1 . Our wedding was about to begin. My throat was tight and my cheeks got red, but I didn't care. I was ready to marry David Sanchez. We're a “nontraditional” couple: getting married in a bookstore that supports a charity to fight HIV and homelessness.
“Kim! I could walk you down the aisle (走道) if you like！” David's father offered gently.
“I'm OK. But I appreciate that，” I said with a smile. And I was reminded, again, of my dad's absence.
My father died of cancer six weeks ago. For the last two months, we tried to make him feel comfortable and loved as he departed from this world. He always told us that he didn't like a funeral (葬礼) and insisted that our wedding go forward as planned. But how could we honor him since the wedding would be the first time the family would gather after his death and some even didn't know he was sick?
During the ceremony, my dear friend Eva delivered a reading entitled “When Things Go Missing” by Kathryn Schulz. She paused and got everyone on the same page, “When we are experiencing it, loss often feels like confusion in the usual order of things. In fact, the entire plan of the universe consists of losing, and life amounts to a reverse (逆向的) savings account in which we are eventually robbed of everything.”
I felt the energy full of the room. Everyone was listening. By choosing to accept the pain, we knew what a wedding does to join two families and mark the next chapter for a couple. Loss became a compass that kept us away from a fantasy and toward celebrating the difficult realities of life.
After rings were exchanged, fried chicken was served, our friends offered so many funny and touching toasts, and finally David sang “Married” on my father's guitar. I felt joy filling all the holes in my soul. Celebrating my father's life at our wedding made me grateful for all the time I had spent with him.
1. Why did David's father offer to walk the author down the aisle?| A．To relieve her tension. |
| B．To welcome her to his family. |
| C．To play the author's late father's role. |
| D．To contribute something to the charity. |
| A．She got a compass as a wedding gift. |
| B．She enjoyed David's promise for their marriage. |
| C．She received more sympathy from families and friends. |
| D．She recalled the days spent with her father and understood life better. |
| A．Because she could keep away from the pain. |
| B．Because she knew everyone was listening. |
| C．Because she got more courage for the marriage and life. |
| D．Because she could read a piece of Kathryn Schulz's works. |
| A．It was held in a library. |
| B．It was a touching and happy one. |
| C．Kim and David turned it into a funeral. |
| D．There was no other activity except reading. |
2 . When Simon Cane was in the second grade, he began learning about all the ways humans have an impact on the environment and really took those classroom lessons to heart in a way that set him apart from his schoolmates at his elementary school, P. S. 81, in the Bronx. “He told me we drove too much and made too much pollution,” his dad, Jonathan Cane, told Runner’s World. So Simon convinced his parents to start hanging their clothes to dry, taking the stairs instead of elevators, and other “green” measures.
“For much of kindergarten and first grade I rode my bike to Simon’s school with him on the back,” Jonathan said. “We had a lot of fun being outdoors. We’d stop to give our dog treats and generally enjoyed it.” As Simon got bigger, though, it wasn’t practical for him to ride on his father’s back, but it also didn’t make sense to ride together — both because of safety concerns and because there was no place to put away Simon’s bike. So, most of the time they drove the 1. 5 miles to school.
But in 2019, when Simon was going into third grade, the 8-year-old came up with a new way to help the planet: running the 1. 5 miles to P. S. 81. And Jonathan promised his son he’d join him for as long as he wanted.
“We did a test run one day in August, and decided to give it a go. To be honest, I thought he’d blink (眨眼)after it got really cold or rainy, but he never did,” Jonathan said. He recalled one day when the weather was particularly bad. “It’s really raining out there today,” he told Simon. “And Simon said, ‘Well then we’re going to get wet!’ He took pride in toughing it out, and it became a really fun family routine.”
Since the start, Simon has run with his dad and their black dog, Lola, and has even inspired his mom, Nicole Sin Quee, to join in. They soon became known as “the family that runs to school”.
1. What makes Simon different from his classmates?| A．Washing his clothes by himself. | B．Taking many classes after school. |
| C．Raising strange questions in class. | D．Taking green measures to protect the environment. |
| A．By car. | B．By cycling. | C．By running. | D．By school bus. |
| A．Simon has trouble with his eyesight. | B．Simon is really stubborn and inflexible. |
| C．Simon is much tougher than expected. | D．Simon didn’t get support from his father. |
| A．The Best Way to Go to School |
| B．Father and Son Run for the Environment |
| C．A Teenager Keeps Running to Inspire Father |
| D．Three Inspiring Running Athletes to Protect the Environment |
3 . Robots are getting better at doing human jobs. That's probably good for the economy—but there are some serious downsides, too.
Machines are expected to displace about 20 million manufacturing jobs across the world over the next decade, according to a report released by Oxford Economics, a global forecasting and quantitative analysis firm.
That means about 8.5% of the global manufacturing workforce could be displaced by robots. The report also notes that the move to robots tends to create new jobs as fast as it automates them; however, it could contribute to income inequality. The use of robots is on the rise: at this point, every new robot that is installed (安装) displaces 1.6 manufacturing workers on average, according to the Oxford Economic model.
Robots are becoming cheaper than many human workers, in part because of the falling costs of machines. And they are increasingly capable of functioning in more complex processes and varied contexts. On top of that, the demand for manufactured goods is rising.
One potential downsize to the robot revolution: automation could increase income inequality. "This great displacement will not be evenly distributed around the world, or within countries," according to the report. "Our research shows that the negative effects of robotization are disproportionately (不成比例地) felt in the lower-income regions compared with higher-income regions of the same country."
The workers who drive knowledge and innovation within the manufacturing industry tend to be concentrated in larger cities, and those skills are harder to automate. That's why urban areas will deal better with the increased automation, according to the report.
On the whole, the increased use of automation will likely create new jobs at a pace comparable to the jobs that will be lost, which cancels out fears about permanent job destruction, according to the Oxford study. That said, the poorer regions that are expected to lose the most jobs will probably not benefit equally from this new job creation due to a gap in skills. That will lead to increased income inequality between cities and rural areas, as well as between regions.
1. What "downside" does the author mainly discuss?| A．People will not be able to find jobs in the future. |
| B．Robots will finally take the place of people. |
| C．Displacement by robots will increase income inequality. |
| D．Robots are becoming cheaper than many human workers. |
| A．To make robots help them with the harder work. |
| B．To improve their innovative ability and knowledge. |
| C．To move to larger cities or more developed countries. |
| D．To make their skills faster and easier to be automated. |
| A．The increased use of automation will create more jobs. |
| B．People needn't worry about permanent job destruction. |
| C．The poorer countries will not benefit from automation. |
| D．The income gap between cities and rural regions will widen. |
| A．Robots should be banned in the future because of the disadvantages. |
| B．Robots can do more and better than humans in complicated processes. |
| C．The increasing need for manufactured goods partly contributes to robotization. |
| D．The negative effects of robotization will be evenly distributed around the world. |
4 . Israeli company Watergen has produced an appliance that can generate clean,drinkable water out of air. The device,called GENNY, is small enough to be used in a home or office but can generate up to 30 liters of water a day.
GENNY takes air in and passes through a filter(过滤器)to remove dust and dirt. The filter is powerful enough to work with high air pollution. The air is directed through GENius,a heating and cooling process which causes water in the air to condense(凝结).This water is then passed through several more filters and minerals are added to improve the flavor of the water. Finally, the water is stored in a tank where it is continually circulated to keep it fresh. Therefore,the water produced by GENNY is often of a higher quality than water running through filtration systems attached to the city's water lines.
The technology of GENius is much better than other technologies that generate water from air. It produces four to five times more water per kilowatt-hour.Watergen has other products that use this same technology on a larger scale, the largest of which can produce up to 5,000 liters of water per day.
As an added bonus,during the water generation process, GENNY can emit clean air which is healthier for people to breathe.
At the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, GENNY was named the Energy Efficient Product of the Year. The award series recognize the world's top high-tech home products.
Last year,Watergen's large-scale products were donated to authorities in Brazil,Vietnam and India. They also assisted rescue and recovery efforts during the 2018 California wildfires and provided clean,safe water for the residents of Texas and Florida in the aftermath of the devastation caused by hurricanes Harvey and Irma.
Watergen also seeks to help protect the environment by reducing waste generated by plastic water bottles. People are called upon to put the water from GEENY into reusable bottles so that plastic ones don't get used and thrown away.
1. What does GENNY accomplish by adding minerals to the water?| A．It keeps the water fresh. |
| B．It helps kill harmful bacteria. |
| C．It satisfies local water regulations. |
| D．It makes the water taste better. |
| A．Energy-efficient. | B．Cost-saving. | C．Time-saving. | D．Environment-friendly. |
| A．Cut down. | B．Blow away. | C．Give off. | D．Use up. |
| A．Consume plastic waste. |
| B．Respond to natural disasters. |
| C．Test water quality globally. |
| D．Relieve drought in some countries. |
5 . Maybe you’re depressed because you didn’t sleep well. Or you feel stuck when you read an email with some bad news that prevented your enthusiastic imagination. Whatever the case may be, you tell yourself working now is in vain (徒劳的), because you couldn’t possibly come up with anything inventive in this mood.
Several studies in psychology have shown that negative emotions narrow our vision and limit our thinking. However, positive emotions can improve creativity because they broaden our way of thinking by encouraging us to try new things or look at situations differently.
Creativity is the ability to produce and carry out both new and useful ideas. Creativity can result from a person’s own creative ideas and observations, or it can appear as a response to a direct assignment or problem as well.
Both positive and negative moods can lead to two different kinds of creativity that benefit different tasks. Research shows that the key factor influencing our creativity is not our mood itself, but the strength of our feelings and the motivation (动机) behind our work. For example, anger or anxiety can help us to focus our attention on producing effective results. Great excitement or joy, on the other hand, can encourage an instant at which the solution to a problem becomes clear all of a sudden. In fact, one study even finds that while we’re 20 percent more likely to have creative abilities to understand mixed situations when we’re feeling good, people in a negative mood perform better when the quality of solutions—not quantity—matters most.
But of course, we are rarely entirely happy or entirely sad. More often, we experience mixed emotions. In psychology, these strong emotions whether they are positive or negative, lead to greater creative actions.
It comes as no surprise then that highly creative people tend to be very familiar with their emotions. They report experiencing very strong emotions more frequently than less creative people and are more willing to experience those emotions.
1. What is the author’s purpose in writing the first paragraph?| A．To expect us to be creative. |
| B．To show the importance of creativity. |
| C．To tell us negative emotions exist everywhere. |
| D．To clarify how moods influence your creativity. |
| A．Supportive. | B．Critical. | C．Doubtful. | D．Objective. |
| A．We should always try to keep ourselves in good mood. |
| B．People feel either very happy or very sad most of the time. |
| C．Strong emotions play an important role in creativity. |
| D．Creativity only results from creative ideas and observations. |
| A．Avoid negative moods totally. |
| B．Face up to inner feelings positively. |
| C．Try out new things cautiously. |
| D．Understand mixed situations clearly. |
6 . “Regardless of social class, race and age, men say they hate to shop,” says Zukin, City University of New York sociology professor. “Yet when you ask them deeper questions, it turns out that they like to shop. Men generally like to shop for books, music and hardware. But if you ask them about the shopping they do for books or music, they'll say, ‘Well, that's not shopping. That's research.’”
In other words, what men and women call “buying things” and how they approach that task are different.
Women will wander through several 1,000squaremetre stores in search of the perfect party dress. Men will wander through 100 Internet sites in search of the perfect digital camcorder. Women see shopping as a social event. Men see it as a special task or a game to be won.
“Men are frequently shopping to win,” says Ann, a marketing professor at Loyola University of Chicago. “They want to get the best deal. They want to get the best and latest one and if they do that, it makes them happy. When women shop, they're doing it in a way that they want everybody to be very happy,” says Ann. “They're kind of shopping for love.”
“Teenage girls learn to shop from their mums and elder sisters, and they also learn to shop by examining articles in magazines like Seventeen,” Zukin says. “And although men's magazines such as GQ and Esquire have long had shopping articles, it's TV that has the eye of young male shoppers,” say Ann and Zukin.
“Television shows are used by young men in the same way Seventeen or Lucky is used by girls,” says Zukin, “to help make clothing and toiletry choices.”
“Of course, there are men who love to shop and are proud of it,” Ann says. And that is important no matter whether you buy a car or a frying pan. All men love to buy but don't want to get cheated. Ann adds, “There actually are men who are interested, for example, in cooking or shopping or chinaware or things around the home-they become kind of girl magnets. Women like it.”
1. From the first paragraph we can find that .| A．men like to shop in fact | B．men are all dishonest |
| C．men hate to shop actually | D．men are all booklovers |
| A．honestly | B．frequently | C．seriously | D．foolishly |
| A．only with their sisters | B．often following magazines |
| C．only with their mums | D．often following TV shows |
| A．vegetables that make women beautiful | B．magazines that attract young women |
| C．persons that have a powerful attraction | D．tools that can help housewives much |
7 . For some people,music is no fun at all. About four percent of the population is what scientists call “amusic.” People who are amusic are born without the ability to recognize or reproduce musical notes(音调). Amusic people often cannot tell the difference between two songs. Amusics can only hear the difference between two notes if they are very far apart on the musical scale.
As a result, songs sound like noise to an amusic. Many amusics compare the sound of music to pieces of metal hitting each other. Life can be hard for amusics. Their inability to enjoy music sets them apart from others. It can be difficult for other people to identify with their condition. In fact, most people cannot begin to grasp what it feels like to be amusic. Just going to a restaurant or a shopping mall can be uncomfortable or even painful. That is why many amusics intentionally stay away from places where there is music. However, this can result in withdrawal and social isolation. “I used to hate parties,” says Margaret,a seventy-year-old woman who only recently discovered that she was amusic. By studying people like Margaret, scientists are finally learning how to identify this unusual condition.
Scientists say that the brains of amusics are different from the brains of people who can appreciate music. The difference is complex, and it doesn't involve defective hearing. Amusics can understand other nonmusical sounds well. They also have no problems understanding ordinary speech. Scientists compare amusics to people who just can't see. certain colors.
Many amusics are happy when their condition is finally diagnosed(诊断). For years, Margaret felt embarrassed about her problem with music. Now she knows that she is not alone. There is a name for her condition. That makes it easier for her to explain. “When people invite me to a concert, I just say,” No thanks, I'm amusic,'“says Margaret. “I just wish I had learned to say that when I was seventeen and not seventy.”
1. Which of the following is true of amusic?| A．Listening to music is far from enjoyable for them. |
| B．They love places where they are likely to hear music. |
| C．They can easily tell two different songs apart. |
| D．Their situation is well understood by musicians. |
| A．dislikes listening to speeches |
| B．can hear anything nonmusical |
| C．has a hearing problem |
| D．lacks a complex hearing system |
| A．her problem with music had been diagnosed earlier |
| B．she were seventeen years old rather than seventy |
| C．her problem could be easily explained |
| D．she were able to meet other amusics |
| A．Amusics' strange behaviours. |
| B．Some people's inability to enjoy music. |
| C．Musical talent and brain structure. |
| D．Identification and treatment of amusics. |
8 . It is like a scene from a horror film：a spider web is several meters wide，which is home to thousands of spiders.And that was what Jason G．Goldman，an animal behavior researcher，found along a muddy path in the Peruvian Amazon jungle—the web arched from tree to tree，a structure containing too many spiders to count.They appeared to function as a society，just like ants or bees.
Anelosimus eximius，the species Goldman met in the rainforest，is not the only kind of social spiders in the world，but it does construct the biggest webs.Some can reach more than 7.6m long and 1.5m wide.A web of that size could contain as many as 50,000 individual spiders.
Anelosimus eximius was first discovered more than a century ago by a French scientist named Eugene Simon.More social spiders have been discovered since.One was found as recently as 2006.
An Anelosimus eximius colony(群体) contains adult males and females as well as youngsters，but the majority of spiders on the web are females. Males account for only between 5% and 22% of any colony’s population.Social spiders work together to build，maintain and clean their webs.They work together to catch prey(猎物)，and dine together when they trap a large feast.The females work together to care for the young in the colony.They feed their youngsters by vomiting(吐出) up food for them，just like mother birds.
Why did these spiders become social？Researchers have discovered three ecological(生态的) elements that often lead to cooperative(合作的) living among spiders.
Social spiders tend to feed on bigger prey，for one thing.Spiders living in places where it is difficult to hunt large or more profitable prey alone may eventually figure out that it is in their interest to work together.
1. What can we know about Anelosimus eximius from the text?| A．Its latest branch was found in 2006. |
| B．It was discovered by Jason G．Goldman. |
| C．It has been in existence for less than a century. |
| D．It builds bigger webs than other kinds of spiders. |
A． | B． |
C． | D． |
| A．They live on big prey. |
| B．They care for the young. |
| C．They live and work together. |
| D．They mainly exist in the rainforest. |
| A．new threats to spiders’ colonies |
| B．new research on spiders’ colonies |
| C．more reasons for spiders’ cooperative living |
| D．more species of social spiders in the world |
9 . Most people agree that honesty is a good thing. But does Mother Nature agree? Animals can’t talk, but can they lie in other ways? Can they lie with their bodies and behavior? Animal experts may not call it lying, but they do agree that many animals, from birds to chimpanzees, behave dishonestly to fool other animals. Why? Dishonesty often helps them survive.
Many kinds of birds are very successful at fooling other animals. For example, a bird called the plover sometimes pretends to be hurt in order to protect its young. When a predator(猎食动物) gets close to its nest, the plover leads the predator away from the nest. How? It pretends to have a broken wing. The predator follows the “hurt” adult, leaving the baby birds safe in the nest.
Another kind of bird, the scrub jay, buries its food so it always has something to eat. Scrub jays are also thieves. They watch where others bury their food and steal it. But clever scrub jays seem to know when a thief is watching them. So they go back later, unbury the food, and bury it again somewhere else.
Birds called cuckoos have found a way to have babies without doing much work. How? They don’t make nests. Instead, they get into other birds’ nests secretly. Then they lay their eggs and fly away. When the baby birds come out, their adoptive parents feed them.
Chimpanzees, or chimps, can also be sneaky. After a fight, the losing chimp will give its hand to the other. When the winning chimp puts out its hand, too, the chimps are friendly again. But an animal expert once saw a losing chimp take the winner’s hand and start fighting again.
Chimps are sneaky in other ways, too. When chimps find food that they love, such as bananas, it is natural for them to cry out. Then other chimps come running. But some clever chimps learn to cry very softly when they find food. That way, other chimps don’t hear them, and they don’t need to share their food.
As children, many of us learn the saying “You can’t fool Mother Nature.” But maybe you can’t trust her, either.
1. A plover protects its young from a predator by ________.| A．getting closer to its young | B．driving away the adult predator |
| C．leaving its young in another nest | D．pretending to be injured |
| A．chimps are ready to attack others |
| B．chimps are sometimes dishonest |
| C．chimps are jealous of the winners |
| D．chimps can be selfish too |
| A．Some chimps lower their cry to keep food away from others. |
| B．The losing chimp won the fight by taking the winner's hand. |
| C．Cuckoos fool their adoptive parents by making no nests. |
| D．Some clever scrub jays often steal their food back. |
| A．Do animals lie? |
| B．Does Mother Nature fool animals? |
| C．How do animals learn to lie? |
| D．How does honesty help animals survive? |
