1 . Years ago, when we first went to Canada, we were driving through Montana to Colorado with our two children. We thought we’d find a hotel on the way without
Though surprised at her
Next morning, around the table were many people and we were
| A．applying | B．booking | C．examining | D．exchanging |
| A．Finally | B．Obviously | C．Officially | D．Luckily |
| A．managing | B．struggling | C．deciding | D．failing |
| A．unnecessary | B．informal | C．improper | D．impossible |
| A．view | B．request | C．invitation | D．fact |
| A．followed | B．made | C．took | D．packed |
| A．joined | B．accepted | C．greeted | D．helped |
| A．talking about | B．waiting for | C．cheering up | D．picking up |
| A．possibly | B．hardly | C．easily | D．secretly |
| A．worried | B．glad | C．amazed | D．anxious |
| A．friends | B．strangers | C．masters | D．neighbors |
| A．renting | B．living | C．jogging | D．leaving |
| A．payment | B．service | C．advice | D．solution |
| A．line | B．check | C．touch | D．mind |
| A．passion | B．eagerness | C．kindness | D．encouragement |
2 . Most of us grow up taking certain things for granted. We tend to assume that experts and religious leaders tell us “The truth”. We tend to believe that things advertised on television or in newspapers can’t be bad for us.
However, encouragement of critical (批判的) thinking in students is one of the goals of most colleges and universities. Few professors require students to share the professors’ own beliefs. In general, professors are more concerned that students learn to question and critically examine the arguments of others, including some of their own beliefs or values. This does not mean that professors insist that you change your beliefs, either. It does mean, however, that professors will usually ask you to support the views you express in class or in your writing.
If your premises (前提) are shaky, or if your arguments are not logical, professors personally point out the false reasoning in your arguments. Most professors want you to learn to recognize the premises of your arguments, to examine whether you really accept these premises, and to understand whether or not you draw logical conclusions. Put it this way. Professors don’t tell you what to think; they try to teach you how to think.
On the other hand, if you intend to disagree with your professors in class, you should be prepared to offer a strong argument in support of your ideas. Arguing just for the sake of arguing usually does not promote a critical examination of ideas. Many professors interpret it as rudeness.
1. In the first paragraph, the writer tries to tell us that ________.| A．we have strong beliefs in governments while growing up. |
| B．we grow up through learning certain things in life. |
| C．we are forming our views during our growth. |
| D．we easily believe certain things without a second thought. |
| A．criticize others. | B．share the same idea as professors’. |
| C．support their own views. | D．examine his own beliefs. |
| A．creative. | B．firm. | C．reasonable. | D．weak. |
| A．argue mainly for the sake of arguing. |
| B．prove it with a good conclusion. |
| C．support your ideas with a strong argument. |
| D．examine others’ ideas critically. |
3 . Mosquitoes are one of the few unpleasant parts of summer. As the temperature rises, these disease-carrying pests become a common sight, especially around standing water. Thankfully, these tiny annoying creatures don’t follow us into the winter, right? Wrong. According to researchers in Florida, climate change will likely keep mosquitoes active even in the colder months of the year. “In tropical (热带的) areas, mosquitoes are active all year, but that isn’t the case for the rest of the world. Outside of the tropics, winter temperatures cause mosquitoes to go into a kind of hibernation called diapause (滞育). We call these mosquitoes ‘cold bounded’ because their activity is limited by these lower temperatures,” says Brett Scheffers, assistant professor in the wildlife eco logy and conservation department, in a university release.
“However, with climate change, summers are to get longer and winters are to become shorter and warmer. What will that mean for those cold bounded mosquitoes? How will they respond?” To see just how adaptive mosquitoes are already becoming to changing temperatures throughout the year, researchers collected these insects during each season in Gainesville, Florida.
Study authors caught over 28,000 insects from 18 different mosquito species during their experiment. Scientists lured the pests by using a trap that produces carbon dioxide. Mosquitoes seek out this gas, which both humans and animals blow out when they breathe. For these pests, the gas signals that a tasty meal is nearby. The team randomly selected 1,000 of these mosquitoes to test in their lab temperature experiment. They placed each insect in a test tube before putting it in water. From there, researchers continued to change the temperature, from cold to hot. At the same time, the team monitored when each mosquito became inactive—marking their upper or lower temperature thresholds (阈点).
As for what is allowing mosquitoes to make these rapid adjustments to the weather, the answer is still unclear. However, researchers believe evolution could be working at a much faster rate in tinier creatures. Study authors believe their findings will help communities better prepare for insect season as climate change continues to lengthen summer.
1. What does Brett Scheffers think of those cold bounded mosquitoes’ behaviors?| A．Less active. | B．More alarming. | C．More annoying. | D．Less consistent. |
| A．To find out why summer gets longer. |
| B．To see how mosquitoes spread in tropical areas. |
| C．To learn how mosquitoes are adapting to climate change. |
| D．To learn why climate change is related to species evolution. |
| A．Killed. | B．Attracted. | C．Changed. | D．Protected. |
| A．Cold bounded mosquitoes are easily trapped |
| B．Wildlife ecology helps better prepare for insect season |
| C．Mosquitoes will be a year-long problem due to climate change |
| D．The cause of mosquitoes’ rapid adjustments to the weather is clear |
4 . Many Silicon Valley parents are becoming more concerned about preventing their children from using screens. Some parents think that even a little screen time can be extremely addictive, so it is better if their children avoid using or seeing these devices completely. However, it is difficult for working adults in the 21st century to give up using a phone at home. So, it’s simpler to employ someone to do this.
“Silicon Valley nanny (保姆)”, who takes children back to a time without screens every day is widely needed. From Cupertino to San Francisco, it’s widely agreed that screen time is harmful to youngsters. Therefore, parents are requesting nannies to keep phones, tablets and computers in a hidden place. Others even offer no-phone agreements.
Research shows that spending too much time on technology can harm young minds. For example, teenagers who use social media frequently are more likely to feel depressed and anxious. Insomnia (失眠) rates have also increased amongst this age group, and an increasing number of children display the signs that they can’t focus attention. These seemingly minor (轻微的) problems could become significant challenges for future generations.
“Many parents come back home and focus on their smartphones, ignoring whatever their children are trying to say,” said Shannon Zimmerman, who works as a nanny in San Jose for families that forbid screen time. “As a nanny, I also call on more parents to spend more time with their kids.”
1. Why are the Silicon Valley nannies greatly needed according to the text?| A．To help parents and children balance work and life. |
| B．To teach children how to use technology responsibly. |
| C．To keep children away from screens. |
| D．To encourage children to exercise. |
| A．Feeling confused. | B．Feeling anxious. | C．Feeling bored. | D．Feeling nervous. |
| A．Encourage their children more. | B．Play games with their children. |
| C．Stop using smartphones at home. | D．Spend more time with their children. |
| A．Parents concern about screen time for children. | B．Children are addicted to screen time. |
| C．All parents limit children to phones. | D．Science has no effects on young minds. |
5 . Children seem to care so much about their names. A study shows that most of young people wish their parents had given them a different name.
Some people choose to change their names when they grow up. Many people in show business don’t use the names their parents gave them. Have you ever listened to Joanne? No? The answer could be “yes” if we call her stage name instead! You may never heard of Margaret. But if we tell you her stage name, you might know her as a famous dancer.
In many cultures, there are special ideas about how to choose a name. For example, many people choose a name that has been in their family for many years. It tells the child where he or she comes from.
Choosing a good name isn’t easy. Many parents search books that tell them the meanings of names. They could choose a name that carries a message. For example, Edith means “valuable gift”. Amanda means “love”. And Fara means “joy”.
Names like these tell family and friends how happy they are with their new baby. Other names can say something about the events during the birth of the child. In Africa, a first born son may have the name Mosi and the name Ama means “born on Saturday”.
Is every boy called Curitis polite? And is every girl called Mahira quick and full of energy? No parents can tell what kind of person their child will grow up to be. Just because parents name a boy Fahim, it doesn’t mean he will be clever. All they can do is hope.
1. What can we know about the study?| A．Young kids don’t care about their future. |
| B．Most of young people care about their names. |
| C．Most girls want to change their names. |
| D．Most parents want to rename by themselves. |
| A．To prove some people hope to be renamed. |
| B．To introduce a famous dancer to readers. |
| C．To introduce her true name. |
| D．To tell the benefit of name. |
| A．Kids always want to rename. |
| B．It is hard to change kids’ names. |
| C．Parents aren’t sure if their kids will like the name. |
| D．Parents want to choose a meaningful name. |
| A．Names can never influence our lives | B．Your parents’ wish is behind names |
| C．Love your parents, love your name | D．Methods to choose a suitable name |
6 . Fifteen years ago, when darkness used to fall in Yobe Nkosi, a remote village in northern Malawi, children did their school homework by candlelight: There was no electricity. But that started to change in 2006, when villager Colrerd Nkosi finished secondary school in Mzimba some 40 kilometers away, and returned home, and found he could no longer live without power.
Aged 23 at the time, Nkosi soon figured out that a small river past the house where he grew up had just enough force to push the pedals on his bicycle. He created a generator (发电机) that brought power into his home. Word spread quickly among brick houses and neighbors began paying regular visits to charge their mobile phones. “I started getting requests for electricity and decided to upgrade,” said Nkosi.
With no previous training, he turned an old fridge compressor (压缩机) into a water-powered turbine and put it in a nearby river, generating electricity for six households. Today, the village is supplied by a bigger turbine.
The users pay no fee for the power but give Nkosi some money for maintenance — slightly more than $1 per household per month. “The electricity is basically free,” Nkosi said, speaking in local Chichewa. He admitted that the maintenance income was too small to cover repair costs, which he mainly funded from his own pocket.
Despite the challenges, he was determined to expand his mini electricity network to surrounding areas. “Once more villages and schools have electricity, people will no longer cut down trees for charcoal (木炭),” he said. “Students will have a lot more time to study.”
As dusk settled over Kasangazi Primary School, groups of learners rushed into a classroom for a night-time study session. “Before we had electricity here, we used to use candles to study,” said student Gift Mfune, sorting through a pile of textbooks on his desk. “Now, we all have no excuse but to pass our examinations,” he laughed. Courtesy of Nkosi, the building is the only school with power out of 17 others servicing the area.
1. Why did Nkosi upgrade his first generator?| A．To make much more money. | B．To meet people’s need for power. |
| C．To match new mobile phones. | D．To attract more people to his home. |
| A．Open-minded and tolerant. | B．Creative and generous. |
| C．Easy-going and courageous. | D．Intelligent and cooperative. |
| A．They have to stay up late. | B．They do well in exams. |
| C．They are very grateful to Nkosi. | D．They must have a promising future. |
| A．To advertise a remote village. | B．To share an encouraging story. |
| C．To show students’ love for a teacher. | D．To put forward a practicable project. |
7 . Plant biologists have found a way that may enable poor farmers to do away with the need to purchase expensive hybrid seeds every year. Researchers at the University of California report that they have solved a long-standing problem of hybrid seeds by making exact clones of the hybrid plants from seeds.
For long, many crops have been grown from high-yielding, anti-disease or climate-tolerant hybrid seeds. But the seeds of hybrid crops do not produce plants with the same qualities during reproduction and hence farmers cannot save the seeds for the next growing season. They end up paying for new hybrid seeds each sowing season. The discovery, long sought by plant researchers, could make it easier to grow desirable high-yielding crops and make them available to the world’s farmers. Farmers could thus replant seeds from their own hybrid plants and enjoy the benefits of high production year after year, the scientists report.
While the discovery would help farmers, it would also impact the commercial interest of the hybrid seed industry. Siddiq, a former Deputy Director General in the Crop Science Division of the ICAR, said at first sight, this might seem like a setback for hybrid seed companies but there would be plenty of things they can still do. “Rice is grown over such a vast climatic and geographical range that specialized hybrids would have to be developed for each region,” he said. The companies, he said, would continue to improve their hybrids. “It will be interesting to see how all this plays out in the years to come.”
Currently, the high costs of producing hybrid seeds are a major barrier to farmers in developing countries, especially South Asia and Africa. Siddiq said if efficiently used, this method could potentially be a game-changer for poor farmers, who would need to purchase hybrid seeds just once and plant the progeny(后代) seeds from their own harvest in the following seasons.
1. What problem do the researchers aim to solve?| A．Farmers’ income. | B．Farmers’ costs. |
| C．Hybrid seeds’ cloning. | D．Hybrid seeds’ climate tolerance. |
| A．They have a pretty long growth cycle. |
| B．They tend to be affected by various diseases. |
| C．They have stricter requirements for sowing time. |
| D．They fail to reproduce plants with the same quality. |
| A．Hopeful. | B．Concerned. | C．Doubtful. | D．Anxious. |
| A．The future of the hybrid seed industry. |
| B．The drawback of cloning hybrid seeds. |
| C．A method of cloning hybrid plants from their seeds. |
| D．A means of promoting the specialized hybrid seeds. |
8 . Vinod Menon, head of the physics department at the City College of New York, was going through his office mail. He opened a package, only to find it contained $180.000. Piles of $50 and $100 notes
“I’ve never seen so much cash in my dreams.
The sender obviously had unshakable
The return address was to Kyle Paisley, a name
| A．filled | B．settled | C．buried | D．wrapped |
| A．donated | B．addressed | C．introduced | D．related |
| A．much less | B．rather than | C．even if | D．except for |
| A．inspired | B．floored | C．defeated | D．restricted |
| A．faith | B．trouble | C．experience | D．favour |
| A．excellent | B．poor | C．promising | D．disabled |
| A．colleges | B．positions | C．sciences | D．activities |
| A．sensitive | B．irresistible | C．meaningful | D．straightforward |
| A．broken away from | B．kept control of | C．taken advantage of | D．made comments on |
| A．profit | B．reputation | C．campaign | D．career |
| A．distinct | B．absent | C．safe | D．free |
| A．frequently | B．initially | C．apparently | D．extremely |
| A．put aside | B．set down | C．given up | D．called off |
| A．cash | B．letter | C．register | D．name |
| A．limit | B．cover | C．record | D．reduce |
9 . When it comes to technology, adults won’t be able to keep up with their children. It took radio 38 years to reach 50 million people, but it took only 20 years for the phone to reach the same number, and 13 years for the television. However, it took Facebook 3.6 years and Twitter only needed 88 days. Over the last 15 years, digital communication has brought in more changes than the printing press did in 1570. And those most likely to use them in this world are teenagers, whose brains appear to have a great ability to adapt to the world around them, according to Dr. Jay Giedd, a brain expert.
We are now discovering that our brains during the teenage years are still flexible (灵活的). Having a more flexible brain means that certain functions of it , such as the ability to make long-term decisions, haven’t developed yet, which may also explain why we spend a long period living under the protection of our parents rather than leaving home at the age of 12 or 13. This also means that the teenage brain can adapt to new technology, allowing teenagers to keep up with the increasing pace (速度) of digital technology, giving them an advantage when doing different tasks.
As they look at these screens, they’re dealing with information. There are concerns about how social media is affecting the way in which the brain learns to socialize. Giedd says that a lot of what goes on inside our brains is social. Social interactions are being changed by technology - you could have hundreds of friends, all of whom are real people that you interact with and scientists aren’t sure whether we’ll be able to develop the same skills using social media.
There is an advantage to the growing digital trend (趋势)：YouTube shows that teenagers all over the world are watching the same things and laughing at the same jokes, showing that they are more global-minded than teenagers in the past. They are more open to other cultures, other countries, and other people.
1. How many years did it take for television to reach 50 million people?| A．38 years. | B．20 years. | C．15 years. | D．13 years. |
| A．Teenagers’ brains are flexible. |
| B．Teenagers are protected by their parents. |
| C．Teenagers are good at doing different tasks. |
| D．Teenagers’ abilities to make decisions haven’t developed. |
| A．Teenagers prefer to socialize online. |
| B．Teenagers spend much time on social media. |
| C．Teenagers are now more open-minded than those in the past. |
| D．Teenagers are more likely to be attracted by the Internet than grown-ups. |
| A．Concerns about social media influence | B．Teenage brains in the digital world |
| C．Teenager-related technologies | D．Development of teenage brains |
10 . After I made it to the city center, I started to feel it might be easy for a foreigner to deal with the great size of Beijing. With growing confidence, I decided to take the subway to the hotel, not realizing that the network didn’t go that far. Impressed with the cleanliness of the station, I bought a ticket and boarded the first subway that came along.
After a few minutes I asked in English a young man seated next to me where I should get off closest to the Friendship Hotel. Wearing a smart business suit and tie, he would surely speak English, wouldn’t he? Unfortunately, he couldn’t understand me but seemed very friendly. I showed him the room card with all the information of the Friendship Hotel in Chinese characters. He looked at it, and then his eyes moved quickly to the carriage (车厢) subway map. Next, he raised three fingers of his right hand.
In Australia, raising fingers at someone is not usually nice, but this man wasn’t smiling. At the next station he showed me two fingers. Now in Australia, that’s really rude, but I got the message. When we stopped at the third station, he didn’t just point to the door, but got up, took me out of the train, and led me to the top of the stairs, and out onto the street. Then he stopped a taxi and told the driver where to take me.
All this came from a man who couldn’t speak my language, and I couldn’t speak his. I was now speechless, especially when he refused my offer of money. I felt a little embarrassed having even thought he would accept a tip.
This experience made it clear I had to learn some Chinese quickly or my adventures might start turning into misadventures.
1. Why does the author decided to take the subway?| A．Because he believed in his ability to deal with the trip |
| B．Because the network covered most of the stops |
| C．Because he lived near the city center |
| D．Because he had a good impression of its cleanliness |
| A．still remained puzzled | B．understood the author well |
| C．answered the author directly | D．pointed at the subway map |
| A．helpful. | B．impolite. | C．warm-hearted. | D．responsible. |
| A．To prove the importance of being careful |
| B．To introduce a young man who didn’t know English |
| C．To complain some cultural misunderstanding |
| D．To describe one of his adventurous experiences |
