1 . When people talk about American popular music, they don’t just mean country music or rock music. There are two other types of popular music with national and international appeal that are basically American. One is jazz. The other is a musical form associated with New York City theaters.

Jazz dates from African religious and folk music. The themes and songs of jazz music have historical origins. They come from songs sung by black Americans in church or at work. There have been different kinds of jazz music: bebop, ragtime, swing, boogie-woogie and others.

In playing jazz music, the performers combine rhythms and songs with their skills of improvisation (即兴创作). Modern jazz music has developed into a complex musical style enjoyed more by musicians and older jazz lovers than by the general public.

American theater has developed another American musical style. It is associated with a street in New York City, Broadway. Broadway musicals are dramatic productions in which the story is told partly by dialogue and partly through songs. The lyrics of these songs give background information about the story and express the feelings of the characters in the story. Many Broadway musicals have been made into movies that have been shown all over the world. Oklahoma, Sound of Music, My Fair Lady and West Side Story are some good examples.

Songs from these musicals and others have translations in various languages that are sung around the world. Many of them have become popular with people who have not even seen the musicals for which they were written.

1. What does jazz belong to?

A．Rock music.	B．Country music.
C．Traditional music.	D．American popular music.

2. What can we learn about jazz from Paragraph 2?

A．Its playing method.	B．Its popularity.
C．Its origin.	D．Its historical position.

3. Which of the following best describes modern jazz music?

A．It needs special skills to perform.	B．It is not well received by ordinary people.
C．It is welcomed only among musicians.	D．It is popular with the general public.

4. The underlined word “them” in the last paragraph can be replaced by “______”.

A．the songs

B．the translations

C．the musicals

D．the languages

2 . Virtual reality: Is this really how we will all watch TV in years to come? Virtual reality (VR) is often used to illustrate the concept of being trapped within the cyberspace, or as a form of advanced technology. This technology ________ its place in popular culture through films such as The Lawnmower Man and The Matrix, as well as books such as Ready Player One, which Steven Spielberg is ________ for a movie. They presented ________ of technology by using a VR headset, which enabled people to explore virtual, computer-controlled worlds.

In 2017, these cultural touchstones are freshly in mind for the ________ industry, as it tries to understand whether real-life headset can be used to deliver new forms of drama, documentary and storytelling.

The promise connect a headset to a computer or your smartphone and you can watch video, play games and ________ virtual worlds, turning your head around for 360-degree vision, and interacting by means of a controller.

VR experiences in their current form ________ from fending off zombies (抵御僵尸) in survival - horror game Resident Evil 7 to exploring the ocean depths or exploring a Syrian refugee camp.

TV firms want to know more. At this month’s MIPTV industry conference in Cannes’ VR was a major ________ for producers, broadcasters and tech companies alike. “We will all have superpowers. Because in Virtual reality you can be anyone, you can go anywhere and you can create anything,” said HTC’s Rikard Steiber in a keynote speech. “We’re just at the beginning of what the ________ can do. It’s a new computing platform: it’s going to be the next mass ________.”

Still, with research company Green-light Insights ________ that by 2021 headset owners will spend $9bn a year on VR content, TV producers and broadcasters are keen to start ________ with the technology now.

This is as much a creative ________ as a business one. Many VR experiences to date have either been games or non-interactive video the equivalent to early television shows adopting the rules of radio, and early cinema doing the same with theatre. But like TV and films VR has the ________ to evolve its own language and formats.

Good VR has a value that is ________ to VR. It sounds really obvious, but it’s key. It has to be better in VR, or only in VR. A lot of media companies have a tendency to take what they have and put in VR. That might be a good bridge but it’s not the final ________ for VR.

1.

A．secured

B．occupied

C．reserved

D．made

2.

A．adopting

B．collecting

C．adapting

D．revising

3.

A．investments

B．visions

C．promotions

D．chances

4.

A．advertising

B．business

C．tourist

D．television

5.

A．create

B．explore

C．shape

D．dominate

6.

A．develop

B．come

C．range

D．escape

7.

A．theme

B．argument

C．industry

D．worry

8.

A．conscience

B．tool

C．money

D．technology

9.

A．production

B．movement

C．medium

D．market

10.

A．predicting

B．quoting

C．considering

D．finding

11.

A．searching

B．experimenting

C．investigating

D．cooperating

12.

A．challenge

B．ability

C．art

D．energy

13.

A．intelligence

B．force

C．potential

D．talent

14.

A．similar

B．contrary

C．different

D．unique

15.

A．area

B．destination

C．test

D．skill

3 . New research suggests that ocean storms could be helping to prevent powerful earthquakes—at least on the island of Taiwan. Typhoons often strike the island during the second half of the year. Typhoon is the name used for major storms in the western Pacific Ocean. Scientists call them cyclones when they develop over the Indian Ocean.

Recently, scientists have reported that typhoons striking Taiwan can cause slow earthquakes. Slow earthquakes are different from violent earthquakes, which happen suddenly and can be extremely destructive. Instead, slow earthquakes release their energy over a period of hours or even days.

People cannot feel slow earthquakes on the ground, and instruments like seismometers(地震仪) cannot measure them. However, scientists say a slow earthquake could be helping to release pressure, and possibly preventing more powerful quakes.

In the study, scientists placed highly sensitive measuring equipment 200 to 270 meters under the ocean's surface. These devices were placed in holes near eastern Taiwan where two major tectonic(地壳构造的) plates meet. As many as twenty tectonic plates cover the Earth's surface. The plates can cause earthquakes as they move.

The scientists collected measurements from 2002 until 2007. The information they gathered suggests typhoons and slow earthquakes near Taiwan are linked. The equipment measured twenty slow earthquakes during the five-year observation period. Of those twenty, eleven took place at the same time as typhoons.

Typhoons cause atmospheric pressure to drop. The scientists suggest that this causes a reduction in pressure on the land where the plates meet. As a result, one side of the fault(断层) area lifts, causing the pressure that has been building up inside to be released. This could explain why Taiwan has a large number of small earthquakes, but rarely a major one.

The findings help to show how and why different kinds of earthquakes take place. This, scientists believe, could lead to better earthquake predictions.

1. Major storms developed over the Indian Ocean are called________ by scientists.

A．typhoons

B．cyclones

C．hurricanes

D．tornadoes

2. We can infer that________.

A．a slow earthquake is mild and nondestructive	B．violent earthquakes often happen undersea
C．violent earthquakes have never happened in Taiwan	D．Taiwan is an island where earthquakes seldom happen

3. The passage may be taken from________.

A．the journal Nature	B．the magazine Playboy
C．the newspaper New Lifestyle	D．a text book called Bio-travel

4. What is the passage mainly about?

A．Typhoons may cause violent earthquakes.	B．Violent earthquakes can be destructive.
C．Typhoons and earthquakes.	D．Typhoons could help to prevent severe earthquakes.

4 . The highest mountain in the world is Mount Everest. It is 8,848.86 meters above sea level. Many men have tried to climb this mountain but without success. High winds, cold and little oxygen have made this almost an impossible (不可能的) thing. It was not until 1953 that two men stood on the top. One of the men was Edmund Hillary from New Zealand. The other was Tenzing Norgay from Nepal. They were members of a British Expedition (探险队). There were nearly twenty people in the whole team. They spent about sixty days finishing the whole climbing. The last day, May 29th, was fine；Hillary and Tenzing started climbing as the sun rose. At half past eleven they were on top of Mount Everest. They were very glad. They wanted to stay there for some time, but they couldn't. It was too cold and dangerous. They had climbed as high as anyone can climb—they were on the top of the world.

1. When did people first climb up to the top of the world's highest mountain?

A．Never.	B．On May 28, 1954.
C．One day in 1953.	D．Nearly 60 days after May 29, 1953.

2. __________can make climbing Mount Everest very difficult.

A．High winds, cold and little oxygen	B．No cars and planes
C．Few people	D．Winds, cold and oxygen

3. Who climbed up to the top of the world first?

A．British people.	B．An expedition.
C．A New Zealander and a Nepalese.	D．None.

4. _________wanted to climb Mount Everest, though it was so high.

A．Few people	B．A lot of people
C．Only the men	D．The British people

5. How high is the top of the world?

A．No one knows.	B．9.8 kilometers.
C．8,848. 86 meters above sea level.	D．Above the sea level.

5 . A flood occurs when water overflows. This can happen in many ways. Most common is when rivers or streams overflow their banks. Excessive rain, a ruptured (破裂的) dam or levee (防洪堤), rapid ice melting in the mountains can overwhelm a river and send it spreading over the nearby land, called a floodplain. Coastal flooding occurs when a large storm or tsunami causes the sea to surge inland.

Most floods take hours or even days to develop, giving residents enough time to prepare or leave. Others generate quickly and with little warning. These flash floods can be extremely dangerous, instantly turning a babbling brook into a thundering wall of water and sweeping everything in its path downstream.

Disaster experts classify floods according to their likelihood of occurring in a given time period. A hundred-year flood, for example, is an extremely large, destructive event that would theoretically be expected to happen only once every century. But this is a theoretical number. In reality, this classification means there is a one-percent chance that such a flood could happen in any given year. Over recent decades, possibly due to global climate change, hundred-year floods have been occurring worldwide with frightening regularity.

Moving water has awesome destructive power. When a river overflows its banks or the sea drives inland, structures poorly equipped to withstand the water's strength are no match. Bridges, houses, trees, and cars can be picked up and carried off. The erosive force of moving water can drag dirt from under a building's foundation, causing it to crack and tumble.

When floodwaters recede (退去), affected areas are often blanketed in silt and mud. The water and landscape can be contaminated (污染) with hazardous materials, such as sharp debris, pesticides, fuel, and untreated sewage. Potentially dangerous mold blooms can quickly overwhelm water-soaked structures. Residents of flooded areas can be left without power and clean drinking water, leading to outbreaks of deadly waterborne diseases like typhoid, hepatitis A, and cholera.

But flooding, particularly in river floodplains, is as natural as rain and has been occurring for millions of years.

1. Paragraph 1 mainly tells us________.

A．what a floodplain is	B．how a flood happens
C．how often a flood happens	D．why coastal flooding occurs

2. We can conclude from the passage that________.

A．the classification of floods is the most accurate

B．the more often a flood occurs, the more dangerous it is

C．A hundred-year flood is sure to occur every hundred years

D．global climate change may increase the chance of a hundred-year flood

3. A car's being picked up by rushing water shows that________.

A．moving water is powerful	B．the car must be poorly equipped
C．the erosive force of water is destructive	D．the power of moving water has no match

4. What is most likely to be discussed next?

A．Disastrous floods in the world.	B．The means of preventing floods.
C．The connection between rains and floods.	D．Famous floodplains like the Mississippi Valley.

6 . Designing a ballistic missile（弹道式导弹）is no easy task-in fact, it takes a rocket scientist. But equally important are the teams working in the background, making it function properly.

Xu Liping leads a team of propellant-processing（推进剂处理）engineers at the Xi'an Aerospace Chemical Propulsion Factory in Shaanxi Province. Every working day, the 51-year-oldand his workmates deal with one material-highly explosive propellant designed for use in rocket engines.

Nowadays, a large part of the work they do is automated, but the most skillful part must still be done by hand.

Using small tools, they carefully clean the surfaces of the propellants. Xu and his team must also always be mindful that even the smallest mistake of the hand at the wrong moment could result in a great explosion which can destroy their whole workshop.

"We must all be familiar with the propellants' characters. Our work requires an extremely high level of concentration because the things we work with are highly explosive. We also have to work together," he said. Xu, who has been in the business for 32 years, is still considered the master, and is always called upon first when propellant for a newly developed rocket needs to be processed.

The proudest moment for the team came in 2015, Xu said, when they watched on television as the important ballistic missiles they had worked on were paraded in front of Tian'anmen Square in Beijing. "In addition to professional knowledge and a sense of pride, we also have the spirit of innovation（创新）among our young people," he said.

Zhang Kangzhu, Xu's leader, said Xu's devotion to his work was an inspiration to all. He said the younger employees could learn much from Xu.

1. What do you know about Xu Liping's work?

A．Interesting.

B．Dangerous.

C．Boring.

D．Exciting.

2. What does Xu and his workmates' work require?

A．Carefulness and strength.

B．Carefulness, skills and energy.

C．Professional knowledge, carefulness and a sense of satisfaction.

D．Professional knowledge, carefulness, team spirit and innovation.

3. What does Zhang Kangzhu think of Xu?

A．He thinks highly of him.	B．He encourages Xu to do more.
C．He thinks Xu's work is very easy.	D．He thinks Xu sets a bad example to the young.

7 . Claudio Viera de Oliveira is from Brazil. He was born with an upside down head and deformed (畸形的) legs. His mother was told by doctors that she should allow him to die. But she ignored their advice. Oliveira grew up and now he has written a book about his life after the age of 40. Since he was a child, Oliveira has liked to keep himself busy. He didn't like to depend totally on others. He learned to do things all by himself. At eight, Oliveira began to walk on his knees. His family had to change the floor of the house, so he could walk without injuring humself. His bed, plugs and lights had to be made lower so that he could do things for himself.

He couldn't use a wheelchair because of his unusual shape, making it hard for him to be independent outside the home, but he begged his mother to allow him to go to school and learn with other children. He learned to use a pen with his mouth to type words and even use his lips to operate a mouse or a phone. He also went on to qualify as an accountant and gave speeches at special events. Now Oliveira has published his first book, called"O mundo esta ao(The world is the wrong way around)".

Oliveira said, “Throughout my life I was able to adapt my body to the world. Right now, I don't see myself as being different. I am a normal person. I don't see things upside down. Nowadays I can say that I am a professional, international public speaker and that I receive invitations from all over the world."

1. What was the doctors' attitude towards Oliveira's disease?

A．Hopeless.	B．Concerned.
C．Confident.	D．Doubtful.

2. What do we know about Oliveira?

A．He adapted himself to society.

B．He managed to walk on foot at eight.

C．He used a normal bed and lights at home.

D．He controlled a wheelchair with his mouth.

3. What does Oliveira do at present?

A．A doctor.

B．An accountant

C．A publisher.

D．A professor.

4. Which saying can best describe Oliveira's experience?

A．All that glitters is not gold.

B．Where there is a will there is a way.

C．Health is not valued till sickness comes.

D．It is more blessed to give than to receive.

8 . Wranglers（争论者）and Stranglers（扼杀者）

Years ago there was a group of brilliant young men at the University of Wisconsin, who seemed to have amazing creative ______ talent. They were would-be poets, novelists, and essayists. They were extraordinary in their ______ to put the English language to its best use. These promising young men ______ regularly to read and critique（评论）each other's works.

These men were merciless with one another. They ______ the minutest literary expression into a hundred pieces. They were heartless, tough, even mean in their criticism. The sessions became such areas of literary criticism that the ______ of this special club called themselves the “Stranglers”.

In order to ______ , the women of literary talent in the university determined to start a club of their own, one comparable to the Stranglers. They ______ themselves the “Wranglers”. They, too, read the works of one another. But there was one great difference. The criticism was much softer, more ______ , more encouraging. Sometimes, there was almost no criticism at all. Every effort, even the weakest one, was ______ .

Twenty years later an alumnus（男校友；男毕业生）of the university was making an exhaustive（详尽的；彻底的） ______ of his classmates' careers when he ______ a vast difference in the literary accomplishments of the Stranglers as opposed to the Wranglers. Of all the ______ young men in the Stranglers，no one had made a significant literary achievement of any kind. From the Wranglers had come six or more successful ______ , some of national renown（名望；声誉）such as Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, who wrote The Yearling.

Talent between the two? Probably the same. Level of ______ ? Not much difference. But the Stranglers were strangled, while the Wranglers were determined to give each other a(n)lift. The Stranglers ______ an atmosphere of argument and self-doubt. The Wranglers highlighted the best, not the worst.

1.

A．architectural

B．artistic

C．literary

D．musical

2.

A．strength

B．ability

C．performance

D．power

3.

A．gathered

B．organized

C．challenged

D．collected

4.

A．turned

B．translated

C．combined

D．divided

5.

A．leaders

B．organizers

C．members

D．arrangers

6.

A．participate

B．practice

C．succeed

D．compete

7.

A．regarded

B．called

C．thought

D．recognized

8.

A．fantastic

B．critical

C．positive

D．serious

9.

A．required

B．spared

C．made

D．encouraged

10.

A．experiment

B．study

C．analysis

D．judgment

11.

A．reflected

B．resolved

C．explained

D．noticed

12.

A．optimistic

B．confident

C．bright

D．honest

13.

A．engineers

B．writers

C．doctors

D．lawyers

14.

A．courage

B．patience

C．education

D．skill

15.

A．ruined

B．lightened

C．promoted

D．enjoyed

9 . U.S. actor Brent Hill studied the violin for seven years during his childhood. But, now, he couldn’t make a sound out of it. His latest role as Dewey Finn in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical, School of Rock, in which he plays with 36 talented child musicians, reminds him of his time as an instrumentalist.

Hill shared his story on arriving in Beijing. School of Rock is being staged in Beijing from March 22 until April 14 on its debut China tour. The musical staged its world premiere on Broadway in 2015.

The musical is based on the successful 2003 Hollywood comedy, starring Jack Black. The plot follows Dewey Finn, a failed rock star forced to make money as a substitute teacher at a private elementary school, where he turns a class of straight-A students into a rock band.

“The role, Dewey, is the biggest kid. I am a big kid in real life, so this part is not challenge. When I got the role, I did the exact same thing as Dewey who is a loser,” Hill says. “Working with child actors is exciting.”

Thousands of kids auditioned. Three-and-a-half months later, 36 made the cut. Samantha Zhang plays the role of Katie. She has practiced piano for seven years and violin for four but had to learn to play bass for the musical. “No many girls play bass. It’s so cool, and I feel like a rock star,” says the 13-year-old, who made her musical-theater debut in 2014. It’s the first time for the girl, who lives in Sydney with her Chinese parents, to visit China.

Webber became interested in the movie. He wrote 12 new songs. Hill says it’s difficult to get Black’s acting out of his subconsciousness. However, Webber’s songs enable Hill to make the role his own.

“School of Rock is about how music reaches and transforms everyone’s life especially children.” Webber said. “When the substitute teacher turned the straight-A student class into a rock band, it changed his life and theirs forever.”

1. What caused Hill to realize he was an unsuccessful violinist?

A．His latest role as Dewey Finn.	B．His childhood sufferings.
C．Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical.	D．36 talented child musicians’ performance.

2. Why did Brant Hill play the role successfully?

A．He is the biggest child in his family.	B．He has staged the musical many times.
C．He liked to work with child actors.	D．He had the same experience as Dewey Finn.

3. What do we know about Samantha Zhang?

A．She has little talent for music.	B．She enjoys her role of Katie.
C．She made her debut in China.	D．She was born in China.

4. What can we learn from the text?

A．Musicals lead to one’s success.	B．Webber’s new songs make little sense.
C．Music has significant effects in life.	D．Hill has performed in many musicals successfully.

10 . Starting this year, Scholastic Aptitude Test(SAT)scores will be about more than just how many correct answers a person has on the test.The College Board in charge of the SAT recently published a new policy.It will include something called an "adversity score", based on 31 different factors and ranging from I to 100.A score of 50 is an "average level of disadvantage", said The New York Times.A higher score means a student has faced more adversity.It will cover 150 colleges later this year and be available to all US colleges in 2020.

What kind of adversity do students face? African-American students, for example, are more likely to attend underfunded(资金不足的) schools, and their families usually can’t afford extra SAT lessons.Higher SAT scores have been found to have a close tie with students from richer families and those with better-educated parents, reported The New York Times.As a result, the SAT has long been criticized for its unfairness.

The new adversity score tries to deal with that reality.If a student came from a poor neighborhood or attended a high school without enough funding, this information will be given to college administrators.While one student's SAT score may be lower than her rich classmates, college administrators may assume that she did her best in a bad situation.

This sounds good, but the College Board has received a lot of criticism for this new development.Parents are worried.They’re concerned that their children's hard work would be "completely neglected“(忽视)just because they happened to come from a rich family.

Writing in Time, Andre J.Washington and Daniel Hemel call the adversity score a half-hearted effort＂.They say the score fails to directly deal with racial inequality(种族不平等).They also say that the problems experienced by African-Americans are deeper than just low scores and school funding.For example, they point out that African-American students are less likely to have supportive relationships with teachers, so they are less likely to have satisfying recommendation letters.

At least they're trying, says Richard D Kahlenberg, a senior fellow aThe Century Foundation.”An imperfect adversity score is better than failing to consider the difficulty so many students get through”, he said."The adversity score is simple and direct.”

1. What does “adversity" probably mean in the passage?

A．Mess

B．Difficulty

C．Confusion

D．Failure

2. What is "that reality "in paragraph 3?

A．Schools are underfunded.

B．The media have caused the unfairness.

C．Parents are not well-educated.

D．Family status greatly affects students' scores.

3. What might the influence of ”adversity score”?

A．It will narrow the gap between the white and the black.

B．Students from poor families are likely to benefit from it.

C．It will encourage students to work harder for high scores.

D．Students from rich families may have higher adversity scores..

4. Why is there criticism of the adversity score?

A．It fails to take students' difficulties into consideration.

B．It will make racial inequality a more serious problem.

C．The relationship between teachers and students will be affected.

D．Efforts made by students from rich families will be undervalued.