1 . Reading Art: Art for Book Lovers is a celebration of an everyday object — the book, represented here in almost three hundred artworks from museums around the world. The image of the reader appears throughout history, in art made long before books as we now know them came into being. In artists’ representations of books and reading, we see moments of shared humanity that go beyond culture and time.

In this “book of books,” artworks are selected and arranged in a way that emphasizes these connections between different eras and cultures. We see scenes of children learning to read at home or at school, with the book as a focus for relations between the generations. Adults are portrayed (描绘) alone in many settings and poses —absorbed in a volume, deep in thought or lost in a moment of leisure. These scenes may have been painted hundreds of years ago, but they record moments we can all relate to.

Books themselves may be used symbolically in paintings to demonstrate the intellect (才智), wealth or faith of the subject. Before the wide use of the printing press, books were treasured objects and could be works of art in their own right. More recently, as books have become inexpensive or even throwaway, artists have used them as the raw material for artworks — transforming covers, pages or even complete volumes into paintings and sculptures.

Continued developments in communication technologies were once believed to make the printed page outdated. From a 21st-century point of view, the printed book is certainly ancient, but it remains as interactive as any battery-powered e-reader. To serve its function, a book must be activated by a user: the cover opened, the pages parted, the contents reviewed, perhaps notes written down or words underlined. And in contrast to our increasingly networked lives where the information we consume is monitored and tracked, a printed book still offers the chance of a wholly private, “off-line” activity.

1. Where is the text most probably taken from?

A．An introduction to a book.	B．An essay on the art of writing.
C．A guidebook to a museum.	D．A review of modern paintings.

2. What are the selected artworks about?

A．Wealth and intellect.	B．Home and school.
C．Books and reading.	D．Work and leisure.

3. What do the underlined words “relate to” in paragraph 2 mean?

A．Understand.	B．Paint.
C．Seize.	D．Transform.

4. What does the author want to say by mentioning the e-reader?

A．The printed book is not totally out of date.

B．Technology has changed the way we read.

C．Our lives in the 21st century are networked.

D．People now rarely have the patience to read.

2 . When the explorers first set foot upon the continent of North America, the skies and lands were alive with an astonishing variety of wildlife. Native Americans had taken care of these precious natural resources wisely. Unfortunately, it took the explorers and the settlers who followed only a few decades to decimate a large part of these resources. Millions of waterfowl (水禽) were killed at the hands of market hunters and a handful of overly ambitious sportsmen. Millions of acres of wetlands were dried to feed and house the ever-increasing populations, greatly reducing waterfowl habitat.

In 1934, with the passage of the Migratory Bird Hunting Stamp Act (Act), an increasingly concerned nation took firm action to stop the destruction of migratory (迁徙的) waterfowl and the wetlands so vital to their survival. Under this Act, all waterfowl hunters 16 years of age and over must annually purchase and carry a Federal Duck Stamp. The very first Federal Duck Stamp was designed by J.N. “Ding” Darling, a political cartoonist from Des Moines, lowa, who at that time was appointed by President Franklin Roosevelt as Director of the Bureau of Biological Survey. Hunters willingly pay the stamp price to ensure the survival of our natural resources.

About 98 cents of every duck stamp dollar goes directly into the Migratory Bird Conservation Fund to purchase wetlands and wildlife habitat for inclusion into the National Wildlife Refuge System — a fact that ensures this land will be protected and available for all generations to come. Since 1934, better than half a billion dollars has gone into that Fund to purchase more than 5 million acres of habitat. Little wonder the Federal Duck Stamp Program has been called one of the most successful conservation programs ever initiated.

1. What was a cause of the waterfowl population decline in North America?

A．Loss of wetlands.	B．Popularity of water sports.
C．Pollution of rivers.	D．Arrival of other wild animals.

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

A．Acquire.	B．Export.
C．Destroy.	D．Distribute.

3. What is a direct result of the Act passed in 1934?

A．The stamp price has gone down.	B．The migratory birds have flown away.
C．The hunters have stopped hunting.	D．The government has collected money.

4. Which of the following is a suitable title for the text?

A．The Federal Duck Stamp Story	B．The National Wildlife Refuge System
C．The Benefits of Saving Waterfowl	D．The History of Migratory Bird Hunting

4 . For years, David James, who studies insects at Washington State University, had wanted to examine the migration (迁徙)patterns of West Coast monarch butterflies (黑脉金斑蝶). The route the butterflies travel has been hardly known because the populations are too small to follow. For every 200 monarchs tagged (打标签)by a researcher, only one is usually recovered at the end of its trip, James says, and finding even 200 in the wild to tag is unlikely. Knowing the route is vital to conservation efforts, but James had no way to figure it out- until he got a phone call from Washington State Penitentiary in Walla Walla.

The prison was looking for new activities to improve the mental health of those serving long-term sentences. So James began working with prisoners to raise monarchs through the whole process of their transformation. The adult insects were then tagged and released from the prison. Over five years, nearly 10, 000 monarchs flew from the facility. Elsewhere in Washington, Oregon and Idaho, researchers released another few thousand.

The tags included email addresses, and soon after the first butterflies took off, James started receiving messages from people who had spotted them. The butterflies, the reports confirmed, wintered in coastal California. Twelve of them landed at Lighthouse Field State Beach in Santa Cruz. Several more headed to Bolinas and Morro Bay.

The work helps researchers identify ideal places to plant milkweed and other vegetation that are important to the life cycle of West Coast monarch butterflies. It also brought out the gentler side of some of the prisoners. “They were very worried that they were going to harm the butterflies, ”James says. Watching the monarch change their form also touched the men. “This butterfly changed, ” James recalls prisoners telling him, “and maybe we can too. ”

1. What was hard for David to do in his study?

A．Gain financial support.	B．Hire qualified workers.
C．Build a new laboratory.	D．Find enough monarchs.

2. Why are the butterflies tagged before being released?

A．To guarantee their safety.

B．To enable them to fly longer distances.

C．To track their travel routes.

D．To distinguish them from other species.

3. What makes the prisoners feel that they can change?

A．The patience the butterflies showed.

B．The hardship the butterflies underwent.

C．The transformation of the butterflies.

D．The devotion of James to the butterflies.

4. What is the last paragraph mainly about?

A．The impact of the research.

B．The findings of James’ study.

C．The release of the prisoners.

D．The life cycle of the butterflies.

5 . We live in a town with three beaches. There are two parts less than 10 minutes’ walk from home where neighborhood children gather to play. However, what my children want to do after school is pick up a screen — any screen — and stare at it for hours. They are not alone. Today’s children spend an average of four and a half hours a day looking at screens, split between watching television and using the Internet.

In the past few years, an increasing number of people and organisations have begun coming up with plans to counter this trend. A couple of years ago film-maker David Bond realised that his children, then aged five and three, were attached to screens to the point where he was able to say “chocolate” into his three-year-old son’s ear without getting a response. He realised that something needed to change, and, being a London media type, appointed himself “marketing director from Nature”. He documented his journey as he set about treating nature as a brand to be marketed to young people. The result was Project Wild Thing, a film which charts the birth of the World Network, a group of organisations with the common goal of getting children out into nature.

“Just five more minutes outdoors can make a difference,” David Bond says. “There is a lot of really interesting evidence which seems to be suggesting that if children are inspired up to the age of seven, then being outdoors will be on habit for life.” His own children have got into the habit of playing outside now: “We just send them out into the garden and tell them not to come back in for a while.”

Summer is upon us. There is an amazing world out there, and it needs our children as much as they need it. Let us get them out and let them play.

1. What is the problem with the author’s children?

A．They often annoy their neighbours.	B．They are tired of doing their homework.
C．They have no friends to play with	D．They stay in front of screens for too long.

2. How did David Bond advocate his idea?

A．By making a documentary film.	B．By organizing outdoor activities.
C．By advertising in London media.	D．By creating a network of friends.

3. Which of the following can replace the underlined word “charts” in paragraph 2?

A．records

B．predicts

C．delays

D．confirms

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

A．Let Children Have Fun	B．Young Children Need More Free Time
C．Market Nature to Children	D．David Bond: A Role Model for Children

6 . Dr. Smith of New York works at a center for children who can’t learn well. One day a father brought his son to him for________ at his office.

The father told Dr. Smith about his son. “My son has ________ in learning and can’t even play baseball. He isn’t doing well because he doesn’t try. I have done everything for him. I have even shouted at him. But nothing ________. ”

After Dr. Smith tested the boy, he ________ his father. He asked the father to sit in front of a ________ and then gave him a pencil and a piece of paper. There was a ________ on the paper. He asked the father to look only in the mirror and ________ the lines of the star with the pencil. The father made the same ________ anyone makes. Every time he ________ the pencil, it went the wrong way. The father’s face became red.

At this ________ the doctor shouted at him, “Hurry up! Why are you ________ so long? You can’t do such an ________ thing! You don’t know left from right!” These ________ made the father very angry.

“Now you can ________, can’t you?” The doctor said to him. “Your son has felt just like that all the time. You scolded (训斥) him too often, so he didn't try any more. He was afraid of making mistakes. ”

________ the father understood everything. He put his face down. Now he felt so sorry.

1.

A．testing

B．acting

C．teaching

D．playing

2.

A．confidence

B．interest

C．experience

D．difficulty

3.

A．returns

B．helps

C．appears

D．remains

4.

A．waited for

B．searched for

C．believed in

D．called in

5.

A．mirror

B．television

C．painting

D．desk

6.

A．face

B．line

C．number

D．star

7.

A．remove

B．follow

C．cross

D．cut

8.

A．decisions

B．choices

C．mistakes

D．patterns

9.

A．touched

B．dropped

C．moved

D．sharpened

10.

A．speed

B．corner

C．end

D．point

11.

A．staying

B．taking

C．preparing

D．writing

12.

A．easy

B．important

C．obvious

D．exciting

13.

A．ideas

B．words

C．questions

D．instructions

14.

A．relax

B．leave

C．understand

D．promise

15.

A．Interestingly

B．Absolutely

C．Suddenly

D．Unfortunately

7 . We all know that unpleasant feeling when we’re talking about something interesting and halfway through our sentence we’re interrupted. But was that really an interruption? The answer depends on whom you ask, according to new research led by Katherine Hilton from Stanford University.

Using a set of controlled audio clips (录音片段), Hilton surveyed 5, 000 American English speakers to better understand what affects people’s perceptions of interruptions. She had participants listen to audio clips and then answer questions about whether the speakers seemed to be friendly and engaged, listening to one another, or trying to interrupt.

Hilton found that American English speakers have different conversational styles. She identified two distinct groups: high and low intensity speakers. High intensity speakers are generally uncomfortable with moments of silence in conversation and consider talking at the same time a sign of engagement. Low intensity speakers find it rude to talk at the same time and prefer people speak one after another in conversation.

The differences in conversational styles became evident when participants listened to audio clips in which two people spoke at the same time but were agreeing with each other and stayed on topic, Hilton said. The high intensity group reported that conversations where people spoke at the same time when expressing agreement were not interruptive but engaged and friendlier than the conversations with moments of silence in between speaking turns. In contrast, the low intensity group perceived any amount of simultaneous (同时) chat as a rude interruption, regardless of what the speakers were saying.

“People care about being interrupted, and those small interruptions can have a massive effect on the overall communication,” Hilton said. “Breaking apart what an interruption means is essential if we want to understand how humans interact with each other.”

1. What does Hilton’s research focus on?

A．What interruptions mean to people.

B．Whether interruption is good or not.

C．How to avoid getting interrupted.

D．Why speakers interrupt each other.

2. What do participants of the study need to do?

A．Record an audio clip.	B．Answer some questions.
C．Listen to one another.	D．Have a chat with a friend.

3. What do low intensity speakers think of simultaneous chat?

A．It’s important.	B．It’s interesting.
C．It’s inefficient.	D．It’s impolite.

4. What can we learn from Hilton’s research?

A．Human interaction is complex.

B．Communication is the basis of life.

C．Interruptions promote thinking.

D．Language barriers will always exist.