when he was young?

A．A writer.

B．A teacher.

C．A painter.

D．A reporter.

2. Why did Webster decide to write books?

A．Because he wanted to earn more money.

B．Because he wasn’t satisfied with the books he used.

C．Because there were not enough books in the market.

D．Because he had to borrow books from Britain when he was a student.

3. What can we learn from Paragraph 3?

A．Webster spoke English in a different way.

B．American people didn’t like speaking English.

C．Webster was good at correcting mistakes in textbooks.

D．Americans didn’t write English as exactly as the British did.

4. What does the last sentence of this article mean?

A．Most dictionaries in the world are the copies of Webster’s.

B．Most American people followed Webster’s advice on writing.

C．Webster’s dictionary is the only one used in the United States.

D．Most American English dictionaries have the characteristic (特点) of Webster’s.

【推荐1】Owning a smartphone may not be as smart as you think. It may let you surf the Internet, listen to music and snap photos wherever you are... but it also turns you into a workaholic, it seems.
A study suggests that, by giving you access to emails at all times, the all-singing, all-dancing mobilephone adds as much as two hours to your working day. Researchers found that Britons work an additional 460 hours a year on average as they are able to respond to emails on their mobiles.
The study by technology retailer Pixmania reveals the average UK working day is between 9 and 10 hours, but a further two hours is spent responding to or sending work emails, or making work calls. More than 90 percent of office workers have email-enabled phones, with a third accessing them more than 20 times a day. Almost one in ten admits spending up to three hours outside their normal working day checking work emails. Some workers confess they are on call almost 24 hours a day, with nine out of ten saying they make work emails and calls outside their normal working hours. The average time for first checking emails is between 6 am and 7 am, with more than a third checking their first emails in this period, and a quarter checking them between 11 pm and midnight.
Ghadi Hobeika, marketing director of Pixmania, said, “The ability to access literally millions of apps, keep in contact via social networks and take photos and video as well as text and call has made smartphones invaluable for many people. However, there are drawbacks. Many companies expect their employees to be on call 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and smartphones mean that people literally cannot get away from work. The more constantly in contact we become, the more is expected of us in a work capacity. “
1. Which of the following is true according to the text?

A．The average UK working time is between nine and twelve hours.

B．Nine-tenths spend over three hours checking work emails.

C．One-fourth check their first mail between 11 pm and midnight.

D．The average time for first checking emails is between 6 am and 8 am.

2. The underlined word “accessing” in the third paragraph can be replaced by “       “.

A．calling

B．using

C．reaching

D．getting

3. What can we conclude from the text?

A．Every coin has two sides

B．It never rains but pours.

C．All that glitters is not gold..

D．It’s no good crying over spilt milk.

4. What’s the main idea of the text?

A．Workaholics like smartphones.

B．Employers don’t like smartphones.

C．Smartphones make our life easier.

D．Smartphones bring about extra work.

【推荐2】With only a click of the mouse, rumors can be forwarded between microblogs very quickly. As an example, recently, perceptive netizens discovered that some photos displayed on microblogs depicting Beijing’s June rainstorm had actually been fabricated.
Sina. com is one of the major internet portals(门户网站) in China with hundreds and thousands of users, and a majority of celebrities and renowned citizens have their microblog accounts on this portal. As recently as six months ago, the website decided to establish a specialized team to verify rumors and provide accurate information for its users. Tan Chao is in charge of the team.
“Before I took the job, I usually couldn’t identify what information was real and what was fake. But during the rumor verification process, we discovered that a lot of information was false, including fake photos, fake news stories and rumors that had been spread through microblogs.”
It‘s not just website portals which are taking on fact-checking responsibilities, but also a number of civic-minded netizens, who recently set up a Rumor Verification Federation on Sina.com’s microblog system to help netizens identify fake information online.
Dianzizheng is the team leader of the federation. He says they’ve publicized more than 150 pieces which refute rumors, which attracted more than 10 thousand visitors within two months.
“We live in an age of new media, so we can’t use the old methods to verify rumors. We can’t wait for the media to verify the facts with related administrative departments and then release a formal announcement. We can’t allow rumors to run rampant and then deal with it, we need to fight rumors while they’re spreading. I think that this is the best way to deal with rumors nowadays.”
Some experts say this demonstrates the advantages of the internet compared to other traditional media. The open platform allows information to be examined and clarified by netizens. But experts like Ding Wenguo, President of the Journalism and Communication College at the China University of Political Science and Law says this self-correction function of the internet is still quite limited.
“It’s still quite difficult to tell which information is true in such an open environment by just reading a number of different opinions on the same issue. This is something which we need to pay attention to. If society is deluged with too much false information, and it’s allowed to spread in such a fast manner, then people will be suspicious of all kinds of information including important information from authorities. It also exacerbates(恶化) problems relating to social communications and mutual-understanding, which in turn harms society as a whole.”
Experts suggest that the government should react more quickly in the internet age. Once a rumor begins to spread, administrative departments should make announcements as early as possible to dispel rumors before they lead to bad outcomes.
1. Sina.com decided to found a specialized team to ____.

A．limit the number of microblogs

B．advance the development of microblogs

C．prevent the spread of rumors on the Internet

D．urge the government to react quickly to the rumors

2. Which of the following is TRUE according to the text?

A．All the rumors have been spread through microblogs.

B．Sina.com is the most popular Internet portal in China.

C．The photos displayed on microblogs might be fake.

D．Traditional media tend to get rumors examined and clarified.

3. The underlined word "fabricated" in the first paragraph can be replaced by "_ _".

A．dug out	B．made up
C．got round	D．given away

4. The writer cited Ding Wenguo's words in Paragraph 8 to _ _.

A．draw a conclusion	B．support an argument
C．introduce a topic	D．describe a scene

【推荐3】It has been two months since I moved to China, but its digital advancement hasn't stopped impressing me ever since. One of the major things that I cannot imagine living without anymore is mobile payment. There are two major mobile payment apps here, Alipay and WeChat Pay. Both have similar payment features, though WeChat has more like a social media. That's why I will focus on this "super app".

So far, I've been shocked by how efficient life can be with WeChat. It is present in every aspect of people's daily life, from paying water and electricity bills, meals, cinema tickets to calling a taxi, following news, and chatting with friends. Most merchants have adopted it, from tiny local street food stalls to high-end（高端的）stores. A cashier may be surprised if you do not pay with WeChat or Alipay at the grocers or in restaurants. And it seems like the entire payment industry has encouraged this shift to mobile payment, equipping payment terminals with QR code scanners to simplify payments. Mobile payments are so common here that I realize that I can perfectly survive if I forget my wallet at home one day because most days I just don't take it out of my bag！

As mentioned earlier, WeChat is also a major social media platform with about one billion daily users, which is more than the entire population of European Union. So I have to say Chinese technological and digital development is a real miracle.

1. What impresses the author most since he came to China?

A．The rapid progress of digital technology in China.

B．The living condition of the Chinese people.

C．The similar features of Alipay and WeChat Pay

D．The efficient life brought by WeChat.

2. What can be inferred from the second paragraph?

A．Nowadays wallet is unnecessary in China.

B．Cashiers refuse to accept cash in China.

C．Mobile payment are very popular in China.

D．QR code scanners are very expensive in China.

3. What's the author's attitude to WeChat?

A．Doubtful.

B．Favorable.

C．Opposed.

D．Uncaring.

4. What is the main idea of the text?

A．Two major mobile payment apps.

B．The development of mobile payment.

C．The different opinions about mobile payment.

D．The miracle of Chinese mobile payment.

【推荐2】It's never been easier to find vacant(空缺的）jobs or to apply for them nowadays.“With technology,it's much easier,”says Dennis Masel,chief operating officer of a US staffing agency.Mr. Masel says PDF files,mobile devices and fast Internet have changed the way he works.“I used to personally send my resumes (简历) to a client's(客户) office,”he says.“Now I can send an application to a client within seconds via the Internet.”

Some companies have developed their own mobile apps to simplify the process.Job seekers can post their resumes online and apply for posts with a single mouse click.And it is not only computers but also mobile phones.However, some employers do not trace the applications they receive.It results in candidates becoming disillusioned and less unlikely to get new jobs. Dennis Masel says three steps can help you stand out.

First,he advises candidates to reach out to online networking connections at the company where you want to work.“By making a personal connection,you could essentially make your application stand out and get noticed by people.”

Second, he says,you must react quickly when you see a job you want.“For every position that you are interested in,you have to imagine that thousands of job­seekers are all coming after the same position.You have to be quick.Sometimes positions are filled within the span of hours.”

Third,use email notices on job listing sites and choose to get only the ones you want.

“I absolutely love email notices because I can get exactly the jobs that interest me, and it's really easy for me to basically in,”he says.“Put keywords in,such as the location you want to search and your experience,and get exactly what you want.”

1. According to Para.1, people now change the way they work NOT because of     .

A．fast Internet	B．PDF files
C．resume	D．technology

2. The underlined word “disillusioned” in Paragraph 2 probably means “_______”．

A．hopeless	B．encouraged
C．anxious	D．interested

3. What can we infer from this passage?

A．Every position is filled within the span of hours.

B．Email notices will play important roles in job hunting.

C．Mobile phones will take the place of computers in job seeking.

D．Employers do not acknowledge the applications they receive online.

4. By writing the passage, the author intends to________.

A．highlight the stress of job hunting

B．analyze the cause of failure in job hunting

C．introduce some currently popular hi-tech tools

D．offer readers some useful advice about job hunting

【推荐3】Anyone who commutes（通勤）by car knows that traffic jams are an unavoidable part of life. But humans are not alone in facing potential traffic jam. Ants also commute一between their nest and sources of food. The survival of their colonies（群体） depends on doing this efficiently.

"The more they are, the more food they're going to bring back. But at the same time, they might end up with traffic jam because there are too many of them.” Sebastien Motsch, a mathematician in Arizona State University said. When humans commute, there's a point at which cars become dense enough to slow down the flow of traffic, causing congestion. Motsch and his colleagues wanted to know if ants on the move could also get blocked. So they control traffic density by constructing bridges of various widths between a colony of Argentine ants and a source of food. Then they waited and watched.

The flow of ants did increase initially as ants started to fill the bridge and then stabilize at high densities. But it never slowed down, even when the bridge was nearly filled with ants. The researchers then took a closer look at how the behavior of individual ants impacted traffic as a whole. That meant cautiously tracking thousands of separate ants as they made their way across the bridge.

Motsch and his team found that when ants sense overcrowding, they adjust their speeds and avoid entering high-density areas, which prevents congestion. These behaviors may be made by pheromones （外激素），chemicals that tell other ants where a trail is. The ants also manage to avoid colliding with each other at high densities, which could really slow them down.

Can ants help us solve our own traffic problems? Not likely, says Motsch. That's because when it comes to getting from point A to point B as fast as possible, human drivers put their own goals first. Individual ants have to be more cooperative in order to feed the colony. But the research could be useful in bettering traffic flow for self-driving cars, which can be designed to be less like selfish humans一and more like ants.

1. What is the purpose of the research?

A．To compare humans with ants.

B．To see how ants, avoid traffic jam.

C．To solve the problem of traffic jam.

D．To see whether ants will encounter a traffic jam.

2. What did the researchers do before testing the ants?

A．They built bridges of different widths.

B．They made the ants on the move.

C．They watched the ants closely.

D．They got the ants blocked.

3. What is the result of the research?

A．The ants avoid entering high-density areas.

B．The ants never stop and no traffic jam happens.

C．The ants sense overcrowding and adjust their speed.

D．The ants give off chemicals to tell others where they can go.

4. What's the researchers' attitude to solving our own traffic jam?

A．Optimistic.	B．Doubtful.
C．Indifferent.	D．Supportive.

【推荐1】Learning a second language is difficult at any age and it only gets harder the longer you wait to open that dusty French book. Now, in a new study, scientists have pointed the exact age at which your chances of reaching fluency（流利）in a second language seem to rise： 10.

The study, published in the journal Cognition, found that it's "nearly impossible” for language learners to reach native-level fluency if they start learning a second language after 10. But that doesn't seem to be because language skills go downhill “It turns out you're still learning fast. It's just that you run out of time, because your ability to learn starts dropping at around 17 or 18 years old,“ says study co-author Joshua Hartshorne, an assistant professor of psychology at Boston College.

Kids may be better than adults at learning new languages for many reasons. Children's brains are more plastic than those of adults, meaning they're better able to adapt and respond to new information. "All learning involves the brain changing,“ Hartshorne says, “and children's brains seem to be a lot more skilled at changing. "

These findings may seem discouraging, but it was heartening for scientists to learn that the critical （关键的）period for fluent language acquisition might be longer than they previously thought. Some scientists believed that the brief window closes shortly after birth, while others stretched it only to early adolescence. Compared to those estimates, 17 or 18 when language learning ability starts to drop off——seems old.

“People progress better when they learn by immersion （沉 浸）rather than simply in a classroom. And moving to a place where your desired language is spoken is the best way to learn as an adult. If that's not an option, you can create an immersive environment by finding ways to have conversations with native speakers in their own communities," Hartshorne says. By doing so, it's possible to become conversationally fluent——even without the advantage of a child's brain.

1. What is the most important finding of the new study?

A．The best age to learn a second language.

B．The possibility of speaking fluent language.

C．The change of language skills over the time.

D．The great approaches to learning a language.

2. Why do kids seem better than adults at learning new languages?

A．Their focus is language learning only.

B．They are more interested in languages.

C．They are more adaptable to new things.

D．Their brain always ignores big changes.

3. What is Hartshorne's advice on becoming fluent in a second language?

A．Joining friends in their learning.	B．Turning to immersive learning.
C．Studying in a quiet classroom.	D．Training the brain to a kid's brain.

4. From which part of a newspaper is the text most probably taken?

A．Science.	B．Travel
C．Health.	D．Education.

【推荐2】Kyle Cassidy and three other members of the Annenberg Running Group were stretching on the grounds of the University of Pennsylvania, waiting for a few slow members to start. The Penn colleagues and other community members meet three days a week for a roughly 30-minute jog and an occasional lecture. It's not your normal exercise chatter—during some runs, one of them delivers a talk; the topics range from the brain to Bitcoin（比特币）.

But on this day last January, it would not be their normal run. The first sign was the man who ran past them very fast. "Probably running a 7:15 pace（per mile）," Cassidy thought admiringly.

Cassidy discovered why the man was so fast at running when another man ran by, yelling "Help! He took my phone!"

Hearing that, the group did what running clubs do: They ran, chasing the suspect down the streets until he quickly hid in a construction site. The runners split up. Cassidy ran around to the far side of the site to cut the thief off while the others wandered the neighborhood hoping he had abandoned the stolen phone in a backyard.

No luck. Then they asked the residents whether they'd seen the guy. When they knocked on the door of one house, they were in for a surprise. They didn't know the thief had already come out of the construction site and was hiding behind a bush by that very house. As the owner opened the door, the suspect suddenly rushed out from behind the bush and right into the arms of the campus police, who had joined the chase shortly behind the runners.

The members of this running group are not passionate（狂热的）runners. But they do understand the benefit of a little exercise. "Running is typically a useless sport where you turn fat cells into heat," Cassidy said. "But occasionally it can be useful, and here was one of those opportunities."

1. What does the running group do at times while exercising?

A．Share ideas.	B．Talk nonsense.
C．Help search for lost things.	D．Play with their smartphones.

2. How did Cassidy feel right after the thief ran past him?

A．Confused

B．Frightened

C．Motivated

D．Impressed

3. What does the underlined phrase "split up" refer to?

A．gave up.

B．stayed up.

C．got separated

D．ran away.

4. What message can we get from the story?

A．It's very important to keep fit.

B．Exercising can be socially beneficial.

C．Whatever you do, you should do your best.

D．Teamwork is more important than individual skills.

【推荐3】Everybody, at some point in their lives, has experienced failure. It could be something as simple as not getting the job you wanted, or getting fewer marks even after hard work. But what makes you is not your failure, but how you get back up after being hit.

Once, a young school boy was caught in a fire accident in his school and was assumed that he would not live. His mother was told that he was sure to die, for the terrible fire had destroyed the lower half of his body. Even if he were to survive, he would be lame throughout his life.

But the brave boy did not want to die nor did he want to be lame. Much to the amazement of the doctor, he did survive. But unfortunately from his waist down, he had no motor ability. His thin legs just hung there, lifeless. Eventually he left the hospital. But his determination to walk was unshakable. At home, when he was not in bed, he had to stay in a wheelchair. One day, he threw himself from the chair and pulled himself across the grass, dragging his legs behind him. He reached the fence, raised himself up and then began dragging himself along the fence, firmly determined. He did this every day, with faith in himself that he would be able to walk unaided. With his iron determination, he did develop the ability to stand up, then to walk on and off, then to walk by himself and then to run.

He began to walk to school, and then run to school, to run for the joy of running. Later in college he was on the track team.

In February 1934, in New York City’s Madison Square Garden, this young man who was not expected to survive, who would surely never walk, who could never hope to run — this determined young man, Dr. Glenn Cunningham, ran the world’s fastest mile.

A good example of the power of positive(积极的) thinking and faith in oneself, Glenn Cunningham continues to be an inspiration for many, and his story, a brilliant evidence to how one can bounce back even when all difficulties are piled against one, to the degree that death seemed the preferable choice.

1. What was the doctor’s opinion about Glenn?

A．There was a little chance that Glenn could survive.

B．Great determination could make a difference to Glenn.

C．Glenn was able to walk with his own great effort

D．Glenn could live a normal life with the upper half of his body.

2. The underlined word “unaided” means ________.

A．for himself	B．without help
C．with disability	D．without hesitation

3. What do we know about Glenn?

A．Glenn took recovery exercise in hospital.

B．Glenn inspired people with his moving story.

C．Glenn won the first place in Marathon.

D．Glenn organized a track team in college.

4. What can be a suitable title for the text?

A．Stand up after failure	B．Strengthen determination
C．Go after dreams	D．Face difficulty bravely