1 . Philosophers have a bad reputation for expressing themselves in a dry and boring way. The ideals for most philosophical writing are precision, clarity, and the sort of conceptual analysis that leaves no hair un-split.

There is nothing wrong with clarity, precision, and the like — but this isn’t the only way to do philosophy. Outside academic journals, abstract philosophical ideas are often expressed through literature, cinema, and song. There’s nothing that grabs attention like a good story, and there are some great philosophical stories that delight and engage, rather than putting the reader to sleep.

One of the great things about this is that, unlike formal philosophy, which tries to be very clear, stories don’t wear their meanings on their sleeve — they require interpretation, and often express conflicting ideas for the reader to wrestle with.

Consider what philosophers call the metaphysics (形而上学) of race — an area of philosophy that explorers the question of whether or not race is real. There are three main positions that you can take on these questions. You might think that a person’s race is written in their genes (a position known as “biological realism”). Or you might think of race as socially real, like days of the week or currencies (“social constructionism”). Finally, you might think that races are unreal — that they’re more like leprechauns (一种魔法精灵) than they are like Thursdays or dollars (“anti-realism”).

A great example of a story with social constructionist taking on race is George Schuyler’s novel Black No More. In the book, a Black scientist named Crookman invents a procedure that makes Black people visually indistinguishable from Whites. Thousands of African Americans flock to Crookman’s Black No More clinics and pay him their hard-earned cash to undergo the procedure. White racists can no longer distinguish those people who are “really” White from those who merely appear to be White. In a final episode, Crookman discovers that new Whites are actually a whiter shade of pale than those who were born that way, which kicks off a trend of sunbathing to darken one’s skin-darkening it so as to look more While.

Philosophically rich stories like this bring more technical works to life. They are stories to think with.

1. What does the author think of philosophical stories?

A．The meaning behind is very obvious.

B．They am extremely precise and formal.

C．They often cause conflicts among readers.

D．They are engaging and inspire critical thinking.

2. Which category might “Christmas” fall into according to paragraph 4?

A．Social constructionism.	B．Anti-realism.
C．Biological realism.	D．Literary realism.

3. What is Black No More in paragraph 5 mainly about?

A．Racial issues caused by skin colors.

B．A society view on race and self-image.

C．Black people accepted by the white society.

D．The origin of sun bathing among white people.

4. What is the best title of the text?

A．Stories Made Easy	B．Stories to Think with
C．Positions in Philosophy	D．Nature of Philosophical Writing

2 . On a bright sunny day, I stared my day off by volunteering at the L. A. Food Bank. My reason for volunteering at the food bank was to satisfy my need to help others and leave a _________, however small a difference it is, in someone’s world. As I_________the food bank, there were lots of people there. The room appeared to be _________as people waited in lines to _________with coordinators (协调员). Everybody volunteering began heading quickly to their given _________ after checking in. Coordinators _________ me to repackage donated food items (物品) from local food drives after being sorted and _________ by other volunteer. When I _________ the donated food items, each bag had to _________ the correct amount of food items. As a team. we effectively worked similarly to a __________assembly (装配) line as the items continuously moved down the __________to volunteers. We __________placed the food items into bags before the table would get overcrowded. My __________ was that all this hard work and effort would be worth it by allowing us to __________ those in need. My task required a lot of __________ when trying to work swiftly with my hands while ensuring that items placed in bags were correctly __________·Here I had a chance to communicate with a variety of people while improving my __________ skills .We worked together as a team to __________ that our task was going effectively.

By helping pack food items. I was able to make as significant impact on my community by helping people fight __________ and giving them hope for a better life. After this experience, I feel a sense of __________within me which does not usually happen.

1.

A．change

B．message

C．blank

D．chance

2.

A．established

B．examined

C．entered

D．equipped

3.

A．shabby

B．steady

C．tidy

D．noisy

4.

A．check in

B．give up

C．show off

D．move out

5.

A．aid

B．duties

C．awards

D．test

6.

A．appointed

B．begged

C．forced

D．persuaded

7.

A．consumed

B．inspected

C．searched

D．replaced

8.

A．abandoned

B．delivered

C．packed

D．explored

9.

A．represent

B．shelter

C．deserve

D．contain

10.

A．studio

B．factory

C．museum

D．theatre

11.

A．bank

B．list

C．step

D．row

12.

A．quickly

B．secretly

C．casually

D．anxiously

13.

A．burden

B．thought

C．regret

D．interest

14.

A．recognize

B．welcome

C．help

D．visit

15.

A．focus

B．respect

C．wisdom

D．ambition

16.

A．understood

B．counted

C．led

D．heard

17.

A．leadership

B．technical

C．social

D．business

18.

A．prove

B．discover

C．stress

D．guarantee

19.

A．fear

B．loneliness

C．hunger

D．doubt

20.

A．direction

B．identity

C．belonging

D．satisfaction

3 . Biology is making it clearer that a man’s health and well-being have a measurable impact on his future children’s health and happiness. This is not because a strong, responsible man has a greater ______ of being a good dad—or not only for that reason—or because he’s probably got good genes. Whether a good man’s genes are good or bad(and whatever “good” and “bad” mean in the context)，his children’s bodies and minds will reflect ______ choices he has made over the years, even if he made those choices ______, he ever imagined himself strapping on a baby Bjorn.

Doctors have been telling men for years that smoking, drinking and recreational drugs can lower the ______ of the sperm(精子). What doctors should probably add is that the health of unborn children can be affected by what and how much men eat; the toxins(poisonous substances)they ______, the traumas(unpleasant experiences)they endure, their poverty or powerlessness; and their age at the time of conception(怀孕). ______, what a man needs to know is that his life experience leaves ______ traces on his children. Even more astonishingly, those children may pass those traces along to their children.

Lately scientists have been obsessed with(着迷于)a means of ______ that isn’t genetic but isn’t non-genetic either. It’s epigenetic,“Epi”,in Greek, means “above” or “beyond”. Think of epigenetics as the way our bodies modify their genetic makeup. Epigenetics describes ______ genes are turned on or off, in part through compounds that get on top of DNA—or else jump off it—______ whether it makes the proteins that tell our bodies what to do.

In the past decade or so, the study of epigenetics has become so ______ that it is practically a craze. Psychologists and sociologists particularly like it because gene expression or suppression(抑制)is ______ affected by the ______ and plays at least as large a role as genes do in the development of a person’s characteristics, body shape and tendency to disease. I’ve become obsessed with epigenetics because it ______ me as both game-changing and terrifying. Our genes can be switched on or off by three environmental factors, among other things: what we ingest(food, drink, air, toxins)，what we ______(stress, trauma)，and how long we live.

1.

A．passion

B．likelihood

C．opportunity

D．value

2.

A．lifestyle

B．genetic

C．habitual

D．parental

3.

A．long before

B．long after

C．as long as

D．shortly after

4.

A．quantity

B．quality

C．value

D．size

5.

A．release

B．produce

C．absorb

D．consume

6.

A．Moreover

B．On the contrary

C．In other words

D．On the other hand

7.

A．vital

B．potential

C．distinct

D．biological

8.

A．inheritance

B．growth

C．development

D．breeding

9.

A．where

B．why

C．when

D．how

10.

A．regulating

B．determining

C．defining

D．testing

11.

A．serious

B．popular

C．significant

D．sensitive

12.

A．at the most

B．at the least

C．in general

D．to some degree

13.

A．intelligence

B．culture

C．environment

D．psychology

14.

A．shocks

B．strikes

C．discourages

D．inspires

15.

A．experience

B．suffer

C．support

D．comprehend

4 . Eventually, the changes that will strengthen stepfamilies will likely come from shifts in cultural prejudices. Such change is slow, but there are signs that some movement along this line is beginning to take place. For instance, Roger Coleman, a clergyman in Kansas City, Mo., performs marriage ceremonies specifically designed to include children when a parent remarries. In years of officiating second marriages, he says, he became keenly aware of the confusion and insecurities of the children, and the ceremony — which includes a special medal worn by the child — aims to celebrate the “new family” and move the church beyond mere criticism of divorce. This year, Coleman says, over 10,000 families across the country will use the medal in their remarriage ceremony.

Similar changes are occurring in public schools around the country. One of the difficulties for stepfamilies is that schools and other public institutions have typically not recognized the stepparent as a valid parent; school registration forms, field trip permission slips, health emergency information — none of these required or acknowledged the stepparent. The message, whether intended or not, has been that only biological parents count. It’s a message that the stepparent and stepchild internalize, worsening what’s often an already difficult relationship, and one which the larger community takes as another sign that stepfamilies are not legally recognized in American society. Through the efforts of the Step-family Association of America and other advocates, schools around the country have begun changing their policies to acknowledge the increasingly important role of stepparents.

Change is also evident in a marketplace eager to exploit this wide social trend. In a particularly American sign of the times, the Hallmark greeting card company, is about to launch a line of cards devoted entirely to non- traditional families. The cards never use the word “step”, but most of the “Ties That Bind” line is clearly aimed at people who have come together by remarriage rather than biology — or, as one card puts it, “Thrown together without being asked, no chance of escape.” Some are straightforward (“There are so many different types and ways to be a family today”), while others are more indirect (“It’s like at a puzzle where the pieces aren’t where they used to be”). But all are aimed at the vast and growing market of people who don’t identify with the old definitions of family, and who are finding ways to make their new families work. Who knows — soon there may even be a card Tori La Londe can send to her former husband’s former mother-in-law.

1. The marriage ceremonies performed by Roger Coleman _________.

A．always make children feel confused and insecure

B．are more romantic than any other marriage ceremony

C．are designed to include some children to create an exciting atmosphere

D．are arranged to let children attend their parent’s remarriage ceremonies

2. The examples of school registration forms, field trip permission slips, health emergency information in public schools are applied to suggest _________.

A．biological parents are irreplaceable in the growth of a child

B．stepparents are no substitute for the biological ones

C．traditional views on the family structure still persist

D．efforts are made to facilitate the present situation

3. The underlined sentence in Paragraph 3 “Who knows — soon there may even be a card Tori La Londe can send to her former husband’s former mother-in-law.” means _________.

A．Businesses can benefit more from new patterns of families

B．People begin to be open to different new definitions of family

C．Sending cards is a good way to tie the bond of the family

D．Ex-husband’s ex-mother-in-law plays an important role in the family

4. What does the passage mainly discuss?

A．The increasingly important role of stepparents.

B．The practical ways to strengthen the stepfamilies.

C．The difficulties that are facing the stepfamilies.

D．People’s gradual recognition towards stepfamilies.

6 . Wild animals are equipped with a variety of techniques to avoid becoming lunch for a bigger animal, also known as a predator (捕食者) in nature. The most well-known methods include the classic fight and flight as well as freeze.

A team of researchers wondered whether closeness to people might impact those survival strategies. “We often see that animals are more tolerant around us in urban areas, but we don’t really know why.” says evolutionary biologist Dan Blumstein. “Is it individual plasticity, meaning individuals change their fear of us and that leads to tolerance? Or can there be an evolutionary factor involved?”

To find out, Blumstein and his colleagues combined information from 173 studies of over 100 species, including mammals, birds, fish and even mollusks. It turns out that regardless of evolutionary ancestry, the animals react in a similar way to life among humans: they lose their anti-predator characteristics. That pattern is especially pronounced for plant-eating animals and for social species. This behavioral change is perhaps unsurprising when it’s intentional, the result of domestication or controlled breeding. But it turns out that urbanization alone results in a similar change, though around three times more slowly.

The main point is: we’re essentially domesticating animals by urbanization. We’re selecting for the same sorts of characteristics that we would if we were actually trying to domesticate them. If the urbanization process helps animals better co-exist with people, it could be to their benefit. But if it makes them more defenseless to their nonhuman predators, it could be a real problem. Either way, these results mean that city living has enough of an influence on wild animals that evolutionary processes kick in. Those reductions in anti-predator characteristics become encoded in their genes. We’re changing the population genetics one way or another.

What the researchers now wonder is whether the mere presence of tourists in less urbanized areas can cause similar changes in wild animals. If so, serious questions exist for the idea of ethical, welfare-oriented eco-tourism. If we wish to help animals keep their anti-predator defenses, the researchers say, we might have to intentionally expose animals to predators. It’s just yet one other way that we’re changing the world around us.

1. The research led by Blumstein is aimed at ________.

A．determining how animals’ survival is impacted by individual plasticity

B．studying how living among humans affects animals’ survival strategies

C．comparing the effectiveness of different survival techniques

D．finding out which evolutionary factor impacts animals’ survival methods

2. Which of the following practices may contribute to animals losing anti-predator characteristics?

A．Controlled breeding of animals.	B．Banning the operation of eco-tourism.
C．Planned selection of favorable genes.	D．Eliminating domestication.

3. Which of the following statements is Blumstein likely to agree with?

A．Urbanization has made wild animals more alert.

B．Urbanization has brought concrete benefits to animals.

C．City living has led to animals’ genetic variations.

D．City living has helped to preserve animal species.

4. The animal rescue center spotted an injured fox a year ago and has since nursed it back to health. Before releasing it back to the wild, the center should probably ________.

A．expose the fox to the urban environment repeatedly

B．train the fox to co-exist with the less aggressive predators

C．intentionally get the fox accustomed to the presence of humans

D．purposefully adapt the fox to predator related environment

7 . “I’m not a reader.” It’s a common reply that Julia Torres, a teacher-librarian in Denver Public School, has heard throughout her 16-year career. She’s seen students tear up books, throw them away or check them out only to immediately return them all because they didn’t have confidence in their ability to read.

As a librarian, Torres feels strongly that libraries should be spaces of liberation, places where students can develop a love of reading at any stage. Reading is a skill that everyone can grow to love, but too many negative experiences during a child’s literacy (读写能力) education can result in boredom, lack of interest or even anger. When a student has a poor experience like being shamed for their reading choices, they can begin to associate reading with painful feelings of insecurity, shame and stress.

To prevent reading disorder (阅读障碍) practices, as Torres notes, librarians first can build an inclusive (内容丰富的) library where classified collections can make it easier for students to find out the books they want and also help identify gaps in the collections. Reevaluating librarians’ role is necessary, which allows students to take control of the library and have a say in what’s purchased for the collection, directly exciting students’ reading interest. Instead of hosting traditional book fairs where students have to pay for books, it is better to open up a True Book Fair, where students are invited to choose books intentionally to their interests without any costs. Librarians are recommended to read what students are reading. Another two important approaches to preventing reading disorder are to take a look at the library policies and redefine (重新定义) what counts as reading. It is necessary to get rid of fines, check-out limits, security gates, and punishment policies. Plus, students are encouraged to listen to audiobooks or read picture books. Find a way to teach important skills like comprehension or critical thinking with the texts that excite and interest students.

1. What does the underlined sentence “I’m not a reader” in Paragraph 1 infer?

A．Some students are not interested in reading.

B．Some students have no ability to read books.

C．Some students don’t borrow books from the library.

D．Some students haven’t tried to read for entertainment.

2. What is directly linked with exciting students’ reading interests?

A．Getting rid of library rules.	B．Making their own choices.
C．Librarians’ recommendation.	D．Reducing charges caused by reading.

3. What is Paragraph 3 mainly about?

A．What leads to students’ difficulty in reading.

B．How negative reading experiences affect students.

C．How to reduce reading disorder as student librarians.

D．Why to decrease reading disorder as student librarians.

4. What is the author’s purpose of writing the text?

A．To do a research on reading disorder.

B．To offer suggestions to the librarians.

C．To analyze why reading disorder forms.

D．To draw attention to reading disorder prevention.

8 . 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.

2. What does the underlined word “incentive” in Paragraph 2 probably mean?

A．Importance.

B．Variety.

C．Motivation.

D．Benefit.

3. The author mentions stages of learning in Paragraph 4 mainly to________.

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

4. Which would be the best title for this passage?

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

9 . Neuro-technology has long been a favourite of science-fiction writers. In “Neuromancer”, a wildly inventive book by William Gibson written in 1984, people can use neural(神经的) implants to get into the sensory experiences of others. Iain M. Banks came up with the idea of a neural lace, a mesh (网格) that grows into the brain, in his “Culture” series of novels. “The Terminal Man” by Michael Crichton, published in 1972, imagines the effects of a brain implant on someone who is convinced that machines are taking over from humans.

Where the sci-fi led, philosophers are now starting to follow. In Howard Chizeck’s lab at the University of Washington, researchers are working on an implanted device to administer deep-brain stimulation (DBS) in order to treat a common movement disorder called essential tremor. Traditionally, DBS stimulation is always on, wasting energy and robbing the patient of a sense of control. The lab’s ethicist (伦理学家), Tim Brown, a doctoral student of philosophy, says that some DBS patients suffer a sense of isolation and complain of feeling like a robot.

To change that, the team at the University of Washington is using neuronal activity associated with intentional movements to turn the device on. But the researchers also want to enable patients to use a conscious thought process to override these settings. That is more useful than it might sound: stimulation currents for essential tremor can cause side-effects like distorted (失真的) speech, so someone about to give a presentation, say, might wish to shake rather than make his words unclear. Giving humans more options of this sort will be essential if some of the more advanced visions for brain-computer interfaces are to be realized. Hannah Maslen from the University of Oxford is another ethicist who works on a BCI project. One of her jobs is to think through the distinctions between inner speech and public speech: people need a dependable mechanism for separating what they want to say from what they think.

That is only one of many ethical questions that the sci-fi versions of brain-computer interfaces bring up. What protection will BCIs offer against neural hacking? Who owns neural data, including information that is gathered for research purposes now but may be understandable in detail at some point in the future? Where does accountability lie if a user does something wrong? And if brain implants are performed not for treatment but to improve people’s abilities, will that make the world an even more unequal place?

1. What do the three books mentioned in paragraph 1 have in common?

A．They are all among what philosophers like best.

B．They all tell the stories well beyond imagination.

C．They are all works of the greatest sci-fi writers of the time.

D．They all deal with people’s losing control of their brains.

2. The research of the team at the University of Washington is intended to _____.

A．improve the accuracy of DBS	B．let patients decide when to turn on DBS
C．get rid of the side effects of DBS currents	D．separate what we think from what we say

3. What can be inferred from the passage?

A．Neuronal activity fails to work without intentional movements.

B．Brain-computer interfaces do more harm than good.

C．People suffering from essential tremor will shake.

D．DBS settings cannot be changed once fixed.

4. What will the passage most probably talk about next?

A．How these questions will be handled.

B．Why these questions used to be ignored.

C．Which questions come from science fiction.

D．Who has first raised these questions.