1 . To learn another language is more than just learning words and grammar; it
Sometimes, cultural differences in body language can
Another
Even speakers of the same
| A．resists | B．engages | C．includes | D．grasps |
| A．students | B．babies | C．adults | D．applicants |
| A．translators | B．learners | C．authors | D．advisors |
| A．involve | B．overcome | C．cause | D．interrupt |
| A．definite | B．important | C．major | D．initial |
| A．distance | B．insight | C．consideration | D．ease |
| A．cast | B．move | C．handle | D．break |
| A．higher | B．deeper | C．lower | D．closer |
| A．special | B．common | C．elegant | D．outstanding |
| A．fist | B．scream | C．smile | D．slap |
| A．shifted | B．slid | C．stepped | D．slipped |
| A．grammar | B．culture | C．tradition | D．language |
| A．obvious | B．same | C．tight | D．different |
| A．communicate | B．link | C．cooperate | D．chat |
| A．modest | B．optimistic | C．creative | D．outgoing |
2 . Many of us write a list of things we'd like to do before we die—often called a bucket list. Bucket lists have helped some people overcome anxiety which would have stopped them following their dreams. Some of us may choose to write one to fill our life with exciting and new experiences—from skydiving to swimming with sharks—the list is unlimited.
A blogger called Annette White said she made a promise to live her bucket list which continuously pushes the comfort zone to its limits and beyond it. Such a list can be exciting and can indeed help you plan your life and give you focus. When the BBC reporter Helen Fawkes knew she was suffering from incurable ovarian(卵巢的)cancer, she took comfort in drawing up a bucket list——although she called it her “list for living” because these were things for making the most of life. Sadly, she was not able to achieve all of her 50 things before she died at the age of 45.
Creating a bucket list can certainly give us hope, but some people have argued it can be used as a coping strategy to try to control something uncontrollable—death Clinical psychologist Linda Blair told the BBC that she was not really in favor of bucket lists ... “They take you away from the chance to be spontaneous(自发的).” It's probably true that a list can encourage people to follow someone else's idea of the perfect life. And also, following a fixed list of goals makes you less impulsive(冲动的)— your aims and wishes might change as you approach the day when you finally kick the bucket.
But why not at least dream of what we would like to do? Why not reach for the stars, even if we only reach the sky? Whether we want to plan it or just see what happens, we don't know what tomorrow will bring, so maybe we should live for today.
1. What can we know about a bucket list?| A．It encourages people to follow someone else's life. |
| B．It refers to doing something exciting and challenging. |
| C．It includes unlimited choices for us to do before we die. |
| D．It is a strategy to try to control something uncontrollable. |
| A．By analyzing the reasons. |
| B．By giving different examples. |
| C．By conducting a research. |
| D．By asking some questions. |
| A．Ambiguous. | B．Objective. |
| C．Favorable. | D．Disapproving. |
| A．We should live in the moment. |
| B．We can try to reach for the stars. |
| C．We just wait to see what happens. |
| D．We dream of whatever we'd like to do. |
3 . Who is a genius? This question has greatly interested humankind for centuries.
Let’s state clearly: Einstein was a genius. His face is almost the international symbol for genius. But we want to go beyond one man and explore the nature of genius itself. Why is it that some people are so much more intelligent or creative than the rest of us? And who are they?
In the sciences and arts, those praised as geniuses were most often white men, of European origin. Perhaps this is not a surprise. It’s said that history is written by the victors, and those victors set the standards for admission to the genius club. When contributions were made by geniuses outside the club—women, or people of a different color or belief—they were unacknowledged and rejected by others.
A study recently published by Science found that as young as age six, girls are less likely than boys to say that members of their gender(性别)are “really, really smart.” Even worse, the study found that girls act on that belief: Around age six they start to avoid activities said to be for children who are “really, really smart.” Can our planet afford to have any great thinkers become discouraged and give up? It doesn’t take a genius to know the answer: absolutely not.
Here’s the good news. In a wired world with constant global communication, we’re all positioned to see flashes of genius wherever they appear. And the more we look, the more we will see that social factors(因素)like gender, race, and class do not determine the appearance of genius. As a writer says, future geniuses come from those with “intelligence, creativity, perseverance(毅力), and simple good fortune, who are able to change the world.”
1. What does the author think of victors’ standards for joining the genius club?| A．They’re unfair. | B．They’re conservative. |
| C．They’re objective. | D．They’re strict. |
| A．They think themselves smart. |
| B．They look up to great thinkers. |
| C．They see gender differences earlier than boys. |
| D．They are likely to be influenced by social beliefs |
| A．Improved global communication. |
| B．Less discrimination against women. |
| C．Acceptance of victors’ concepts. |
| D．Changes in people’s social positions. |
| A．Geniuses Think Alike | B．Genius Takes Many Forms |
| C．Genius and Intelligence | D．Genius and Luck |
4 . When you first step into a classroom, one of the first things to catch your eye is usually a list of rules. However, there's one rule that you just can't help but question: No electronics. In reality, the classrooms in our school have an aversion to modern technology, so electronic devices（设备）such as computers and cellphones are not allowed, for they are thought to have a bad influence on children's attention at class. However, is it possible that these devices could actually be used to improve our learning experience?
As is known to us, these years we have spent so much time talking about the disadvantages of modern technology that we've failed to see their advantages in a classroom. Many people of the 80's and 90' still remember learning about history by playing the game TheOregonTrail, and many of us 2000's teenagers remember games such as BrainAge that encouraged our cognitive（认知的）development.
It doesn't end with educational games, either. Take Minecraft for example. While a parent may complain（抱怨）that their child spends too much time playing the hit video game, what they probably fail to realize is that their child's brain is being enriched with information allowing creativity and problem-solving. Children who play on public or local computers may also pick up on social skills. For older children, creating computer games can be a great introduction to coding（编码）. Many schools have begun to bring the game into their classrooms.
In the end, it's important that we welcome technological development in our classrooms and see the educational value in having fun. School no longer must mean sitting down for hours in front of a pictureless textbook. Instead, school can be a place where children are able to see learning as a lifelong experience.
1. What does the underlined part "have an aversion to" in Paragraph 1 mean?| A．Change. | B．Dislike. |
| C．Expect. | D．Overuse. |
| A．parents know little about computer games |
| B．children can create better computer games |
| C．children can learn from computer games |
| D．parents only welcome educational games |
| A．He is against them. |
| B．He is in favor of them. |
| C．He is uninterested in them. |
| D．He is uncertain about them. |
5 . We often hear about schools cutting back on bus routes to save money, yet plenty of communities have their buses stopping almost as often as the mail truck. While the presence of sidewalks, and the safety of area roads, play a role in who gets house-to-house pickup or end-of-the-street pickup, Peter Mannella, director at the New York Association for Pupil Transportation says community culture can play an even larger role in the transportation situation.
For example: Several years ago, Bethlehem tried spacing out its stops, says Mannella. The parents were unhappy, expressed as much and, within three days, the routes were back to their original frequency. “You can say ‘We are going to save $100,000 by not stopping at every house,’ but parents don’t want their kids walking,” Mannella says. As you’d expect, this is especially true in bad weather or during winter.
As a student in the 1980s, we walked to our stops. The neighborhood wait-spot was a good quarter mile away. Parents didn’t make a fuss (大惊小怪), and no child was injured. In fact, the walking was good — it woke us up each morning. Not to mention, the sense of community that came with hanging out together each morning waiting for bus No. 23 to roll up and take us all to school.
Thing is, a lot has changed since the 1980s. Too many people are texting and driving, making them as dangerous on the roads as drunken drivers. And, with reduced work forces at many companies, parents often work longer hours, meaning they aren’t around to guard their kids to and from stops like many parents did when we were growing up.
So I’ll give them an understanding pass on not wanting their children to walk a mile each way to get to and from school. I can’t agree with the complaints of having kids walk to a community neighborhood stop, though. If you worry they’re going to be cold, get them a hat. If you fear they may miss the bus, send them out the door five minutes earlier.
1. What do we know about Bethlehem’s plan?| A．It ended up in failure. |
| B．It lasted for a long time. |
| C．It wasn’t put into practice. |
| D．It saved a lot of money. |
| A．They woke up early in the morning. |
| B．They were driven to school by parents. |
| C．They usually hung out with their neighbors. |
| D．They benefited by walking to a neighborhood stop. |
| A．Drivers do not concentrate on driving. |
| B．The weather conditions are awful in winter. |
| C．Children might be late for school. |
| D．The house-to-house pickup is available. |
| A．Doubtful. | B．Cautious. | C．Supportive. | D．Critical. |
6 . We have often heard that “work smart and not hard”. Does only smart work bring you success? And if so, then why are so many of us still busy putting our blood and sweat into working hard? Here, we’ll discuss hard work and smart work.
Hard work sticks to the traditional form of doing work. It is all about consistently working towards a particular goal irrespective (不考虑的) of its worth, not being worried about the result and not using any means to reduce your effort. Hard work requires a lot of commitment and sincerity from the person. Although being boring and tiresome, it can give you the best results if it is done with heart and soul.
One of the preconditions of smart work is having an in-depth knowledge or experience of the work in hand, because that allows you to look for efficient ways to do the work in a planned and organized manner. Being a smart worker saves a lot of time as you can find means to reduce your work by using logical and innovative ways to achieve your goals. Besides, it also gives you enough time to learn a new task while completing the present one.
Although it seems that smart work is a better option, what we forget is that smart work is the fruit of hard work. Only when you work hard you gather the expertise (专业技能) and the knowledge to understand the work in hand and efficiently improve on it and work smartly.
So which do you think should be preferred? We are sure you have heard of “United we stand, divided we fall.”, and that is true in this case too. You will attain great heights and lead a better and comfortable life if you combine both smart and hard work together. If you are not smart your hard work will never pay. A donkey only does hard work, while a horse does hard work and uses its smartness whenever and wherever it needs. In a similar way, smart work is the result of hard work. To master the quality of smart work, you really need to work hard. Through hard work, we gain experience which helps us discover new things that in turn enables us to work smartly. The effort is important, but where to make that effort makes a difference.
1. What can we learn about hard workers from Paragraph 2?| A．They lack proper work skills. |
| B．They always have great patience. |
| C．They tend to ignore the goal of work. |
| D．They obtain excellent results from their work. |
| A．making a sensible plan |
| B．making use of creative ways |
| C．learning experience from others |
| D．getting inspiration from a new task |
| A．It is inspiring. | B．It is efficient. |
| C．It is challenging. | D．It is fundamental. |
| A．keeping working hard |
| B．finding a method of working smartly |
| C．combining smart work with hard work |
| D．choosing a suitable way of working based on your need |
| A．It is useless to work hard. |
| B．It is necessary to work smartly. |
| C．The efforts you make matter most. |
| D．The horse is cleverer than the donkey. |
7 . Regardless of how famous they are, and despite the star treatment they receive, many celebrities make it a point to give back to charities. Some have even set up their own private foundations. Their widely publicised visits to troubled areas of the world help to raise awareness of issues such as famine and poverty. According to Jane Cooper of Unicef UK, celebrities have a unique ability to reach huge numbers of people, many of whom might not otherwise be engaged in charitable causes. She pointed out that famous faces had played a significant role in raising funds in recent years, and their energies had produced tangible results, such as enabling millions of children in poorer countries to attend school.
But in spite of these successes there is evidence to suggest that celebrity endorsement (代言) may be overrated. In a survey of members of the public to find out if celebrity involvement would encourage people to donate, researchers found that the impact was not as great as previously thought. When shown a list of well-known organisations and famous people who represent them, over half of respondents were unable to match the celebrity with the cause. What’s more, three quarters claimed that they didn’t respond to celebrity endorsement in any way. The survey also showed that a few names did stand out as being associated with particular charities. But the presence of a celebrity in a campaign, was not a significant factor when it came to a decision to donate time or money. Instead, the majority of people contribute because of personal connections in their lives and families which make a charity important to them.
In another study aimed at young people, most participants cited a compelling (无法抗拒的) mission as their main motivation to give. The second most important incentive was if a friend or peer recommended supporting a particular cause. Only two percent of respondents said they were motivated by celebrity endorsement. This seems to contradict the general assumption that teenagers are particularly influenced by famous people. One possible explanation is that there is a general fatigue (疲倦) with celebrity culture. There is also a suspicion that the stars are the one who benefit most when they offer to do charity work. Some critics have accused that celebrities might actually take attention away from issues by attracting more attention than the causes they represent.
So taking all these issues into account, is it time for charities to rethink their campaign strategies and look for alternative ways to reach new audiences? Whichever point of view you favour, there seems to be opportunities for more research into how charity campaigns might develop relationships with celebrities to maximise their potential. This in turn will open up more engagement, and better targeted campaigns-which can only benefit those who really matter — the people and animals that are in need of assistance.
1. What does the underlined word “tangible” in paragraph I probably mean?| A．Definite. | B．Complicated. | C．Limited. | D．Temporary. |
| A．they gain benefit from the charities |
| B．they are forced to finish a necessary task |
| C．they believe in the famous people they like |
| D．they are inspired by the people around them |
| A．what celebrities achieve in doing charities |
| B．How young people react to celebrity culture |
| C．why young people are hardly influenced by celebrities |
| D．who is to blame for taking attention away from charities |
| A．Objective. | B．Positive. |
| C．Negative. | D．Unclear. |
8 . In 1953, when visiting his daughter’s maths class, the Harvard psychologist B.F. Skinner found every pupil learning the same topic in the same way at the same speed. Later, he built his first “teaching machine”, which let children tackle questions at their own pace. Since then, education technology (edtech) has repeated the cycle of hype and flop (炒作和失败), even as computers have reshaped almost every other part of life.
Softwares to “personalize” learning can help hundreds of millions of children stuck in miserable classes—but only if edtech supporters can resist the temptation to revive harmful ideas about how children learn. Alternatives have so far failed to teach so many children as efficiently as the conventional model of schooling, where classrooms, hierarchical year-groups, standardized curriculums and fixed timetables are still the typical pattern for most of the world’s nearly 1.5 billion schoolchildren. Under this pattern, too many do not reach their potential. That condition remained almost unchanged over the past 15 years, though billions have been spent on IT in schools during that period.
What really matters then? The answer is how edtech is used. One way it can help is through tailor-made instruction. Reformers think edtech can put individual attention within reach of all pupils. The other way edtech can aid learning is by making schools more productive. In California schools, instead of textbooks, pupils have “playlists”, which they use to access online lessons and take tests. The software assesses children’s progress, lightening teachers’ marking load and allowing them to focus on other tasks. A study suggested that children in early adopters of this model score better in tests than their peers at other schools.
Such innovation is welcome. But making the best of edtech means getting several things right. First, “personalized learning” must follow the evidence on how children learn. It must not be an excuse to revive pseudoscientific ideas such as “learning styles”: the theory that each child has a particular way of taking in information. This theory gave rise to government-sponsored schemes like Brain Gym, which claimed that some pupils should stretch or bend while doing sums. A less consequential falsehood is that technology means children do not need to learn facts or learn from a teacher—instead they can just use Google. Some educationalists go further, arguing that facts get in the way of skills such as creativity. Actually, the opposite is true. According to studies, most effective ways of boosting learning nearly all relied on the craft of a teacher.
Second, edtech must narrow, rather than widen, inequalities in education. Here there are grounds for optimism. Some of the pioneering schools are private ones in Silicon Valley. But many more are run by charter-school groups teaching mostly poor pupils, where laggards (成绩落后者) make the most progress relative to their peers in normal classes. A similar pattern can be observed outside America.
Third, the potential for edtech will be realized only if teachers embrace it. They are right to ask for evidence that products work. But skepticism should not turn into irrational opposition. Given what edtech promises today, closed-mindedness has no place in the classroom.
1. According to the passage, education technology can ________.| A．decrease teachers’ working load |
| B．facilitate personalized learning |
| C．help standardize curriculums |
| D．be loved by schoolchildren |
| A．The students who are better at memorization tend to be less creative. |
| B．Schools with bans on phones have better results than high-tech ones. |
| C．Shakespeare was trained in grammar but he penned many great plays. |
| D．Lu Xun’s creativity was unlocked after he gave up studying medicine. |
| A．at the service of teaching |
| B．limited in use among pupils |
| C．aimed at narrowing the wealth gap |
| D．in line with students’ learning styles |
| A．To stress the importance of edtech. |
| B．To introduce the application of edtech. |
| C．To discuss how to get the best out of edtech. |
| D．To appeal for more open-mindedness to edtech. |
9 . Thunderstorms often show up uninvited to Carnival (狂欢节) in Brazil. This year's attempt to influence the skies took place in Sao Pablo by a party's official sponsor,Skoal, a Brazilian beer brand. "The fun stops when it rains," says Pedro Ada my, Skoal's marketing director. So do beer sales.
An airplane painted with Skoal's logo sprayed (喷洒) water droplets into clouds to make rain fall before the clouds reached the city. According to its YouTube video that has been viewed 12 million times,it is a "mission worthy of science fiction".
Whether it's science or fiction is up for debate. The use of cloud-seeding to increase rainfall dates back to the 1940s. But the United States government stopped funding it in the 1980s due to a lack of " scientific proof of the effectiveness of intentional weather change", according to the National Research Council. A new paper based on experiments in Idaho found that seeding clouds with silver iodide increased snowfall on three occasions, but the authors say that more research is needed to find out if it can reliably promote precipitation (降水). Paulo Artaxo, a Brazilian physicist, says flatly that cloud-seeding is "useless".
Still, governments and firms in many countries use the technology. Sao Pablo's water company has signed million dollar contracts with ModClima to bring rain, most recently during a drought in 2014-15. Although cloud-seeding normally uses a chemical such as silver iodide to provide a surface around which water or ice droplets form, ModClima says it has invented an "experimental" method that uses water alone.
Carnival-goers cheered when the first two days were cloudy but dry. Many shared Skol's video. But at around 5pm on February 24th, the sky darkened and rain poured down. Celebrants at one block party left the Skol stands and rushed to buy umbrellas and plastic rain capes.
1. Why did Skoal support cloud-seeding?| A．To increase rainfall. |
| B．To promote its beer sales. |
| C．To provide evidence for a research. |
| D．To highlight the theme of the Carnival. |
| A．Objective. | B．Doubtful. | C．Conservative. | D．Negative. |
| A．Its outcome couldn't be proved. |
| B．It worked in limited situations. |
| C．It needed more field researches. |
| D．It used an un-ecofriendly chemical. |
| A．Could rain ruin fun? |
| B．How do we change weather? |
| C．Could we rely on intentional rain? |
| D．How do we avoid cloud-seeding pollution? |
10 . Cyberspace （网络空间）is constantly developing and presenting new opportunities, as the desire of businesses to quickly adopt new technologies, such as using the Internet to open new channels and adopting cloud services, provides vast opportunity. But, it also brings unexpected risks and unintended consequences that can have a potentially negative effect.
Hardly a day goes by without news of a new cyber threat. Unfortunately, businesses tend to misjudge how much risk they face from cyber-crimes and how quickly this risk can develop. For them, the commercial, reputational and financial risks that go with cyberspace presence are real and growing every day.
So all businesses need to do now is establish cyber security within their organization, right?
Establishing cyber security alone is not enough. Nowadays, it is not very difficult for attackers to break security and stop the overall business system. Preventive measures are not enough to stop them. With the advancement of technology, hackers （黑客）have been changing and developing. So business risk management should include risk resilience （复原力）so that businesses can respond to any damaging cyberspace activity. Cyber resilience helps businesses successfully recover to their pre-attack business processes and business operations.
Building cyber resilience is not easy. A key finding of an authentic cyber-resilience report is that no organisation can respond effectively on its own to the threats from cyberspace. Organisations must work together to share intelligence and resources. In this way, the quality, usability and authenticity of intelligence will be greatly improved.
1. What is the purpose of the first paragraph?| A．To describe the development of cyberspace. |
| B．To show the great contributions from business. |
| C．To explain the technologies adopted by businesses. |
| D．To draw attention to potential dangers from cyberspace. |
| A．Awareness of safety. |
| B．Financial conditions. |
| C．Commercial management. |
| D．Judgement of development. |
| A．It can prevent attacks. |
| B．Threats are always transforming. |
| C．Cyber security doesn't work now. |
| D．It keeps all the hackers off the internet. |
| A．An organization alone can build effective resilience. |
| B．True resilience requires joined efforts from organizations. |
| C．There is a great amount of difficulty in building resilience. |
| D．The cyberspace threat is nothing when cooperation is used. |
