1 . There is a chill wind blowing through the campus of Keele University these days and it’s nothing to do with the weather.
Students fear the recession(经济衰退) and the downturn in graduate recruitment may mean their studies lead them nowhere. Students’ Union president Talah Omran AI Rubaie already has her degree, and will give up her union post this summer, but she’s not looking forward to launching herself onto the job market.She said, “For most of us, the fact that you are graduating today or tomorrow but might not be able to get a job is a very scary prospect.I think it also has an impact on the students that have just graduated from high school, who’re thinking ‘Is it worth coming to university, is it worth getting a degree?’”
In the Union café, students’ life goes on as it always has.But these undergraduates know the bubble of academia will not protect them from the recession for long.Particularly over Christmas and Easter when you’re only home for months, no one’s got any jobs to give out for a few weeks.
As the recession deepens, some students find themselves in a dilemma: to stay at university, continue their studies, and hope the graduate job market improves by the time they leave, or to start right now and take a job, any job, so they don’t get left on the employment shelf.
Keele’s performance in the graduate jobs market has been good so far.The latest figures available show 95% of students leaving do get a job, but that was before the economy fell off a cliff, and the university is working hard to equip its students with the skills to compete in an ever gloomier employment field.
1. What is the purpose of paragraph 1?| A．To attract the readers. | B．To present the opinion. |
| C．To introduce the Keele University. | D．To describe the British weather. |
| A．Its students are well-equipped with necessary skills for competition. |
| B．Its students care little about whether the jobs they get are good or not. |
| C．Its students are well-protected by the bubble of academia from the recession. |
| D．Its students are not bothered by whether to step into real society right now or not. |
| A．Graduates of Keele University are faced with a dilemma. |
| B．To find a job is difficult for the students of Keele University. |
| C．The recession does impact the graduates of Keele University. |
| D．Keele University is trying its best to help its graduates to get a good job. |
2 . A few years ago, I started to notice big shifts in teens’ behavior. Around 2010, teens started to spend their time much differently from the generations before. These teens and young adults all have one thing in common: Their childhood or adolescence coincided with the rise of the smart phone. For this reason, I call them iGeneration.
What makes iGen different? Growing up with a smartphone has affected nearly every aspect of their lives. They spend so much time on the Internet, texting friends and on social media that they have less leisure time for everything else. Whether it’s going to parties, shopping at the mall, or watching movies, iGen teens are participating in these social activities at a significantly low rate.
Some parents might worry about their teens spending so much time on their phones because it differs from the way they spent their own adolescence. But it is not just different——in many ways, it’s actually worse. Spending less time with friends means less time to develop social skills. A 2014 study found that sixth graders who spent just five days at a camp without using screens ended the time better at reading emotions on others’ faces, suggesting that iGen’s screen-filled lives might cause their social skills to shrink.
In addition, in the annual Monitoring the Future survey, the percentage of iGen teens who read a non required book every day dropped from 60 percent in 1980 to only 16 percent in 2015. Perhaps as a result, average SAT critical reading scores have dropped 14 points since 2005.
iGen shows another break with the previous generations; Depression, anxiety, and loneliness have shot upward with happiness declining. The teen suicide rate increased by more than 50 percent, as did the number of teens with clinical—level depression.
Parents used to worry about their teens spending too much time with their friends—they were a distraction, a bad influence, a waste of time. But it might be just what iGen needs now.
1. How are iGen teens different from the, generations before?| A．They are more skillful in high-tech products. | B．They stay in close contact with friends. |
| C．They prefer to live a virtual life than a real one. | D．They spend their adolescence with smartphones. |
| A．To stress the importance of reading the required books. |
| B．To explain the reason why iGeneration reads less. |
| C．To introduce the extracurriculum reading situation of iGeneration. |
| D．To show the influence of reading on iGen teenagers’ mental health. |
| A．Depression and anxiety are the common symptoms of mental problems. |
| B．Mental problems can be found in large numbers of iGen teens. |
| C．Net-addicted teenagers are more likely to suffer from mental problems. |
| D．iGen teens’ mental problems are getting more and more attention. |
| A．How the Smartphone Affected an Entire Generation of Kids? |
| B．Parents Are Getting Serious about Teen Smartphone Addiction. |
| C．Smartphones for Teens: Smart or Stupid? |
| D．Smartphones Are Changing iGen Teen’s Lifestyle. |
3 . Next time your plane lands, listen to the sound of the tyres hitting the ground. The reason the tyres don’t explode is because they are made of natural rubber. The tyres of cars, motorbikes and trucks are also often made of the same stuff.
Natural rubber comes from trees, Workers cut the trunks of the trees and collect a white liquid called latex. In the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, huge numbers of rubber trees were planted in countries including Malaysia, Burma and Brazil. More than a century ago, scientists discovered how to make man-made rubber, but natural rubber is much stronger and can last much longer. Nearly half the rubber which is produced each year is natural rubber and there is always a need for more.
Rubber trees are not easy to grow. They are affected by changes in temperature, to much or not enough rain, high winds and disease. Some trees survive while others die and it’s all down to their genes. Two British organizations, the Tun Abdul Razak Research Center (TARRC) and The Genome Analysis Center (TGAC), have been working together to look at rubber trees. This is the genes fit together in very long chains of DNA. The genome for a plant such as a rubber tree or animal needs to grow. The genome contains all the information the plant or animal needs to grow. The genome for a plant such as a rubber tree is smaller than a human genome but it is still very long, which is why it has been so difficult to find. As Ewan Mollison of TARRC says, the work has been like putting a picture puzzle together where all the pieces show blue sea and blue sky.
Now scientists can use the rubber tree genome to produce stronger trees. By understanding the genome, they can change the DNA in rubber trees in useful ways. They can also do it much faster than before. In the future, it will be possible to grow trees which survive climate change and disease.
1. What characteristics of natural rubber can be inferred from Paragraph 1?| A．Inexpensive. | B．Flexible | C．Conductive | D．Explosive. |
| A．Quantities of rubber trees were planted in Southeast Asia |
| B．Rubber trees are not easily affected by the climate change. |
| C．By now scientists haven’t discovered how to make man-made rubber. |
| D．Natural rubber is much tougher and more lasting than man-made rubber. |
| A．The work sounds as interesting as a picture puzzle. |
| B．The genome of a rubber tree is as blue as sea and sky. |
| C．The genome of a rubber tree is not easy to be identified |
| D．Completing a picture puzzle with sea and sky is difficult. |
| A．The Origin of Natural Rubber | B．The Application of Natural Rubber |
| C．Natural Rubber: It’s All in the genes | D．Natural Rubber VS Man-made Rubber |
4 . The giant panda is beloved of conservationists. It is one of the most recognisable large animals in the world. But it is also evolutionarily odd. It is a type of bear but it is a herbivore(食草动物). It is ironic, then, that this icon of the natural world might actually be an accidental consequence of human activity. Yet this is a convincing interpretation of results just published in a paper in Current Biology, by Wei Fuwen of the Institute of Zoology, in Beijing.
Pandas are not merely herbivores, they are monovores-merely eating bamboo only. Dr Wei wondered when this transition to monovory happened. The answer was, far more recently than anyone had expected.
Dr Wei studied carbon and nitrogen isotopes(同位素) in the bones of a dozen ancestral pandas, dating from between 11,000 and 5,000 years ago, and compared them with those of modern pandas. The study shows that the ancient pandas lived in more varied environments and had broader diets. What is more, they were not yet the obligate(专性的) bamboo feeders which they are today, and they were making subtropical zones and open land their home, rather than living merely in bamboo forests. The question is, what made them change?
There is one obvious possible cause: the spread of man. Organised states clearly existed by about 5,000 years ago. Growing human populations could easily have displaced the ancestors of modern pandas to fringe areas where there was little to eat but bamboo. And if bamboo is all there is to eat, then those that prefer to eat it will be at an evolutionary advantage. The modern, bamboo-eating panda-symbol of animals under pressure from man-may thus have been made the way it is by precisely such human pressures.
1. How did Dr. Wei conduct research into the transition of pandas?| A．Studying the diets of pandas. |
| B．Calculating the number of pandas. |
| C．Studying the structure of genes of pandas. |
| D．Analyzing the isotopic composition of pandas’ bones and teeth. |
| A．The change of their genes. |
| B．The intended invasion of other herbivores. |
| C．The unintentional expansion of human activity. |
| D．The decline in their habitat and thus the shortage of food. |
| A．Panda Evolution: By the Hand of Man? | B．Panda: beloved but odd |
| C．Panda: Herbivores or Monovores? | D．A Study of Ancient Pandas |
5 . Playing tennis regularly could help keep people off death, but football, rugby and running may not help people to live longer, a study suggests.
A study followed more than 80,000 people for an average of nine years to find out if certain sports protected them against early death. It found that people who played racket sports regularly were the least likely to die over the study period, reducing their individual risk by 47 percent compared with people who did no exercise. Swimmers also reduced their chance of death by 28 percent, aerobics (有氧运动) fans by 27 percent and cyclists by 15 percent. Yet running appeared to have no impact at all on dying early, and neither did playing football or rugby.
Scientists say the difference may lie in the social aspect which goes alongside sports like tennis and squash (壁球), which often involve clubs and organized activities outside of the game. It means that people often have larger social net-works and tend to keep up activities into later life, both of which are proven to be good for health.
In contrast, people who play team sports often do not move onto a new sport once their teams break up for family, or injury reasons. They become watchers rather than participants in their chosen activity.
The researchers found that playing racket sports was associated with a 56 percent lower risk from heart death. Similarly, swimmers lowered their heart disease or stroke risk by 41 percent, and people who took part in activities like aerobics, dance or gymnastics lowered their risk by 36 percent. But again running, football and rugby had no significant impact on heart deaths.
However, other experts argue that this study must not be misinterpreted as showing that running and football do not protect against heart disease. In this study both runners and footballers had a lower rate of death from heart disease.
1. Which sport has hardly any impact on protecting people against early death?| A．Cycling. | B．Swimming. |
| C．Rugby. | D．Tennis. |
| A．Playing basketball with their friends occasionally. |
| B．Watching football games every day. |
| C．Taking up gymnastics and joining a club. |
| D．Doing running in the park every day. |
| A．Social networks. | B．Staying at home. |
| C．Physical examinations. | D．Setting up families. |
| A．Thousands of people participated in a 9-year research. |
| B．Study finds playing tennis helps people live longer. |
| C．It is wrong to say running has no impact on heart disease. |
| D．There are differences between racket sports and team games. |
6 . As you grow older, you’ll be faced with some challenging decisions -like whether tout class or try cigarette. Making decisions on your own is hard enough but when other people get involved and try to pressure you one way or another it can be even harder. People who are your age, like your classmates, are called peers. When they try to influence bow you act to get you to do something, It's called peer pressure.
Peers can have positive inference on each other. Maybe another student in your science class taught you an easy way to remember the planets in the solar system. Maybe you got others excited about your new favorite book , and now everyone's reading it. These are examples of how peers positively influence each other.
Sometimes pers influence each other in negative ways. For example, a few kids in school might try to get you to cut class with them; your soccer friend might try to convince you to be mean to another player and never pass him the ball.
It is tough to be the only one who says “no" to peer pressure, but you can do it. Paying attention to your own feeling and beliefs about what is right and wrong can help you know the right thing to do.
You've probably had a parent or teacher advising you to "choose your fiends wisely. " Peer pressure is a big reason why they say this. If you choose friends who don’t cut class smoke cigarettes or lie to their parents, the you probably won't do these things either, even if other kids do.
If you continue to face peer pressure and you're finding it difficult to handle, talk to someone you trust. Don't feel guilty if you've made a mistake or two.
1. For whom is the passage most probably written?| A．Students. | B．Parents. |
| C．Teachers. | D．Doctors. |
| A．explains why friendship is so important. |
| B．gives advice on how to deal with peer pressure. |
| C．discusses how peers influence us. |
| D．shows how to make more good friends. |
| A．Spending more time with classmate. | B．Taking up more relaxing hobbies. |
| C．Choosing fiends with no bad habits. | D．Helping others who are in trouble, |
| A．One day teacher, a life a father. |
| B．Keep good men company and you shall be of the number. |
| C．A single slip may cause lasting sorrow. |
| D．A young idler, an old beggar. |
| A．Friendship. | B．Making decisions. |
| C．Self-confidence, | D．Peer pressure. |
7 . We live in a technological society where most goods are mass-produced by unskilled labor. Because of this, most people think that craft（工艺，手艺） no longer exists.
One of the ways these people wrongly support their view is by pointing to 100-year-old homes which are still solid, and arguing that it is the craftsmanship that is responsible for their durability （牢圈）. "Homes in those days were well-built,” they say No doubt these homes were well-built, but what these people have done is to mix up the quality of material used in the house with the quality of the craftsmanship.
Homes today could be built to last just as long as those old homes if people were willing or able to pay the price. For example, most people can no longer afford solid oak （橡树） stairways, although they were once fairly common in older homes. Nor can they afford the high labor cost of employing a carpenter to build the stairway. Yet if someone can pay the high cost, there are still plenty of carpenters around able to make those stairways. And not only would these carpenters know how to build them, they would probably do a better job than carpenters of old.
One thing the modern carpenter has which enables him to do a better job is much more advanced tools. Such tools as laser beams and power planes help them lay out a house better and make more precision cuts on the wood. Also, it is not uncommon say more to find carpenters with college degrees and carpenters with a solid knowledge of mathematics, which would enable them to deal with more difficult house designs.
The problem of modern quality, then, really boils down to the problem of material, for the modern carpenter is just as able to produce craftsmanship as the carpenter of fifty years ago, but only if given proper material.
1. Compared to the carpenters in the past, modern carpenters are __________.| A．more successful | B．more learned |
| C．more imaginative | D．more hardworking |
| A．Carpenters who are fond of oak stairways. |
| B．Carpenters who have college degrees. |
| C．People who think highly of carpenters of old |
| D．Popole who think that modern material is of low quality |
| A．People in the past preferred to use oak to build stairways |
| B．It is now expensive to employ a carpenter. |
| C．Modern houses lasts long the old cones. |
| D．Good carpenters still exist in modern times. |
| A．reduces by boiling | B．makes shorter |
| C．results in | D．lies in |
| A．Is Craft Dead? | B．Craft, Back to Life? |
| C．History of Craftsmanship | D．Carpenter Today and Yesterday |
8 . Going to a new school can feel like starting all over again. You may feel like sad or about leaving your old school or friend. You may feel excited about a new beginning or a “fresh start”. You may feel nervous about having to meet new people. All of these feelings are normal when you start at a new school.
Most kids worry about fitting in at their new school. It’s common for a new kid to feel like a outsider for the first few weeks. Although you can be lonely, you can help yourself fit in by being friendly. Even if you are nervous, try to smile, say hello and ask questions.
Here are two places where you might meet friends in new school:
●The classroom: Look around you, is there anyone who you can talk to? Do you take part in group activities in class? If so, try to join a new group every time.
●Playground: Most schools offer many team sports. Try to join these sports.
Some kids worry about their teachers when they start a new school. Even if the teachers are supportive, it can take some time to adjust to new rules or ways of teaching. Try talking to them about your problem. Besides, with a familiar face in the front of your classroom you may feel more comfortable during the first few weeks of school.
1. The best title for the passage is _________.| A．How to find a new school | B．The first few weeks in a new school |
| C．Tips for your fresh start | D．Normal feeling in a new school |
| A．改变 | B．适应 | C．反对 | D．支持 |
| A．3. | B．4. | C．6. | D．5. |
| A．Not all the kids worry about their teachers when they start a new school. |
| B．It is normal for a newcomer to feel lonely on a new campus. |
| C．The teachers in a new school won’t help the new students. |
| D．It is easy to find new friends in the classroom or playground. |
| A．Joining in group activities in class. | B．Taking part in physical exercises. |
| C．Going to the lab or library. | D．Talking with the teachers. |
9 . A woman whose sports car was stolen with her dog in it put up notices all over the area that made it clear getting back her pet was more important than her car.
“Whoever did this can keep my car. Please let Benjerman come home,” the notice said.
It is not known whether the thief showed any pity, but almost 30 hours after the 1 p.m. theft Friday, Kimberly Atkins of Dover and Benjerman, a 12-year-old black retriever(猎犬), were reunited after police located them in Barrington.
“He’s hungry, he’s dirty, but he’s very happy to be home,” Atkins said.
The car was found at about 5 p.m. Saturday off Route 125 in a swampy area frequented by off-the-road cars and dirt bikes. However, the police couldn’t control Benjerman, and they had to call Atkins to come and get him.
Atkins said the thief cared for Benjerman a little by providing him with some dry cat food. She believed Benjerman ended up drinking some muddy water in the area.
She said they have been together for nearly 11 years after she took him hack from a society shelter in Dallas, Texas.
Before Benjerman was found, Atkins and several friends put up notices all over the city and in Somersworth. They also contacted animal shelters throughout southern New Hampshire and Massachusetts.
The notice stated there was a reward, and also that the dog needed medication. Any caller could remain anonymous(匿名的).
Atkins had parked the car outside a hardware store with the keys inside and gone in to rent a carpet cleaner.
“It was 10 minutes and I came out and my car was gone along with Benjerman in broad daylight,” Atkins said.
The car thief threw Atkins’ wallet and other personal items out of the car before escaping from the scene.
1. What could be the best title for the passage?| A．A car with a dog was stolen |
| B．Lucky dog was returned to his owner |
| C．Stealing cars: a most important social problem |
| D．Woman wants dog back more than stolen car |
a. Notices were put up saying there was a reward.
b. Atkins saw Benjerman again.
c. Police found Atkins’ car.
d. Atkins took Benjerman back from a society shelter.
e. Atkins hired a carpet cleaner in a hardware store.
| A．d, e, a, b, c | B．e, a, c, d, b |
| C．e, a, d, b, c | D．d, e, a, c, b |
| A．the dog was treated extremely badly by the thief |
| B．car stolen accidents happen frequently nowadays |
| C．the dog was found because of the reward |
| D．the thief stole the car easily |
10 . Professor Smith recently persuaded 35 people, 23 of them women, to keep a diary of all their absent-minded actions for two weeks. When he came to analyze their embarrassing lapses(差错)in a scientific report, he was surprised to find that nearly all of them fell into a few groupings. Nor did the lapses appear to be entirely random(随机的).
One of the women, for instance, on leaving her house for work one morning threw her dog her earrings and tried to fix a dog biscuit on her ear. “The explanation for this is that the brain is like a computer,” explains the professor. “People program themselves to do certain activities regularly. It was the woman's custom every morning to throw her dog two biscuits and then put on her earrings. But somehow the action got reversed(颠倒的)in the program,” About one in twenty of the incidents the volunteers reported were these “program assembly failures”.
Altogether the volunteers logged 433 unintentional actions that they found themselves doing—an average of twelve each. There appear to be peak periods in the day when we are at our zaniest (荒谬可笑的). These are two hours sometime between eight a.m. and noon, between four and six p.m. with a smaller peak between eight and ten p.m. “Among men the peak seems to be when a changeover in brain ‘programs’ occurs, as for instance between going to and from work.” Women on average reported slightly more lapses—12.5 compared with 10.9 for men—maybe because they were more reliable reporters.
An astonishing finding of the research is that the absent-minded activity is a risk of doing things in which we are skilled. Normally, you would expect that skill reduces the number of errors we make. But trying to avoid silly slips by concentrating more could make things a lot worse—even dangerous.
1. Professor Smith discovered that .| A．certain patterns can be identified in the recorded incidents |
| B．many people were too embarrassed to admit their absent-mindedness |
| C．men tend to be more absent-minded than women |
| D．absent-mindedness is an excusable human weakness |
| A．often fail to program their daily practices beforehand |
| B．tend to make mistakes when they are in a hurry |
| C．change the order of doing things unconsciously |
| D．are likely to mess things up if they are too tired |
| A．Absent-mindedness can be cured by skill training |
| B．risks can be avoided when people do things they are good at |
| C．people should be careful when programming their actions |
| D．more concentration on work to avoid lapses may not work |
