1 . A huge crowd has gathered to watch China’s new scientific research ship enter the water for the first time. This ship, equipped with on-board labs and the latest scientific kit, will eventually explore the world’s oceans. But it is also going to help China plunge beneath the waves: it will serve as a launch-pad for submarines that can dive to the deepest parts of the ocean. “Humans know much less about the deep oceans than we know about the surface of the Moon and Mars. That’s why I want to develop the facility for ocean scientists to reach the deep seas,” says Prof. Cui Weicheng.
He is the dean of deep sea science at Shanghai Ocean University but he has also set up a private company called Rainbow Fish, which built the new research ship and is busy developing submersibles. One of its unmanned subs reached a depth of 4,000m (13,000ft) in its most recent trial. But Rainbow Fish’s ultimate goal is manned exploration and it plans to take humans to the very bottom of the ocean the Mariana Trench, in the Pacific, at a depth of nearly 11,000m (36,000ft). He shows me around a life-size model of the submarine and explains that there is room inside for a crew of three, who will be protected by a thick metal sphere.”At the moment, we are in the design stage, so we are testing several extremely high-strength materials for it.” It will have to bear immense pressures from the crushing weight of water above. If there are any weaknesses, the submarine will implode. The deepest ocean is a place few people have ever experienced first-hand. The first dive to the Mariana Trench was carried out in 1960 by US Navy Lieutenant Don Walsh and Swiss engineer Jacques Picard. Their vessel, the Bathyscaphe Trieste, creaked and groaned as it made the descent, taking nearly five hours.
The only other manned expedition was carried out by Hollywood director James Cameron, who took a solo plunge in a bright green submarine in 2012. Rainbow Fish wants its sub to be next. The team insists its venture isn’t about politics and that it is looking to collaborate with American, Russian and European scientists. It is, though, a commercial operation. The company plans to charge people to use its research ship and submarines, and is targeting three groups, says managing director Dr. Wu Xin. “The first is definitely the scientists who are interested in studying deep-sea science and technology. The second group is offshore companies and oil companies. The last one is tourists and adventurers [who] want to go down themselves to have a look at what’s going on there,” he says. This kind of entrepreneurial approach may be a new model for science in China. Deep-sea research is a difficult, high-risk activity — and much of the ocean remains unexplored. But Cui, who hopes to be the first Chinese person to reach the Mariana Trench, believes that China could be the nation to truly open up this final frontier.
1. What function does the new scientific research ship serve?| A．As a deep-sea facility for tourist adventures |
| B．As a supply ship for scientific explorations. |
| C．As a station for observing giant squid. |
| D．As a launch-pad for submarines. |
| A．Testing high-strength materials for building submarines. |
| B．Designing a thick metal sphere for bearing space pressure. |
| C．Charting the Mariana Trench in the western Pacific Ocean. |
| D．Making plans for his dive to the bottom of the Mariana Trench. |
| A．Prof. Cui doesn’t rely on government funding. Instead he runs a for-profit business. |
| B．Prof. Cui is bold in his submarine design. |
| C．Prof. Cui, who started the company, is a professor-turned entrepreneur. |
| D．Prof. Cui is the first to offer his ship for tourists. |
| A．Deep-sea science and technology | B．Ocean exploration |
| C．Race to the deep | D．The rising of Rainbow Fish |
2 . Both misinformation, which includes honest mistakes, and disinformation, which involves an intention to mislead, have had a growing impact on teenage students over the past 20 years. One tool that schools can use to deal with this problem is called media literacy education. The idea is to teach teenage students how to evaluate and think critically about the messages they receive. Yet there is profound disagreement about what to teach.
Some approaches teach students to distinguish the quality of the information in part by learning how responsible journalism works. Yet some scholars argue that these methods overstate journalism and do little to cultivate critical thinking skills. Other approaches teach students methods for evaluating the credibility of news and information sources, in part by determining the incentive of those sources. They teach students to ask: What encouraged them to create it and why? But even if these approaches teach students specific skills well, some experts argue that determining credibility of the news is just the first step. Once students figure out if it’s true or false, what is the other assessment and the other analysis they need to do?
Worse still, some approaches to media literacy education not only don’t work but might actually backfire by increasing students’ skepticism about the way the media work. Students may begin to read all kinds of immoral motives into everything. It is good to educate students to challenge their assumptions, but it’s very easy for students to go from healthy critical thinking to unhealthy skepticism and the idea that everyone is lying all the time.
To avoid these potential problems, broad approaches that help students develop mindsets in which they become comfortable with uncertainty are in need. According to educational psychologist William Perry of Harvard University, students go through various stages of learning. First, children are black-and-white thinkers—they think there are right answers and wrong answers. Then they develop into relativists, realizing that knowledge can be contextual. This stage is the one where people can come to believe there is no truth. With media literacy education, the aim is to get students to the next level—that place where they can start to see and appreciate the fact that the world is messy, and that’s okay. They have these fundamental approaches to gathering knowledge that they can accept, but they still value uncertainty.
Schools still have a long way to go before they get there, though. Many more studies will be needed for researchers to reach a comprehensive understanding of what works and what doesn’t over the long term. “Education scholars need to take an ambitious step forward,” says Howard Schneider, director of the Center for News Literacy at Stony Brook University.
1. As for media literacy education, what is the author’s major concern?| A．How to achieve its goal. | B．How to measure its progress. |
| C．How to avoid its side effects. | D．How to promote its importance. |
| A．Importance. | B．Variety. | C．Motivation. | D．Benefit. |
| A．compare different types of thinking |
| B．evaluate students’ mind development |
| C．explain a theory of educational psychology |
| D．stress the need to raise students’ thinking levels |
| A．Media Literacy Education: Much Still Remains |
| B．Media Literacy Education: Schools Are to Blame |
| C．Media Literacy Education: A Way to Identify False Information |
| D．Media Literacy Education: A Tool for Testing Critical Thinking |
3 . When I first began to learn photography, a photographer offered me a simple
Don’t just “point and
This advice could also be applied to
All is too often it is not until our lives are in
| A．example | B．reward | C．tip | D．course |
| A．shoot | B．reframe | C．catch | D．focus |
| A．recognizing | B．considering | C．designing | D．spotting |
| A．behave | B．feel | C．stand | D．play |
| A．maintained | B．aroused | C．recalled | D．recovered |
| A．In other words | B．As a whole | C．In a way | D．On the contrary |
| A．work | B．photography | C．life | D．study |
| A．lose track of | B．make use of | C．get hold of | D．let go of |
| A．surprise | B．challenge | C．happiness | D．regret |
| A．struggle | B．fail | C．intend | D．expect |
| A．tough | B．strange | C．helpless | D．aimless |
| A．surprise | B．doubt | C．crisis | D．pride |
| A．abandoned | B．cancelled | C．misplaced | D．forget |
| A．merely | B．rarely | C．always | D．sometimes |
| A．Thus | B．Moreover | C．Instead | D．However |
| A．comments | B．requests | C．promises | D．decisions |
| A．impossible | B．active | C．negative | D．complex |
| A．beautiful | B．long | C．fresh | D．memorable |
| A．picture | B．figure | C．memory | D．story |
| A．react | B．relax | C．reappear | D．refocus |
内容主要包括：
1. 说明你对该课的喜爱；
2. 赞赏该课的优点；
3. 对该课的内容或授课方式提出两点建议。
注意：
1. 词数 100 左右；
2. 信的开头和结尾已给出，不计入总词数；
3. 可以适当增加细节，以使行文连贯。
Dear Sir or Madam,
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Sincerely yours,
Li Hua
Lorena parted the curtain in her living room and looked out onto the wet street. She was relieved the sunlight appeared. If it didn't stop raining it would ruin her day. Her mother had promised to drive her to Fashion Fair if it were sunny. Lorena was eager to go there because she had to replace a Nike jacket.
Earlier that Wednesday afternoon, Eddie, the most popular seventh-grader, had given Lorena his jacket and asked her to keep an eye as he would play basketball in a hurry. Lorena was quite happy to be of help.
During her last class, the biology teacher made them cut apart dead frogs. For fear of getting blood on Eddie's jacket, Lorena folded it and placed it on a chair. Then she took the knife and cut the skin quickly. She felt sick opening the frog's belly.
When the bell rang Lorena hurried out because the bus she caught for home left ten minutes after school. She raced to board the bus and found a seat. After a few minutes the driver started the engine and drove away when Lorena looked out of the window and saw Eddie. "The jacket!" she screamed. She shot from her seat and ran up to the driver. "You've got to stop! I forgot Eddie's jacket!" "Who's Eddie? " the driver said angrily. "Sit down."
All that evening she was upset and blamed her biology teacher for her problem. If he hadn't made them dissect(解剖) frogs, ,she wouldn't have been so absent-minded. The next day Lorena rushed from the bus to the biology room. The jacket was not there!
"How can I ever tell Eddie?" she closed her eyes. She spent most of her break and lunch period in the rest room, brushing her hair and worrying. On Friday she stayed home to avoid Eddie. She told her mother she wanted to go shopping to buy her a gift for her birthday, which was the next week. Actually, she wanted to buy a Nike jacket with her life savings at Fashion Fair.
Paragraph 1 :
Mom drove Lorena to Fashion Fair and left, asking her not to waste money.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Paragraph 2 :
Lorena was about to leave when she saw Eddie in his Nike jacket.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
6 . When I first met Begay at Los Ninos Elementary on “King and Queen Day”, she was wearing a smile ear-to-ear.
This morning, though, Begay was
By 8 a.m. , kids were arriving, and Begay’s
During lunch I sat down with Begay’s students and asked them what they liked about her.
“ She never gets angry, “ said one girl. A boy
Before we left the
Her
“They never
| A．sensitive | B．worried | C．thrilled | D．energetic |
| A．meet | B．investigate | C．enquire | D．praise |
| A．gradually | B．occasionally | C．abruptly | D．desperately |
| A．clarified | B．revealed | C．suspected | D．acknowledged |
| A．classroom | B．school | C．canteen | D．house |
| A．after | B．before | C．later | D．ago |
| A．rose | B．bowed | C．nodded | D．shook |
| A．disturbing | B．astonishing | C．capturing | D．embarrassing |
| A．conclusion | B．dream | C．belief | D．ambition |
| A．awesome | B．troubled | C．innocent | D．careless |
| A．commitment | B．assumption | C．proposal | D．regulation |
| A．rejected | B．declared | C．added | D．protested |
| A．office | B．kitchen | C．playground | D．table |
| A．shouted | B．whispered | C．cried | D．suggested |
| A．comment | B．adventure | C．experience | D．discovery |
| A．interpreted | B．promoted | C．shared | D．demonstrated |
| A．fancy | B．comprehensive | C．crucial | D．meaningful |
| A．do | B．express | C．guarantee | D．leave |
| A．acquire | B．secure | C．accomplish | D．pursue |
| A．believes in | B．stands by | C．tums against | D．fears for |
It’s common knowledge that the woman in Leonardo da Vinci’s most famous painting seems to look back at observers, following them with her eyes no matter where they stand in the room. But this common knowledge turns out wrong.
A new study finds that the woman in the painting is actually looking out at an angle that’s 15. 4 degrees off to the observer’s right-well outside of the range that people normally believe when they think someone is looking right at them. In other words, said the study author, Horstmann, “She’s not looking at you. “ This is somewhat ironic, because the entire phenomenon of a person’s gaze (凝视) in a photograph or painting seeming to follow the viewer is called the “Mona Lisa effect” . That effect is absolutely real, Horstmann said. If a person is illustrated or photographed looking straight ahead, even people viewing the portrait from an angle will feel they are being looked at. As long as the angle of the person’s gaze is no more than about 5 degrees off to either side, the Mona Lisa effect occurs.
This is important for human interaction with on-screen characters. If you want someone off to the right side of a room to feel that a person on-screen is looking at him or her, you don’t cut the gaze of the character to that side-surprisingly, doing so would make an observer feel like the character isn’t looking at anyone in the room at all. Instead, you keep the gaze straight ahead.
Horstmann and his co-author were studying this effect for its application in the creation of artificial-intelligence avatars(虚拟头像) when Horstmann took a long look at the “Mona Lisa” and realized she wasn’t looking at him.
To make sure it wasn’t just him, the researchers asked 24 people to view images of the “Mona Lisa” on a computer screen. They set a ruler between the viewer and the screen and asked the participants to note which number on the ruler intersected(和……相交) Mona Lisa’s gaze. To calculate the angle of Mona Lisa’s gaze as she looked at the viewer, they moved the ruler farther from or closer to the screen during the study. Consistently, the researchers found, participants judged that the woman in the “Mona Lisa” portrait was not looking straight at them, but slightly off to their right.
So why do people repeat the belief that her eyes seem to follow the viewer? Horstmann isn’t sure. It’s possible, he said, that people have the desire to be looked at, so they think the woman is looking straight at them. Or maybe the people who first coined the term “Mona Lisa effect” just thought it was a cool name.
1. It is generally believed that the woman in the painting “Mona Lisa”___________.| A．attracts the viewers to look back |
| B．seems mysterious because of her eyes |
| C．fixes her eyes on the back of the viewers |
| D．looks at the viewers wherever they stand |
A． | B． | C． | D． |
| A．confirm Horstmann’s belief |
| B．create artificial-intelligence avatars |
| C．calculate the angle of Mona Lisa’s gaze |
| D．explain how the Mona Lisa effect can be applied |
| A．Horstmann thinks it’s cool to coin the term “Mona Lisa effect”. |
| B．The Mona Lisa effect contributes to the creation of artificial intelligence. |
| C．Feeling being gazed at by Mona Lisa may be caused by the desire for attention. |
| D．The position of the ruler in the experiment will influence the viewers’ judgement. |
8 . To move visual technology into the future, sometimes it helps to make a little noise. Researchers have used sound waves to produce floating 3-D images, create a sense of touch and even supply a soundtrack.
Since the 1940s, scientists have toyed with the concept of acoustic levitation(声悬浮), the use of soundwave vibrations to trap tiny things in midair. The technology has gained greater capabilities in the past decade. Some researchers believe this improvement could lead to applications such as contributing to novel 3-D printing methods, or creating displays that would be visible from any angle without requiring a screen.
Other researchers have also worked on visual displays that use acoustic levitation. In addition to visuals, the system can also produce audible noise to give the display a soundtrack. And the ultrasound speakers can also concentrate vibrations in one spot so that a finger might feel a sense pushing back—a little like the object shown by the floating image is really there. Soundwaves create a 3-D display!
Display without a screen is remarkably useful. It means that everybody in the room can see the image—any angle, location—and that’s extremely helpful. As a communications system, such a display might one day allow users to chat with a 3-D projection(投影) of a person who can turn his or her head to follow as they move around a room.
The display will require a lot more work before you can install it in your living room, however. So far, this has been done in the research laboratory. We need to push it a little bit harder. We need to do more analysis to see if it would make sense to create a real display that people would have at home. The current system can only show simple graphics, such as a smiley face or figure eight, in real time.
Still, we are optimistic about the potential for this type of technology. If the system had only one speaker-covered surface instead of two, it could generate images that are bigger than the device itself. We can’t make a TV image that’s bigger than the TV—even a projector has to have a projection screen that’s bigger than the image itself. But with a volumetric(容积的) display, a small, portable device might produce a much larger picture. We can imagine, in the future, having volumetric displays in watches, for example, that create large images that just project out of your watch.
1. From the first two paragraphs soundwave vibrations can be used to _________.| A．catch very small objects in midair |
| B．develop 3-D printer’s capabilities |
| C．replace a creative display screen |
| D．compose soundtracks by making no noise |
| A．It has resulted in visual technology. |
| B．It is possible to see the image from any direction. |
| C．It is already ripe to create a real one at home. |
| D．It has yet to be tested in the research laboratory. |
| A．Outlooks for the new technology. |
| B．Situations of the modern technology. |
| C．Praise for the cutting-edge technology. |
| D．Room for the technical improvement. |
| A．Hearing Is Seeing—Sound Waves Create a 3-D Display |
| B．Seeing is Believing—3-D Printing Methods Arrive |
| C．Advancing Sense of Touch—3-D Images Float in the Air |
| D．Promoting TV Technology—Chat with 3-D Projections |
9 . Is there a way to turn back the aging process in people? For centuries, people have been looking for a “fountain of youth.” The idea is that if you find a magical fountain, and drink its water, you will not age.
Researchers in New York did not find an actual fountain of youth, but they may have found a way to turn back the aging process. It appears that the answer may be called the hypothalamus, which is part of your brain. It controls important body activities, including growth, the way we process food and so on. Researchers found that hypothalamus neural stem cells (干细胞) also influence how fast aging takes place.
Dongsheng Cai was the leading researcher in a study on aging in mice. He and his team reported their findings. “when the hypothalamus starts aging, particularly the loss of hypothalamus stem cells, so does the body.” he said.
Using this information, the researchers began trying to activate (激活) the hypothalamus in laboratory mice. The results show that the treatment slowed aging in the animals. “When we injected the hypothalamus stem cells to the middle-aged mice, the mice aged slowly and they could also live longer.”
But these results were just from studying mice in a laboratory. If the mice can live longer, does that mean people could have longer lives? The next step is to see if the anti-aging effects also work in human beings. If so, they say the findings could lead to new ways to help doctors identify and treat age-related health problems.
1. Why does the author mention the “fountain of youth” in the first paragraph?| A．To explain what the “fountain of youth” is. |
| B．To introduce the hypothalamus. |
| C．To show how to find the “fountain of youth”. |
| D．To help people find the “fountain of youth”. |
| A．The brain. | B．The aging process. |
| C．Hypothalamus. | D．The stem cell |
| A．They have found a way to turn back the aging process. |
| B．The brain controls growth, reproduction and the way we process food. |
| C．The decrease of hypothalamus stem cells can lead to aging. |
| D．The finding has been applied to human beings. |
| A．The Secret of Youth |
| B．A New Discovery about Aging |
| C．The Ways of Slowing Down Aging |
| D．Hypothalamus — the Fountain of Youth |
Willard Franklin came to my class half a year ago. But from his first day here, he shut himself in his own world and he never
After the Thanksgiving holiday, we received the news of the
The near morning,
After school I couldn't help sharing what had
As I sat down to
| A．turned | B．spoke | C．belonged | D．listened |
| A．failed | B．stopped | C．changed | D．stayed |
| A．promise | B．heart | C．sadness | D．silence |
| A．daily | B．weekly | C．monthly | D．yearly |
| A．young | B．sick | C．poor | D．strong |
| A．giving | B．enjoying | C．receiving | D．spending |
| A．Free | B．happy | C．popular | D．long |
| A．find | B．pack | C．buy | D．choose |
| A．share | B．show | C．start | D．continue |
| A．therefore | B．however | C．otherwise | D．besides |
| A．forgotten | B．discussed | C．learnt | D．realized |
| A．Personally | B．Gratefully | C．Certainly | D．Carefully |
| A．smooth | B．tired | C．low | D．deep |
| A．appeared | B．arrived | C．happened | D．remained |
| A．agree | B．fear | C．decide | D．believe |
| A．glad | B．sorry | C．surprised | D．lucky |
| A．message | B．report | C．research | D．list |
| A．rest | B．read | C．work | D．study |
| A．knew | B．ignored | C．supported | D．accepted |
| A．result | B．experience | C．survey | D．item |
