Next time you hold a book in your hands, stop and think. Like most ____ things in the modern world, it is the result of thousands of years of human invention.

First came the invention of ____, probably about 5,500 years ago. With writing, people did not have to remember everything in their heads. They could share their knowledge with future generations and ____ with people that they never saw.

Later, the Greeks were well-known for their literature and science, but their “books” looked very different. They were called scrolls（卷轴）. They were differently ____ and took up a lot of space.

About 2,000 years ago, books with lots of pages ____. For more than a thousand years, the pages of books were made with animal skin. And that changed in ____ century. At that time, the Europeans learnt about a ____ Chinese invention: paper. Then the biggest change for books in Europe came in the 1440s; ____ Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing machine. Before that, people in Europe copied books by hand, so they were very expensive. With a printing machine, people were able to produce more books easily. So it was possible for more and more people to afford the books.

These days ____ is difficult to imagine a world without books. But human invention never ____. Every year, more and more people buy e-books to read stories on the screen.

Will anyone turn the pages of a traditional book in the future, or will books, like scrolls, soon disappear?

1.

A．another

B．other

C．the others

2.

A．write

B．wrote

C．writing

3.

A．communicated

B．communicate

C．communicating

4.

A．to use

B．use

C．used

5.

A．appear

B．appeared

C．would appear

6.

A．thirteen

B．thirteenth

C．the thirteenth

7.

A．practical

B．practice

C．practically

8.

A．if

B．when

C．but

9.

A．that

B．this

C．it

10.

A．stops

B．to stop

C．stopped

If you are joining in chat room conversations, or writing e-mails with net pals（网友）, you are one of the millions who write in a special, short form of English.

Throughout the world, every night children and their elders are “talking” online—many of them are talking at the same time.

It’s fast: trying talking to six people once. It’s easy: three or four words per exchange. It takes cleverness and quick fingers.

And it requires very simple language. There’s neither time nor space for explanations. Why waste valuable time telling six friends you have to leave for a moment to take care of your little brother when BRB（=be right back）will do?

Want to enter a conversation? Just type PMFJI（=pardon me for jumping in）.

Interested in whom you’re talking to? Type A/S/L, the common request（要求）to know your pal’s age, sex（性别）and location（地点）. You may get 15/M/NY as a reply from your pal.

If something makes you laugh, say you’re OTF（=on the floor）, or LOL（=laughing out loud）, or join the two into ROTFL（=rolling on the floor laughing）.

And when it’s time to get back to work or go to bed, you type GTG（=got to go）or TTYL（=talk to you later）.

People want to write as fast as possible, and they want to get their ideas across as quickly as they can. Capital （大写字母）letters are left in the dust, except when expressing feelings, as it takes more time to hold down the “shift” key and use capitals. Punctuation（标点）is going too.

11. The sentence “There’s neither time nor space for explanations” means ________.

A．people should use words properly

B．people should communicate in a funny way

C．people online can express themselves in a simple way

D．people should know what time it is when they are talking

12. If you get 17/F/NY as an answer to your A/S/L, it means ________.

A．you are talking to 17 girls who are from New York

B．you are talking to a girl who is 17 and lives in New York

C．the people you are talking to is a 17-foot tall New York girl

D．the people on the other end is 17 from New York and he is fine

13. Which of the following is a way to save online time?

A．People only use the mouse instead of the keyboard.

B．Many people draw pictures instead of typing letters.

C．People never use the “shift” key as it takes more time.

D．People seldom use capital letters or punctuation marks.

http: //www.wss.edu.cn/events/inventioncompetition     Sign in     Join us home     
About the school     Event     Contact
Invention Competition
CALLING ALL INVENTORS!
Event details
The Invention Competition, one of the biggest events for students organized by the science club, is now waiting for you to attend!
All works will be displayed in the Students’ Center. You can go there and vote for your favorites between March 1st and March 5th. We will announce the results on March 15th, the last day of the Science Week.
Prizes will be awarded to inventions that:
•are the most creative   •are the most helpful   •are the best use of waste materials
How to enter
Interested students should fill out an entry form（报名表）. You can either put it in the box outside the school office or send it to inventiooomDetitioo@wss.edu.cn before January 15th.
Please include the following information:
•Your full name     •Your class number     •A brief introduction of your invention     •Your ID number
Please submit （提交）your invention on or before February 28th.
Rules
•Original inventions only. You should make sure that you don’t copy inventions that already exist（存在）.
•You should only be allowed to submit one invention. Select（挑选）the best idea.
•You may enter for the competition as an individual（个体）or as a team of no more than four students.
•You can make changes before the voting（投票选举）period starts. Once the inventions are displayed for voting, you cannot make any changes.
14. A student may vote for his favorite inventions ________.

A．on January 10th

B．on February 28th

C．on March 3rd

D．on March 15th

15. The inventions that ________ may get a reward.

A．use recycled materials	B．look interesting
C．are beautiful	D．made by yourself

16. You should give the following information in the entry form except ________.

A．your English name	B．your class number
C．introduction of your invention	D．your students’ ID number

17. According to the material, “original inventions” are inventions that ________.

A．look strange	B．are one has made before
C．students seldom see	D．students create by hand

A bat and a ball cost $1.10 in total. The bat costs l.00 more than the ball. How much does the ball cost?

If you answered 10 cents, you are not alone—most people give the same answer（the answer is wrong）. It’s an example of how we often depend on intuitive responses（直觉反应）—answers we feel are true. People give answers that “pop into their mind,” says cognitive scientist Steven Sloman. We don’t spend much time “reflecting and checking whether the answer…is right or wrong.”

The bat and ball question helps explain why we often believe in fake（虚假的）news. It is part of human nature to believe, says Sloman. But “the trick with fake news is to know to verify”—in other words, to stop and check what you know.

In one experiment, Sloman and a colleague invented a discovery called helium rain. They told a group of volunteers about it, but they did not fully explain what it was. They then asked the volunteers to rate（评等级）their own understanding of helium rain. Most volunteers rated themselves 1 out of 7, meaning they didn’t understand it.

The researchers then told another group of volunteers about the discovery. This time, they said the scientists could full y explain how it works. The volunteers gave an average answer of 2. The scientists’ confidence gave the volunteers an increased sense of their own understanding of it, Sloman says.

According to Sloman, studies show that knowledge spreads like a contagion（接触传染）. This idea can be seen in many fields, including politics（政治）. “If everyone around you is saying they understand why a politician is dishonest,” Sloman Bays, “then you are going to start thinking that you understand, too.”

So, in a world where misleading information is common, is there a way to protect ourselves? “I don’t think it’s possible to train persons to check everything that they encounter（遇到）,” Sloman admitted. “It is just too human to believe what you are told.”

However, training people to care about fact-checking is important, he argued, especially in online communities. Think of the headlines and stories that are shared on your social media feed every day. Probably these fit in with your own worldview—but perhaps not all of them are true.

“We should check things and not just take them at face value,” Sloman said, “Make sure if it is true before you believe.”

18. The writer uses the example of the bat and ball question to show that ________.

A．people often forget skills that they have learned at school

B．there is often more than one possible answer to a question

C．many people give quick responses without thinking carefully

D．people sometimes are too careless to get the right answers

19. How much does the ball cost?

A．5 cent.

B．10 cent.

C．15 cent.

D．20 cent.

20. More volunteers said they could understand helium rain after ________.

A．some of the volunteers explained it to them

B．Sloman and his colleague showed them how it works

C．they heard that scientists could explain it confidently

D．they examined the conclusion carefully by themselves

21. What does the writer probably agree?

A．It is important to do an experiment based on scientific research.

B．The second group of volunteers are more confident than the first.

C．People can be cheated easily because of too much fake news.

D．People should be trained to check before they believe something.

As we all know that recycling is a way to take rubbish and turn it into new products. It’s good for our environment.

There are a number of different recycling steps that allow materials to be used more than once. All kinds of materials can be recycled. Some of the most common things in use today include recycling plastic, glass, metals and paper. Things made of these materials include soda cans, plastic milk boxes, newspapers, computers and cardboard boxes.

Be sure to recycle everything you can in your house and school. There is almost a “recycle” rubbish can around. Be sure to drop your used aluminum(铝) cans and plastic bottles there. At home, be sure to put paper things like the newspapers, paper boxes, and homework pages into the recycle box. Plastics are usually marked with an identification code(标识码) that shows a recycling symbol and a number from 1 to 7. This shows that the type of chemicals(化学品), or materials, is used in making the plastic. Used paper can be recycled around seven times.

Also we should set up a recycle station in every street, across the city and the country, so the cleaners can transport the rubbish conveniently. This is the only way out for handling rubbish without causing danger to the environment and our health.

Remember: There are a number of advantages for recycling. These include: Landfills—Recycling materials means less rubbish and saves space in landfills. Resources—When we use materials again, this means we can take fewer resources from the earth. Pollution—In general, recycling materials can produce less pollution, helping to keep our environment clean. So, for ourselves, our children and our children’s children, let’s take action NOW!

22. What’s the key word in this passage?

A．Reused

B．Recycling.

C．Rubbish.

D．Materials.

23. What are recycling’s advantages according to Paragraph 5?
①using fewer resources ②saving more space ③saving more money ④producing less pollution

A．①②③

B．②③④

C．①③④

D．①②④

24. What does the underlined word “handling” in Paragraph 4 mean?

A．Giving up.

B．Dealing with.

C．Taking out.

D．Looking for.

25. The structure of this passage is ________.（①=paragraph1)

A．	B．
C．	D．

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.

Last week the electricity in my flat went out.     26     My daily evening is spent watching TV and scrolling（滚动）through social media（社交媒体）. That night this wasn’t possible. My roommate and I weren’t prepared with candles and matches. We just depend on electricity.

So for me it was an early night.     27     That night, losing our electricity felt like losing a basic necessity, as basic as running water. But really, electricity is a thing that we’ve grow n to take for granted（认为……理所当然）. I use electricity all the time, even when it’s not really necessary.     28     And as I’m writing this, I have my lights on, even in the middle of the day when I don’t really need them.

    29     It leads to global warming. It is harming our environment and we need to do what we can to stop it. Not only that, but if we continue to use the same large amount of energy, we will soon run out of it.

How would we survive in a world without electricity? Our daily lives go around it. Lots of things wouldn’t be able to work as usual.     30     So, shouldn’t we start preparing for it now? Cutting down on our use of electricity would save energy resources so that they could last for longer. And if everyone does it, we can make a big difference.

A．Yet we know one day we will run out of it.

B．Our overuse of electricity is a big problem.

C．This left me in complete darkness the whole night.

D．I couldn’t help thinking “Do we depend too much on electricity?”

E．I turn on the TV in the background even when I’m not watching it.