2 . Facebook is a habit forming activity， but users who spend a lot of time on the site say they feel less happy with their lives.

Researchers from University of Gothenburg say that many users log in as soon as they turn their PCs on and that the behavior can develop into an“addiction”. People in low income groups and the poorly educated are particularly at risk. Up to 85% of users say that they use Facebook daily and half say they start up Facebook as soon as they open their web users. Half fear that they are not“on top of things”if they are not logged into the site, and 25% say they feel”ill at ease”if they can't log in regularly.

The Swedish survey showed the network had its dark side.“Face-booking may become an unconscious habit. A majority of the respondents(受访者) log in every time they start their web browser(浏览器). This may even develop into an addiction,” says Leif Denti, doctoral student of Psychology at the University of Gothenburg.

People with low income and low-educated individuals spend more time on Facebook. Women are generally more active than men on Facebook. Users with low income and low education use Facebook more than other groups. Within these groups，users who spend more time on Facebook also report feeling less happy and less content with their lives.

The other surprise about the network is that although a huge amount of personal “ news”is traded through the site,it tends to focus on the positive.“ Most of the content they share has something to do with major events, positive events and when feeling good,”says Leif Denti.

1. What is the main idea of the text?

A．Using Facebook may become an addiction.

B．Positive events are more welcome on Facebook.

C．Women spend more time on Facebook than men.

D．Spending more time on Facebook leads to less happiness.

2. What does the underlined phrase ”ill at ease” in Paragraph 2 probably mean?

A．Pleased.

B．Tired.

C．Annoyed.

D．Interested.

3. What can we learn from the text?

A．Half of the users use Facebook daily.

B．People tend to share good things on Facebook.

C．Men are more active than women on Facebook.

D．Well-educated people spend more time on Facebook.

4. Where is this text most likely from?

A．A diary.

B．A novel.

C．A magazine.

D．A travel guide.

3 . If you think you’d like to live on Mars, you may have that possibility by 2023. A Dutch company called Mars One will soon advertise for people interested in colonizing (开拓) Mars. If you have all the necessary skills, you could be one of the first colonists. Are you ready for the challenge?

You won’t have to pay for the mission to Mars. Mars One has already received money from some donors and is hoping to get more from TV viewers who will become interested in the show where all applicants have a debate for the rare chances.

The main responsibility of the first colonists is to create an artificial environment on Mars where there is no air to breathe and no land to farm. Scientists know it’s quite possible because something similar has already been done in Antarctica.

Another problem is that space travel to Mars takes nearly a year to get to Mars and the colonists will live the rest of their lives there. When a human lives in an environment without gravity or with low gravity for a long time, the systems in the body weaken. Luckily, spinning (旋转) the spaceship can create artificial gravity, and artificial gravity can ease these problems. It will also be difficult for Mars colonists to be far from home, living in small spaces, and seeing the same people over and over. Colonists with depression could put the mission in danger. Fortunately, a few years ago, a joint Russian and European project called the Mars500 Mission studied people’s reactions in a Mars-like environment. It is viewed as a great success because scientists were able to see how people handle emotional and physical stresses.

Recent studies show that seven percent of people would want to go on such an adventure.

Mars One will soon start accepting its first colonists. Are you interested?

1. What do we know about the applicants to Mars from the first two paragraphs?

A．They will land on Mars in 2023.

B．They can get money from donors.

C．They will compete in a TV show.

D．They do not need special skills.

2. What will the first colonists do to solve the basic living problems on Mars?

A．Create earth-like conditions.

B．Build labs in Antarctica.

C．Spin the spaceship.

D．Start the Mars500 Mission.

3. What can the life of the first colonists be like according to the passage?

A．Difficult and dangerous.

B．Different but adaptable.

C．Challenging and unbearable .

D．Acceptable but depressing.

4. What’s the best title for the text?

A．Mars: our final destination?

B．Ready to be Mars’ colonists?

C．Space travel: a thrilling adventure?

D．Are you a qualified Mars astronaut?

4 . When I met and married a Japanese man in New York, I thought he would learn a bit more English and we would continue to live our lives there. But in life’s twists and turns, we ended up living in Tokyo! I was the one who needed to learn Japanese and fast ! There is no experience quite as lonely as living in a foreign country without a grasp of the language. Especially to make friends and to break that loneliness, it is the first and foremost goal to attain… always an uphill climb, while totally awkward!

I was a trained English Language teacher, and while I lived abroad I did that work, and when we moved back to America I planned to continue it. The country’s financial difficulties at the time, however, saw deep cuts to the English as a Second Language positions in the schools and to refugee language programs. So I simply took a job in a department store, at its Child Playroom.

But this store was located near a major company that hired some of its workforce from many other countries. Often a preschooler in my playroom could not speak a word of English, and would look so lost and lonely !My heart flew to them! We interacted with each other a lot. We would play English language games and they would teach their language to me.

Years later, when a small girl who had come from South America could speak good English, she said to me, “Teacher, remember when I called you Maestra?” Another child whose language was only Russian originally —we built a robot from blocks and fed it block food and leaned English words that way—would come years afterwards and continue to play that same game! These moments became my life compass—due north is that place where when persons are different, Love Matters !

1. What was the author’s challenge after marriage?

A．She had to give up her job.	B．She lost all her best friends.
C．She needed to learn a new language.	D．She was forced to live overseas.

2. Why did the author change her job after she returned home?

A．She set up her own company.	B．She lost interest in teaching.
C．Better teachers were needed.	D．Teaching jobs were greatly reduced.

3. What would the author and the young children do in the playroom?

A．They learned each other’s languages.	B．They took language tests.
C．They cared for each other.	D．They encouraged each other in learning.

4. Which word can best describe the author’s interactions with children?

A．Tiring.

B．Helpful.

C．Simple.

D．Humorous.

5 . I believe my life was saved because of Beethoven's moonlight sonata (鸣奏曲) being put in a video game. To be clearer, I was a terrible kid, living in the mean streets of Philadelphia, where I frequently got involved with street gangs (一帮年轻人) and did horrible things I regret today. I was failing out of high-school and had no future prospects. The only music type I listened to at the time was rap and R&B, but classical music never crossed my ear.

I remember playing a game called Resident Evil one day, and in order to get to the next part of the game, the lead character, "Jill", has to discover a page or two of sheet music for the piano in order to open a secret passage to progress through the game. Once obtained, the game fades out and pops out a new scene where Jill plays the piano. Being in complete awe, I had no idea what these feelings were and admittedly didn't want it to stop. 20 seconds or so later, the short clip of music halted and my face was moist from tears that dripped from my eyes. I didn't know what was going on and was severely confused. All I knew was that I had to replay that scene over and over again, not knowing who Beethoven was or that it was much longer and satisfying piece.

My last year of high school, I wasn't expected to graduate but I had the opportunity to select a music elective. It was then that I realized that classical music chose me and that I had the gift of transferring emotion through classical composition. Everything became so much clearer and for some reason higher learning other subjects, including physics, chemistry, became interesting and easy. It was as if my brain turned on and I began to appreciate everything and everyone around me. Without classical music, I would be like 90% of my friends back in Philadelphia, or a non-productive member of society. Classical music saved my life.

1. Which word can best describe the author's childhood?

A．Awful.

B．Common.

C．Badly-off.

D．Uncomfortable.

2. On what condition will Jill play the piano?

A．Exiting the game secretly.	B．Finding one or two sheet music.
C．Listening to the music for 20 seconds.	D．Setting up a new scene for the next player.

3. What turns the author's life?

A．His strong brain power.	B．His last year in high school.
C．His appreciation to Beethoven.	D．His encounter with classical music.

4. Which can be the best title of the passage?

A．Where There is Love, There is Music

B．Music, the Second Language of Human Being

C．Happy, You Listen to Music; Sad, You Understand It

D．Music, a Medicine Curing the Disease of Thought

6 . The skull(颅骨)of a tiny bird preserved in a 100-million-year-old Myanmar amber has been discovered by an international team of scientists, according to a paper newly published in the scientific journal Nature.

The 14-millimeter-long skull is smaller than that of a bee hummingbird, the smallest living bird, making the new species the smallest bird and dinosaur ever found.

When Xing Lida, a paleontologist(古生物家)at the China University of Geosciences, who led the research, first saw the amber in 2016, he was amazed. "It's like a tiny arrow with a long beak(鸟喙)and big eyes. . . Only birds have such characteristics," he said.

The well-preserved fossil skull has rows of nearly 100 teeth that extend all the way under its big eyes that are supported by eye bones of a unique structure. The unusually high number of teeth and the unique shape of the eye make it difficult to classify the specimen(标本).

Scientists think that about 100 million years ago this bird-like animal lived in the tropical Hukawng Valley in northern Myanmar, where the amber was mined.

Despite its small size, the specimen, named Oculudentavis khaungraae(宽娅眼齿鸟), has more teeth than any other fossilized bird. The large number of teeth indicates that it was a predator(捕食者), the paper said.

"Judging from its size, it might prey mainly on insects," Xing said. "In fact, it has some characteristics that do not belong to birds or even dinosaurs. At present we think of it as a bird or a dinosaur, which is the most likely conclusion based on the characteristics of the skull.”

One of the biggest advantages of amber lies in its high-quality preservation of the fine details in the skull and soft tissue features. "Amber gives us almost the only opportunity, to learn about tiny vertebrates(脊椎动物)from the dinosaur age," Xing said. "Oculudentavis is by far the smallest and most important specimen."

1. What has the international team of scientists found recently?

A．The smallest fossil ever found.	B．The oldest amber ever discovered.
C．The smallest bee hummingbird fossil	D．The skull of the smallest known bird.

2. What do we know about Oculudentavis?

A．Its teeth and eyes were different from any other animal.

B．Its eve structure shows that it might have good eyesight.

C．It was classified in 2016 when first seen by Xing Lida.

D．Its small size suggests that it might feed on plants.

3. What proves Oculudentavis's identity as a predator?

A．Small size.	B．Tropical habitat.
C．High number of teeth.	D．Unique shape of the eye.

4. What does the last paragraph mainly talk about?

A．The way that the fossil was well preserved.

B．The reason why Oculudentavis was stuck in amber t

C．The contribution of the fossil to scientific research.

D．The importance of amber research in scientific research.

9 . Here on Earth where most of us live, we spend about a third of everyday lying down sleeping and two-thirds standing or sitting in an upright position.

That's not really how it goes in space when people are weightless and the zero gravity environment causes more liquid to shift to the head. Faces get swollen, legs lose volume and appear to be smaller. Many astronauts have complained of eye and back problems after coming back down to Earth and its gravity.

And now scientists say they have discovered some new risks with long-term space flight. A study published recently in JAMA Network Open, a medical journal, examined 11 healthy astronauts who had been on the International Space Station for six months. Eight of them had unusual characteristics observed in their blood. For instance, six of the astronauts had reverse （反向的）blood flow from their heads.

The lead author of the study says he doesn't know if that's actually harmful. The blood is still leaving the head from other pathways, so flowing backwards through a jugular vein（颈静脉） may not be dangerous. But he says it does show a change in how blood moves through the body while in space.

Another issue the study found was blood clots （凝块）. One astronaut had one. Another showed signs of a partial blood clot. That is potentially harmful as the clots can block the flow of blood to the lungs. The astronaut who had one was treated for the rest of the spaceflight and made it home safely.

What does all this mean? Well, one researcher says these issues have probably been oc- curring since humans first went into space and that they would likely resolve themselves when astronauts came back down to Earth. Knowing about them now gives doctors something else to monitor when people leave our atmosphere.

1. What causes the physical problems for astronauts?

A．Sleeping for a long time.	B．The zero gravity environment.
C．Staying in the spaceship.	D．The shift in their bodies.

2. How many issues did the study newly find?

A．Four.

B．Three.

C．Two.

D．One.

3. What can we know about the blood clot?

A．It is a common problem.	B．It is a new kind of disease.
C．It is a threat to people's health.	D．It was first found by astronauts.

4. What may be the best title for the text?

A．Doctors have a new task for astronauts

B．Zero gravity stops astronauts flying in space

C．It's dangerous for astronauts to fly into space

D．New risks are found in long-term space flight

10 . When I was young, I had a wrong understanding of being great. I believed I was special and different and should be rich and famous because of my talent. I was going to live my dream rather than being a “normal” person. But as time passed, reality set in and my perspective changed.

I am a teacher, married to a salesman with a baby and a mortgage（按揭贷款）. Could my life be more normal? Yet, I am okay with this.

Were I to have a conversation with my twenty-year-old self, she wouldn't understand why I'm not going to NYC to get an audition （试演）. In four years my coworkers have never heard me sing. If I'd bought a house, it should have been in an interesting neighborhood with coffee houses at every corner. She would laugh at the corner house in the neighborhood I now call home.

But I know things she didn't know. Life is so much more complicated, wonderful and terrible. I know what it means to work for love, not just sitting back and letting it happen the way it can when you're young. I know about bringing life into the world, and the complexity of emotions.

My life is simple. It is small, and may seem interchangeable with so many other lives there. I may never make an impact outside my house. But I've learned it is important to be relative. To my little girl, I am irreplaceable. When she cries, she calls for “Mama”. When she reaches out, it's for me alone. So, is it a small life? It's perfectly fine to me. In fact, I think it's what I've wanted all along.

1. What was the author like when she was young?

A．She was honest.	B．She was brave.
C．She was proud.	D．She was cautious.

2. Why does the author imagine talking to her twenty-year-old self?

A．To show she has become mature.	B．To prove her dream has come true.
C．To reveal the key to her success.	D．To introduce her present unhappiness.

3. What is the author's present focus?

A．Learning the complexity of emotions.	B．Opening her heart to the world.
C．Living with her daughter specially.	D．Caring for her family.

4. What does the author intend to tell us in the text?

A．We can achieve our dreams if we work hard.

B．We will come back to a normal life some day.

C．We should keep in contact with our families.

D．We can be the one we feel satisfied with.