1 . In October, 2019, Beijing Daily warned the youth that they shouldn't let Internet slang （俚语） deepen the generation gap（代沟），after People Daily started a discussion on Chinese microblog Weibo on how to "explain" the youth's Internet slang terms to parents. The post got 40,000 likes. People were commenting that they couldn't keep up with the rapidly developing Internet lingo （术语）in China.
People also fear that Chinese Internet slang will negatively influence broader linguistic （语言的） trends of Mandarin Chinese, in particular, the gradual taking over of pinyin, the romanization of traditional Chinese characters using the Western alphabet. As pinyin gets widely used when people text or write on mobile phones or computers, while less and less people write characters by hand, people gradually forget how to write them, which is called "character amnesia" in China.
2019’s latest slang terms add a further simplification: the use of pinyin acronyms. "Awsl" in pinyin, for instance, means Ah, wo si le (Oh, I'm gonna die), and is used if something is too cute or adorable. "Nsdd" stands for ni shuo de dui (you're right).
Certainly, as an age-old written language, Chinese has been evolving and developing over the years. But the Chinese Internet lingo is unlikely to replace the existing use of Mandarin Chinese, but will rather be enriching it by adding another layer.
Acronyms aren't new. They have appeared with the limited space available in early-generation cell phone messaging. Some of them have become a part of the English language, such as BTW (by the way) and LOL (laugh out loud), while others had a rather short lifetime. That's likely to be what's going to happen with China's Internet slang terms. Some are going to be old in a few weeks, while others might make it into mainstream use, and as they do, young net users are coming up with new slang words to differentiate themselves.
In China, using Internet slang means belonging to a certain generation that likes to watch the same talk shows, play the same games, etc., and therefore, creates unity. Older generations don't have to feel left out, and certainly don't have to fear a degradation (没落)of the Chinese language. While language development is unavoidable, Internet slang is not going to let 6,000 years of Chinese written language completely change overnight.
1. The public are worried about Chinese Internet slang abuse because| A．It's used by children to keep secrets from parents. |
| B．It can cause confusion even among young people. |
| C．It was invented in response to the limited messaging space. |
| D．It will rarely have a positive effect on linguistic trends of Chinese. |
| A．They add variety to the language. |
| B．They are replacing its traditional vocabulary. |
| C．They make the language more global. |
| D．They only have temporary effects on Chinese. |
| A．a sense of purpose |
| B．a sense of group identity |
| C．a sense of cultural pride |
| D．a sense of safety |
| A．Is Media Helping Older Generation Understand Internet Slang? |
| B．Is Chinese Language Too Powerful to Be Largely Affected? |
| C．Is Mandarin Chinese Useful to Bridge the Generation Gap? |
| D．Is Internet Slang Deepening the Generation Gap, Ruining Chinese? |
2 . Non-Credit Courses
The Pre-College Program offers non-credit courses. Students will experience college-level courses given by some of our college’s leading experts and will receive written feedback (反馈) on their work at the end of the course. Pre-College students will also receive a grade of Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory and a certificate of completion at the conclusion of the program.
All non-credit courses meet from 9:00 a. m.-11:30 a. m. daily and may have additional requirements in the afternoons or evenings.
COURSE: Case Studies in Neuroscience
·June 11— July 2
·Leah Roesch
Using student-centered, active-learning methods and real-world examples, this course is designed to provide a fuller understanding of how the human brain works.
COURSE: Psychology of Creativity
·June 15—June 28
·Marshall Duke
Why are certain people so creative? Is it genetic (遗传的), or a result of childhood experience? Are they different from everyone else? This popular psychology course highlights the different theories of creativity.
COURSE: Creative Storytelling
·June 21 — July 3
·Edith Freni
This college-level course in creative storytelling functions as an introduction to a variety of storytelling techniques that appear in different forms of creative writing, such as short fiction and playwriting.
COURSE: Sports Economics
·July 19 — August 1
·Christina DePasquale
In this course we will analyze many interesting aspects of the sports industry: sports leagues, ticket pricing, salary negotiations, discrimination, and NCAA policies to name a few.
1. Who is the text intended for?| A．The general public. | B．College freshmen. |
| C．Educational experts. | D．High school students. |
| A．Sports Economics. | B．Creative Storytelling. |
| C．Psychology of Creativity. | D．Case Studies in Neuroscience. |
| A．Leah Roesch’s. | B．Edith Freni’s. |
| C．Marshall Duke’s. | D．Christina DePasquale’s. |
3 . When I was first married to my wife, I lived and worked in Ontario, moving from small town to big city as I pursued my career as a radio broadcaster. We have two sons, both of whom were born in Toronto, but they moved, with us, to Ottawa when they were quite young. They grew up there, and then, chasing their own careers, they also moved. One went to Canada’s east coast near a city called Halifax and the other headed to the west coast to Vancouver. We had a dilemma; we were left in the middle.
At the time I was still working and my job was in Ottawa. However, as we began to consider retirement we wondered where we should spend our final years. We couldn’t be close to both of our children and there was no telling when they might again relocate. For several reasons we settled on a small town on Vancouver Island. At least we were close to one of them. However, he had his sights set on Hollywood and, when an opportunity presented itself, he left Canada and headed south. I helped him move.
So, there we were, and still are, in our little west coast town. We love our little corner of paradise but we have paid a price. We have not been there for some important events such as the births of two of our grandchildren. We have missed watching each of them grow up; we have missed the normal, noisy households that have young people in them. Our home, while very comfortable, is also very quiet.
Every fall we travel to see the children. We usually fly, first to California to see our son Scott and spend a week or more with him trying to catch up on everything we’ve missed. Then, usually in November, we make the even longer trip east across Canada to see Travis and our grandchildren, who are now teenagers, actually into their twenties. They seldom come to visit us. The distances are just too great and it is costly.
Fortunately, both our boys are doing well and our grandchildren are growing up straight and tall. We love all of them and we are secure in the knowledge that they love us but the reality is that they don’t need us. We have done our jobs and, at least in theory, we can sit back, relax and enjoy the time remaining to us. They have also missed having a set of parents and grandparents around.
Life has been good for our family but we have all paid a price.
1. What does the author mean by saying “We had a dilemma.”?| A．They were not happy about their sons’ absence. |
| B．They were unwilling to separate from their sons. |
| C．They were not yet prepared for retirement at that time. |
| D．They couldn’t decide which son to live close to. |
| A．They have lost lots of money because of his retirement. |
| B．They have to give a large sum of money to their sons. |
| C．They have been absent from their children’s life. |
| D．They have to afford very expensive fare to visit their sons. |
| A．They are quite occupied with their homework. |
| B．It’s not easy for the kids to visit their grandparents. |
| C．They don’t need their grandparents any more. |
| D．The weather of winter in Canada is very awful. |
| A．Grandparents’ Love | B．Suffering Separation |
| C．A Price to Pay | D．Hidden Emotions |
4 . What if we had the power to control time, instead of moving from the past to the present to the future? What if we could jump, loop and travel through time in a machine? What if we could go wherever and whenever we pleased?
This ability would allow us to witness historic wonders, change decisions and see people from the past. We could right wrongs and stop wars from starting.
The mysterious puzzle of time has kept people debating its nature for hundreds of years. Science fiction writers have turned it into imaginative stories. Some scientists have even attempted to explain it using math. This math tries to make the dream of time travel come true.
The scientist Albert Einstein said that time and space are one thing. He called it “spacetime.” Einstein said that there are three dimensions in space: height, width and depth. A scientist named Hermann Minkowski added time as a fourth dimension.
Einstein introduced two ideas that have led to theories about the possibility of time travel. The first is relativity. The idea of relativity is that the force of gravity causes space to bend, which causes time to twist. The second idea focuses on special relativity. The idea is that a traveler moving super-fast through flat spacetime will enter the future. Einstein considered time “relative” because it is measured based on where we are on Earth or in space.
Stephen Hawking is a famous scientist. He believes that a time machine will never be built. If it were possible, he thinks we would already know. If a time machine could be built, how come no one from the future has invaded us?
The first science fiction story with this theme is The Clock That Went Backward by Edward P. Mitchell, which was published in 1881. Since then, thousands of books, films and television shows have explored the idea of time travel, in which some tools such as phones, watches, photographs and old books take travelers backward and forward.
Will time travel ever happen? Who knows? Most important is to keep your eyes open and have a sense of wonder.
1. What is the author’s purpose of writing the first paragraph?| A．To show time and space are connected. |
| B．To show people’s interest in time travel. |
| C．To draw readers’ attention to time travel. |
| D．To make people believe time travel is possible. |
| A．Time travel is possible in the future. |
| B．People can’t move faster than light. |
| C．Time travel is against scientific rules. |
| D．Spacetime is not a real thing in theory. |
| A．The first science fiction story. |
| B．Some tools used in time travel. |
| C．Edward P. Mitchell, the pioneer. |
| D．Different works about time travel. |
| A．cautious. | B．pessimistic |
| C．sceptical | D．optimistic. |
5 . Robots have certain advantages compared to humans: They are efficient, tireless, can be repaired when damaged and they never get sick. This last trait has made them the star during our fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. While hundreds of thousands of medical workers have fallen ill dealing with this highly infectious virus and a lot more are forced to stay at home for fear of getting the disease, this isn’t a problem for robots.
This is why the COVID-19 outbreak is seen as the “tipping point”---noted The Independent Science reporter Anthony Cuthbertson---for robots to start to replace humans in certain jobs.
In areas like hospitals and healthcare facilities, robots are used to perform high-risk tasks. In China, for example, a hotel in Hangzhou employed a robot named “Little Peanut” to deliver food to people under quarantine（隔离期）. In Spain, robots are about to be used to test people for the coronavirus. Ultraviolet-light-disinfection (紫外线消毒) robots are also being widely used to clean hospital corridors and wards.
“Hospitals around the world are waking up to autonomous disinfection,” Per Juul Nielsen, CEO of Denmark’s UVD Robots, a leading company manufacturing disinfection robots, told Forbes. “We can’t build these robots fast enough.”
In non-medical companies, robots are also replacing human employees since they don’t have the problem of social distancing and will never take sick leave. Walmart and Amazon, for example, where robots are already used in sorting, packing and shipping, are planning to increase the number of robots in their facilities. Fast-food chains like McDonald’s are not only delivering food with robots in some areas, but also looking to use them as cooks and servers.
According to futurist Martin Ford, using more robots than human employees can prove to be rewarding for companies---even when the pandemic is over. “People will prefer to go to a place that has fewer workers and more machines because they feel they can lower overall risk,” Ford told the BBC.
But this sudden surge (激增) in robot demand doesn’t mean that they triumph over humans in every aspect. According to Bill Smart, a roboticist at Oregon State University, the human contact between doctors and patients is still important. Doctors comfort the patients and guide them through hard decisions while robots are only doing routine tasks, like cleaning and giving tests, just to free up doctors and nurses.
It might be true that robots have certain advantages over humans, but they are still secondary to human interaction.
1. What is the text mainly about?| A．The advantages of robots compared to humans. |
| B．Different views toward applying robots to fight COVID-19. |
| C．Why the COVID-19 outbreak has fueled robot demand. |
| D．The important role humans play in certain areas. |
| A．They can be repaired when damaged. |
| B．They test people for coronavirus more precisely. |
| C．They never get tired and can replace doctors and nurses. |
| D．They are not vulnerable to the coronavirus. |
| A．Its benefits are appealing and lasting. |
| B．Machines are less disturbing than humans. |
| C．It poses a threat to human employment. |
| D．There are some risks with the use of robots. |
| A．The demand for robots is too great to meet. |
| B．Human interaction is essential in some areas. |
| C．Doctors can make more accurate judgments than robots. |
| D．Robots need updating to improve contact with humans. |
6 . Airport Express
With the Airport Express, you are never far from town. There is a train every 10 minutes, ready to rush you between the airport and Hong Kong Station in the heart of the shopping and commercial district in about 24 minutes. Or travel to the Asia WorldExpo in just 1 minute from the airport.
Airport Express service hours
Mon.—Fri.: 5:50 a.m. to 1:15 a.m.
Sat.—Sun.: 5 a.m. to 2 a.m.
Tickets
There are three types of tickets for travelling to and from the airport: Single Journey Ticket, Round Trip Ticket and Same Day Return Ticket. Single Journey Ticket and Same Day Return Ticket are valid (有效的) on the day of issue. Round Trip Ticket is valid for 30 days from the day of issue. You can also use the Octopus Card for the Airport Express. (The Octopus Card is an electronic storedvalue ticket and it can be used on most public transport. The fare will be deducted from the storedvalue card each time, so you do not have to carry heavy coins. The card is valid for three years after value has been added.)
Travel tips
●Children under 3 travel for free.
●Passengers travelling on the Airport Express are now able to write emails and do online searches with WiFi service.
●For more information about the Airport Express, please visit www.hongkongairport.com or call 0085221818888.
1. What is good about the Octopus Card?| A．It saves money for its users. | B．It is sold in every store. |
| C．Its validity is unlimited. | D．It avoids its users carrying coins. |
| A．Hong Kong Station is just 1 minute distance from the airport. |
| B．Single Journey Ticket is acceptable for 30 days. |
| C．Children are free of charge for tickets. |
| D．Passengers can surf the Internet in the Airport Express. |
| A．To provide suggestions about the Airport Express. |
| B．To promote the Octopus Card. |
| C．To inform readers of the Airport Express. |
| D．To introduce the Airport Express schedule. |
7 . Sometimes life can seem challenging (挑战的) and we usually get the feeling of “the grass on the other side is always greener”! We usually feel upset with the troubles that life throws at us.
The best thing to do at that point of time is to close our eyes and start counting of all the blessings in life that God has given us.
If we think deeply, our life is full of blessings that we hardly recognize. Listening to the singing of birds early in the morning, we realize that there are many people who spend their life in a world that is silent while many others spend their lives in a world that is dark and may have never seen a rainbow or the setting sun.
When you go out for a drive, pull down the window and look at the poor beggar standing under the hot sun, begging for filling his hungry stomach. We get three meals a day without realizing its importance. Isn’t that a blessing?
Whenever you are sad, look at the eyes of your parents and family filled with love and concern for you. There are many people who have never experienced the love of a family. Isn’t that a blessing?
As Mother Teresa once said, “We don’t need to do great things. We need to do small things with great love”.
The key to a happy life is when we consider others problems to be our own and try to help them. When we love people without any expectations and help them, our heart is filled with a sense of happiness and peace seeing the smile on their face.
So the next time whenever life knocks you down, close your eyes and…start counting!
1. What does the author intend to tell us?| A．True happiness lies in achieving wealth. |
| B．Blessings should be treasured in our life. |
| C．The singing of birds can make us happy. |
| D．Love from our family gives us courage to face life. |
| A．however happy we are, we never seem to be satisfied |
| B．though we are rich, we are poor in mind |
| C．we can have a better life if we work harder |
| D．there exists a greener grass on the other side |
| A．We have already known that life is filled with blessings. |
| B．It is a blessing to have three meals a day. |
| C．It’s natural to see a rainbow or the setting sun in life. |
| D．Mother Teresa calls on us to do great things in life. |
| A．Troubles in Life | B．Secrets of Life |
| C．A Sense of Happiness | D．Count Your Blessings |
8 . Automatic dishwashers have been around for more than 100 years. It started in 1886 with Josephine Cochrane, a woman in Shelbyville, Illinois. She was a rich woman who could afford servants to wash her dishes, so she really didn’t mind the work. What she did mind was that her servants broke the dishes. She hosted quite a few dinner parties, and after every party the servants broke more of her expensive dishes.
Finally, Cochrane took action. First, she measured her dishes and bent wire into racks to hold them. Next, she put the racks on a wheel in a large copper boiler. Then, the boiler sprayed hot, soapy water on the dishes as a motor turned the wheel. After a hot water rinse(冲洗), the dishes were clean!
Josephine Cochrane’s friends were impressed with the machine and asked her to build more. After that, word got out fast. Soon hotel and restaurant owners who didn’t like broken dishes also were interested. Cochrane then knew that she had a wonderful machine, so she received a patent from the government, which said that only the inventor can make money from an invention. Then in 1893 Chicago held a World’s Fair where inventions from all over the world were shown. Cochrane’s labor-saving machine was a big hit. Her dishwasher won the highest award.
Cochrane’s company came out with a smaller machine in 1914. It was supposed to be for the ordinary home, but it wasn’t an immediate success. Many homes couldn’t produce the extremely hot water it needed. Also, in most homes, dishwashing wasn’t considered very difficult compared to most other housework. In fact some people liked to relax at the sink after a hard day! Sales of the home model finally picked up in the 1950s when people had more money and wanted to have more time to enjoy themselves. Now many homes have electric dishwashers that aren’t very different from the one Josephine Cochrane invented more than 100 years ago.
1. Why did Josephine Cochrane invent the dishwasher?| A．To reduce the number of servants. |
| B．To avoid possible damage to the dishes. |
| C．To host more dinner parties. |
| D．To make the dishes cleaner. |
| A．The machine wasn’t as efficient as described. |
| B．Josephine Cochrane could no longer keep it a secret. |
| C．Josephine’s friends soon began to talk about the new machine. |
| D．The invention drew immediate attention of the public. |
| A．people’s living conditions improved |
| B．hot water was not needed |
| C．housework became easier |
| D．people had more relaxing jobs |
| A．cost less money |
| B．are quite different |
| C．wash many other things |
| D．are much the same |
9 . United States health officials are urging people to stop using electronic cigarettes, known as e-cigarettes. The call to action came after such products were linked to health problems. Five deaths have also been reported. E-cigarettes are a popular substitute for smoking products. The electronic devices heat liquid that includes flavoring, nicotine and other chemicals into vapor—very small particles that users breathe in. Nicotine is found in many plants, including tobacco. E-cigarettes or similar devices also can provide THC or other substances to users. THC is the natural chemical present in marijuana(大麻) plants that gives users the mental state known as a “high”.
E-cigarettes are said to be safer than normal cigarettes because they do not create the cancer-causing byproducts of burning tobacco.Yet health officials say e-cigarette users have reported shortness of breath and other breathing problems, such as coughing and chest pain. Some have been sick to the stomach, felt very tired, suffered weight loss or developed high body temperatures. One report noted that most of the 53 illnesses reported in Illinois and Wisconsin were related to THC vaping(气化) products. But nearly 20 percent of the patients inhaled(吸入)substances like nicotine from e-cigarettes. Most of the reported cases were of young men.
The report found that, “Since no single product or substance has been associated with the illness, persons should consider not using e-cigarettes while this investigation is ongoing.” Last November, The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, or CDC, reported that “e-cigarette use increased considerably among U.S. middle and high school students during 2017—2018.” Among high school students, it found e-cigarette use rose from 220,000 students in 2011 to 3.05 million in 2018.
On Monday, the Food and Drug Administration, or FDA gave a warning to JUUL Labs, maker of the best-selling e-cigarettes. The FDA accused the company of illegally marketing its products as being “safer than cigarettes” without the agency's approval.In a statement, the FDA's acting commissioner said that, “JUUL has ignored the law, and has made some of these statements in school to our nation's youth.” A JUUL spokesman said the company is studying the FDA's comments and “will fully cooperate”.
1. Which of the following can best describe e-cigarettes?| A．Deadly. | B．Harmless. |
| C．Infectious. | D．Effective. |
| A．They will be healthier. |
| B．They will lose weight. |
| C．They will feel excited. |
| D．They will be peaceful. |
| A．Students became its main marketing targets. |
| B．FDA didn't agree on its way of promoting its products. |
| C．It completely denied what it was accused of. |
| D．E-cigarettes were invented by it. |
| A．Say “No” to cigarettes |
| B．A sharp rise of e-cigarettes use among young people. |
| C．Safer e-cigarettes are needed for health. |
| D．E-cigarettes—a potential killer. |
10 . For the last month, a married couple has been interacting with a robot — called an Avatar — （hat’s con trolled by their daughter hundreds of miles away. Made by ANA Holdings Inc, it looks like a vacuum cleaner with an iPad attached. But the screen displays the daughter’s face as they chat, and its wheels let her walk slowly about the house as though she’s really there.
“Virtual travel” is nothing new, of course. Storytellers, travel writers and artists have been stimulating the senses of armchair tourists for centuries. It’s only in recent decades that frequent, safe travel has become available to the non-wealthy.
Yet even as the world’s middle classes climb out of the armchair and into economy-class seats, there are signs of a post-travel society appearing. Concerns about the environment make people lose interest in carbon-intensive (碳排放量很高的) airlines. And the aging of societies is both slowing down the growth of physical travel and creating demand for alternative ways to experience the world. For the travel industry, virtual reality offers a tantalizing (诱人的) response to these trends.
Of course, far-out (前卫的) technologies encourage profits. ANA doesn’t plan to start selling Avatars until next year. By one estimate, the global market for this kind of technology will be worth only about S300 million by 2023. By contrast, ANA’s traditional travel business brought in more than $19 billion last year.
But although the business case for virtual vacations is still weak, the market for technologies that bridge physical distances between families and coworkers seems likely to only expand. ANA’s robots may not replace its airplanes any time soon, but they’ll almost certainly be a part of travel’s high-tech future.
1. What purpose does the first paragraph serve in the passage?| A．To show a picture of our future life. |
| B．To describe the daily life of a couple. |
| C．To attract readers’ attention to the topic. |
| D．To add background in formation of the topic. |
| A．Humans tend to live much longer than before. |
| B．People are becoming more worried about the environment. |
| C．Virtual travel might cater for people’s desire to see the world. |
| D．The profits of carbon-intensive airlines are possibly declining. |
| A．it is still skeptical about their potential |
| B．they still need to be further tested out |
| C．traditional travel business is taking off |
| D．their commercial profits may not be satisfying |
| A．promising | B．ambiguous |
| C．depressing | D．challenging |
