1 . As my husband and I drove down a country road, we passed a fire station with a sign that read, "Are you ready for the next storm?” Our area had just been in the path of Hurricane Irma, causing downed trees and outages. We were stuck in the dark and cut off from the outside world.
We have had our share of storms in the past--a snowstorm and other heavy snows that knocked down trees, sometimes up to a week at a time. Those days in a cold house weren't fun, but we learned so much from those early storms, things that made later storms easier to bear.
Now we have stored up flashlights, lanterns and candles. We bought a battery-operated radio to keep up with the news. We stocked up on batteries so that we'd have plenty for extended power failures. We make sure our grill（烤架） is ready and its tank is full, and we purchase food that can be easily prepared and then cooked or heated on the grill. And we don't forget to buy emergency chocolate! We have book lights to read in the dark. We keep our car gas tanks full and have emergency cash on hand.
We're ready for the next storm, but we wouldn't have learned to do all those things if we hadn't encountered a storm in the past. The same is true spiritually. Those little storms in our lives are never fun, but they prepare us for the big storms--the big trials--that will come our way, They can teach us some valuable lessons.
Are you ready for the next storm? Now is the time to get ready. . . not when the storm arrives.
1. Which can replace the underlined word "outages” in paragraph 1?| A．weather change |
| B．virus' spreading |
| C．power failure |
| D．emotional reaction |
| A．The lessons that storms can teach us. |
| B．The importance of being ready for storms. |
| C．The necessities the author bought for her daily life. |
| D．The preparations the author made for the next storm. |
| A．It was rewarding. |
| B．It was annoying. |
| C．It was thrilling. |
| D．It was frightening. |
| A．Things will work out. |
| B．Keep something for a rainy day. |
| C．Don't stop regardless of the weather. |
| D．Sunshine always comes after the storm. |
“Many focus on the benefits of digital devices（设备）in education but ignore the costs”, said Patricia Greenfield from the University of California, “losing the ability to understand the emotions of other people is one of the costs.” Greenfield and her research team did an experiment. They worked with 105 children who spend about 4.5 hours in front of screens on a school day. The students were asked to describe the emotions towards the pictures of people who were happy, sad, angry or scared. Then, half of them attended a five-day nature and science camp. There they had no smart phones, TV, or computers. The other half stayed in school and spent the five days as usual. Five days later, all the children took the test again.
Students who had been to the camp got about 5 percent more answers correct than they had done before the camp. But the other group of students didn't show much improvement. The study is not perfect in some ways, said the researchers. But scientists say that the study is still a warning for us.
“Emotional skills develop in practice and the brain develops through real interaction.” said Professor Taylor, a professor at the University of San Francisco.
Researchers talked to 2,000 parents of children aged 2-16 in the UK about what activities their children could do confidently. The results were surprising: Their children could use a tablet(平板电脑)(59%)and work a mobile phone(57%)more confidently than they could tie their shoe laces(鞋带)(53%)! So, spend more time away from mobile phones and computers if you want to be an understanding friend, and not a member of what the Daily Mail called “Generation Helpless”.
1. According to Professor Greenfield，using digital media in education leads to ______.| A．being in bad terms with family members |
| B．making more mistakes when taking exams |
| C．falling far behind others in all schoolwork |
| D．failing to relate to other people's emotions |
| A．are alarming for people | B．are far from perfect |
| C．are quite surprising | D．need to be improved |
| A．Too much play with digital devices raised some worries． |
| B．Students learned how to describe emotions in the experiment． |
| C．Students living without screens did much better in studies． |
| D．Most of the UK children couldn't tie their shoe laces． |
| A．Stay away from the Internet | B．Here comes a digital world! |
| C．Screens do harm to emotions | D．How people become addicted？ |
3 . Inventor, physicist, surveyor, astronomer, biologist, artist... Robert Hooke was all these and more. Some say he was the greatest experimental scientist of the 17th century. In the course of his work, he cooperated with famous men of science like Isaac Newton, and the great architect, Christopher Wren.
Hooke’s early education began at home, under the guidance of his father. He entered Westminster School at the age of 13, and from there went to Oxford, where he came in contact with some of the best scientists in England. Hooke impressed them with his skills at designing experiments and inventing instruments. In 1662, at the age of 28, he was named Curator of Experiments at the newly formed Royal Society of London — meaning that he was responsible for demonstrating new experiments at the society’s weekly meeting. Hooke accepted the job, even though he knew that the society had no money to pay him!
Watching living things through a microscope was one of his favourite pastimes. He invented a compound microscope for this purpose. One day while observing a cork under a microscope, he saw honeycomblike structures. There were cells — the smallest units of life. In fact, it was Hooke who invented the term “cell” as the boxlike cells of the cork reminded him of the cells of a monastery．
Another achievement of Hooke’s was his book Micrographia, which introduced the enormous potential of the microscope. It contains fascinating drawings of the thing he saw under the microscope. The book also includes, among other things, ideas on gravity, light and burning that may have helped scientists like Newton when they were developing their own theories on these phenomena.
Hooke made a valuable contribution to astronomy too. A crater on the moon is named after him in honour of his services to this branch of science.
1. We can infer from Paragraph 2 that Hooke is ________.| A．friendly | B．sociable | C．creative | D．helpful |
| A．He liked designing experiments. | B．His family needed his support. |
| C．He wanted to please the famous scientists in England. | D．His parents couldn’t afford his education. |
| A．Hooke went to Oxford in 1645. | B．Hooke was well paid in the Royal Society of London. |
| C．Hooke made a contribution to medicine. | D．Hooke’s book Micrographia may have helped Newton. |
| A．Hooke was the greatest experimental scientist of the 17th century |
| B．Hooke was good at making discoveries |
| C．Hooke’s contributions were not limited to one field |
| D．Hooke was one of the greatest astronomers |
4 . Unluckily, there are some rules that teenagers should be allowed to learn in school, but not. They are important to teenagers, although not all of them have to do with their subjects.
Rule 1: Life is not fair. Try to learn to get used to it. Many people won’t understand the real meaning of this rule until they’ve failed to find fairness again and again.
Rule 2: The real world won’t care about you as much as your school does. It will expect you to learn to understand the real world after you leave school. Then you’ll be sure of what to do with real world.
Rule 3: If you think your teacher is terrible, wait until you get a boss. Your boss won’t ask how you feel about your work and will never give you more care or help. He’ll only care about how much money you can help him earn.
Rule 4: TV is not real life. Your life is not a sitcom (情景喜剧). Your problems won’t be solved in 30 or 45 minutes. In real life, people usually have to leave the coffee stores to look for jobs.
Rule 5: Smoking does not make you look cool. Instead, it makes you look moronic (低能的). At the same time, purple hair and pierced body parts make you look like a silly kid. A grown-up teenager should know how to be smart.
1. How will the real world treat teenagers when they leave school?| A．It’ll care about them as their schools do. |
| B．It’ll tell them what it’s really like. |
| C．It’ll give them more help and chances. |
| D．It’ll explain to them how to be smart. |
| A．make | B．save | C．spend | D．waste |
| A．All rules can be learned at school by teenagers. |
| B．For teenagers, life is like a sitcom and it’s always full of joy and surprises. |
| C．Smart teenagers shouldn’t smoke and have purple hair. |
| D．Teenagers will meet fair bosses when they go to work. |
| A．The writer might be a teacher who has much experience. |
| B．No teenagers can really understand the real world. |
| C．Almost all teenagers won’t be able to get used to the future life. |
| D．There is much more for teenagers to learn when they leave school |
5 . Teachers say that the digital age has had a good influence and a not-so-good influence on American teenagers. More than 2,000 middle school teachers took an online survey. Researchers also spoke with teachers in some groups. Most teachers think the Internet and digital search tools have had a mostly positive (积极的) influence on their students’ research habits and skills. But at the same time, some teachers also point out some problems in teenagers’ using digital search tools.
The Pew Internet Project did the survey with the College Board and the National Writing Project. Judy Buchanan is the director of the National Writing Project and a co-writer of the report. She says digital search tools are helping students learn more, and learn faster. “Both teachers and students really welcome these tools because they make learning exciting. And the goal（目的）is to really help students become creators of something meaningful, and not just users of the online information.”
But one problem the survey found is that these technologies make teenagers have short attention spans (持续时间). As there is lots of information about different subjects on the Internet, teenagers’ attention is easily drawn away from their research.
Another problem the survey found is that many students trust the information they find on the Internet too much. Judy Buchanan says these students have not developed the skills to judge (判断) the online information. They need to learn a lot to tell if the information is believable. It’s something that really has to be paid attention to.
One more problem the survey found is something that might not seem like a problem at all: being able to quickly find information online. Many students think “doing research” now means just doing a quick search on Google. Teachers say the result is a drop in the wish and ability of their students to work hard to find answers. That is, they are depending too much on search engines and do not make enough use of printed books or research librarians.
Many teachers also say that the Internet makes it easy for students to copy work done by others instead of using their own abilities.
1. The result of the survey shows ________.| A．digital search tools need to be greatly improved |
| B．digital search tools are generally good for teenagers |
| C．teenagers have difficulty in using digital search tools |
| D．American teachers enjoy using digital search tools |
| A．less trusting of online information |
| B．more independent in doing research |
| C．more willing to work hard to find answers |
| D．less able to pay full attention while searching |
| A．spend more time searching online |
| B．ask their teachers for more advice |
| C．make better use of printed materials |
| D．learn more knowledge of search tools |
| A．all the students like using digital tools |
| B．the Internet is playing an important role |
| C．teachers encourage their students to use digital tools |
| D．digital tools bring about something helpful and problems |
6 . One of the easiest ways to stop the spread of disease is to simply wash your hands. Twenty seconds of handwashing with soap and water can reduce illnesses and save lives. But, many people, especially children, do not have good handwashing habits. One problem is that children do not wash their hands often enough or long enough. Children may think that it is a tiresome thing to do.
To help handle this problem, two businesswomen from India created a product to turn handwashing into a fun activity. Amanat Anand and Shubham Issar created a tool called SoaPen, aimed at teaching kids good handwashing habits and encouraging kids to wash their hands with soap appropriately and regularly.
“It’s such a simple habit to do, but the fact is that people aren’t doing it, and it’s resulting in actual deaths---which is shocking. So, we decided to come up with a fun method, said Issar.
As the name suggests, SoaPen is a pen made out of soap. The children draw on their hands with the soap pen and then wash the drawing off. If they don’t spend enough time washing it off, the colors remain on the children’s hands. Issar said it makes sure that children take enough time to wash their hands. This may be especially helpful in a classroom. Often a teacher does not have the time to make each child wash his hands properly.
Kids actually wash their hands for the proper amount of time because they’re drawing on their hands. To obliterate the drawing, they actually wash their hands instead of just going under water and, you know, a one-second wash and off.
Good news is that the school children in Mumbai, India, will soon most likely wash their hands after handling a pet. Issar and Anand stated that SoaPen to be created everywhere will help promote good habits through handwashing in the city across the globe.
1. Why is SoaPen invented?| A．To teach kids the importance of handwashing. |
| B．To make money from children consumers. |
| C．To help kids wash their hands correctly. |
| D．To rid kids of some kinds of diseases. |
| A．SoaPen is designed for classrooms. |
| B．Handwashing is anything but little. |
| C．Some teachers ignore kids’ health in school. |
| D．Kids don’t know the right way of handwashing. |
| A．Remove. | B．Reserve. | C．Learn. | D．Show. |
| A．SoaPen has become popular worldwide. |
| B．Kids’ health should be paid more attention to. |
| C．SoaPen has been applied in Mumbai schools. |
| D．The inventors think SoaPen has a bright future. |
7 . A British friend told me he couldn’t understand why Chinese people love eating sunflower seeds（嗑瓜子）as a snack so much. “I’ve met a lot of older Chinese and many have a crack in their front teeth, I believe that’s from cracking the seeds,” he said.
I had never noticed the habit, but once he mentioned it, I suddenly became more aware. I realized that whenever I’m watching TV or typing a report, I always start mindlessly cracking sunflower seeds. My friend doesn’t like sunflower seeds, and, to him, it seems unnecessary to work so much just to get one small seed.
When we were young, the whole family would usually get together for Chinese New Year. Then, we all lived close to one another, usually in a small city, and sometimes even neighbors would go door-to-door on Chinese New Year’s Eve to check out what every household was making.
I remember my parents would be in the kitchen cooking. Out in the living room, a large table would already be laid out, complete with fancy tablecloth, ready-made dumpling fillings, and dishes full of candy, fruits and sunflower seeds. Some of the dishes were to be offered to our ancestors later, while others were for neighbors and children to eat before the evening feast. I must have learned how to crack sunflower seeds back then.
I don’t think it’s right to criticize one’s choice in food or eating habits, no matter how strange they may seem.
It’s not only in China. When I went abroad, I found people had all sorts of strange habits when it came to food. In Denmark, they put salted red fish on bread and eat it for dinner, no matter how much it ruins your breath. They think it’s。delicacy（美味佳肴）, and it’s connected to their certain culture. I think it’s a wonderful tradition.
1. Why can the British friend not understand when he found Chinese love eating sunflower seeds?| A．Because the seeds are too hard to crack. |
| B．Because he thinks they art harmful to teeth. |
| C．Because he doesn’t think the seeds are good. |
| D．Because he doesn’t thinks the seeds are worth eating. |
| A．The families get together for it. | B．Eating sunflower seeds is related to it. |
| C．The traditions of celebrating it disappear. | D．Children can eat delicious food on that day. |
| A．indifferent | B．critical | C．understandable | D．doubtful |
| A．It is good to form healthy eating habits. |
| B．Eating habits come from a certain culture. |
| C．Changing your eating habits will change your life. |
| D．One kind of food doesn’t necessarily suit everyone. |
Be careful what you say around your dog．It might understand more than you think．
A border collie named Rico recognizes the names of about 200 objects, say researchers in Germany．The dog also appears to be able to learn new words as easily as a 3-year-old child．Its word-learning skills are as good as those of a parrot or chimpanzee．
In one experiment, the researchers took all 200 items that Rico is supposed to know and divided them into 20 groups of 10 objects．Then the owner told the dog to go and fetch one of the items and bring it back．In four tests, Rico got 37 out of 40 commands right．As the dog couldn't see anyone to get clues, the scientists believe Rico must understand the meanings of certain words．
In another experiment, the scientists took one toy that Rico had never seen before and put it in a room with seven toys whose names the dog already knew．The owner then told Rico to fetch the object, using a word the dog had never heard before．
The correct object was chosen in seven out of ten tests, suggesting that the dog had worked
out the answer by process of elimination（排除法）．A month later, Rico remembered half of the new names, which is even more impressive．
Rico is thought to be smarter than the average dog．For one thing, Rico is a border collie, a breed （品种）known for its mental abilities．In addition, the 9-year-old dog has been trained to fetch toys by their names since the age of nine months．
It's hard to know if all dogs understand at least some of the words we say．Even if they do, they can't talk back．Still, it wouldn't hurt to sweet-talk your dog every now and then．You might just get a big, wet kiss in return!
1. From paragraph 2 we know that __________．
| A．animals are as clever as human beings |
| B．chimpanzees have very good word-learning skills |
| C．dogs are smarter than parrots and chimpanzees |
| D．dogs have similar learning abilities as 3-year-old children |
| A．Rico is smart enough to get all commands right |
| B．Rico can recognize different things including toys |
| C．Rico has developed the ability of learning mathematics |
| D．Rico won't forget the names of objects once recognizing them |
| A．Rico has a better memory partly because of its proper early training． |
| B．The purpose of the experiments is to show the border collie's mental abilities． |
| C．The border collie is world-famous for recognizing objects． |
| D．Rico is born to understand its owner's commands． |
| A．To train your dog． | B．To talk to your dog． |
| C．To be careful with your dog． | D．To be friendly to your dog． |
9 . Suppose you want to buy some new clothes or a new TV. Or maybe you need some work done on your car. How can you find the best price without shopping all over town？Ads can help you. Ads can show you lots of prices. And you don’t have to go anywhere to see them. Just open a newspaper or magazine，and you’ll find plenty of ads. The following is an ad about TV sets for sale. Please read it and answer the questions below.
| A．Two. | B．Three. | C．Four. | D．Five. |
| A．You can buy any kind on July 14th. |
| B．The service time is 9-9 every day except Monday. |
| C．The larger the screen is, the higher the price will be. |
| D．The lowest price is more than 300. |
| A．The date of the American National Day (July 4th). |
| B．The postcode of the area where the store is. |
| C．The phone number of the store. |
| D．The names of the TV sets. |
10 . “Congratulations, Mr. Jones, it’s a girl.”
Fatherhood is going to have a different meaning and bring forth a different response from every man who hears these words. Some feel proud when they receive the news, while others worry, wondering whether they will be good fathers. Although there are some men who like children and may have had considerable experience with them, others do not particularly care for children and spend little time with them. Many fathers and mothers have been planning and looking forward to children for some time. For other couples, pregnancy was an accident that both husband and wife have accepted willingly or unwillingly.
Whatever the reaction to the birth of a child, it is clear that the change from the role of husband to that of father is a difficult task. Yet, unfortunately, few attempts have been made to educate fathers in this resocialization process. Although many books have been written about American mothers, only recently has literature referred to the role of a father.
It is argued by some writers that the transition (转化) to the father’s role, although difficult, is not nearly as great as the transition the wife must make to the mother’s role. The mother’s role seems to require a complete transformation in daily life and highly innovative (革新性的) adaptation, on the other hand, the father’s role is less demanding and immediate. However, even though we mentioned the fact that growing numbers of women are working outside the home, the father is still thought by many as the breadwinner in the family.
1. According to the author, being a father ______.| A．brings a feeling of excitement to some men |
| B．makes some men feel proud and others worried. |
| C．has a different meaning for those who have daughters |
| D．means nothing but more responsibilities |
| A．criticizes (批评) fathers for not taking enough responsibilities in bringing up their children |
| B．excuses the American writers for ignoring the difficulties of being a father |
| C．supports the idea that the chief (主要的) role of a father is to earn money for the family |
| D．complains about the lack of social program to help husbands get used to the role of a father |
| A．change her life style in a highly innovative way |
| B．stay at home to take care of the baby |
| C．make a complete change in her everyday life to deal with the new situation |
| D．help her husband in his resocialization process |
| A．have an easier job to do | B．have to make more difficult adaptation |
| C．have to shoulder more responsibilities | D．can usually do a better job |
