From tiny seeds, great discoveries grow. A mini—garden carried on China’s Chang’e 4 moon lander recently became home to the first plant to grow on another world.
This is yet another success for Chang’e 4. On January 3, the probe became the first lander to touch down on the far side of the moon. This is the unknown face of the moon that is always looking away from us, so we never see it from down here on the earth. Although it is often regarded as the dark side of the moon, the far side actually gets as much sunshine as the near side. For example, when all we can see is a silver sliver of a new moon, the far side of the moon is in full sunlight.
Part of Chang’e 4’s mission is to see how a moon base could be built for humans, including exploring whether humans could grow food and other plant products there. Chang’e 4 carried a mini—garden with air, water and soil with seeds planted in it. When plants shoot on the earth, their stems grow away from the gravity, and so they always shoot upwards. The moon’s gravity is a sixth as strong as the earth’s, so Chang’e 4’s experiment was a test: would the earth plants know which way was up on the moon? Four days after landing, a tiny cotton shoot showed that they do.
Night has now fallen on the far side of the moon; Sunlight will not return until the start of February. As a result, the cotton shoots died. Besides the darkness, the plants can’t stand the cold (it can drop to —170℃ on the moon at night). However, the experiment is a success, since it has proved that it is possible for plants to grow in space.
1. The text is mainly about ________.| A．another success for Chang’e 4 | B．Chang’e 4 moon lander |
| C．tiny seeds in the soil | D．the steps of an experiment |
| A．It landed on the near side of the moon. | B．It carried a mini—garden. |
| C．It found plants on the moon. | D．It explored the moon base. |
| A．the far side of the moon gets less sunlight |
| B．we can see the far side of the moon from the earth |
| C．the stems fail to grow away from the earth’s gravity |
| D．the earth plants know the way to grow on the moon |
| A．Plants can be grown on the moon soon. | B．It is perfect to do experiments on the moon. |
| C．The cotton shoots can last 4 days on the moon. | D．We can see a new moon at the start of February. |
2 . Do Dogs Dream?
Unlike cartoon images (图像、影像), real dogs don’t speak and describe their sleep. So you may wonder: do dogs dream like their owners?
A scientific research conducted at MIT found that during sleep, brains of humans and dogs work in a similar manner. When you or your dog first falls asleep, you experience SWS—slow wave(波) sleep—when the brain waves are slow but muscles (肌肉) are still active. Later a deeper stage of sleep happens. This stage is called REM sleep — rapid eye movements sleep. During REM, muscles are more relaxed, but the mind is more active. It was proved that both humans and dogs experience these two stages of the sleep circle. Since we know that humans dream, it is safe to conclude(做出结论) that dogs dream too.
Scientists found that as a dog falls asleep, his breathing becomes deeper and more regular(规则的). After about 20 minutes in REM sleep, dreams usually begin for normal dogs. While dreaming, the dog’s breathing may become weak and irregular, and his eyes move about behind the closed lids (眼睑) as if the dog is looking at something. By comparing brain wave patterns, researchers suggested that during REM, dogs are visualizing (呈现) dream images much like humans do during this stage of sleep.
Besides, it also found that during REM, the sleeping brain operates much like it does when awake, so both man and dogs dream about things that happen during their waking hours. Information gathered during the day is processed at night and may be relived in dreams. So your dog may “sleep run” as he runs after a cat or fetches a ball.
Studies also show that some dogs dream more than others, and the frequency and length of dreams are different according to the age and size of dogs. Young puppies usually experience more dreams than adult dogs. One possible reason is that puppies get huge amounts (数量) of new information daily and have much to process at night. Among dogs of the same age, smaller dogs seem to have more dreams than their bigger friends, but their dreams may last shorter. Dream length and frequency are also related to the amount of sleep required. A dog that has an active day outside may sleep more soundly than usual and experience longer periods of REM sleep, giving him more time to dream.
1. What happens to the dogs during REM sleep?| A．Their muscles stay active. | B．Their dreams take place. |
| C．Their brain waves are slow. | D．Their mind is more relaxed. |
| A．breathes regularly | B．opens the lids |
| C．visualizes images | D．gathers information |
| A．Required. | B．Reviewed. | C．Repaired. | D．Researched. |
| A．Why dogs dream like humans. | B．What bigger dogs dream about. |
| C．Why young puppies have more dreams. | D．What causes the differences of dogs’ dreams. |
3 . Rainforests are home to a rich variety of medicinal plants, food, birds and animals. Can you believe that a single bush in the Amazon may have more species of ants than the whole of Britain! About 480 varieties of trees may be found in just one hectare of rainforest.
Rainforests are the lungs of the planet-storing vast quantities of carbon dioxide and producing a significant amount of the world’s oxygen. Rainforests have their own perfect system for ensuring their own survival; the tall trees make a canopy (树冠层) of branches and leaves which protect themselves, smaller plants, and the forest animals from heavy rain, intense dry heat from the sun and strong winds.
Amazingly, the trees grow in such a way that their leaves and branches, although close together, never actually touch those of another tree. Scientists think this is the plants’ way to prevent the spread of any tree diseases and make life more difficult for leaf-eating insects like caterpillars. To survive in the forest, animals must climb, jump or fly across the gaps. The ground floor of the forest is not all tangled leaves and bushes, like in films, but is actually fairly clear. It is where dead leaves turn into food for the trees and other forest life.
They are not called rainforests for nothing! Rainforests can generate 75% of their own rain. At least 80 inches of rain a year is normal-and in some areas there may be as much as 430 inches of rain annually. This is real rain-your umbrella may protect you in a shower, but it won’t keep you dry if there is a full rainstorm. In just two hours, streams can rise ten to twenty feet. The humidity (湿气) of large rainforests contributes to the formation of rainclouds that may travel to other countries in need of rain.
1. What can we learn about rainforests from the first paragraph?| A．They produce oxygen. | B．They cover a vast area. |
| C．They are well managed. | D．They are rich in wildlife. |
| A．Heavy rains. | B．Big trees. | C．Small plants. | D．Forest animals. |
| A．For more sunlight. | B．For more growing space. |
| C．For self-protection. | D．For the detection of insects. |
| A．Life-Giving Rainforests | B．The Law of the Jungle |
| C．Animals in the Amazon | D．Weather in Rainforests |
4 . I’m definitely a morning person. I’ve realized how much I can actually get done first things in the morning, between 5 a.m. and 7 a.m. That, for me, is the sweet spot. I honestly get more done in those two hours than I often do the rest（其余的）of the day. I’ve developed a habit that helps me be productive（效率）and it includes what I call the law（定律）of first things. This same law is followed by people far more productive than I am, including Bill Gates, Howard Schultz and Jeff Bezos.
Essentially, the law of first things says that whatever you do when you first get up in the morning influences your productivity for the rest of the day. For many of the most productive people，that first thing is often not work. And it shouldn’t be for you either.
Let’s consider the morning habits of these highly productive people. Bill Gates says he starts his day on the treadmill(跑步机)，watching educational DVDs. Howard Schultz likes to get up early to exercise, often cycling, before getting started with work. Jeff Bezos, famously, prefers to not have business meetings until around 10 a.m., instead, he makes time for other things at home first.
Most of us get out of bed, pick up our phone and immediately start reading emails or our news feeds. That means that from the moment we wake up, we’re already responding(回应) to the outside world instead of creating space for ourselves to allow our bodies and our minds to practice.
That space matters, and whatever you do first sets the direction you go throughout your day. If that thing is responding to an email from someone who feels it is important, you may never get back to the important things you need to do. You should start your day with something other than work. You might end up surprised by how much you get done.
1. Why does the writer think he’s a morning person?| A．He finishes all his work in the morning. |
| B．He has a lot of work to do in the morning. |
| C．He does things more productively in the morning. |
| D．He’d always like to do some exercise in the morning, |
| A．telling stories | B．giving examples |
| C．asking questions | D．explaining differences |
| A．what to do in the morning |
| B．how to start the day right |
| C．why to pay attention to starting the day |
| D．where to spend the morning time |
| A．We always practice our bodies and minds when we get up. |
| B．Watching educational DVDs is a good choice to start the day. |
| C．It’s important to wake up to respond to the outside world. |
| D．We should learn to use the first hours of the day wisely. |
5 . “Fear is good.”
Fear is the bad feeling that one has when he is in danger or when a particular thing frightens him. A German proverb goes, “Fear makes the wolf bigger than he is.” This is absolutely true as fear will often cause people to imagine the worst and act irrationally. In that case, can fear be any good?
Personally, I think a small amount of fear is good and even necessary as it not only acts as a form of control and prevention but also serves to motivate oneself. Nevertheless, being overly fearful is bad as it will severely hamper man’s progress. In this essay, I will discuss how fear can be a double-edged sword, bringing both advantages and disadvantages to man.
Fear is good as it prevents people from doing dangerous acts and prompts them to control and regulate their behavior. Next, fear is good as it is a powerful motivator. For individuals such as students and businessmen, the fear of failure will prompt them to work hard and put in their best effort in their studies and business undertakings. This will lead to results and progress.
Although fear is good, man must keep in mind that too much fear may be harmful to his development. Being overly fearful of the unknown and intangible will prevent people from venturing into areas previously unexplored. For example, in the area of space exploration, Apollo 11 would have never landed the first humans on the moon if they had let fear get in the way of their dream. As the late John F. Kennedy once said, “We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things not because they are easy, but because they are hard.” To achieve great feats, man must learn to conquer (战胜) his fear and find the courage to overcome the difficulties that life presents. Only then can the human race continue to make progress and enjoy the sweet smell of success.
In sum, fear is good as it will finally lead to a well-controlled and motivated society. Nevertheless, people must keep in mind that they should not be clouded by fear as it will stop their progress. I believe that a small dose of fear and a good deal of courage will make a great man as such a man will have the spirit to pursue his goals and the sense to act responsibly in the process.
1. The writer mentions Apollo 11 in Paragraph 4 to show that ________.| A．people can overcome fears that life presents |
| B．people should not be overly afraid of the unknown areas |
| C．exploring the space is a good way to overcome fears |
| D．exploration helps us to realize our dreams |
| A．Failure in business can lead to good results. |
| B．Fear can help people learn to behave properly. |
| C．Failure in studies can help the students make great progress. |
| D．Fear of failure in studies can encourage students to study hard. |
| A．To advise us to be neither overly fearful nor completely fearless. |
| B．To explain why a little amount of fear is of benefit to people. |
| C．To introduce the ways of preventing us from being overly fearful. |
| D．To encourage us to overcome fears and act responsibly. |
6 . Some teenagers think that newspapers are boring and only for adults. But that’s not true. There are many interesting stories in the paper. You just need to make clear what you are looking at. “I spend about half an hour reading newspapers every day,” said 15-year-old Gao Ming from Beijing. “I’m interested in things happening at school.” School news is just one kind of news story in newspapers. There’s also world news from international problems to pop stars. Read the newspaper carefully, we’ll find different types of articles on the pages.
News stories — these stories are about events. Reporters try to show all points of a story to help readers understand what happened. Reporters try to speak to as many people as possible. They also use pictures and numbers to show the readers that the stories are true. The newspaper has lots of news stories on the news page and front page. When we read them, we learn more about the facts, not the writers’ ideas.
Opinion writing — opinion writing is usually about something happening right now. But it isn’t just facts. Here writers add their own opinions to the news. Writers pick only the facts that help back up their ideas. They make readers believe that they are telling the truth. This is usually the kind of story that gets people thinking. Go to “Speak Out” on Page Two for an example of opinion writing in Teenagers.
Advertisement — Don’t get happy too early when you read them. Those sweet words and lovely pictures are just ways to get us interested in their products! People have to pay to put advertisements in newspapers!
1. The underlined sentence in the first paragraph means that the readers ______.| A．should understand interesting news stories | B．should know which kind of things to read |
| C．need to look at the school news first | D．must know the contents of all the news |
| A．to understand | B．to remember | C．to agree with | D．to speak out |
| A．in advertisements | B．in the school news | C．in opinion writing | D．on the front page |
| A．interested in | B．against | C．worried about | D．careful of |
| A．reporters write different kinds of news | B．teenagers get interested in newspapers |
| C．readers can read newspapers in better ways | D．readers can deal with different kinds of news in newspapers |
7 . Artificial intelligence (AI) products are not new. However，researchers have been working to improve the technology. Now virtual (虚拟的) assistants, like Siri and Alexa, can have short conversations with us. AlphaGo taught itself to play Go and became better than the top human players.
Now an AI system has been tasked with passing a multiple-choice exam. The goal is to improve machines' language understanding and logic with so-called computer vision (计算机视觉).
A system named Aristo was developed by the Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence, a lab in the United States city of Seattle. It recently passed an eighth-grade science exam taken by many US students. The New York Times reported. It correctly answered more than 90 percent of the questions. Then it was given a twelfth-grade exam. It scored more than 80 percent.
It's an example of the progress in AI development. Four years ago, 700 computer scientists tried to develop AI systems that could pass these kinds of exams. None scored higher than 60 percent.
Aristo was able to pass the exams because it can not only understand language but also use logical thinking to solve problems. For example, it can understand what a forest fire is and how it could endanger animals like squirrels or decrease the food supply they need.
The system used BERT, a kind of neural network technology developed by Google, to answer the questions. BERT has "read" thousands of English articles. If it looks at a sentence with a missing word, it can correctly guess what the word is. With BERT's help, Aristo "read' many multiple-choice questions and answers. Over time, it was able to find logical patterns on its own.
"It may still be in the earliest stages," said Jingjing Liu, a Microsoft researcher who has been working on similar technologies. "We can't compare this technology to real human students and their ability to reason."
However, Aristo's success means that AI systems are getting better at understanding users, and we might see improved search engines and hospital databases in the near future.
1. What does the underlined word "it" refer to in paragraph 3?| A．The city of Seattle | B．Aristo | C．A lab in Seattle | D．The Allen Institute |
| A．It was smarter than most US students. | B．It could only deal with science questions. |
| C．It was best at understanding English. | D．It did better than other AI systems in similar tasks. |
| A．How Aristo teaches itself. | B．How Aristo reads English articles |
| C．How Aristo is developed. | D．How difficult it was to design Aristo |
| A．AI will soon replace humans in many tasks. |
| B．Aristo still cannot compare to human reasoning skills. |
| C．Humans can't live without Al in the future. |
| D．Aristo performs better with a larger database. |
8 . Small independent bookstores in neighborhoods across the United States are places to discover new books and make friends. About 20 years ago, stores like these were closing in large numbers because of competition from large bookstores and online book sales. But about 10 years ago something unusual happened: Independent bookstores seemingly came back to life.
In a Virginia community called Arlington, many people buy their books at a store called One More Page Books. Customer Kate Oberdorfer looks through an unusual mix of books: mysteries, cookbooks and biographies（传记）of famous people. Oberdorfer talks about a few of the books with Lelia Nebeker. "I do think it's a special place for people to come," says Nebeker. She lives nearby and often buys books from the store, which opened eight years ago.
After almost dying off, small independent bookstores grew by 35 percent between 2009 and 2015. The American Booksellers Association says sales at the more than 2,400 bookstores across the country have risen by about 5 percent over the past year.
Independent bookstores know they have to sell more than books. One More Page Books tries to attract people by offering them wine or chocolate they can take home along with a book. It's also a place where customers can come for events, meet writers, get books signed and buy books they might not necessarily find on their own, including books by Ed Aymar, a local writer. He is talking in One More Page Books to customers about his latest book, The Unrepentan. Nearby a woman is performing songs related to the story.
Angie Kim, another local writer, comes to support Aymar. "I've been here for 5 events just in the last couple of months," she says. "I think it's just a way to show the bookstore that we care about spaces like this and that we want them to continue."
1. What does the writer mainly want to show in Paragraph 1?| A．The fall of bookstores in the past. | B．The role of small bookstores in history. |
| C．The rise of independent bookstores in the US. | D．The competition between different bookstores. |
| A．It has had its ups and downs. | B．It provides many fee books. |
| C．It is mainly supported by local writers. | D．It offers many different kinds of books. |
| A．Create more needs. | B．Offer more services. | C．Provide more books. | D．Perform more duties. |
| A．To make herself known to customers. | B．To attract more local writers' interest. |
| C．To continue the events she attended before | D．To help to develop independent bookstores. |
9 . Have you noticed that time seems to pass more slowly when you’re waiting in a long line? But when you’re playing with your friends, hours seem like minutes. Of course, time is always passing at the same speed — but why does it sometimes feel different?
A study published in the Journal of Neuroscience (神经科学杂志) can tell us the answer. Lead author Masamichi Hayashi and his research team in the US found that it has to do with neurons (神经元) in our brains that are sensitive (敏感的) to time.
The researchers measured (测量) the brain activity of 18 adults who were asked to look at a picture on a screen for a certain period of time. They were then asked to guess how long they’d been looking at the picture. They were likely to guess incorrectly when they were asked to stare at the picture for very long or very short periods of time.
After looking at their brain activity, the researchers found neurons need a certain amount of time to pass signals. When they receive repetitive stimulation (重复的刺激) (such as staring at a screen) , these neurons finally get tired and don’t work well. It doesn’t matter whether this amount of time is long or short, as long as the stimulation is repetitive. However, other neurons still work normally, causing a different experience of time.
When you stand in line or do some other repetitive task, such as math homework, your time-sensitive neurons get tired and cause you to feel like time is going slowly. But when you’re doing something more high-speed, such as playing soccer, you experience in the opposite way. Either way, you can’t always trust your brain when it comes to your experience of time.
1. What question does Hayashi’s study try to answer?| A．Why does time sometimes seem to go by at different speeds? |
| B．Why does time always pass at the same speed? |
| C．How do different people feel time differently? |
| D．How can people feel the passing of time correctly? |
| A．When people are asked to look at pictures. | B．When they receive repetitive stimulation. |
| C．When they work for a long period of time. | D．When people do more than one thing. |
| A．Time can’t be measured correctly. |
| B．Doing repetitive work hurts human brains. |
| C．People can control their experience of time. |
| D．Our brains cause us to experience time incorrectly. |
| A．The repetitive stimulation. | B．Neurons in our brains. |
| C．Our experience of time | D．The work of our brains. |
10 . Jeff and Joe are brothers. They are thinking about their future. In ten years, they will be twenty-four and have their own (自己的) jobs. Jeff will be a football coach and Joe will be a jazz (爵士乐) musician.
First, Jeff will finish college. At college, he will take classes in science, health and education. He will not take art or history. Jeff will probably play football in the college team. He will be busy but he will enjoy the sports and classes. After college, Jeff will teach in a high school. He will teach science and coach the school's football team. Jeff will love coaching football. His team will work hard and practise four times a week. They will have fun and maybe they will win a lot of games.
Joe will start a jazz band (乐队). He will play the drums. The band will practise every day and write their own songs. Joe's band will probably play in clubs in New York. Joe hopes the band will become successful and famous. Then Joe and the band will travel around the world by car. Joe will not forget his family. He will find time to visit them.
Jeff and Joe will work hard on their plans. Their parents are sure about Jeff 's plan, but they have doubts about Joe's plan because being a successful musician is a very difficult thing.
根据材料内容选择最佳答案。
1. How old are Jeff and Joe?
| A．10. | B．12. | C．14. |
① Art ② Health ③ History ④ Education ⑤ Science
| A．①②③ | B．③④⑤ | C．②④⑤ |
| A．Jeff is not good at history |
| B．Joe's band will play in clubs in London |
| C．Joe loves travelling around the world by bike |
| A．信任 | B．怀疑 | C．赞扬 |
| A．future plans | B．favorite colleges | C．school lives |
