1 . Randy Kraus was disabled. His left side was useless. He'd been a police officer before, and he was strong and able. Now, he felt he could do nothing.
His trouble started with Parkinson's disease, but it didn't end there. In July, 2002, the 60-year-old Kraus went into the hospital for an operation on his brain to control the shaking. But during the operation，he had a stroke. He was paralyzed. The doctor said, “You may never walk again and you might not even be able to talk.”
Kraus found that he couldn't lift a fork or take a drink by himself. Physical treatment was so painful and slow. What did he have to live for? So Kraus held the gun against his head. Feeling the cold metal on his skin, he began to consider the pain he would cause for his wife, daughters and grandchildren. He didn't pull the trigger (扳机)．
Andrew Garud, his exercise physiologist, told him, “You are where you are. The pace would be slow；the pain would be real. But as long as you are alive, you will have the ability to get better.”
After three months of working with Garud, Kraus wanted to see if he could stand.
He could. Then he took three steps, sat down and cried like a baby.
One step, as they say, led to another. Next he managed a short walk along the edge of a boxing ring (拳击台) in the health club. It was the hardest fight of Kraus's life. People at the gym cheered him on. Garud kept saying he could do more. Now, Kraus can brush his teeth，shave himself and get around the house with a walker. Only the disabled can fully understand little success.
1. According to the passage，we can learn that ________.| A．the stroke during the operation on his brain led to Kraus' disability |
| B．Kraus' operation in 2002 was performed by Andrew Garud |
| C．doing exercise can help cure Parkinson's disease |
| D．Kraus will lead a normal life as a healthy person in the future |
| A．Everyone in the world has the right to be alive. |
| B．It's necessary for people to do exercise to keep healthy. |
| C．One should try to lead a better life. |
| D．As long as a person is alive, he will have a chance to be better. |
| A．Optimism. | B．Strong mindedness. |
| C．Sympathy. | D．Generosity. |
2 . As more and more people speak the global language of English, Chinese, Spanish, and Arabic, other languages are rapidly disappearing. In fact, half of the 6,000-7,000 languages spoken around the world today will be likely to die out by the next century, according the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).
In an effort to prevent language loss, scholars from a number of organizations — UNESCO and National Geographic among them — have for many years been documenting dying languages and the cultures they reflect.
Mark Turin, a scientist at the Macmillan Center, Yale University, who specializes in the languages and oral traditions of the Himalayas, is following in that tradition. His recently published book, A Grammar of Thangmi and Their Culture, grows out of his experience living, working, and raising a family in a village in Nepal.
Documenting the Thangmi language and culture is just a starting point for Turin, who seeks to include other languages and oral traditions across the Himalayan reaches of India, Nepal, Bhutan, and China. But he is not content to simply record these voices before they disappear without record.
At the University of Cambridge Turin discovered a wealth of important materials —including photographs, films, tape recordings, and field notes — which had remained unstudied and were badly in need of care and protection. Now, through the two organizations that he has founded — the Digital Himalaya Project and the World Oral Literature Project — Turin has started a campaign to make such documents, found in libraries and stores around the world, available not just to schools but to the younger generations of communities from whom the materials were originally collected. Thanks to digital technology and the widely available Internet, Turin notes, the endangered languages can be saved and reconnected with speech communities.
1. Many scholars are making efforts to ________.| A．promote global languages | B．rescue disappearing languages |
| C．search for languages communities | D．set up language research organizations |
| A．having detailed records of the languages | B．writing books on language users |
| C．telling stories about language speakers | D．living with the native speakers |
| A．The cultural studies in India. | B．The documents available at Yale. |
| C．His language research in Bhutan. | D．His personal experience in Nepal. |
| A．Write, sell and donate. | B．Record, repair and reward. |
| C．Collect, protect and reconnect. | D．Design, experiment and report. |
3 . The Rise of Voice Technology
Voice technology has come a long way. Just a few years ago, it would have been unusable. But now, those who follow the technology know that it has got considerably better.
Writing with your voice raises several interesting questions. How difficult is it actually? Human speech involves a lot more starting and stopping with errors and the need for repairing broken sentences than you may think. Even gifted speakers make mistakes. To turn the spoken word into reasonable writing requires lots of planning. You’ll need some kinds of notes or other organisers to make it work.
Another question turning speech into writing raises is the style. How would writing make the change that people speak their writing rather than type? Chances are that it would come up with many more short sentences and more concrete language, which is good. It would probably also rely on prepared phrases a lot more often, which is not available when you are speaking quickly.
To confirm this, a column was not written, but dictated (听写). It was composed from brief notes written down for structure only, and it was edited for length, with all of the original errors kept in. Here were the results. The first was that the literal accuracy was extremely high. There weren’t many cases where the software had heard one word incorrectly and written down another. But the other result was that the readability of this column was rather bad. Obviously, the blame is not with the technology at all, which turns out to be rather good. Speaking into writing relies on a better human brain than the one we currently possess. Writing is hard. There’s a reason it can’t be done at the speed of speech, in real time.
To clarify the matter, this time paragraph breaks were added after the whole writing. Punctuations (标点) had to be spoken aloud, and after a full stop, the first word in the new sentence was capitalized automatically. Some minor punctuation marks were added to make it clearer. To improve accuracy, people “trained” the software beforehand, reading a prewritten passage aloud. Actually it turns out to be more effective. All of these ensure the satisfactory completion of turning speech into writing.
Language is the most important tool for human interaction, and voice is one beautiful part of language. With the maturity of modern technology, it has given birth to a great change in the human-computer voice interaction.
1. According to the passage, which helps to turn speech into writing in terms of style?| A．There is careful planning in advance. |
| B．Errors and broken sentences are avoided. |
| C．People type words as fast as they say them. |
| D．The writing contains more prepared phrases. |
| A．processing errors in a column. |
| B．adding minor punctuation marks. |
| C．increasing the number of brief notes. |
| D．integrating short paragraphs in writing. |
| A．human brains are responsible for poor dictated writing. |
| B．writing with voice promises to improve the quality of writing. |
| C．writing is an unnatural act that can hardly be learned and improved. |
| D．technology has a long way to go in the human-computer voice interaction. |
| A．Why people fully intend to turn speech into writing. |
| B．What role voice technology plays in improving readability. |
| C．Where the human-computer voice interaction is at an advantage. |
| D．How voice technology enables the change from speech into writing. |
4 . While many countries love their tea, UK citizens are particularly proud of being "tea people". The average UK citizen consumes nearly 2 kilograms of tea each year.Tea only made its way to England in large quantities in the first years of the 17th century. Tea from China and a few other Asian countries was being sold more widely in England at that time. Then tea became more and more popular among different social classes.
There are many varieties of tea. Black tea mixtures are still the most common type drunk in the UK. Black tea is dark in colour,because the leaves have been allowed to oxidize(氧化）before drying. This is why we usually serve it with milk,although it is not uncommon to drink it black or with lemon.
You may still find tea made with loose tea leaves, served up in a pot, and poured into the best china cups with saucers(茶托）for visitors.
Tea is still a large part of daily life in the UK today, but it seems to be on the decrease . The amount of tea sold in the UK fell by more than 10% in the five years leading up to 2002, and has been dropping ever since. Tea sales fell by 6% in 2014 alone, and most restaurants report selling more than twice as many cups of coffee as they do tea. More than 1 billion was spent on coffee in high street stores in 2013, more than twice what was spent on tea bags.
Still, what goes around comes around ; it's sure to become fashionable again.
1. Which of the following is true according to the first three paragraphs?| A．Tea made its way to England in the early years of the 16th century. |
| B．The UK usually serves black tea with lemon. |
| C．Tea from China is being sold more widely in England now. |
| D．UK citizens take pride in being "tea people". |
| A．Tea sales fell by 6% in 2014 alone. |
| B．The sales of tea have been on the decrease for about 20 years. |
| C．In 2013, the money spent on tea was f 3 billion. |
| D．Most restaurants like selling tea than coffee. |
| A．It can never succeed again. | B．Tea can become popular again. |
| C．Coffee is more popular than tea. | D．Tea is becoming less popular. |
5 . There are around 100 tribes(部落)that live in global isolation, mostly in South America and India. The Sentinelese have lived on one of the Andaman Islands in Eastern India for 60, 000 years. They protect their island by fighting against people from outside. Their language is different from any other known language. Another Andaman tribe is the Jarawa. In the past, they were independent and fought against anybody trying to make contact with them. But in 1998, the Indian government built a road across their land, and since then, they’ve had more contact with the outside world.
Some Amazon tribes avoid contact because of unhappy memories. The Mashco-Piro left their vegetable gardens after rubber companies killed most of their tribe at the beginning of the 20th century. Those who survived became nomadic(游牧的)and started hunting animals in the forest.
The Awa live in the Amazon forests ofBrazil. Out of 350 members, 100 have no contact with the outside world. They left their villages and adopted a nomadic lifestyle around 1850 to escape attacks by Europeans. In the following years, farmers in nearby communities started cutting the trees to expand their farmland. The Awa lost most of their hunting land. The few Amazon tribes that still exist are fighting to keep their traditional way of life.
Survival, an organization that fights for the rights of tribal people, says that uncontacted tribes are the most vulnerable(弱势的)humans on the planet and that’s why their environment should be unavailable to the rest of us. After years of pressure, the organization got Brazil’s government to clear non-natives from the Awa land. All non-Awa people are leaving so the tribe can get their forest back.
But some think it's impossible for tribes to stay isolated forever in a connected world. Contact will be made one day. So the question is：Whose choice should it be, ours or theirs?
1. What can we learn about the Sentinelese from the first paragraph?| A．They resist contact from the outside world. |
| B．They speakthe same language as the Jarawa. |
| C．They are wild about fighting with other tribes. |
| D．They have got help from the Indian govemment. |
| A．To protect their hunting land. | B．To search for food sources. |
| C．To avoid threats from Europeans. | D．To maintain their original way of life. |
| A．The tribes should be left undisturbed. |
| B．The tribes should fight for more living space. |
| C．The cribes should live in harmony with nature. |
| D．The tribes should adapt to the connected world. |
| A．The Nomadic Tribes in the World | B．Seeking Survival of Tribes |
| C．The Unavailable Tribal Environment | D．Protecting the Tribal Forests |
6 . Every kid has their own favorites. Dolls, dinosaurs, remote controls and cellphones — they might have a toy box with a wide range of play things to keep them entertained, but there's firm favorite they always reach for first-cars. Although the sex difference in the toy world remains, it's not only little boys who are drawn to all things with wheels. That my 20-month-old daughter dotes on the red bus toy is the proof of this.
From age 0 to 2, children are in the sensorimotor (感觉运动的) stage of development, explains Alyssa Wilkins. “They are learning by absorbing everything through their senses — sight, touch, taste, smell and hearing,” Wilkins says. “Toys and real-life objects like cars are very sensorily engaging. Kids can interact with toy cars, trucks, etc. through spinning (旋转) their wheels, watching them move in a variety of directions, or hearing the sounds they make.”
Plus, kids are just naturally drawn to loud and moving objects. “They see the lights on the cars and the rolling wheels, and hear the sound of the running engine. It's very engaging,” Wilkins says. “Kids will always be drawn to attractive and loud things because that is what engages their brain and sensory systems.”
Another appeal of toy vehicles is that they're typically small enough to fit in a child's hand Cars become the favorite of both boys and girls because they can put their cars in their pockets r carry them around. A car is also a cause-and-effect toy — it teaches children that their actions can make something happen. “It's super interesting and exciting for kids to learn that they can change something in their environment, and they may feel proud of what they have done,” Capanna-Hodge says.
Every child is unique in how they engage with toys, and the reasons for their play style may be diverse and complex. Ultimately, how your kids play with their toy vehicles could be a little window into what controls or excites them.
1. What does the underlined phrase “dotes on” in Paragraph I mean?| A．Turns down. | B．Goes in for. | C．Runs into. | D．Has control of. |
| A．The influence form parents. | B．The shape of toys vehicles. |
| C．The exciting sensory input. | D．The peaceful learning environment. |
| A．The smaller the toy vehicles are, the more the kids like them. |
| B．Boys perform better than girls while playing with toy vehicles. |
| C．The more toy vehicles the kids have, the more benefits the kids get. |
| D．Kids can gain a sense of achievement from playing with toy vehicles. |
| A．Why toy vehicles are kids' favorites |
| B．How toy vehicles can boost kids' five sense |
| C．Why parents choose toy vehicles for their kids |
| D．How parents can encourage kids to play with toy vehicles |
A． | B． |
C． | D． |
7 . After Scott Kelly spent a year in space, his genetic expression changed, according to a NASA study that compared the bodily changes between the astronaut and his identical twin, who stayed on Earth while Kelly was aboard the International Space Station. About 7 percent of Kelly’s gene activity has yet to “return to normal” — almost two years after his yearlong spaceflight mission came to an end. Kelly has since retired from NASA.
The Twins Study，as it’s been called，looked at what happened to Kelly — both physiologically and psychologically :— before，during and after his trip in space，and then compared that data to Kelly’s twin brother，Mark Kelly，also a retired NASA astronaut.
Unlike his brother who spent months at a time in space，Mark’s missions were on the shorter side. His last — and longest — mission，which took place in 2011，lasted 15 days.
“By measuring large numbers of the brother’s metabolites，cytokines (代谢物、细胞活素）and proteins，researchers learned that spaceflight is associated with oxygen deprivation (匮乏）stress， increased inflammation (炎症），and nutrient changes that affect gene expression，” NASA said.
Although most of the biological changes Kelly experienced in space disappeared in the hours and days (and in some cases? weeks) after his return to Earthy, NASA said some changes appear to have continued. While 93 percent of his genetic expression has returned to normal, several hundred “space genes” still have changed activity levels，the data suggests， which, NASA said, could indicate “longer-term changes” in genetic expression caused by the stresses of spaceflight.
NASA said the research could provide important knowledge of the effects of long-term spaceflight on the human body, and that it will influence its planning for a mission to Mars, which would see astronauts spending some three years in space.
Reacting to the news of the study results, Kelly expressed amazement at his body’s changes， and also used the opportunity to make fun of his brother. “This could be good news,” he joked on Twitter. “I no longer have to call Mark my identical twin brother anymore.”
1. What can be learnt about Mark Kelly?| A．He’s still working for NASA. |
| B．He has only been to space once. |
| C．He hasn’t gone on a spaceflight mission yet. |
| D．He never stayed in space for a whole month. |
| A．They’re dangerous to astronauts. |
| B．Most of them won’t last very long. |
| C．They’re mainly caused by psychological stress. |
| D．Some can occur during short-term spaceflight. |
| A．It involved many twin participants. |
| B．It ended soon after Scott Kelly’s last spaceflight. |
| C．It only studied Scott Kelly’s physical changes. |
| D．It will be valuable to NASA’s Mars mission. |
| A．Mark Kelly will lose his twin brother soon. |
| B．Scott Kelly always looks on the bright side. |
| C．Scott Kelly doesn’t like his twin brother. |
| D．Scott Kelly seems to have a sense of humor. |
8 . Several weeks ago, a mysterious Christmas card dropped through our mailbox. The envelope was addressed to a man named Raoul, who, I was relatively certain, did not live with us. The envelope wasn’t sealed, so I opened it. The inside of the card was blank. Ed, my husband, explained that the card was both from and to the newspaper deliveryman. His name was apparently Raoul, and Raoul wanted a holiday tip. We were meant to put a check inside the card and then drop the envelope in the mail. When your services are finished at 4 a.m., you can’t simply hang around, like a hotel bellboy expecting a tip. You have to be direct.
So I wrote a nice holiday greeting to this man who, in my imagination, fires The New York Times from his bike aimed at our front door, causing more noise with mere newsprint than most people manage with sophisticated(复杂的) black market fireworks. With a start, I realized that perhaps the reason for the 4 a.m. wake-up noise was not ordinary rudeness but carefully executed spite(怨恨): I had not tipped Raoul in Christmas past. I honestly hadn’t realized I was supposed to. This was the first time he’d used the card tactic(策略). So I got out my checkbook. Somewhere along the line, holiday tipping went from an optional thank-you for a year of services to a Mafia-style protection racket (收保护费组织).
Several days later, I was bringing our garbage bins back when I noticed an envelope taped to one of the lids. The outside of the envelope said MICKEY. It had to be another tip request, this time from our garbage collector. Unlike Raoul, Mickey hadn’t enclosed his own Christmas card from me. In a way, I appreciated the directness. “I know you don’t care how merry my Christmas is, and that’s fine,” the gesture said. “I want $30, or I’ll ‘forget’ to empty your garbage bin some hot summer day.” I put a check in the envelope and taped it back to the bin. The next morning, Ed noticed that the envelope was gone, though the trash hadn’t yet been picked up: “Someone stole Mickey’s tip!” Ed was quite certain. He made me call the bank and cancel the check. But Ed had been wrong. Two weeks later, Mickey left a letter from the bank on our steps. The letter informed Mickey that the check, which he had tried to cash, had been cancelled.
The following Tuesday morning, when Ed saw a truck outside, he ran out with his wallet. “Are you Mickey?” The man looked at him with scorn(轻蔑). “Mickey is the garbageman. I am the recycling.” Not only had Ed insulted(侮辱) this man by suggesting that he was a garbageman, but he had obviously neglected to tip him. Ed ran back inside for more funds. Then he noticed that the driver of the truck had been watching the whole incident. He peeled off another twenty and looked around, waving bills in the air. “Anyone else?”
Had we consulted the website of the Emily Post Institute, this embarrassing break of etiquette (礼节) could have been avoided. Under “trash/recycling collectors” in the institute’s Holiday Tipping Guidelines, it says: “$10 to $30 each.” You may or may not wish to know that your hairdresser, mailman and UPS guy all expect a holiday tip.
1. The newspaper deliveryman put a blank card inside the envelope because________..| A．he wanted the couple to pay for the newspaper | B．he forgot to write a few words on it |
| C．he used it to ask for a Christmas tip | D．he was afraid of asking for a tip in person |
| A．didn’t like Raoul’s way of delivering the paper |
| B．didn’t realize why Raoul delivered the paper that way before |
| C．didn’t know that Raoul delivered the paper for them |
| D．didn’t feel it necessary to meet Raoul when he came |
| A．excited | B．happy | C．embarrassed | D．forced |
| A．He wrote a letter to the couple afterwards. |
| B．He failed to collect the money from the bank. |
| C．He wanted the couple to send him a Christmas card. |
| D．He collected both the check and the garbage that day. |
| A．Ed was desperate to correct his mistake | B．Ed only wanted to give money to Raoul |
| C．Ed was unwilling to tip the truck driver | D．Ed no longer wanted to give them money |
| A．their garbage bin might not be emptied one day if the writer didn’t give tips |
| B．the writer could have avoided giving tips if they had consulted the website of the Emily Post Institute |
| C．the writer’s husband didn’t know Raoul at all |
| D．the writer’s family was too poor to give the tips |
9 . What is the best part of a typical relaxing summer day? Nothing is better than sitting in an armchair with a beer and some chips in your hand, enjoying the great comfort.
The much-loved combination of beer and chips is being exploited for the first time to deal with climate change. Chips firm Walkers has adopted a technique it says will cut CO2 emissions (排放) from its production process by 70%.
The technology will use CO2 captured from beer processing in a brewery (啤酒厂), which is then mixed with potato waste and turned into fertilizer. It will then be spread on UK fields to feed the following year’s potato crop. Creating fertilizer normally produces high CO2 emissions, but the technology adopted by Walkers makes fertilizer without generating CO2. So, the beer-and-chips combination performs a double function. It stops the emission of brewery CO2 into the atmosphere — and it saves on the CO2 normally generated by fertilizer production.
This Creative win-win solution was developed with an approval from the UK government by a 14-employee start-up called CCm. The fertilizer was experimented on potato seed beds this year, and next year Walkers will install CCm equipment at its Leicester factory to prepare for its 2022 crop.
A decision has not yet been made on which brewery Walkers will work with on this. The new technology adds to carbon-saving techniques already under way. The firm has installed an anaerobic digester (厌氧消化池), which feeds potato waste to bacteria to produce a useful gas. The gas is burned to make electricity for the chip-frying process — so this saves on burning gas or coal.
The new system will go a step further by taking away potato “cake” left after digestion — and mixing the brewery CO2 into it to make an enriched fertilizer which will help put carbon back into the soil as well as encouraging plant growth.
It’s an example of scientists finding ways to use CO2 emissions which otherwise would increase the over-heating of the planet.
1. What is the purpose of the first paragraph?| A．To draw readers’ attention. |
| B．To entertain readers. |
| C．To show how useful beer and chips are to our life. |
| D．To introduce a way of life. |
| A．It will be totally cost-free. |
| B．It doesn’t consume any energy. |
| C．It will be a perfect solution to climate change. |
| D．It is environmentally-friendly. |
| A．How CO2 is turned into fertilizer. |
| B．How the technology stops CO2 emissions. |
| C．How an energy-saving green technology works. |
| D．The advantages of a new technology. |
| A．The technology will fix the problem of global warming. |
| B．Walkers has a wide range of partner choices.? |
| C．This technology will be adopted by many chips firms soon. |
| D．Scientists are seeking solutions to climate change. |
10 . Gottfried Wilhelm von Liebniz was a philosopher and mathematician in search of a model. In the late 1600s Leibniz decided there was a need for a new, purer arithmetic than our common decimal（十进制）system. He got his inspiration from the 5000-year-old book that is at the heart of Chinese philosophy：the I-Ching, or Book of Changes.
This ancient text was such an influence on Liebniz that he titled his article on the new arithmetic “Explanation of a new arithmetic and the ancient Chinese figure of Fu X”. Fu Xi was the legendary first author of the I-Ching. The arithmetic that Liebniz described was binary（二进制）code, which is used in almost every modern computer, from iPhones to China’s own Tihane-2 supercomputer.
To figure out what Liebniz learned in the I-Ching, we need to understand something that most of us have taken for granted. When we listen to an MP3, look at a digital photo or watch the latest TV drama, we are experiencing a digital representation of reality. That representation is basically just a string of binary signals that are commonly known as 1s and 0s. What Liebniz’s gained from the book was that even the most complex reality could be represented in the binary form as 1s and 0s.
In the philosophy of the I-Ching, reality is not entirely real. It is something more like a dream. This dream of reality arises from the binaries of Yin and Yang, as they play out countless combinations, practically everything in the universe. It’s not surprising then, from the l-Ching’s perspective, that anything in the dream of reality can be represented in a string of 1s and 0s, processed by a computer.
The I-Ching was far more ambitious than the current practical applications of binary code. It is claimed that the I-Ching represents nothing less than the basic situation of human life itself. As a system for predicting the future, the I-Ching might disappoint, but as a way of questioning your own unconscious mind, it can be remarkably useful.
The I-Ching’s teachings also contain warnings about our digital revolution. Binary code, powered by modern computers, has an amazing capacity to represent reality. However, the ancient authors of the I-Ching might have understood its potential-and its dangers-even better than we now do.
So when scientific thinkers ask whether computers can create “virtual realities” or “artificial intelligence”, they are missing the point. Of course, we can create ever deeper and more complex layers of the dream of reality. The real question is, can we wake up from the dream we’ re in already?
1. Which of the following is TRUE about binary codes?| A．They share the same source with the decimal system. |
| B．They can form numerous combinations. |
| C．They are documented in the Book of Changes. |
| D．They are first discovered by Fu Xi. |
| A．media products are digitally represented using 1s and 0s. |
| B．TV dramas and digital photos are not worth seeing. |
| C．Reality is made more complex by binary codes. |
| D．Licbniz’s model is hardly understandable. |
| A．Computers’ ability to represent reality is quite limited. |
| B．Human life is now in grave danger according to the I-Ching. |
| C．We have yet to understand the complete teachings of the I-Ching. |
| D．The I-Ching is perfectly accurate in predicting the future. |
| A．The Ancient Book of Wisdom at the Heart of Every Computer |
| B．The Supercomputer that Employs Ancient Chinese Culture |
| C．The Father of Binary Code, Gottfried Wilhelm Liebniz |
| D．The Origin of Eastern and Western Philosophy |
