1 . What makes us different from machines? We have created AI（人工智能） programs that can do many of the same things we can. There are software programs that can play chess, drive cars and solve difficult math problems.
But what about creative works? Most art, music and poetry are created with emotion（情绪）. And yet, we have indeed created AI that can produce creative works.
In October, 2018, Cristine’s famous auction（拍卖）house auctioned off a painting named Portrait of Edmond de Bellamy. The painting is not very outstanding, but it was sold for $432,500, about 3 million yuan. What made it so special? The fact is that it was drawn by an AI program written by Obvious, a group of artists in Paris, according to Artnet News.
AI has entered the world of poetry as well. In April, 2018, Chinese and Japanese researchers wrote an AI program that uses pictures to write poems. The AI looks at colors and shapes in a picture and uses this information to write a poem quickly. Five hundred human judges were asked whether they could tell if the poems were written by a human or a computer. Forty percent of the judges mistakenly thought the poems were written by a human, according to MIT Technology Review.
But if AI can learn to create works of art like these, what place do humans have in the creative world? The difference is that true art is almost always an expression of emotion-something that AI is still unable to feel. As the famous poet Amy Lowell once said, “Art is the desire（渴望）of a man to express himself and to record the reactions of his character to the world he lives in.”
1. The writer starts the passage by _______.| A．telling two stories | B．comparing two facts | C．raising a question | D．giving an example |
| A．all the judges mistakenly thought the poems were written by a human |
| B．what the difference between AI and human beings is in the area of creative world |
| C．Chinese and Japanese researchers wrote an AI program to paint |
| D．AI is smart enough to write poems with pictures given almost as well as humans |
| A．AI has entered the world of poetry as well |
| B．AI can perform quite well in creating works of art |
| C．a common painting drawn by AI was sold at a good price |
| D．AI programs can do all the things as humans do |
| A．explain why AI can’t take the place of humans’ role in the works of art |
| B．show AI can create true art because it is able to feel emotion |
| C．tell the difference between AI and humans in the creative world |
| D．worry about humans’ role in the creative world |
2 . Some scientists have found that the novel coronavirus (新型冠状病毒) that spreads across China and other parts of the world might come from bats. According to Live Science, bats live in dark and wet places, and can carry and spread more than 60 viruses that can infect (感染) humans. Since bats carry so many viruses, why aren’t they themselves hurt by the viruses?
The answer to the question has to do with the fact that the bat is the world’s only flying mammal (哺乳动物). When a bat is flying, its body temperature can reach as high as 40 0C. “For most land mammals, this can bring death. But bats live it up every day. We find that the high temperature helps kill some viruses in the bat,” says Linfa Wang, who studies bat viruses in Singapore.
Wang also says that bats have special immune systems (免疫系统) to fight viruses. Their systems allow them to live with viruses without getting sick. And bats can make something that helps repair their bodies.
And bat researchers say that even though bats may be the source (来源) of viruses, they could also be the source of medicines if we study their immune systems.
1. According to the passage, bats live _______.| A．in mountains | B．in dark and dry places |
| C．in dark and wet places | D．near the rivers |
| A．their high temperature helps kill some viruses |
| B．they never get sick |
| C．the viruses don’t attack them |
| D．their food can fight the viruses |
| A．Bats carry many viruses and we should stay away from them. |
| B．Our study on bats’ immune system helps us make new medicine. |
| C．If we study bats more, we can find out the source of the viruses. |
| D．Bats’ immune system can fight against many kinds of viruses. |
| A．a travel website | B．a history book | C．a science magazine | D．a dictionary |
3 . Gardening is popular in many parts of the world. It brings us sweet smelling flowers, fresh fruit and vegetables. But you can get more from your garden.
Gardening helps to keep healthy. Today’s people sit indoors for too long and don’t get much exercise. When you garden, you have to move around. It’s a good chance for you to exercise your body by watering flowers or doing some digging. Besides, when you are in your garden, you can feel the warm sunshine. This means you are getting Vitamin D. It helps your bodies use calcium (钙) which is necessary to keep your bones (骨骼) strong.
________ It gets them off computers, televisions and phones. Gardening can be a great teacher to teach children about nature and healthy eating. It can also help them to understand the meaning of “No pains, no gains.”
Gardening is a great way to meet people and build relationships. When you are gardening, you are outdoors, so it is a perfect time to communicate with your neighbors. Most people love to talk about their hobbies, and so do gardeners. They usually enjoy showing people what they are growing. And most enjoy sharing advice and stories about their gardens.
1. When it’s ________, you can get Vitamin D in your garden.| A．sunny | B．cloudy | C．snowy | D．rainy |
| A．watching TV | B．watering flowers | C．walking dogs | D．playing with phones |
| A．Gardening will be good for your bones. | B．Gardening may help people feel happy. |
| C．Gardening is a great activity to do with children. | D．Garden can be a good way to meet neighbors. |
| A．Outdoor Activities | B．Advantages of Gardening |
| C．Healthy Eating Habits | D．Relationships with Neighbors |
4 . Do you want to know what our life will be like in the future? Let’s have a look. You may get a surprise. You will go to the kitchen when you are hungry. You will give orders to the kitchen robot. The robot will cook the food for you in a few minutes. Then it will bring it to you.
In the kitchen you will find a special food machine. The food machine will tell you what your body needs. It will help you eat healthily. The food machine will be connected with (连接) the kitchen robot. The robot can get messages from the food machine. After having a meal, you can go to your home office. You will work at home and you don’t need to go out to work any more.
You will have a special information screen. You can get any information on the screen. When you receive a message from a friend in America, your information screen will be turned on automatically (自动地). Your friend’s face appears on the screen. Then you can talk to your friend easily.
1. What is the second paragraph about?| A．It’s about healthy food. |
| B．It’s about the kitchen robot. |
| C．It’s about a nice kitchen. |
| D．It’s about a robot which can do homework. |
| A．the kitchen robot |
| B．the food machine |
| C．the information screen |
| D．the computer |
| A．丢失 | B．复制 | C．接收 | D．保存 |
| A．on the wall | B．on the screen |
| C．on the Internet | D．on TV |
| A．Our life in the future |
| B．A food machine |
| C．A special information screen |
| D．A kitchen robot |
5 . ①Experts believe that there are more than 8 million restaurants in the world today. So it might surprise you to learn that restaurants, as we know them, have only existed for a few centuries. Before 1765, there were no restaurants. That is, there were no places that provided the restaurant experience. There was nowhere in which a waiter brought you food and drink that you picked from a menu. In fact, there were no menus anywhere.
②There were eating places travelers could go to centuries before that. The countryside was full of inns（旅店） that would serve food. And there were taverns（酒馆） where one could get drinks. The rich could also eat special meals prepared by private cooks. But none of them could be called a "restaurant".
③A man called Boulanger changed that. In 1765, he opened a place in Paris that sold soups. On his sign he used the word "restaurant" to describe what he was selling. At that time, soups were considered something that could help "restore" (恢复) your health—in French the word "restore" is "restaurer"—so he called the soups "restaurants". Soon, people started buying Boulanger's soups even when they were not ill. And over time, people began to use the word "restaurant" to refer to a place selling soup rather than the soup itself. More "restaurants" opened in France, and people began to buy soups more often.
④Later, restaurants in Paris began to serve other food besides soup. In the 1790s, menus started to appear. By the mid-1800s, there were many types of restaurants throughout the world. The United States offered coffee shops. Tea houses became popular throughout China. Paris created beautiful restaurants for the rich. The British began to copy the French, and the restaurant idea spread throughout the British Empire.
⑤Today, cities are filled with all types of restaurants. Diners have millions of options from which to choose.
1. What is the passage mainly about?| A．How restaurants developed. | B．What made a good restaurant. |
| C．Who created the first restaurant. | D．Why restaurants became popular. |
| A．Restaurants only served food. | B．Restaurants were more expensive. |
| C．Restaurants were mainly in cities. | D．Restaurants had a list of meal choices. |
| A．Rich people. | B．Sick people. | C．Travelers. | D．Workers. |
| A．①②-③④-⑤ | B．①-②③-④⑤ | C．①-②-③④-⑤ | D．①②③-④-⑤ |
6 . If you know a place really well, you might say that you know it “like the back of your hand”. How well do you know the back of your hand, though? New research shows that we don’t know as much about our hands as we think we do.
Wider and shorter
Professor Matthew Longo, at the University of London, tried an experiment. His team of researchers covered the left hands of 100 people. They then asked the people to point to where they thought their fingertips and knuckles (指关节) were. They found this very difficult.
“People think their hand is wider than it actually is,” said Longo. Fingers also seem shorter.
Sense of position
“It is connected to our sense of position,” explained Longo. This is our ability to tell where different parts of our bodies are, even when we can’t see them. “It tells us whether a joint (关节) is straight or not,” he said. It also tells us whether we are going up or down in an elevator. All this information comes from our nerves (神经). It’s like our brains have maps for the size and shape of our bodies. “This experiment tried to find those maps,” said Longo.
Strength (强度) of feeling
____▲____ “Our brains ‘see’ areas as larger where the skin feels touch strongly,” said Longo. Body parts don’t appear as their true size, but appear bigger or smaller depending on how strongly they feel touch. Our lips (嘴唇), for example, have more nerves than our noses, so our “maps” show lips as being bigger than our noses.
1. What do we know about Longo’s experiment?| A．It examined left-handed people. | B．People thought their hands were smaller than they actually were. |
| C．People could find their knuckles. | D．People thought their fingers were shorter than they actually were. |
| A．The new experiment. | B．The misbelief people had. |
| C．The size of the hand. | D．The location information. |
| A．People draw the proper maps. | B．These maps make mistakes. |
| C．Researchers describe the brains. | D．Man touches parts of the bodies. |
| A．there are more nerves in the fingers than in the toes |
| B．our lips have a weaker sense of touch than our nose |
| C．the hand feels touch more strongly than fingers do |
| D．our brains can see the world better than other mammals |
7 . Small talk like “What do you have there? Ice-cream?” or “The weather today is beautiful, isn't it?” is a waste of time, according to some people. But scientists believe that it is actually more useful than it may appear to be.
One example comes when you are on a train or a plane. The thought of talking to the stranger can be scary and silly. But a study by the University of Chicago found that people who chat to strangers enjoy a better ride than those who sit in silence or keep playing their phones.
In the study, researchers asked people at Chicago train stations to start conversations with fellow travelers. Most of them refused to do so at first because they didn't expect to get a friendly answer. But the result is the opposite-most strangers didn't refuse to be talked to; instead, they were glad to talk to.
“Human beings are social animals,” Nicholas Epley, one of the researchers said, “Other people are people, too. And it turns out that they'd like to get to know you.”
What's more, small talk with strangers can help you feel related to your surroundings(环境). Some studies found when people are often smiled at and spoken to, there is more chance for them to have a stronger sense of belonging instead of feeling like they are being forgotten.
However, if you are already comfortable enough to make small talk with strangers, you should try to develop it into something “bigger”.
A 2010 study proved that having a deep and meaningful conversation gives you even more happiness than small talk. Participants(参与者) in the study reported that compared with some simple greetings and replies, they were a lot happier when they went on with the small talk and further it into in-depth conversations.
But deep conversations can start with small talk, can't they? So the first step is to start talking, no matter how casual the topic is. And who knows, maybe an opening line as simple as “I like your hat” could lead to a serious conversation in which you learn a lot from a stranger.
1. According to Nicholas Epley, what is the reason for the result of the study by the University of Chicago?| A．Most people are scared of being refused. |
| B．People are naturally interested in others. |
| C．People are afraid of being lonely or bored. |
| D．People try to show their good side to strangers. |
| A．Wasting less time. |
| B．Getting more smiles. |
| C．Staying away from phones for a little while. |
| D．Feeling like you are a part of your surroundings. |
(①②③④⑤⑥⑦⑧=Paragraphs1-8)
| A．①/②③④⑤/⑥⑦/⑧ | B．①/②③④/⑤⑥⑦/⑧ |
| C．①/②③/④⑤/⑥⑦⑧ | D．①/②③④⑤/⑥⑦⑧ |
| A．The author thinks deep conversations may start before small talk. |
| B．The author believes small talk is useless without deep conversations. |
| C．The author agrees people should start small talk actively. |
| D．The author doubts whether people should start small talk. |
8 . Most people have had instant noodles(方便面), a kind of noodles that is different from what we usually cook at home. But have you wondered
First of all, people make instant noodles into this shape so that it’s easier to transport(运输)
Secondly, this special shape
Thirdly, the noodles taste better in this special shape. There will be more
Finally,
The four
| A．when | B．why | C．how | D．where |
| A．it | B．us | C．him | D．them |
| A．for | B．with | C．by | D．in |
| A．What’s more | B．In this way | C．At the same time | D．At last |
| A．saves | B．wastes | C．uses | D．spends |
| A．big | B．short | C．straight | D．long |
| A．parts | B．places | C．area | D．room |
| A．if | B．whether | C．after | D．although |
| A．reasons | B．suggestions | C．ways | D．problems |
| A．funny | B．clear | C．fresh | D．surprising |
9 . It’s hard to believe that a beautiful silk dress comes from thousands of small insects! Silk, one of the world’s greatest expensive things, is made by insects called silk worms(蚕宝宝). It takes about 5,500 silkworms to make 1 kilogram of silk. The process was discovered by the Chinese about 5.000 years ago.
How is silk made? The process starts with the eggs of a certain kind of insect. The eggs are collected and kept warm. After a few days, the silkworms come out of the eggs. They are fed with leaves from mulberry trees (桑叶) every 30 minutes, all night and all day. The room is kept warm, and the silkworms must not be influenced by loud noises or bad smells. After a month, they start to make a cocoon(茧). After four days, the cocoon is ready.
The cocoons are heated and the silkworms are killed inside them. Then the cocoons are put into water to make the silk loose(松散的)，The silk from three or four cocoons is put together and made into a thread (线). One cocoon can make a thread 1 kilometer long!
Finally, the silk threads are made into cloth, and the cloth is used for things like dresses and scarves. Today, silk is produced in many countries, including India and Thailand, but more than 80 percent of the world's silk comes from China. Every year, enough silk thread is produced to go from the earth to the Sun 300 times. People love silk clothes because they are beautiful and comfortable -- silk feels cool in warm weather and warm in cool weather.
1. __________ discovered the way of making silk.| A．Japanese | B．Chinese | C．Silkworms | D．Small insects |
| A．warm and quiet | B．noisy and dirty |
| C．dry and noisy | D．dirty and warm |
①Silkworms start to make cocoons.
②Threads are made from the cocoons.
③Cocoons are heated and put into water.
④feed the silkworms with mulberry leaves.
⑤Collect the eggs of a certain kind of insect.
| A．⑤④①③② | B．⑤④①②③ |
| C．④①③②⑤ | D．④①②③⑤ |
| A．Why is Silk so Popular? | B．Why is Silk so Expensive? |
| C．How is Silk Made? | D．Where Can People Buy Silk? |
10 . There are countless myths( 神话) to explain how the world came to have a moon to bring light to the night time. But now there is a plan for a man-made moon. It will give us far more light than the natural moon.
China is preparing to put a man-made moon in the sky above Chengdu by 2020. It will reflect sunlight back onto the earth. If it succeeds, three more such objects will be sent out in 2022, according to Wu Chunfeng, a space scientist.
Wu said it would be similar to how we get moonlight, but he predicted that the man-made moon would have eight times the brightness of the real one. "This is because the object will be about 500 kilometers above the earth. That will make it a lot closer to us than the moon, which is over 380,000 kilometers away, "Wu added.
If the plan works, the man-made moon will save a lot of power. And in 2022, four man-made moons can take turns to work as they will not always be in the best position relative to the sun. Together, they can give light to an area of up to 6, 400 square kilometers on the earth for 24 hours. That means its brightness will be seen in most areas in China, reducing the need for streetlights.
1. How many man-made moon will be sent out in 2022, according to Wu Chunfeng, a space scientist?| A．2 | B．3 | C．4 | D．5 |
| A．50 | B．500 | C．6,400 | D．380.000 |
| A．the man-made moon will be as bright as the natural one |
| B．the man-made moon will work similarly to the natural one |
| C．the man-made moon has already lit up the city of Chengdu |
| D．the man-made moonlight will cover the whole China |
| A．culture | B．sports | C．education | D．science |
