【推荐1】Some people think that success is only for those with talent or those who grow up in the right family, and others believe that success mostly comes down to luck. I’m not going to say luck, talent, and circumstances don’t come into play because they do. Some people are born into the right family while others are born with great intelligence, and that’s just the reality of how life is.

However, to succeed in life, one first needs to set a goal and then gradually make it more practical. And, in addition to that, in order to get really good at something, one needs to spend at least 10,000 hours studying and practicing. To become great at certain things, it’ll require even more time, time that most people won’t put in.

This is a big reason why many successful people advise you to do something you love. If you don’t enjoy what you do, it is going to feel like unbearable pain and will likely make you give up well before you ever become good at it.

When you see people exhibiting some great skills or having achieved great success, you know that they have put in a huge part of their life to get there at a huge cost. It’s sometimes easy to think they got lucky or they were born with some rare talent, but thinking that way does you no good, and there’s a huge chance that you’re wrong anyway.

Whatever you do, if you want to become great at it, you need to work day in and day out, almost to the point of addiction, and over a long period of time. If you’re not willing to put in the time and work, don’t expect to receive any prize. Consistent, hard work won’t guarantee you the level of success you may want, but it will guarantee that you will become really good at whatever it is you put all that work into.

1. Paragraph 1 mainly talks about ________.

A．the reasons for success	B．the standards of success
C．the importance of success	D．what people think success is

2. Successful people suggest doing what one loves because ________.

A．work makes one feel pain	B．one tends to enjoy his work
C．it takes a lot of time to succeed	D．one gives up his work easily

3. What can we infer from Paragraph 4?

A．Successful people like to show their great skills.

B．People need to achieve success at the cost of life.

C．People sometimes succeed without luck or talent.

D．It helps to think that luck or talent leads to success.

4. What is the main theme of the passage?

A．Luck, talent and family help to achieve success.

B．One cannot succeed without time and practice.

C．Having a goal is very important to success.

D．Being good is different from being great.

【推荐1】Jim Glaub and Dylan Parker had just been handed the keys to their new Manhattan apartment on 22nd Street when the outgoing tenant (房客) said something curious: “Just so you know, there’s this thing where letters addressed to Santa come to the apartment.” The previous tenants had received the mail too. It had been coming for years, and no one knows why. “But it’s not that big a deal.”

Glaub and Parker settled into their new home, and for the first two years only a few letters trickled (缓慢增加) in from kids or parents asking “Santa” for gifts: toys, coals, dolls. Then in the months before Christmas 2010, they were deluged. Every day, they’d open their mailbox to find it full of letters to Santa. They responded to as many as they could, writing notes, even buying gifts. But they could only do so much.

Glaub, of course, is not Santa. He runs a Broadway marketing company. But one night, when he and Parker threw a Christmas party, a solution appeared. Guests noticed the hundreds of letters and asked about them.

“I told them the story,” Glaub says. His guests were interested. “A lot of people were like, ‘I’ll take a letter. I’ll fulfill it.” That’s when Glaub and Parker realized they didn’t have to fulfill all these letters themselves. “People want to help.” And so was born Miracle on 22nd Street, a community-based volunteer organization that responds to children’s letters to Santa with season’s greetings and gifts for kids.

To spread the word, they started a website, miracleon 22nd street.com. Working with other nonprofits that help those in need, they invited families from around the country to go online and request gifts and Christmas toys for children.

Glaub no longer think about why the letters come to the apartment. “It’s part of Christmas for me,” he says. “It’s the same for the kids and families. They look forward to it. It wouldn’t be Christmas without it.”

1. Why did Glaub and Parker receive so many letters during Christmas?

A．They wanted to help the kids.

B．They were rich enough to afford the gifts.

C．The previous tenant instructed them to.

D．It’s a long-lasting tradition with unknowing reasons.

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

A．Frightened.

B．Flooded.

C．Disappointed.

D．Praised.

3. How did Glaub and Parker respond to the letters?

A．They held a party to seek help from guests.

B．They spread the news by word of mouth.

C．They pooled the resources of the community.

D．They set a company to buy gifts for the need.

4. Which is a suitable title for the text?

A．Christmas Gifts from Santa	B．A Real-life Version of Santa
C．Receiving Mysterious Letters	D．The Unnoticed Act of Kindness

【推荐2】Fire Capt Kevin Lloyd arrived at the scene of a car accident in West Point, Utah, north of Salt Lake City. A pregnant woman and her screaming 2-year-old daughter were trapped in the car.

While his partner, Allen Hadley, was tending to the driver,Lloyd couldn’t get the frightened girl to calm down. He saw she was holding several bottles of nail polish, and then he had a better idea. He asked her if she wanted to paint his nails. Soon her eyes lit up. At the same time, Hadley showed up to check on the scene.

Lloyd had calmed her down and was in the process of getting his fingers painted. Then Hadley just put his hand in there. The girl began to color his nails pink. By this time, she was not only calm, but she was also happy.

The girl’s mother was not injured. She thanked them for helping her daughter feel better, and they all chuckled, looking at the nails, and took some photos.

The firefighters brought the photos back to the headquarters and showed them around. The department put them up on the social media, and thousands of people responded, with many thanking the firefighters for going out of their way to calm down a frightened girl.

Fire Chief Mark Becraft said he had been surprised at all the attention. He said he was proud of his firefighters, and added that he had known members of the department who had done many things that weren’t part of the job.

After the fact, Lloyd and Hadley had a small matter to tend to: the layers of polish on their nails. They bought a bottle of nail polish remover and used almost all of it.

1. Why was the 2-year-old girl frightened?

A．Her mother was severely injured.

B．Her nails were hurt by the bottles.

C．She suffered a traffic accident.

D．She was scared to see firefighters.

2. Which is the closest in meaning to the underlined word “chuckled” in Paragraph 4?

A．Hugged.

B．Laughed.

C．Bowed.

D．Sighed.

3. Which of the following can best describe the two firefighters?

A．Courageous.

B．Generous.

C．Determined.

D．Considerate.

4. What is the best title of the text?

A．A Traffic Accident	B．Pink Nails
C．A Frightened Girl	D．Two Firefighters

【推荐1】Many millions of tonnes of televisions, phones, and other electronic equipment are abandoned each year, partly because it’s cheaper to replace them than fix them, but also because we lack the skills to repair them. A UN report claims the 50 million tonnes of e-waste generated every year will more than double to 110 million tonnes by 2050, making it the fastest growing waste stream in the world.

However, there’s a growing trend for repair events and clubs which could be part of a solution to the growing amount of electrical and electronic junk. The BBC visited a Restart Project in London and one of its volunteers, Francesco Calo, said that “this project allow you to reduce waste, extend the life of objects, and it helps people who cannot afford to get rid of items that are developed a fault.”

As many electrical items contain valuable metals, another idea is e-waste mining. An experiment at the University of New South Wales involves extracting these materials from electronic gadgets. It’s thought that doing this could be more profitable than traditional mining. With phones typically containing as many as 60 elements, this could be part of the solution to our appetite for new technology.

These projects make total sense-collections of e-waste for recycling are “stagnating or even decreasing” according to Ruediger Kuehr, of the United Nations University. And in countries where there is no legislation, much of it just gets dumped. However, the European Union, for example, is trying to tackle the problem by insisting manufacturers have to make appliances longer-lasting and will have to supply spare parts for machines for up to 10 years.

1. What does the underlined word “generate” in paragraph I mean?

A．kept	B．invented
C．produced	D．introduced

2. Which of the following statements is true?

A．We must fix electronic equipment instead of replacing them.

B．Many electronic items contain more than 60 elements.

C．A Restart Project helps people learn to repair electronic items..

D．E-waste is the fastest growing waste stream in the world.

3. Which is the following is the best title for the passage?

A．Solving the problem of e-waste	B．Reducing the use of electrical items
C．Recycling electronic equipment	D．Getting rid of electrical and electronic junk

4. What can be inferred from the passage?

A．Repairing electrical items is the main solution to e-waste.

B．Longer-lasting electronic products will appear in the future European Market.

C．E-waste generated every year has doubled to 110 million tonnes.

D．E-waste mining will gradually take the place of traditional mining.

【推荐2】The phone rang. I waited for the answering machine to get it, but for some reason, it was not picking up. I sighed, annoyed because I knew the call was either going to be for my wife, Susan (she was the only one who received calls on the home line, and she left to take Alyce to school ten minutes ago), or it was the latest of 300 attempts to sell me something I had absolutely no interest in.

''Hello, '' I said, an edge in my voice. 12-year-old daughter, ''Mommy was just in a car accident. '' My heart stopped and then began pounding. ''Are you all right? '' ''Yes. '' ''Is Mommy? '' A deep sob. ''I don't know…I don't think so. Come quick. '' I rushed a few blocks to what looked like a shoot for a disaster movie. Fire engines, police cars, and ambulances were randomly parked in the street; helicopters circled. A city bus was on the wrong side of the road. In front of it were the smashed remains of Susan's car. Susan was pinned under the dashboard (仪表盘). There was no front windshield (挡风玻璃).

Alyce was standing on the corner crying, covered in tiny pieces of glass but uninjured. Inconceivable! Susan wasn’t so lucky. But she was alive. It turned out that she had broken nearly every bone in her body, and she would spend almost three months in the hospital.

More than two years later, Susan and I were at a musical event. Our director, Danny, rushed up to us. He said excitedly, ''There's a woman here tonight from one of the church choirs who you have to meet! '' He returned with an African American woman with a bright, glowing smile. She told us she lived in the apartment building by where the accident had happened. That morning, she had rushed to the street, still in her bathrobe, and seen Alyce standing by the side of the wrecked car, crying. She approached her, asking, ''Is that your mom in there? '' Alyce nodded, and the woman said, ''Let's pray together. ''

Sweet, innocent Alyce looked at this woman wearing a cross around her neck and told her that she needed to call me, but her backpack with her phone was trapped inside the crushed vehicle. So the woman lent Alyce her phone. After the accident, she said, she had continued to pray for our family. We had our picture taken together, and as we were saying goodbye, she hugged us all warmly. We realized we had never been formally introduced, so she said to me, ''I'm sorry, I never got your name. '' I told her it was Doug, and she paused, as if maybe she hadn't heard me. I repeated, ''Doug, like Douglas. '' She looked at us and said, ''Wait, your name is Susan? '' Susan nodded. ''And your name is Douglas? '' The woman put her hand over her heart. ''Oh my goodness, '' she said. ''My name is Susan Douglas. ''

1. Which of the following is true according to the passage?

A．Both the author's wife and the daughter were not severely injured.

B．The author was calm when he heard about the accident.

C．The author was the only one who received calls on home line.

D．The author rushed to the accident like a shoot.

2. What does the underlined word inconceivable refer to in the 3^rd passage?

A．Innocent.	B．Unconscious.
C．Incredible.	D．Unfortunate.

3. Why did the African American woman want to see the author's family?

A．They were from the same church choir.

B．She witnessed the whole accident and offered to help two years ago.

C．She shared the same first name with the author's wife.

D．She would like to talk about her experience and had a picture taken.

4. What is the best title of the article?

A．The Bus Crash Angel	B．The Unwanted Call
C．An Expected Crash	D．A Fun Encounter

【推荐3】In many ways, Alma Deutscher is like other 11-year-olds. She loves to climb trees, dance, read, and draw. But Alma, who lives in Dorking, England, has made one very special achievement. She has composed a full opera and brought it to the stage. Her opera, a retelling of Cinderella (灰姑娘), premiered (首次演出) in December 2016, in Vienna, Austria.

“I’ve loved Cinderella since I was 3,” Alma said. But she felt the story needed an improvement. “I didn’t like the thing about the shoe,” she says. “Why should the prince find her because of her feet?”

In Alma’s version (版本), Cinderella is a composer. She creates a melody (旋律) that she sings to the prince before fleeing the ball. “He remembers the beginning but not how it went on,” Alma says. The prince realizes that only Cinderella would know how the melody continues. He uses that knowledge to find her.

Alma began writing the opera when she was 8. It premiered on December 29, 2016, and the audience stood up and cheered. Alma played the piano and violin and performed in the show. “It was something that was completely inside my head, in my imagination, and then it came to life,” Alma says.

Alma says she is sure that music will remain a major part of her life. “I have lots of things that I want to compose,” she says. “The first one is a piano concerto (协奏曲). Then I’m writing a novel, and I want to write a movie based on it, and the music for that.”

She also has advice for kids who want to achieve their big dreams. “It’s a lot of work to reach a high level,” Alma says. “But if you love what you are doing, it doesn’t feel like hard work. Don’t let anyone stop you from doing it.”

1. What does the author mostly want to tell us about Alma Deutscher in Paragraph 1?

A．She is a cute girl.	B．She lives in Vienna Austria.
C．She has a special music talent.	D．She is always ready to help others.

2. What can we learn from Alma’s version of Cinderella?

A．The prince knows how the melody continues.

B．The prince finds Cinderella because of a melody.

C．The prince finds Cinderella because of her shoes.

D．The prince sings a melody to Cinderella before her fleeing the ball.

3. How was the performance of Alma’s Opera Cinderella?

A．It was a great success.	B．It disappointed the audience.
C．It set a good example for other kids.	D．It was something in Alma’s imagination.

4. What can we learn from Alma’s advice to other kids in the last paragraph?

A．Knowledge is power.	B．A good beginning is half done.
C．Failure is the mother of success.	D．Nothing is difficult if you’re enthusiastic.

【推荐1】For two centuries, the famous University of Cambridge debating society has hosted many prominent figures, from world leaders to scientists to comedians.

On Nov 21, the Cambridge Union hosted its first-ever non-human guest. Designed by IBM, Project Debater is a machine that uses Artificial Intelligence (AI) to form a spoken argument. It can even listen and answer to opposing statements, much like a real person.

Speaking with a voice similar to Siri, Project Debater uses AI to search journals, newspapers and other information sources. It then filters out(过滤) useless information, picks the strongest arguments, and arranges them into a persuasive argument.

“In the Cambridge test debate, it argued the topic: AI will ultimately do more harm than good. According to IBM, it is the first machine that can debate complicated topics with humans.

Before the debate, more than 1,100 arguments for the positives and negatives of AI were submitted to the IBM website. The machine then analyzed these sources and formed the basis of its arguments in minutes. Project Debater then showed off its AI by arguing for both sides of the debate.

Over a four-minute speech, it argued first that, “AI can only make decisions that it has been programmed to solve, while humans can be programmed for all plots, possible events.”

In support of AI, it then argued that AI would create new jobs and “bring a lot more efficiency” to the workplace.

This isn’t the first test for Project Debater. In June 2018, the machine went back-and-forth for 20 minutes against champion debater Harish Natarajan.

According to New Scientist, on both occasions, Project Debater repeated points and didn’t always sufficiently support them.

Speaking to Cambridge Independent, Noam Slonim, the project’s lead engineer, said, “The AI is not perfect, but it’s going in the right direction.” The team hopes to improve the AI by researching why humans find certain arguments more persuasive than others.

1. In which way does Project Debater behave like a real person?

A．It can listen and answer to opposing statements.

B．It can speak with a voice similar to Siri.

C．It can create various useful sources.

D．It can deal with any situation.

2. What were prepared for the machine before the Cambridge test debate?

A．Analyzed sources.

B．Useless messages.

C．Materials for arguments.

D．Items about human debaters.

3. We can infer from the text that _________.

A．AI did better than humans in arguments

B．the machine had rich ideas to support its points

C．the machine beat Harish Natarajan in the first test

D．AI needs more persuasive arguments in debates

4. What is Noam Slonim’s attitude to the AI ?

A．Supportive.	B．Unconfident.
C．Negative.	D．Indifferent.

【推荐2】Africa Water Week -nearly one billion people around the world have no access to drinking water, that lack of clean water association with un-proper hygiene and shortage of toilets kills 3. 3 million a year. And this is a common problem in many parts of the developing world, but its effect is not widely known, according to experts at the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting.

As part of the World Water Day tradition, the center is screening films about international water issues at the Environmental Film Festival in Washington, D. C. The films describe a variety of conflicts over water.

“The challenge in presenting these films,” says Peter Sawyer, project coordinator at the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting, “is to share with a wider audience the urgent issues surrounding water. Our goal for this screening is to just get these issues out there,” he says. “We don't feel that they attract public attention and we think that they should because they are really important.”

In Dhaka's Challenge, filmmaker Stephen Sapienza explores one of the fastest growing cities in Asia. He says one-third of the 15 million people in the Bangladeshi capital live in places where safe water is limited. Each year 400, 000 newcomers join Dhaka's urban poor. City water from Dhaka's Water and Sewer Authority (WASA) comes at a price, available only to land owners. The film records how a non-profit group helped change the law to give the same equal water rights to the urban poor.

Diabalok Sing Ha, who is the group's founder, said, “A win-win situation actually occurred because Dhaka WASA wanted their incomes and on the other hand, poor people wanted the service and they immediately see the economic advantage of getting Dhaka WASA water supply because that is cheap, so they immediately buy in.”

“My story was just trying to point out that these problems are solvable on some level even if you have to start small and it's possible in the long run to save many lives,” says Sapienza.

1. Which of the following is the main purpose of the films?

A．To show the number of people lacking clean water.

B．To let more people know the serious water problems.

C．To attract people to pay attention to the world conflicts.

D．To get people to have a good knowledge of water.

2. What does Paragraph 4 mainly talk about?

A．Ways to get cheap water.	B．The film Dhaka's Challenge.
C．Filmmaker Stephen Sapienza.	D．A non-profit group.

3. Which of the following does Diabalok Sing Ha agree with?

A．Most people can't afford the water supply.

B．Rich people in Dhaka will buy in at once.

C．Poor people in Dhaka need the service of water.

D．Dhaka WAS A will see soon the economic advantage.

4. What does Sapienza intend to tell us by making the film Dhaka's Challenge?

A．The problem of water can possibly be solved.

B．All the people cannot get city water from WASA.

C．A win-win situation is expected by every filmmaker.

D．Dhaka WASA is very popular with the local people.

【推荐3】

Video calls are a common occurrence, but have you imagined being able to touch the person on the other end of the line? Scientists are making this a reality.

Researchers at the University of new South Wales, Australia have invented a soft skin stretch device(SSD). A haptic device that can recreate the sense of touch. Haptic technology mimics the experience of touch by stimulating localized areas of the skin in ways that are similar to what is felt in the real world, through force, vibration or motion.

Vibration is the most common haptic technology today and has been built into many electronic devices such as one attached to the back of the trackpad(触摸板) in laptops, which simulates a button clicking. However, haptic feedback with vibration becomes less sensitive when used continuously. The existing technology also has great difficulty recreating the sense of touch with objects in virtual environments or located remotely. According to Mai Thanh Thai, lead author of the study.

The new technology overcomes issues with existing haptic devices. The research team introduced a novel method to recreate the sense of touch through a soft artificial “muscles”.

“Our three-way directional skin stretch device, built into the fingertips of the wearable glove we also created is like wearing a second skin-- its soft stretchable and mimics the sense of touch-- and will enable new forms of haptic communication to enhance everyday activities”said Thanh Nho Do, senior author of the study.

Imagine you are at home and you call your friend who is in Australia. You wear a haptic glove with the SSDs, and your friends also wears a glove with integrated 3D force sensors. If your friend picks up an object, it will physically press against your friend’s fingers. And their glove with 3D force sensors will measure with interactions. The force signals can be sent to your glove so your device will generate the same 3D forces. Making you experience the same sense of touch as your friend.

The haptic devices could be applied in various situations, allowing users to feel objects inside a virtual world or at a distance. It could also be used in medical practices. Doctors can feel a patient's organ tissues. With surgical tools without touching them.

1. What does the passage imply?

A．SSDs become less sensitive when used continuously.

B．SSDs can recreate the sense of touch without vibration.

C．SSDs have great advantages over existing haptic devices.

D．SSDs can help users touch the person through video calls.

2. Paragraph 6 mainly tells us about.________

A．How the device works.

B．Why the device is used

C．What the device creates

D．How the device is invented

3. How does the author think of the prospect of SSDs?

A．hopeless	B．uncertain.
C．worrying.	D．cheerful.

4. What does the passage mainly talk about?

A．A glove that can measure some interactions.

B．A sensor that can imitate touch at a distance.

C．A device that can recreate the sense of touch.

D．A tool could be applied in medical practices.