1 . It was about 10 p.m. when Janice arrived at the train station. She jumped into her car and began the 20﹣minute drive home. She'd traveled the route so many times that she almost knew every bump on it. But out of nowhere on that awful night,a car T-boned her car,moving her backward onto the railroad tracks. She sat in her car，frightened by the impact and the vehicle's airbags.

As this happened，Peter was getting ready for bed. He'd just closed his book when he heard glass coming from not far outside his bedroom window. A volunteer firefighter and retired teacher，Peter never stopped to think. He grabbed a flashlight and ran out of the door. "Any firefighter would have done what I did" he said. "We're always on duty."

The first car he came upon was the one that hit Janice. Once Peter concluded the driver was OK，he looked around and spotted Janice's car straddling(横跨)the railroad tracks. And then he heard the bells signaling an oncoming train and saw the headlight of the train.

Peter dashed to Janice's car and banged on the driver's side window. She just looked at him，her eyes unfocused. "I don't know where I am" she said.

"Honey，you're on the railroad tracks" Peter shouted. "We have to get you off right now!" He pulled on the handle，but the door was jammed shut. The train,traveling at 65 mph，was running toward them. Peter ran to the passenger side and threw open the door. He pushed aside the airbags,grabbed Janice's arms，and pulled her toward him across the passenger seat until he could help her out and speed walk her to safety. Within six seconds,he estimated,the train plowed into the car. "It was like a Hollywood movie." Peter said.

1. What caused Peter to run out of the door？

A．The sound of a fire alarming.

B．The noise of glass flying in his direction.

C．The sound of two cars exploding.

D．The noise of his bedroom window broken.

2. How did Peter help Janice to the safety place？

A．He carried her out of her car.

B．He broke the driver's window and pulled her out.

C．He pushed her car off the tracks.

D．He pulled her out of car and supported her to safety.

3. What section in a newspaper is the text probably from？

A．Entertainment.

B．Travelling.

C．Society.

D．Education.

3 . On Monday, a scientist and doctor Robert Winston is to formally ask a question in congress about what assessments the government has made “for requiring adults riding bicycles in city centres to heave a licence and third-party insurance”. The letter below is the entirely imagined response I would like the government to make to him.

Dear Robert,

You ask what assessments we’ve made for your proposal about obliging cyclists to have licences and insurance. The brief answer is: none. Nor do we have any plans to do so.

Why? Again, the short answer is this: it’s a silly and pointless thing to suggest, as evidenced by the fact that practically no countries or territories anywhere in the world require cyclists to be licensed, or to have compulsory insurance.

I suppose it’s only fair if I explain why I think it is such a non-issue. It’s pretty simple: such a plan would achieve pretty much nothing, while causing significant problems. More widely, any sensible governments will do everything in their power to get more people cycling, not to put pointless obstacles in their way.

Let’s just take one example. As I’m sure you know as a doctor, one of the problems facing our nation is that the National Health System is likely to collapse under the caring for an increasingly overweight population. Inactive living is central to this. Even a fairly brief daily bike trip can have miraculous benefits for people’s health.

Next, how would such rules even work? Would the licensing and insurance be just for adults, or also children? How would the system even be enforced-would it also require all bikes to be registered with number plates?

Finally, what would you hope to achieve by this? If you believe licensing transport users stops wrongdoing, can I point to you the data showing how a third of drivers admit to using handheld phones while driving, despite the law forbidding it.

So, to summarize：your plan would be to introduce a hugely new administrative scheme that would most likely have limited effect on the behaviour of averagely law-abiding (守法的) transport users who rarely harm others, while putting people off from this beneficial type of transport.

I’m afraid I just don’t get it.

1. What does Robert most probably want to know by asking the question?

A．whether the government has made efforts regarding his proposal.

B．whether each bike rider has applied for a third-party insurance.

C．whether the congress has sympathy towards the cyclists.

D．whether doctors can receive the government’s support.

2. What does the author think of the plan proposed by Robert?

A．It may raise people’s insurance awareness.

B．It can motivate people to obey the law.

C．It imitates what other countries are doing.

D．It is difficult to implement and enforce.

3. The example in paragraph 6 is used     .

A．to draw people’s attention to overweight problems

B．to prove that cycling can cause problems

C．to explain why governments advocate cycling

D．to illustrate how broken the NHS is

4. We can conclude from the passage that the author     .

A．holds prejudices against Robert Winston

B．is a pleasant and good-tempered person

C．has the right to speak for the government

D．is skilled in argumentative techniques

4 . Buying sunglasses can leave anyone puzzled by choice. But Bose may have stuck the landing in the style department with its new Bose Frames, designed to pump music directly into your ears and work with apps to deliver walking instructions and more.

Bose Frames look better than most smart glasses already around. The Frames are black, with gold accents on the power button. Those thick arms look like a pair of designer sunglasses you'd get from some pop shops guaranteed to be out of business in a year. More than one person commented on the Frames while I wore them around town, and two of my co-workers thought they looked surprisingly cool. And that was before they knew about the built-it speakers.

The Frames sound as great as they look, at least when you compare them to the headphones that came with your smart phones. In each of the Frames' arms is a mini speaker pumping music directly at your ears without being all up in them like typical earbuds (耳塞). On the outside of each arm is another speaker designed to cancel out what the inside one is playing. The end result: music you can hear, and silence anybody nearby can appreciate. Mostly.

Of course, you shouldn't wear these indoors or in a quiet environment, like a library. Bose Frames are essentially wearable speakers, meaning they leak sound, so people nearby can still hear something.

Bose Frames are not for everyone, nor are they great for every situation-sometimes, regular old headphones are more socially appropriate. But once you get over the astonishment that you're wearing a pair of glasses with built-in speakers, you might find them becoming a seasonal addition to you. If you're in the market for sunglasses, and are willing to drop two hundred dollars on a pair, Bose Frames are a solid option for every fashion forward futurist.

1. What impressed the author's colleagues at first about Bose Frames?

A．The low price.

B．The good look.

C．The limited edition.

D．The mini speakers.

2. What are the outside speakers of Bose Frames used for?

A．Avoiding leaking any sound.

B．Connecting to smart phones.

C．Pumping music directly into ears.

D．Decreasing disturbance to people around.

3. For what purpose does the author write the text?

A．To give tips on how to choose suitable sunglasses.

B．To compare traditional and high-tech sunglasses.

C．To introduce the newly designed Bose sunglasses.

D．To share the experience of wearing Bose sunglasses.

5 . Albert Einstein’s 1915 masterpiece “The Foundation of the General Theory of Relativity” is the first and still the best introduction to the subject, and I recommend it as such to students. But it probably wouldn’t be publishable in a scientific journal today.

Why not? After all, it would pass with flying colours the tests of correctness and significance. And while popular belief holds that the paper was incomprehensible to its first readers, in fact many papers in theoretical physics are much more difficult.

As the physicist Richard Feynman wrote, “There was a time when the newspapers said that only 12 men understood the theory of relativity. I do believe there might have been a time when only one man did, because he was the only guy who caught on, before he wrote his paper. But after people read the paper a lot understood the theory of relativity in some way or other, certainly more than 12.”

No, the problem is its style. It starts with a leisurely philosophical discussion of space and time and then continues with an exposition of known mathematics. Those two sections, which would be considered extraneous today, take up half the paper. Worse, there are zero citations of previous scientists’ work, nor are there any graphics. Those features might make a paper not even get past the first editors.

A similar process of professionalization has transformed other parts of the scientific landscape. Requests for research time at major observatories or national laboratories are more rigidly structured. And anything involving work with human subjects, or putting instruments in space, involves piles of paperwork.

We see it also in the Regeneron Science Talent Search, the Nobel Prize of high school science competitions. In the early decades of its 78-year history, the winning projects were usually the sort of clever but naive, amateurish efforts one might expect of talented beginners working on their own. Today, polished work coming out of internships(实习) at established laboratories is the norm.

These professionalizing tendencies are a natural consequence of the explosive growth of modern science. Standardization and system make it easier to manage the rapid flow of papers, applications and people. But there are serious downsides. A lot of unproductive effort goes into jumping through bureaucratic hoops(繁文缛节), and outsiders face entry barriers at every turn.

Of course, Einstein would have found his way to meeting modern standards and publishing his results. Its scientific core wouldn’t have changed, but the paper might not be the same taste to read.

1. According to Richard Feynman, Einstein’s 1915 paper ________.

A．was a classic in theoretical physics

B．turned out to be comprehensible

C．needed further improvement

D．attracted few professionals

2. What does the underlined word “extraneous” in Paragraph 4 mean?

A．Unrealistic.	B．Irrelevant.
C．Unattractive.	D．Imprecise.

3. According to the author, what is affected as modern science develops?

A．The application of research findings.

B．The principle of scientific research.

C．The selection of young talents.

D．The evaluation of laboratories.

4. Which would be the best title for this passage?

A．What makes Einstein great?

B．Will science be professionalized?

C．Could Einstein get published today?

D．How will modern science make advances?

6 . Whenever we see a button, we want to press it because we know that something will happen.This is true in most cases, for example, on a doorbell.But some buttons are actually fake (假的), like the “close” button on a lift.

Many people are in the habit of pressing the “close” button because they don't have the patience to wait.But lifts' “close” buttons are a complete trick, at least in the US—the doors will not close any faster no matter how hard you press.

It started in the 1990s when the Americans with Disabilities Act was passed in the US, making sure that all lifts stayed open long enough so that people with disabilities could enter safely.Only repair workers can use the buttons to speed up the door­closing process if they have special keys.

But to normal lift riders, the buttons aren't completely useless.According to psychologists, fake buttons can actually make you feel better by offering you a sense of control.

“A sense of control is very important.It reduces stress and increases well­being，” said Ellen J．Langer，a psychology professor at Harvard University.Experts also added that a lot of buttons that don't do anything exist in our lives for this same purpose.

For example, pedestrian crosswalk buttons don't live up to their names either.Pressing them used to help make the traffic signals change faster, but that was before computer­controlled traffic signals were introduced.

But psychologists found it interesting that even when people are aware of these little “white lies”， they still continue to push fake buttons because as long as the doors eventually close, it is considered to be worth the effort.

1. What is the author's purpose in writing the text?

A．To describe different fake buttons.

B．To explore the functions of fake buttons.

C．To analyze various habits of pushing buttons.

D．To explain the disadvantages of fake buttons.

2. What can we learn about the “close” buttons on a lift in America?

A．They work when people press them hard.

B．They were designed for a sense of control.

C．They never speed up the door­closing process.

D．They take the safety of the disabled into account.

3. What can we infer about pedestrian crosswalk buttons?

A．They can make people feel better.

B．They help computers work faster.

C．They can control the traffic signals.

D．They help pedestrians cross safely.

7 . Bermuda, the island known for its pink-sand beaches, blue .waters, and year-round warm weather, has been announced the Official Sponsor of the U.S.Open.It's a fitting collaboration (协作), given the island's reputation as a destination for travelers in search of perfect adventures 一just a ninety-minute flight from New York City.Lesser known, however, is that the long history of American tennis was introduced by this attractive Atlantic island.

Nearly a hundred and fifty years ago, the New York celebrity Mary Ewing Outerbridge sailed for days to vacation on this quiet island.She watched, fascinated, as some British soldiers stationed there played tennis, although a' version different from one we know today.The courts in Bermuda were shaped like hourglasses, the net was also higher, and a number of the rules were different.

Mary became fascinated watching the ball flying back and forth, and ended up purchasing a kit containing all the materials needed to bring the sport home to Staten Island.Using a hand-drawn diagram, she laid out a court at her brother's cricket club, where the sport caught on among members.From there, the game's popularity quickly grew, leading to standardized rules and regulations--and then, in 1880, to the first U.S.tennis championship.

In only a few years, Mary' s unexpected souvenir from her Bermuda trip helped set a national tradition: today, nearly eighteen million people in the US play the sport, from the public-tennis-court games in many cities to the annual U.S.Open, in NYC.Mary s role in bringing tennis from Bermuda to America has earned her a place in the International Tennis Hall of Fame.

It only serves to enhance the sport's appeal to learn that every swing of the racket in the US can be trace back to Bermuda, where island adventures still wait for all travelers--tennis lovers included.You' re welcome!

1. What can we learn about Bermuda?

A．It is distant from New York City.

B．It is friendly to adventure seekers.

C．It is unfit to sponsor the U.S.Open..

D．It is better known for being the origin of tennis.

2. Which of the following is Mary's contribution to American tennis?

A．She held the first U.S.tennis championship.

B．She made the game become world famous.

C．She designed the first tennis court in the US.

D．She set standard rules and regulations of the game.

3. What is the real purpose of this passage?

A．To introduce the founder of American tennis.

B．To introduce the history of American tennis.

C．To attract more people to enjoy the sport.

D．To attract more people to tour Bermuda.

8 . High blood pressure, a common condition, rarely has noticeable symptoms, which make the condition difficult to identify, and that is why many people don't know they have it. The best way to find out whether you have the condition is to have your blood pressure（BP） checked with a monitor.

This is important because spotting any problems as early as possible reduces the risk of complications（并发症），which include cardiovascular disease such as stroke（中风），heart attack and heart failure, and kidney disease.

So how often should we check your blood pressure to find out whether you have the condition?

Dr Sarah Brewer, medical director of Healthspan, said if you haven⁹1 had your blood pressure checked in the last year, make this a priority.

She explained, "If the reading is below 130/80 mmHg, then you go forward and have your blood pressure checked at least once every 5 years as it tends to increase slowly with age. If your BP is on the high side of normal （130/85mmHg to 139/89mmHg） or if you are aged 40 or over, it's best to have an annual check. If your blood pressure is 140/90mmHg or higher, see your doctor for advice on high blood pressure."

How often should you check your blood pressure if your BP is high?

If you have hypertension（高血压），check your blood pressure as often as your doctor tells you to, said Dr Brewer.

She added, "Guidelines suggest your doctor review you every 3 to 4 months until your blood pressure is well controlled. Once your blood pressure is stable on medication, you may be reviewed less often, every 6 months or annually. It's a good idea to check your blood pressure with a home monitor so you can ensure it isn't increasing or affected by changes in diet, lifestyle and stress?"

1. Why are many people unaware they have high blood pressure based on the passage?

A．Because its symptoms are difficult to identify.

B．Because they don't consider high blood pressure risky.

C．Because the way to identify high blood pressure is not found yet.

D．Because it is difficult to get a monitor used to check blood pressure.

2. Noticing high blood pressure in time is important because.

A．it is impossible to spot it as time goes by

B．patients won't have to see a doctor regularly after that

C．uncontrolled high blood pressure can lead to serious health problems

D．it will take doctors less money to treat patients with high BP by doing that

3. Which of the following will be supported by Dr Sarah Brewer?

A．A 41-year -old adult should have BP checked at least once a month.

B．BP will never change if you have it checked with a monitor.

C．It is good for you to consult a doctor if your BP is 140/90 mmHg or higher.

D．You don't have to worry about BP if your age is below 40.

4. Which column in a magazine could this passage belong to?

A．Health.

B．Style.

C．Life.

D．Sport.

9 . The traffic signals along Factoria Boulevard in Bellevue, Washington, generally don't flash the same length of green twice in a row, especially at rush hour. At 9:30am, the full red/yellow/green signal cycle might be 140 seconds. By 9:33am, a burst of additional traffic might push it to 145 seconds. Less traffic at 9:37am could push it down to 135. Just like the traffic itself, the timing of the signals changes.

That is by design. Bellevue, a fast-growing city just east of Seattle, uses a system that is gaining popularity around the US: intersection(十字路口) signals that can adjust in real time to traffic conditions. These lights, known as adaptive signals, have led to significant declines in both the trouble and cost of travels between work and home.

“Adaptive signals can make sure that the traffic demand that is there is being addressed, ” says Alex Stevanovic, a researcher at Florida Atlantic University.

For all of Bellevue’s success, adaptive signals are not a cure-all for jammed roadways. Kevin Balke, a research engineer at the Texas A&M University Transportation Institute, says that while smart lights can be particularly beneficial for some cities, others are so jammed that only a sharp reduction in the number of cars on the road will make a meaningful difference. “It’s not going to fix everything, but adaptive signals have some benefits for smaller cities,” he says.

In Bellevue, the switch to adaptive signals has been a lesson in the value of welcoming new approaches. In the past, there was often an automatic reaction to increased traffic: just widen the roads, says Mark Poch, the Bellevue Transportation Department’s traffic engineering manager. Now he hopes that other cities will consider making their streets run smarter instead of just making them bigger.

1. What does the underlined word “that” in paragraph 2 refer to?

A．Increased length of green lights.	B．Shortened traffic signal cycle.
C．Flexible timing of traffic signals.	D．Smooth traffic flow on the road.

2. What does Kevin Balke say about adaptive signals?

A．They work better on broad roads.

B．They should be used in other cities.

C．They have greatly reduced traffic on the road.

D．They are less helpful in cities seriously jammed.

3. What can we learn from Bellevue’s success?

A．It is rewarding to try new things.	B．The old methods still work today.
C．It pays to put theory into practice.	D．The simplest way is the best way.

10 . I am an active playgoer and play-reader, and perhaps my best reason for editing this book is a hope of sharing my enthusiasm for the theater with others. To do this I have searched through dozens of plays to find the ones that I think best show the power and purpose of the short play.

Each play has a theme or central idea which the playwright(剧作家) hopes to get across through dialogue and action. A few characters are used to create a single impression growing out of the theme. It is not my intention to point out the central theme of each of the plays in this collection, for that would, indeed, ruin the pleasure of reading, discussing, and thinking about the plays and the effectiveness of the playwright. However, a variety of types is represented here. These include comedy, satire, poignant drama, historical and regional drama. To show the versatility(多面性) of the short play, I have included a guidance play, a radio play and a television play.

Among the writers of the plays in this collection, Paul Green, Susan Glaspell, Maxwell Anderson, Thornton Wilder, William Saroyan, and Tennessee Williams have all received Pulitzer Prizes for their contributions to the theater. More information about the playwrights will be found at the end of this book.

To get the most out of reading these plays, try to picture the play on stage, with you, the reader, in the audience. The houselights dim(变暗). The curtains are about to open, and in a few minutes the action and dialogue will tell you the story.

1. What do we know about the author from the first paragraph?

A．He has written dozens of plays.	B．He has a deep love for the theater.
C．He is a professional stage actor.	D．He likes reading short plays to others.

2. What does the author avoid doing in his work?

A．Stating the plays’ central ideas.	B．Selecting works by famous playwrights.
C．Including various types of plays.	D．Offering information on the playwrights.

3. What does the author suggest readers do while reading the plays?

A．Control their feelings.	B．Apply their acting skills.
C．Use their imagination.	D．Keep their audience in mind.

4. What is this text?

A．A short story.	B．An introduction to a book.
C．A play review.	D．An advertisement for a theater.