1 . The Internet is changing the way we communicate. LOL, awks, amazeballs, BRB, the use of emoji and emoticon — and even writing facial expressions such as “sad face”— have all become standard in digital communications. So ingrained, in fact, that they’re changing the way we write and even talk.
What does the word “ingrained” in paragraph 1 most probably mean?
| A．Deep-rooted. | B．Long-lasting. | C．Well-equipped. | D．Single-minded. |
2 . St. Petersburg enjoys a wide variety of bars meant for that original Russian vodka experience including the famous bar ryumochnaya. The bar was originally meant to defy the misbehavior of labeling people. It was a place for everyone to just enjoy a drink. A billionaire could be sitting happily next to a worker.
The underlined word defy is closest in meaning to______.
| A．highlight | B．imitate | C．resist | D．reward |
3 . Having both is a good idea though it may sound extra redundant. You don’t want to entirely rely on the Cloud, just in case you lose access to your account, or if the provider closes down. And you don’t want to rely exclusively on offline storage, say, on a plug-in hard disk stored at the back of a cupboard, because if disaster strikes then your back-up will burn down alongside your computer and the rest of your belongings.
The underlined word “redundant” in paragraph 3 most probably means ________.
| A．unnecessary | B．demanding | C．meaningful | D．useless |
4 . Animals are natural resources that people have wasted all through our history. Animals have been killed for their fur and feathers, for food, for sport, and simply because they were in the way. Thousands of kinds of animals have disappeared from the world forever. Hundreds more are on the danger list today. About 170 kinds in the United States alone are considered in danger.
Why should people care? Because we need animals. And because once they are gone, there will never be any more.
Animals are more than just beautiful and interesting. They are more than just a source of food. Every animal has its place in the balance of nature. Destroying one kind of animal can create many problems.
For example, when farmers killed large numbers of hawks, the farmers’ stores of corn and grain were destroyed by rats and mice. Why? Because hawks eat rats and mice.With no hawks to keep down their numbers, the rats and mice multiplied quickly.
Luckily, some people are working to help save the animals. Some groups raise money to let people know about the problem. And they try to get the governments to pass laws protecting animals in danger.
Quite a few countries have passed laws. These laws forbid the killing of any animals or plants on the danger list. Slowly, the number of some animals in danger is growing.
1. What can we infer from the passage?| A．People have known the importance of animal protection a long time ago. |
| B．The number of hawks is on the decrease. |
| C．Animals play an important role in people’s life. |
| D．Many countries passed laws forbidding the killing of any animal. |
| A．Became more. | B．Became less. |
| C．Turned black. | D．Ate food. |
5 . According to a recent study in the Journal of Consumer Research, both the size and consumption habits of our eating companions can influence our food intake. And contrary to existing research that says you should avoid eating with heavier people who order large portions (份), it’s the beanpoles with big appetites you really need to avoid.
To test the effect of social influence on eating habits, the researchers conducted two experiments. In the first, 95 undergraduate women were individually invited into a lab to ostensibly (表面上) participate in a study about movie viewership. Before the film began, each woman was asked to help herself to a snack. An actor hired by the researchers grabbed her food first. In her natural state, the actor weighed 105 pounds. But in half the cases she wore a specially designed fat suit which increased her weight to 180 pounds.
Both the fat and thin versions of the actor took a large amount of food. The participants followed suit, taking more food than they normally would have. However, they took significantly more when the actor was thin.
For the second test, in one case the thin actor took two pieces of candy from the snack bowls. In the other case, she took 30 pieces. The results were similar to the first test: the participants followed suit but took significantly more candy when the thin actor took 30 pieces.
The tests show that the social environment is extremely influential when we’re making decisions. If this fellow participant is going to eat more, so will I. Call it the “I’ll have what she’s having” effect. However, we’ll adjust the influence. If an overweight person is having a large portion, I’ll hold back a bit because I see the results of his eating habits. But if a thin person eats a lot, I’ll follow suit. If he can eat much and keep slim, why can’t I?
What does the underlined word “beanpoles” in paragraph 1 refer to?
| A．Big eaters. | B．Overweight persons. | C．Picky eaters. | D．Tall thin persons. |
6 . When you were trying to figure out what to buy for the environmentalist on your holiday list, fur probably didn’t cross your mind. But some ecologists and fashion (时装)enthusiasts are trying to bring back the market for fur made from nutria(海狸鼠).
Unusual fashion shows in New Orleans and Brooklyn have showcased nutria fur made into clothes in different styles. “It sounds crazy to talk about guilt-free fur-unless you understand that the nutria are destroying vast wetlands every year”, says Cree McCree, project director of Righteous Fur.
Scientists in Louisiana were so concerned that they decided to pay hunters $5 a tail. Some of the fur ends up in the fashion shows like the one in Brooklyn last month.
Nutria were brought there from Argentina by fur farmers and let go into the wild. “The ecosystem down there can’t handle this non-native species(物种).It’s destroying the environment. It’s them or us.” says Michael Massimi, an expert in this field.
The fur trade kept nutria in check for decades，but when the market for nutria collapsed in the late 1980s，the cat-sized animals multiplied like crazy.
Biologist Edmond Mouton runs the nutria control program for Louisiana. He says it’s not easy to convince people that nutria fur is green, but he has no doubt about it. Hunters bring in more than 300,000 nutria tails a year, so part of Mouton’s job these days is trying to promote fur.
Then there’s Righteous Fur and its unusual fashion. Model Paige Morgan says，”To give people a guilt-free option that they can wear without someone throwing paint on them-1 think that’s going to be a massive thing, at least here in New York.” Designer Jennifer Anderson admits it took her a while to come around to the opinion that using nutria fur for her creations is morally acceptable. She trying to come up with a lable to attach to nutria fashions to show it is eco-friendly.
What does the underlined word “collapsed” in paragraph 5 probably mean?| A．Boomed. | B．Became mature. | C．Remained stable. | D．Crashed. |
7 . Can a small group of drones (无人机) guarantee the safety and reliability of railways and, at the same time, help railway operators save billions of euros each year? That is the very likely future of applying today’s “eyes in the sky” technology to making sure that the millions of kilometres of rail tracks and infrastructure (基础设施) worldwide are safe for trains on a 24/7 basis.
Drones are already being used to examine high-tension electrical lines. They could do precisely the same thing to inspect railway lines and other vital aspects of rail infrastructure such as the correct position of railway tracks and switching points. The more regularly they can be inspected, the more railway safety, reliability and on-time performance will be improved. Costs would be cut and operations would be more efficient (高效) across the board.
That includes huge savings in maintenance costs and better protection of railway personnel safety. It is calculated that European railways alone spend approximately 20 billion euros a year on maintenance, including sending maintenance staff, often at night, to inspect and repair the rail infrastructure. That can be dangerous work that could be avoided with drones assisting the crews’ efforts.
By using the latest technologies, drones could also start providing higher-value services for railways, detecting faults in the rail or switches, before they can cause any safety problems. To perform these tasks, drones for rail don’t need to be flying overhead. Engineers are now working on a new concept: the rail drones of the future. They will be moving on the track ahead of the train, and programmed to run autonomously. Very small drones with advanced sensors and AI and travelling ahead of the train could guide it like a co-pilot. With their ability to see ahead, they could signal any problem, so that fast-moving trains would be able to react in time.
What does “maintenance” underlined in paragraph 3 refer to?
| A．Personnel safety. | B．Assistance from drones. |
| C．Inspection and repair. | D．Construction of infrastructure. |
8 . Bangladesh’s floating gardens, built to grow food during flood seasons, could offer a continuous solution for parts of the world which are likely to suffer from flooding because of climate change, a new study has found.
Bangladesh’s floating gardens began hundreds of years ago. The gardens are made from native plants that float in the rivers and operate almost like rafts (筏), rising and filling with the waters. Historically, they were used to continue growing food during rainy seasons when rivers were filled with water.
The farmers layer the plants about three feet deep, creating a version of raised-bed gardens that float in the water. Then, they plant vegetables inside those rafts. As the raft-plants rot away, they release nutrients, which help feed the vegetable plants.
But as climate change affected the volume of water in those rivers, the researchers wanted to understand whether Bangladesh’s floating gardens could be a continuous farming practice. They interviewed farming families and found strong evidence that floating gardens provide stability, both in the amount of food available to feed rural populations and in a farming family’s income.
They found that farmers typically use hybrid (杂交) seeds, which must be repurchased each year, to grow a diverse range of vegetables in the floating gardens. The gardens are also sensitive to pests, so farmers end up spending some money on both pesticides and fertilizers. But even with those expenses, they found, benefits outweighed costs. One farmer told the research team that he earns up to four times as much money from the gardens as from traditional rice fields.
However, before gaining profits, farmers often take out high-interest loans (贷款) to cover the investment costs of filling the beds and stocking them with plants. Luckily; there are also lower-interest loans from responsible government or non-governmental organizations, which could ease that burden.
What does the underlined word “outweighed” in paragraph 5 mean?
| A．Affected. | B．Brought. | C．Beat. | D．Equaled. |
9 . People’s sensitivity to blood sugar is also dampened when they’re tired, the study found, which suggests those who don’t sleep well are at higher risk of type 2 diabetes. “We saw that the fatty tissue is attempting to increase its capacity to store fat following sleep loss.” said Dr Cedernaes, “And we observed signs of breakdown of skeletal muscle. We also noted changes in levels of proteins involved handling blood glucose. This could help explain why the participants’ glucose sensitivity was impaired following sleep loss.”
What does the underlined word “dampened” in paragraph 4 mean?
| A．Decreased. | B．Transformed. |
| C．Transmitted. | D．Promoted. |
10 . Plastic tubes hook up to the taps and connect them to one another. The sap flows into a collection tank in the woods. From the collection tank, the Gagnes pump the sap into a ma-chine to remove a lot of the sap’s water. Then it’s moved into an evaporator in a building called “sugar house”. The Gagnes make a fire out of maple wood chips. The fire heats the sap and boils it. When it reaches 219 degrees, the syrup is ready to be made.
Syrup is poured into glass or plastic bottles. But 150 years ago, sugar makers used tin cans. These containers could prevent syrup from seeping out and allowed them to ship it far from home and helped maple become a big business.
What does the underlined word “seeping” in paragraph 4 probably mean?
| A．Breaking. | B．Blowing. | C．Looking. | D．Leaking. |
