1 . The person who set the course of my life was a school teacher named Marjorie Hurd. When 1 stepped off a ship in New York Harbor in 1949, I was a nine-year-old war refugee, who had lost his mother and was coming to live with the father he did not know. My mother, Eleni Gatzoyiannis, had been imprisoned and shot for sending my sisters and me to freedom.
I was thirteen years old when I entered Chandler Junior High. Shortly after I arrived, I was told to select a hobby to pursue during“club hours.” The idea of hobbies and clubs made no sense to my immigrant ears, but I decided to follow the prettiest girl in my class. She led me into the presence of Miss Hurd, the school newspaper adviser and English teacher.
A tough woman with salt-and pepper hair and determined eyes, Miss Hurd had no patience with lazy bones. She drilled us in grammar, assigned stories for us to read and discuss, and eventually taught us how to put out a newspaper. Her introduction to the literary wealth of Greece gave me a new perspective on my war-torn homeland, making me proud of my origins. Her efforts inspired me to understand the logic and structure of the English language. Owing to her inspiration, during my next twenty-five years, I became a, journalist by profession.
Miss Hurd retired at the age of 62. By then, she had taught for a total of 41 years. Even after her retirement, she continually made a project of unwilling students in whom she spied a spark of potential. The students were mainly from the most troubled homes, yet she alternately bullied and charmed them with her own special brand of tough love, until the spark caught fire.
Miss Hurd was the one who directed my grief and pain into writing. But for Miss Hurd, I wouldn't have become & reporter. She was the one who sent me into journalism and indirectly caused all the good things that came after.
1. What does the underlined sentence in Paragraph 2 most probably mean?| A．Hobbies and clubs did not interest the author. |
| B．The author turned a deaf ear to joining clubs. |
| C．Hobbies and clubs were inaccessible to immigrants like the author. |
| D．The author had no idea what hobbies and clubs were all about. |
| A．Stepping on the American soil for the first time. |
| B．Being exposed to Greek literary works. |
| C．Her mother's miserable death. |
| D．Following the prettiest girl in his class. |
| A．Miss Hurd employed a unique way to handle these students. |
| B．Miss Hurd's contribution was recognized across the nation. |
| C．Students from troubled homes preferred Miss Hurd's teaching style. |
| D．The students Miss Hurd taught were all finally fired. |
| A．How the author became a journalist. |
| B．The importance of inspiration in one's life. |
| C．The teacher who shaped the author's life. |
| D．Factors contributing to a successful career. |
2 . For years, life went something like this: We'd grow up in one place, head off to college, and then find a city to live in for a few years at time to pursue a job or higher education. The end goal was to find somewhere to settle down, buy a house, start a family, and begin the whole cycle all over again.
But a new model for living is emerging: More and more people are moving from city to city throughout their entire lives, sometimes as frequently as every month. Just ask Alex Chatzielefteriou, who has had a front-row seat watching this evolution unfold.
Six years ago, he launched a startup called Blueground that rents out beautifully designed, fully furnished apartments for a month at a time, at rates that are cheaper than hotels. Today, the company has 3,000 properties in six U.S. cities, along with Dubai, Istanbul, London, Paris, and Chatzielefteriou's native Athens, and a staff of 400. The company just invested $78 million to continue its rapid expansion and make each one feel unique and cosy, rather than standardized, like what you might find in a traditional hotel.
Chatzielefteriou first came up with the idea for Blueground while he was working as a management consultant for McKinsey. “The accommodation of choice for consultants is the hotel,” he says. “I had to spend five years in a hotel room, living in 12 different cities. I loved seeing the world, but I didn't love feeling like I didn't have a home.” As he spoke to his friends and coworkers, he realized that many people were frustrated with this restless lifestyle. And what's more, hotels aren't a particularly cost-effective solution for companies either. In Chatzielefteriou's case, McKinsey sometimes paid S10,000 or more for him to stay in a major city for a month, which was far more expensive than local rents.
1. What's the main purpose of the first paragraph?| A．To tell the end goal of our life. |
| B．To introduce the topic of the text. |
| C．To stress the importance of buying a house. |
| D．To explain the reason for people's flooding into cities. |
| A．His urge to have a home. |
| B．His desire to make money. |
| C．His friends' encouragement. |
| D．His experience in living in hotel. |
| A．It has obvious price superiority. |
| B．It has good geographical location. |
| C．It has beautifully designed apartments. |
| D．It has unique and comfortable environment. |
| A．The fall of traditional hotels. |
| B．The rise of a new living model. |
| C．The advantages of Blueground. |
| D．The disadvantages of traditional hotels. |
3 . Coffee is an important part of Italian culture and since arriving here over six months ago, I have drunk a lot of it!
Of course, coffee is also very popular in the UK but coffee culture in Italy is a completely different story. In Italy, when you order a coffee in a café or bar ( 酒吧), you are served with a tiny, bitter espresso. This is“normal (正常的) coffee” for Italians and they are not so interested in the huge coffees that we drink in the UK. If you want more than one sip (小口) of coffee in Italy, lungo is a good choice. It is espresso with a little more water added, but still served in a small cup. In addition, while takeaway coffee is quite popular among Brits, it is not very common at all in Italy, especially in non-touristy areas. Generally, Italians prefer to drink their tiny coffees while standing at the bar and, for many, this short break is an important part of their day.
Usually, breakfast in a bar in Italy includes a coffee and a pastry (酥皮糕点). I have been spoiled for choice with lovely cafés in the Italian town I'm living in. These cafés sell different kinds of mouth-watering pastries - either plain (无馅料的) or filled with cream, chocolate, etc - as well as delicious coffee. Cappuccinos are very popular at breakfast time and, for me, a creamy cappuccino and a pastry with chocolate is the perfect way to start the day.
Finally, I have found that coffee in Italy is so much cheaper than coffee in the UK. Normally, an espresso or a macchiato (an espresso with a drop of milk) costs around a euro and a cappuccino about €1.50! They are small, of course, but this means that in Italy it is possible to go out for coffee every day without breaking the bank.
1. How is Paragraph 2 mainly developed?| A．By time. | B．By space. |
| C．By example. | D．By comparison. |
| A．Espresso. | B．Lungo. |
| C．Cappuccino. | D．Macchiato. |
| A．Takeaway coffee is very popular among Italians. |
| B．Italians are very often seen drinking huge coffees. |
| C．Italians like to take short breaks from work for coffee. |
| D．Coffees are often served along with pastries during breakfasts. |
| A．She loves its bitter taste. |
| B．It is too expensive for her. |
| C．It is a good choice for breakfast. |
| D．The cup it is served in is too small. |
4 . Bats are the only mammals that can fly a great distance, but they have another ability. Many bats live a very long time for an animal of their size. European researchers are studying bats to understand why they live so long. They hope to make discoveries aimed at fighting the aging process in human beings.
Last week, the group of scientists said they had identified important biological qualities in some bat species. The group studied the bats’ chromosomes (染色体), a line of genes found in the nucleus of cells. The scientists were most interested in structures connected to the ends of the chromosomes. They are called telomeres (端粒), which protect the ends of chromosomes and shorten each time a cell divides. Scientists believe this shortening process causes cells to break down. They say this is what cause aging.
The European researchers studied 493 bats from four bat species. The group used information that had been gathered over more than 60 years. Of these animals, the greater mouse-eared bat generally lived the longest, an average of 37 years. The scientists said this and a related species, which are grouped together under the name Myotis, had telomeres that did not shorten with age. Another Myotis bat holds the record for the oldest age, reaching 41 years. The scientists’ findings suggest that these bats’ cells have the ability to maintain and repair their telomeres. This helps guard against the aging process.
Based on its body size, a bat like the greater mouse-eared bat would be expected to live four years. But, these mammals have been found to live nearly 10 times longer than that. The scientists found that only 19 species of mammals live longer than humans when their body size is considered. Eighteen of these are bats.
1. Why are European researchers studying bats?| A．To learn the similar habits between bats and human beings. |
| B．To find out why the greater mouse-eared bats live a long life. |
| C．To try to understand why bats prefer to fly during the night. |
| D．To discover a good way to prevent human beings from aging. |
| A．The structures of the bats’ chromosomes. | B．What causes aging biologically. |
| C．The functions of telomeres. | D．What causes cells to break down. |
| A．They are grouped together under the name Myotis. |
| B．Their telomeres are decreasing with age. |
| C．Their cells are able to keep up and fix their telomeres. |
| D．They have more telomeres than human beings do. |
| A．Bats live 10 times longer than other mammals. |
| B．Bats enjoy the longest life among mammals. |
| C．The greater mouse-eared bat and other bats should have lived longer. |
| D．Many bats live longer than human beings considering their body size. |
5 . Goldfish have pretty boring lives, so maybe it’s a good thing they can only concentrate for nine seconds! But according to new research, humans are becoming like goldfish. Our attention span (时长) is getting shorter...and it’s all because of technology.
“We move quickly from one site to another on the web, ”says Doctor Ted Selker, a computer scientist from Massachusetts, “and we are losing the ability to concentrate.” With millions of websites to choose from, the attention span of the average internet user is just seconds. There are other digital distractions (分心) too: email, instant messaging and quickie movies on websites. Some people are worried about the effect on young people. “You need time to understand and think about what you read,” says Julia Wood, from London. “Young people search the net all the time and their brains become full of useless information but there is no time to make sense of it. I am trying to persuade my pupils to read more books, so that they concentrate on one subject for longer.”
Other teachers are trying more unusual methods to improve students’ concentration. Anne Savan, from Wales, was so worried about her students that she started playing Mozart during her science lessons. She says that it had an amazing effect: “The music made them calmer, and their concentration was much better.”
But not everyone believes that there is a problem. Ray Cole, an educational psychologist says: “On the web, young people learn to make quick decisions about what is and isn’t worth reading.
They might look at five unhelpful websites very quickly, before stopping and reading a sixth useful website more carefully. In a world with so much information available, this is an important skill.”
1. Why does the writer mention “goldfish”?| A．To analyze data. | B．To introduce a topic. |
| C．To settle problems. | D．To suggest a way out. |
| A．Skipping around the internet. | B．Time to digest information. |
| C．Traditional methods of reading. | D．Making decisions. |
| A．Receiving emails. | B．Texting messages. |
| C．Reading more books. | D．Watching quickie movies. |
| A．Cautious. | B．Unfavorable. |
| C．Skeptical. | D．Supportive. |
6 . Clothing rental is a hot new industry and retailers (零售商) are demanding to get on board in hopes of attracting green shopper.
But is renting fashion actually more environmentally-friendly than buying it, and if so, how much more? Journalist and author Elizabeth Cline investigated (调查) this question and concluded that it's not as sustainable as it seems.
Take shipping, for example, which has to go two ways if an item is rented — receiving and returning. Cline writes that consumer transportation has the second largest carbon footprint of our collective fashion habit after manufacturing.
She writes, ''An item ordered online and then returned can send out 20 kilograms of carbon each way, and increases up to 50 kilograms for rush shipping. By comparison, the carbon impact of a pair of jeans purchased from a physical store and washed and worn at home is 33.4 kilograms, according to a 2015 study by Levi's.''
Then there's the burden of washing, which has to happen for every item when it's returned, regardless of whether or not it was worn. For most rental services, this usually means dry cleaning, a high impact and polluting process. All the rental services that Cline looked into have replaced perchloroethylene (氯乙烯), a carcinogenic (致癌的) air pollutant, still used by 70 percent of US dry cleaners, with alternatives, although these aren't great either.
Lastly, Cline fears that rental services will increase our appetite for fast fashion, simply because it's so easily accessible. There's something called ''share washing'' that makes people waste more precisely because a product or service is shared and thus is regarded as more eco-friendly. Uber is one example of this, advertised as ''a way to share rides and limit ear ownership.'' and yet ''it has been proven to discourage walking,bicycling, and public transportation use.''
Renting clothes is still preferable to buying them cheap and throwing them in the dustbin after a few wears, but we shouldn't let the availability of these services make us too satisfied. There's an even better step — that's wearing what is already in the closet.
1. What is Elizabeth Cline's attitude toward clothing rental?| A．Approving. | B．Unfavorable. |
| C．Objective. | D．Enthusiastic. |
| A．rental services are on the rise |
| B．clothing rental will be as successful as Uber |
| C．renting clothes might waste more than expected |
| D．renting clothes might make people lose interest in fast fashion |
| A．give up renting any clothing |
| B．purchase inexpensive clothes |
| C．rent clothes rather than buy them |
| D．make full use of clothes we've possessed |
| A．Clothing rental is a new fashion. |
| B．Clothing rental is retailers' preference. |
| C．Renting clothes is not that eco-friendly. |
| D．Renting-clothes business is in a dilemma. |
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1. What is promoted in this text?| A．A travel package. |
| B．A train service. |
| C．A family plan. |
| D．An accommodation service. |
| A．Wi-Fi signals | B．priority boarding |
| C．on-board breakfast | D．charging points |
| A．￡230. | B．￡330. | C．￡660. | D．￡740. |
8 . Last month, my husband and I completed what some of our friends considered a foolish task: a 32-day, 5, 232-mile camping trip with children in our Volkswagen van, without ''high-tech'' to occupy the children.
It was the screen less journey that showered me with doubts. But is ''boredom'' senseless? My friend Renee, who has driven cross-country with her three kids eight times, calls boredom the mother of creativity. She's not the only one who sees virtue in blank time. In a recently published paper, researchers at East Anglia University in England concluded that the trance like (发呆的) state helps recharge the mind and is ''central to learning and creativity''. I wasn't trying to make my kids smarter. Neither do I dislike high-tech. But I understand too well the power of mini screens to transform our kids into zombies (木讷的人) .
On Day 1, our 7-year-old son announced ''Texas is so boring!''. The next day, struggling against his seat belt, he yelled he couldn't take much more of this. His 5-year-old sister was better at the long hours playing make-believe with the stuffed animals. On Day 3, he began count mountains and see pandas and dolphins in distant clouds in the Texas sky. I often joined the kids in the back, where we did thumb-and-toe wrestle. With well-known mountains ahead, my husband told the children the past legends of them. ''Arizona is not as boring as Texas,'' our son declared.
I hope the trip gave kids some lazy, unstructured time to learn something about valuing the trip instead of looking for the fastest way to burn it up. I don't always make the right call as a parent but I know that in banning the small screen we made the right choice this time.
1. Why did the author choose a high-tech free journey?| A．Her friends are highly against it. |
| B．She disliked advanced technology. |
| C．She feared the passive influence of mini-screens. |
| D．The researchers proved the harm of modern technology. |
| A．Their son got worse at boredom. |
| B．Her kids had a tough time riding in the vehicle. |
| C．Their son relieved himself by watching animals outside. |
| D．The time spent without screens strengthened the family bond. |
| A．the speediest route to finish the journey |
| B．the ability to observe the surroundings |
| C．the interest of playing games with others |
| D．the choice of killing time by playing digital devices |
| A．Is Driving Long Distances Good for Children? |
| B．A Touching Cross-country Trip of My Family |
| C．What's Wrong with Boredom without High-tech? |
| D．Creative Kids out of Parents' Reasonable Choice |
9 . Camels are well known for their ability to survive the hot and dry conditions of the desert，but a study suggests they once grew well in colder climates. Scientists have found fossilized（化石） parts of a leg bone belonging to a giant camel that lived in the forests of Canada's High Arctic about 3.5million years ago.
The research is published in the journal Nature Communication. Dr. Mike Buckley, an author of the paper from the university of Manchester, said, "What's special about this story is that this is the northernmost evidence of camels. "The area was warmer than today 3.5 million years ago, but the ancient giant camels would have had to face long and bitter winter, with temperatures below freezing. There would have been snowstorms and about six months of darkness.
While scientists have known for some time that camels existed in North America, with the earliest creatures dating to about 45 million years ago, they were astonished to find a species at such a latitude（纬度).
Over the course of three investigations, which began in 2006，researchers from the Canadian Museum of Nature collected 30 pieces of the leg bone from Ellesmere Island in Canada.
Their size suggested that the animal was about 30% larger than today's camels, measuring about 2.7m from foot to shoulder. Despite its size, the researchers believe it would have been similar in appearance, although it probably had a thicker coat to stay warm.
To investigate further, the team took the protein found in the bone from the fossils and modern animals. Dr. Buckley said, "The results tell us that it is a direct ancestor of modern camels. "
He said the findings provided a new insight into the evolution of this animal. "It suggests that many of the adaptations(适应) that we currently think of, in terms of camels being adapted to warm desert-like environments, could have actually originated through adaptation to quite the opposite cold, bitter environments. Camels 'humps（峰）which store fat could help get through an Arctic six-month winter. Their large eyes would have helped them to see in the low light，and their wide，flat feet would have been just as useful for walking on snow as they are on sand，"he explained.
1. What surprised the scientists when they found the giant camel fossils? ___| A．Their size. | B．Their shape. |
| C．Their place. | D．Their number. |
| A．could date to about 45million years ago |
| B．struggled to survive in severe conditions |
| C．were the first ancestors of modern camels |
| D．lived in an environment without light |
| A．were much taller |
| B．had more humps |
| C．were slightly stronger |
| D．had thinner coat |
| A．giant camels had special adaptations for polar life |
| B．cold environments prevented giant camels developing |
| C．the cause of the extinction of giant camels remains unknown |
| D．the hard climates forced giant camels to adapt to warm environments |
10 . Jim was a young man in his early twenties who was studying to be a carpenter. He was a good worker, honest and worthy of trust, so his boss was pleased with him. As he was such a likable man and easy to deal with, he was popular with his workmates, too. They also made fun of him a great deal but he never got angry with them and would only laugh.
But Jim’s one great shortcoming was that he could never tell a lie, no matter how hard he tried, not even a little one. In fact, he was so honest and shy that he would blush even when he was telling the truth. He used to stand in front of the mirror and practise lying while looking himself in the eyes at the same time. But as soon as he saw his face starting to go red he had to look away.
One morning, however, he didn’t feel like going to work because he had been to a party the night before and it hadn’t ended till the early hours of the morning. And so far the first time in his life he decided to take the day off. He rang his boss, pretending to be a woman. “I’m afraid Jim can’t come to work today. He isn’t feeling very well.”
Poor Jim was thankful that his boss couldn’t see him just at that moment because his hands were trembling(发抖) and his face was bright red.
“Thank you for letting me know,” said Mr. Woods, his boss, and then just as he was about to hang up, he said, “just a moment, madam, who’s speaking.”
“Oh!” he stammered (口吃的说), and going all out for making a voice like a woman, he cried in a voice: “This is my landlady speaking!”
1. According to the passage we know that Jim was a ___.| A．skillful worker |
| B．skillful carpenter |
| C．researcher studying how to be a carpenter |
| D．being-trained carpenter |
| A．stammer | B．look away |
| C．go red | D．feel hot |
| A．To avoid being laughed at by his workmates. |
| B．To overcome his shortcoming. |
| C．To get his boss pleased with him. |
| D．To get ready for asking for leave. |
| A．out of the bag | B．out of the house |
| C．into the bag | D．into the house |
