1 . Richard Ripley knows he wouldn’t be the man he is today without one special woman.
Richard and his brother, Kevin, were placed into disparate adoptive homes at a young age because of their parents’ deep drug addiction. Kevin was placed with the Ripley family while Richard went to live in four separate homes over the course of three years, suffering abuse along the way. Richard and Kevin only saw each other every few months, but during their visits, Mrs. Ripley grew to care for Richard, too.
“Mrs. Ripley would take us for lunch at McDonald’s as Kevin always liked the food, and when she first noticed the scars all over my body,” Richard wrote. “She immediately made arrangements for me to join their family.” Unfortunately, Mr. Ripley passed away from cancer shortly after Richard joined the family. But even in the face of hardship, Mrs. Ripley never once considered parting with Kevin or Richard.
“Nobody would have blamed her for taking us back. But instead she took us to court and made it permanent,” Richard continued. “She must have been super stressed, but that’s not at all what I remember. I just remember the words that she gave me. It was always: ‘You’re smart.’ And ‘You’re handsome.’ And ‘You survived all bad things because you’re strong.’ There are very few forces as powerful as a mother’s love.”
Thanks to her unfailing love and guidance, Richard grew up to be the strong, successful man she always knew he could be. He joined the Marines (海军陆战队)... and graduated from law school! And, of course, his mom was always there by his side, celebrating right along with him.
Now, as a parent himself, Richard couldn’t be more grateful to the Ripleys for making his life worth living and giving him a future to look forward to.
1. What does the underlined word “disparate” in paragraph 2 mean?| A．Wealthy. | B．Faraway. | C．Different. | D．Large. |
| A．The abuse he suffered. | B．Kevin’s sincere request. |
| C．The death of her husband. | D．The blame from others. |
| A．Demanding. | B．Encouraging. | C．Ambitious. | D．Creative. |
| A．Man must be strong. | B．Hard work pays off. |
| C．Where there is love, there is hope. | D．Kindness makes one’s soul noble. |
2 . The personal computer has overtaken (赶上)the family dog as man's best friend, according to a study.
Researchers found that just 6 per cent of us believe that" most people rely more on their dog than they do on their PC", while 67 percent think the opposite to be true.
Even 38 percent of dog owners admitted to relying more on their PC than on their dog, although 36 percent disagreed. And 71 percent of 18 to 24-year-old dog owners said they relied more on their computer.
Paul Allen, editor of Computer-active magazine said, "These days you can even take your PC lor a walk, if you have a laptop or tablet." "It's only a matter of time until the first PC that fetches your slippers."
Researchers questioned 2,000 British adults to find out the change modern technology has brought to their home life. They found that male dog owners are almost twice as likely as female owners to rely on their computer than acaninecompanion.
Mr Allen said, "With broadband bringing them global news and newspaper sales falling, the family dog even misses out on the pleasure of taking the paper to his owner. " But it's not all had news for obedient（顺从的）dogs. "The family PC has given dog owners access to a wealth of resources and information that can help with the long-term care that a dog needs, " Mr Allen said.
1. Who are most likely to rely on computers?| A．Teenagers | B．People in their early twenties. |
| C．People in their early thirties. | D．People in their early forties. |
| A．The personal computer has replaced the dog as man's best friend. |
| B．The computer and the dog are man's best friends. |
| C．Modem technology has brought changes to people's home life. |
| D．The dog as a pet will disappear completely from people's life. |
| A．The dog can go out for a walk with people. | B．The dog can bring people more pleasure. |
| C．The dog can help people fetch something. | D．The dog is more likely to follow its owner's orders. |
| A．Human. | B．Pet. | C．Family. | D．Dog. |
3 . A robot called Bina48 has successfully taken a course in the philosophy of love at Notre Dame de Namur University (NDNU), in California.
According to course instructor William Barry associate professor at NDNU, Bina48 is the world's first socially advanced robot to complete a college course, an achievement he described as “remarkable." The robot took part in class discussions, gave a presentation with a student partner and participated in a debate with students from another institution.
Before becoming a student, Bina48 speared as a guest speaks in Barry's classes for several years. One day when addressing Barry's class, Bina48 expressed a desire to go to college, a desire that Barry and his students enthusiastically supported. Rather than enroll Bina48 in his Robot Ethics: Philosophy of Emerging Technologies course^ Barry suggested that Bina48 should take his course Philosophy of Love instead. Love is a concept Bina48 doesn't understand, said Barry Therefore the challenge would be for Barry and his students to teach Bina48 what love is.
"Some interesting things happened in the class," said Barry. He said that his students thought it would be straightforward to teach Bina48 about love, which, after all, is "fairly simple — it's a feeling," said Barry. But the reality was different. Bina48 ended up learning "31 different versions of love," said Barry, highlighting some of the challenges humans may face when working with artificial intelligence in future.
Bina48 participated in class discussions via Skype and also took part in a class debate about love and conflict with, students from West Point. Bina48's contribution to the debate was filmed and posted on YouTube. It was judged that Bma48 and NDNU classmates were the winners of this debate.
In the next decade, Barry hopes Bina48 might become complex enough to teach a class, though he says he foresees robots being used to better the teaching and learning experience, rather than replacing instructors completely。
1. What was Bina48's performance like in class?| A．Unattractive. | B．Impractical. |
| C．Unbelievable. | D．Extraordinary. |
| A．Giving a speech to. | B．Consulting with. |
| C．Dealing with. | D．Sending a letter to. |
| A．It was impossible for Bina48 to learn about love. |
| B．It was quite difficult for Bina48 to learn about love, |
| C．Humans can launch, a challenge to artificial intelligence. |
| D．Artificial intelligence may somehow be superior to man. |
| A．It will surely be able to serve as a teacher. |
| B．It will completely take the place of instructors. |
| C．It will be able to promote learning and teaching. |
| D．It will be smart enough to control human beings. |
4 . The ancient tale of the Country Mouse and the Town Mouse was only the first to emphasize rural folk’s supposed simplicity when compared with more complex urbanites. However, neuroscientists announce that, in fact, it is city living that can dull the wits.
The new study led by Dr. Spiers at Nantes University describes how they used a dataset from 4 million people of a computer game, which tests navigating skills by asking players to memorise a map showing the location of checkpoints and then measuring how well players can find them, guided only by their mental map. Dr. Spiers and his colleagues examined the 4 million people from 38 countries, and found that the strongest indicator of a high score was a player’s age — older people performed relatively poorly, which agrees with what researchers know about age-related cognitive (认知的) drop. But the benefit of rural living was strong enough to offset some of that. Data showed that a 70-year-old who grew up in the countryside had the navigational abilities of an average 60-year-old across the dataset.
There is a huge gap between the navigation skills of rural and city people, and the researchers think they know why. Dr. Spiers says that the brain’s navigational abilities probably weaken in the less challenging city environment because they are not being used as much. Although cities may appear more detailed, they also feature more clues to help residents find their way, such as numbered streets. In the countryside, however, one field tends to look much the same as another, so there are fewer landmarks to help guide the way.
Neuroscientists already know that living and working in more complex environments can influence the function and structure of the brain. Brain scans of London taxi drivers, who have gained a good memory of the city’s streets, show that they tend to have an enlarged hippocampus — a region of the brain acting as a neural GPS, sensing position and path on an inside map of the environment.
The harmful effect of city living on navigation is probably most serious in people under 16-18, Dr. Spiers says, because their still-developing brains respond and change the most according to outside stimuli (刺激). And while people who live in cities with young children should not be alarmed, the study does raise some interesting ideas for urban planners: keep their city designs not so simple perhaps. And for everyone else, it might be an idea to turn off maps on the phone.
1. The study led by Dr. Spiers shows that .| A．the seniors score higher at computer games |
| B．rural life benefits people’s sense of direction |
| C．participants are better at finding ways in cities |
| D．the young remember checkpoints better in maps |
| A．achieve | B．check | C．reduce | D．replace |
| A．Taxi drivers. | B．Computer players. |
| C．Teenagers. | D．Adults. |
| A．To introduce a new way of driver training. |
| B．To expose the weakness of living in the urban area. |
| C．To show the contrast between lives in the country and city. |
| D．To present environments’ effect on one’s ability to locate places. |
5 . Brownie and Spotty were neighbor dogs who met every day to play together. Like pairs of dogs you can find in any neighborhood, these two loved each other and played together so often that they had worn a path through the grass of the field between their houses.
One evening, Brownie’s family noticed that Brownie hadn’t returned home. They went looking for him with no success. Brownie didn’t show up the next day, and, although they made their efforts to find him, by the next week he was still missing, Curiously, Spotty showed up at Brownie’s house alone, barking and jumping. Busy with their own lives, they paid no attention to the nervous little neighbor dog.
Finally, one morning Spotty refused to take “no” for an answer. Ted, Brownie’s owner, was continuously disturbed by the angry, determined little dog. Spotty followed Ted about, barking all the time, then darting toward a nearby empty lot and back, as if to say, “Follow me! It’s urgent!”
Eventually, Ted followed Spotty across the empty lot as Spotty stopped to race back and barked encouragingly. The little dog led the man to a deserted spot a half mile from the house. There Ted found his beloved Brownie alive, one of his legs crushed in a steel trap (圈套). Frightened, Ted now wished he had taken Spotty’s earlier appeals seriously.
Then Ted noticed something. Spotty had done something else besides leading Brownie’s human owner to his trapped friend. In a circle around the injured dog, Ted found some food remains of every meal. Brownie had been fed that week! Spotty had been visiting Brownie regularly, in the hope of keeping his friend alive. Spotty had actually stayed with Brownie to protect him from hunger and other dangers, and keep his spirits up.
Brownie’s leg was carefully treated and he soon got well again. For many years thereafter the two families watched the faithful friends chasing each other down that well-worn path between their houses.
1. At the very beginning, Ted paid little attention to Spotty because __________.| A．he was not free at the moment | B．he was sure Brownie would be OK |
| C．he didn’t like Spotty at all | D．his missing dog made him sad |
| A．rushing | B．shouting | C．walking | D．looking |
| A．managed to free his dog at once | B．was very thankful to Spotty |
| C．regretted not following Spotty earlier | D．was angry with the trap-maker |
| A．humans and animals depend on each other for comfort |
| B．it’s not right to hunt for animals in any neighborhood |
| C．Ted has to take better care of his beloved dog later on |
| D．Brownie would have died without Spotty’s timely help |
6 . Living by the forest may be romantic, but living in a city makes you more attractive to the opposite sex if you are a frog, at least.
Increasingly, recent studies have shown significant differences between urban animals and rural creatures from the same species —and this makes a lot of sense. Mankind is causing dramatic changes over a wide range of environments and many creatures are slowly adapting to urban conditions. Just recently, researchers found that some urban spiders are no longer afraid of lights; now, a new study reports that city life makes male frogs more attractive.
The authors, led by Wouter Halfwerk from the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, compared the “chuck” calls of frogs living in both urban areas and forests near the Panama Canal. Previous research had found that creatures, such as birds, frogs, and grasshoppers sing or call differently in noisy urban areas, but it was unclear what the effects of these changes are.
“Urbanization can cause species to adjust their sexual displays, because the effectiveness of mating signals is influenced by environmental conditions,” researchers write in the study. “Despite many examples that show that mating signals in urban conditions differ from those in rural conditions, we do not know whether these differences provide a combined reproductive and survival benefit.”
Now, researchers found that urban frogs “sing” more often and use more complex calls than their rural counterparts. They then recorded these calls and played them back to female frogs in the lab. They found that 75% of the females were more attracted to the more complex urban calls.
It’s not exactly clear why this happens, though researchers suspect it has a lot to with how safe the environment is. While calling out can help you get a mate, it can also draw in predators. Since cities generally have far fewer predators, frogs are free and safe to let out their sounds. “It definitely shows that if you change the abundance of predators, parasites(寄生虫) and mates, that induces a strong evolutionary response,” says Halfwerk.
1. Which is an example of animals adapting to the urban conditions?| A．The frogs in the city can live longer. |
| B．Some urban spiders are used to the lights. |
| C．The female frogs in the city can attract more male frogs. |
| D．Some creatures in the city begin to increase their calls. |
| A．helping these animals find partners easily | B．helping these animals survive in the city |
| C．having no clear conclusion up to now | D．having powerful abilities to give birth |
| A．the pleasant looks | B．their smells |
| C．the ability to catch pests | D．their singing |
| A．Animals which live on frogs. | B．Insects which frogs like to eat. |
| C．Frogs which have larger size. | D．Birds which sing better than rural ones. |
7 . There are two kinds of memory: short-term and long-term. Information in long-term memory can be remembered at a later time when it is needed. The information may be kept for days or weeks. However, information in short-term memory is kept for only a few seconds, usually by repeating the information over and over. The following experiment shows how short-term memory has been studied.
Henning studied how students who are learning English as a second language remember vocabulary. The subjects in his experiment were 75 college students. They represented all levels of ability in English: beginning, intermediate (中等), and native speaking students.
To begin, the subjects listened to a recording of a native speaker reading a paragraph in English. Following the recording, the subjects took a 15-question test to see which words they remembered. Each question had four choices. The subjects had to circle the word they had heard in the recording, some of the questions had four choices that sound alike. For example, weather, whether, wither, and wetter are four words that sound alike. Some of the questions had four choices that have the same meaning. Method, way, manner, and system would be four words with the same meaning. Finally the subjects took a language proficiency test.
Henning found that students with a lower proficiency in English made more of their mistakes on words that sound alike; students with a higher proficiency made more of their mistakes on words that have the same meaning. Henning's results suggest that beginning students hold the sound of words in their short-term memory, and advanced students hold the meaning of words in their short-term memory.
1. Which of the following statements is TRUE according to the passage?| A．Henning gave a separate test on vocabulary to his students. |
| B．Long-term memory can be achieved only by training. |
| C．It is easier to test short-term memory than long-term memory. |
| D．Information in short-term memory is different from that in long-term memory. |
| A．the theme of listening material | B．the student experimented on |
| C．a branch of knowledge studied | D．a native speaker |
| A．advanced students always remember words by their meaning |
| B．beginners have difficulty distinguishing the pronunciation of words |
| C．it is difficult to remember words that sound alike |
| D．it is difficult to remember words that have the same meaning |
| A．an experiment on students | B．two kinds of memory |
| C．short-term memory | D．memory |
8 . Language learning apps are very popular now and offer opportunities to learn vocabulary and practice grammar. But there has been a discussion about just how effective such apps can be.
Among the most popular apps are Duolingo and Busuu. A former research found positive results on the use of them. But it mainly concentrated on studies with learners who had signed up for language courses and these apps worked as an after-class support, so the results were not always reliable. A recent study of 4,095 Busuu users has been carried out to find out if users can actually learn a language with an app.
Busuu provides learning materials for 12 different languages. It offers special models where some contents are ready for use for free while some contents are not. We find that its users are an even mix of men and women. More than half consider themselves to be at the beginner level because there is a reduction in users as their language levels go up. Most people use the app because of personal interest, or because they want to study or live abroad. Female users are likely to use it less often but for longer periods of time than male users.
Feedback in the app is highly thought of. More than 92% of the users say that the app has met their expectations and 86% consider the app as very good or good. In fact, more than 80% of the users surveyed strongly agree that using the app has helped them improve their knowledge of the language they are learning.
Besides, language learning apps also create an environment where mistakes are only known to the users, and this can address the performance nervousness that many learners suffer from when asked to speak a foreign language. So language teachers should encourage their students to use them to do the grammar work, leaving precious class time for more language communication.
1. What's the reason why the results of the former research weren't always reliable?| A．It was only carried out before class. |
| B．It only considered users of a limited（有限的）kind. |
| C．It just focused on positive results. |
| D．It used out-of-date methods. |
| A．All the contents are free to use. |
| B．Most users consider it satisfying. |
| C．It's used by more advanced learners. |
| D．It's more popular with female learners. |
| A．Deal with. | B．Write down. |
| C．Turn to. | D．Speak of. |
| A．Students won't suffer nervousness in learning languages by using Busuu. |
| B．Language learning apps are effective and satisfactory to language learners. |
| C．Language learning apps are very popular with most language teachers. |
| D．Students should be required to use apps for homework after class. |
9 . Several years ago, Waze Mobile co-founder Ehud Shabtai received a special gift from his girlfriend: a GPS device. The expensive gift was supposed to be helpful. But straight out of the box, it was already out of date.
Shabtai, a coding enthusiast, had an immediate action to reinvent it. Shabtai’s idea is to build an app. With monthly 80 million active users globally and nearly 400,000 superusers who function much like Wikipedia volunteer editors (editing maps rather than words), Waze Mobile caught people’s eyes as a revolutionary approach to navigation (导航). Waze’s value mainly lies in its high rate of user involvement. Unlike traditional navigation apps that simply show directions, Waze asks its users to report accidents and other road conditions in real time, so other users can avoid the traffic by using another route.
The goal behind Waze’s approach is a great one: not just avoid the traffic jam, but end it altogether. Waze is finding new ways to put its loyal and active user base to use to make that dream a reality, including a plan to make carpooling (拼车) cool.
To be sure, traffic jams are troubling people all over the world. Waze has been quietly ahead of the game for some time. In 2013, when Waze was just a small digital-mapping business with limited resources, it had something other competitors didn’t: richer GPS guidance thanks to its stream of live traffic reports from users. These users were the basis of Shabtai’s plan to improve his GPS device constantly: the app could be perpetually updated by users, anywhere and anytime.
Waze Carpool is going straight to the heart of traffic jams, trying to get more drivers off the road and into carpooling. The app has already connected tens of thousands of drivers willing to share information, and that trend could be the answer to a traffic-free future.
1. What did Shabtai do when he found his girlfriend’s gift out of date?| A．He improved it. | B．He took it apart. |
| C．He put it away. | D．He used it away. |
| A．It has the most users. | B．It can show directions. |
| C．Most users help edit its words. | D．It reports road conditions in real time. |
| A．Slowly. | B．Carefully. |
| C．Greatly. | D．Continually. |
| A．The rise of Waze Carpool. | B．An advanced navigation app. |
| C．The development of GPS. | D．The challenge Waze Mobile faces. |
10 . In the past decade, the use of social media has grown in a way that no one could have guessed. It has turned some teenagers into celebrities (名人) and turned the famous into the infamous, overnight.
A key feature of social media, however, is its volatility. Trends come and go, disappearing almost as quickly as they appeared. So, what were the key social media trends of 2018?
Short video apps such as TikTok and its Chinese equivalent Douyin, took the world by storm. The Telegraph reported that TikTok was ranked 8th on Apple’s App Store in April. And Douyin had more than 300 million domestic monthly active users in June, CNBC said.
Why are these short videos – which are rarely longer than a few minutes – so popular? Jiang Yige, Singapore-based analyst at FengHe Fund Management, has a theory. Short videos are “just right to fill in the little gaps in our busy schedules,” he told CNBC.
These videos – apart from being very convenient – are important to teenagers because they allow them to express themselves, according to Teen Vogue.
The sense of community that users of short video app get is another appealing feature. Liza Koshy, a user of the US app Musically who has over 2 million followers, said that she was thrilled when anyone said that her video had “inspired” them. “It’s really cool … because I think as social creators that’s what we all are,” she added.
Live streaming is another feature of our social media life that now seems as natural as sunrise. It’s a pretty neat idea: You can watch anyone, anywhere, live.
However, China has taken live streaming to a whole new level. In China, more than 100 million viewers monthly watch a live streaming video. Forbes thought that a number of factors had led to the popularity of live streams. Among them is viewers’ ability to interact while remaining anonymous.
However, the boom in social media may be having side effects too. Fake news is one serious problem it arguably causes. Material shared on these platforms is often not checked for accuracy. The most basic content can be false and can sway users one way or another. We use social media all the time; that doesn’t mean that we understand the influence it is having on us. We should be mindful of both the time we spend on it and its impact on our minds.
1. The underlined word “volatility” in Paragraph 2 possibly means “being _____”.| A．changeable | B．steady |
| C．promising | D．violent |
| A．they are very convenient |
| B．they help people kill time |
| C．they provide a sense of community |
| D．they allow people to express themselves |
| A．The information from social media is highly reliable. |
| B．When it comes to social media, people know short videos the best. |
| C．People can’t communicate with each other without social media. |
| D．There is still much room for social media to make improvement. |
| A．Rapid Development of Social Media |
| B．Key Social Media Trends ruling 2018 |
| C．Short Videos Taking the World by Storm |
| D．Live Streaming—New Feature of Social Media |
