1 . I have always found the Chinese to be a very polite people. In particular, Chinese frequently compliment (称赞) foreign friends on their language skills, knowledge of Chinese culture, professional accomplishments, and personal health. Curiously, however, Chinese are as loath to accept a compliment as they are eager to give one. As many of my Chinese friends have explained, this is a sign of the Chinese virtue of modesty.
I have noticed a difference, though, in the degree to which modesty is emphasized in the United States and China. In the US, we tend to place more emphasis on “seeking the truth from fact”, thus, Americans tend to accept a compliment with gratitude.
Chinese, on the other hand, tend to reject the compliment, even when they know they deserve the credit or recognition which has been awarded them. I can imagine a Chinese basketball fan meeting Michael Jordan of the Chicago Bulls. He might say, “Mr. Jordan, I am so happy to meet you. I just want to tell you, you are the best basketball player in the world; you’re the greatest!” to which Jordan would probably respond, “Thank you very much. I really appreciate it! I just to try to do my best every time I step on the court.” If an American met Deng Yaping, China’s premier pingpong player, he might say much the same thing: “Ms. Deng, you’re the best!” but as a Chinese, Deng would probably say, “No, I really don’t play all that well. You’re too much kind.”
Plainly, Americans and Chinese have different ways of responding to praise. Ironically, many Americans might consider Ms. Deng’s response the less modest, because it is less truthful—and therefore less sincere. Americans generally place sincerity above manners; genuine gratitude for the praise serves as a substitute for protestations of modesty. After all, in the words of one of my closest Chinese friends, modesty taken to the extreme is pride.
1. What does the underlined word “loath” in paragraph 1 refer to?| A．Polite. | B．Uncertain. | C．Curious. | D．Unwilling. |
| A．To note they do as much as they can each time they play against others. |
| B．To remind readers they are the best players in basketball and table tennis. |
| C．To explain they deserve the credit or recognition for their great contributions. |
| D．To show they as Chinese and Americans are different in accepting praise. |
| A．They think sincerity matters the most. | B．They think her reply is against the fact. |
| C．They think she is too modest to believe. | D．They think manners is more important. |
| A．Education. | B．Sports. | C．Culture. | D．People. |
2 . People have many different ways to relax during break time at work or school. Smartphones are probably the number one choice for a quick mental vacation. Although it might seem like a good time, the result is opposite, according to a recent psychological study from Rutgers University.
For the study, more than 400 students were asked to finish a set of 20 word puzzles. Halfway though the task, the students were divided into three groups. One group was allowed to take a break and use cellphones to buy things online. The second group was asked to have a rest and buy things using a computer. The last group didn't take any break at all.
Surprisingly, the group that used their cellphones during the break went back to work feeling the most tired and least motivated to continue. They also had the hardest time solving the remaining word puzzles.
Terri Kurtzberg, co-author of the study, explained that they assumed looking at cellphones during a break would be no different from any other break—but instead, the phone may cause increasing levels of distraction that make it difficult to return focused attention to work tasks.
“Cellphones may have this effect because even just seeing your phone activates thoughts of checking messages, connecting with people, and more, in ways that are different than how we use other screens like computers, and laptops," Kurtzberg said.
This is echoed by a recent study from the US University of Chicago. It found that even if cellphones are turned off or turned face down, their mere presence reduces a person's cognitive capacity.
1. What can we learn from the study?| A．The participants were divided into groups at the beginning. |
| B．The last group had the hardest time solving the word puzzles. |
| C．Computers and laptops cause more distraction. |
| D．Cellphones may make people less focused on work. |
| A．Agreed. | B．Remembered. | C．Overcome. | D．Complained. |
| A．Try putting your smartphone away during your next break. |
| B．Using computers to shop online rather than cellphones. |
| C．Stop checking messages and connecting with people by cellphone. |
| D．Turning off your cellphone during work time. |
| A．Ways to relax for students. | B．The result from a word- puzzle game. |
| C．A study on using smart-phones to relax. | D．Effects brought by the smart-phone. |
3 . Elizabeth Spelke, a cognitive (认知的) psychologist at Harvard, has spent her career testing the world's most complex learning system-the mind of a baby. Babies might seem like no match for artificial intelligence (AI). They are terrible at labeling images, hopeless at mining text, and awful at video games. Then again, babies can do things beyond the reach of any AI. By just a few months old, they’ve begun to grasp the foundations of language, such as grammar. They’ve started to understand how to adapt to unfamiliar situations.
Yet even experts like Spelke don’t understand precisely how babies — or adults, for that matter — learn. That gap points to a puzzle at the heart of modern artificial intelligence: We're not sure what to aim for.
Consider one of the most impressive examples of AI, Alpha Zero, a programme that plays board games with superhuman skill. After playing thousands of games against itself at a super speed, and learning from winning positions, Alpha Zero independently discovered several famous chess strategies and even invented new ones. It certainly seems like a machine eclipsing human cognitive abilities. But Alpha Zero needs to play millions more games than a person during practice to learn a game. Most importantly, it cannot take what it has learned from the game and apply it to another area.
To some AI experts, that calls for a new approach. In a November research paper, Francois Chollet, a well-known AI engineer, argued that it’s misguided to measure machine intelligence just according to its skills at specific tasks. “Humans don’t start out with skills; they start out with a broad ability to acquire new skills,” he says. “What a strong human chess player is demonstrating is not only the ability to play chess, but the potential to fulfill any task of a similar difficulty.” Chollet posed a set of problems, each of which requires an AI programme to arrange colored squares on a grid (格栅) based on just a few prior examples. It’s not hard for a person. But modern machine-learning programmes-trained on huge amounts of data — cannot learn from so few examples.
Josh Tenenbaum, a professor in MIT's Center for Brains, Minds & Machines, works closely with Spelke and uses insights from cognitive science as inspiration for his programmes. He says much of modern AI misses the bigger picture, comparing it to a cartoon about a two-dimensional world populated by simple geometrical (几何形的) people. AI programmes will need to learn in new ways — for example, by drawing causal inferences rather than simply finding patterns. “At some point — you know, if you’re intelligent — you realize maybe there's something else out there,” he says.
1. Compared to an advanced AI programme, a baby might be better at _______________.| A．labeling images | B．identifying locations |
| C．playing games | D．making adjustments |
| A．Stimulating. | B．Measuring. | C．Beating. | D．Limiting. |
| A．AI is good at finding similar patterns |
| B．AI should gain abilities with less training |
| C．AI lacks the ability of generalizing a skill |
| D．AI will match humans in cognitive ability |
| A．What is exactly intelligence? |
| B．Why is modern AI advanced? |
| C．Where is human intelligence going? |
| D．How do humans tackle the challenge of AI? |
4 . I always wanted to be extraordinary at something. Not just as in, “Great job, Jimbo!” No, I wanted to be best-in-class, awe-inspiring, tiptop; a world-famous genius, like Michael Phelps or Mark Zuckerberg.
Unfortunately, my version of reality did not quite line up with thisdelusionalvision. I was a good swimmer, but I peaked at the collegiate State Championships level. My academic record was pretty solid, but I never would have made it into one of those ivy-league schools.
Though I rose to above-average status in a couple of areas, the disappointing truth was that I would never amount to anything more than a mid-sized fish in a small pond. God apparently had other plans.
What drove me crazy, though, was the superstar talent thrown in my face at every turn. Some folks just seemed to get an unfair intensive dose (剂量) of it. Why couldn’t I be like Bernie William, the famed New Yorkees player who also happens to be a world-class jazz guitar virtuoso (艺术大师)?
Some say greatness is simply a function of putting in the practice time. Around ten thousand hours, to be precise, according to author Malcolm Gladwell. I don’t question the theory of devoting extraordinary efforts to developing one’s expertise, but it seems that raw talent is equally important. You either have it or you don’t.
I’ve heard that as people approach middle age, their life satisfaction increases because they begin to accept the gap between the expectations for themselves and the reality. After a few decades of frustration without the desired results, we eventually come to terms with how our lives turned out, even if it falls far short of our idealized youthful expectation.
Hope bends, it seems.
1. What does the word “delusional” in Paragraph 2 most probably mean?| A．Practical. | B．Realistic. |
| C．Abstract. | D．Imaginary. |
| A．a world-famous genius | B．a mid-sized fish in a small pond |
| C．a world-class virtuoso | D．a student in an ivy-league school |
| A．Raw talent. | B．Talent and time. |
| C．Extraordinary efforts. | D．Ten thousand hours of practice. |
| A．Hope Bends | B．Frustrating Decades |
| C．Practice Works | D．Youthful Expectation |
5 . Asking for help is a sign of strength rather than weakness. In American culture, the independent individual is seen as their ideal. As the University of Missouri at St. Louis states on its website under the heading Key American Values, “Americans have been trained since very early in their lives to consider themselves as separate individuals who are responsible for their own situations in life and their own destinies.” The value also makes them think they can do everything themselves, and makes them feel bad about asking for help when they need it.
And when it comes to work situations, when they think about asking for help there, sometimes they fear that a request for help would make them look inept. While this has always been true for men, many women in the workplace have felt the need to try twice as hard as their male colleagues and do twice as much to get just as far and to prove their worth. Sometimes when we think about asking for help, our inner voices tell us, “See, if you admit you can’t do this on your own, they’ll see you for the imposter （骗子）you really are.”
But the fact is, even though individualism is on the rise, we can’t do everything by ourselves and we shouldn’t try.
Apple founder Steve Jobs once told the Santa Clara Valley Historical Association about the power of asking for help, and how he “never found anybody who didn’t want to help me when I asked them for help”. He said, at the age of 12, he called Bill Hewlett, co-founder of Hewlett-Packard, on the phone after getting his number from the phone book and asking him for spare parts so he could build a frequency counter（计频器）And Hewlett agreed and offered young Jobs a summer job assembling frequency counters.
“If you’re afraid of failing, you won’t get very far,” Jobs said.
1. What is the first paragraph mainly about?| A．What key American values are. |
| B．Asking for help is a sign of strength. |
| C．Why Americans refuse to ask for help. |
| D．Americans are responsible for their life. |
| A．incompetent | B．depressed |
| C．impolite | D．sensitive |
| A．Americans suffer a lot from mutual distrust. |
| B．Americans think highly of individual values. |
| C．Americans should learn to build up confidence. |
| D．Americans see weakness as a sign of strength. |
| A．Learn to cooperate with others. | B．Be brave to try whatever you want. |
| C．Never ask for help. | D．Don’t hesitate to ask for help. |
6 . Recently I read Nineteen Eighty-Four, a novel by George Orwell set in a state where even the language they use is controlled. Adjectives are forbidden and instead they use phrases such as ‘ungood’, ‘plus good’ and ‘double plus good’ to express emotions. As I first read this I thought how impossible it would be in our society to have such vocabulary. However, the more I thought about it, the more I realised in its own way it’s already happening. I type messages to my friends and alongside each is the emoji. I often use them to emphasise something, or to not seem too serious, or because this specific GIF conveys my emotions much better than I ever could using just words. And I wonder, with our excessive use of emojis, are we losing the beauty and diversity of our vocabulary?
English has the largest vocabulary in the world, with over one million words, but who’s to say what it’ll be like in the future? Perhaps we will have a shorter language, full of saying ‘cry face’ if something sad happens or using abbreviations (缩写) like LOL (laugh out loud) or BRB (be right back) instead of saying the full phrase. So does this mean our vocabulary will shrink? Is it the start of an exciting new era? Will they look back on us in the future and say this is where it all began – the new language? Or is this a classic case of the older generations saying, ‘Things weren’t like that when I was younger. We didn’t use emoticons to show our emotions’?
Yet when you look back over time, the power of image has always been there. Even in the prehistoric era they used imagery to communicate, and what’s even more incredible is that we are able to analyse those drawings and understand the meaning of them thousands of years later. Pictures have the ability to transcend time and language. Images, be it cave paintings or emojis, allow us to convey a message that’s not restrictive but rather universal.
1. Why does the author mention Nineteen Eight Four?| A．To introduce the topic. |
| B．To show an example. |
| C．To give the reason. |
| D．To describe a phenomenon. |
| A．To reduce the use of words |
| B．To save time of typing |
| C．To express naturally and casually |
| D．To make fun of friends |
| A．Disappear. | B．Reduce. |
| C．Lower. | D．Change. |
| A．Emojis will destroy the variety of our vocabulary. |
| B．Emojis will replace English as the most popular language. |
| C．Emojis are useless and meaningless in modern life. |
| D．Emojis will not restrict our communication. |
7 . I am a person who has always loved reading. For me, it is easy to get lost in a book and return to the world a couple of hours later having been on an adventure. As a 6-year-old, I could be found reading Harry Potter, a difficult book for a 6-year-old but I enjoyed it all the same. Now, as a student, it is harder to find the time to read books for pleasure; however, I relish the summers where I have the time to read to satisfy myself. Growing up, it soon became clear that spelling for me was not difficult and I had a wide vocabulary. This is because I began reading from such a young age.
My advice for you as English learners would be to read the books that you have often read in your own language in English. Reading, stories especially, is a great way of improving your vocabulary and spelling without noticing as you are lost in the story. For me, I have read Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone in French and am currently reading Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets in Spanish. This is a really useful way of being able to read in another language because I know the story so well in English, it is easy to follow the story in the foreign language even if I do not understand every word.
This is another important point: it is not necessary to understand every word. If you understand the meaning of the sentence, each word is not necessarily important. Sometimes it is impossible to translate directly from one language to another. Quite often, if a word is used several times in a text, you can gain your own meaning from it and it makes much more sense than if you tried to translate it in the first place.
Give it a try. If you like reading you could be opening up a whole new world of literature.
1. What can we learn from the author’s reading experiences?| A．He often spent hours taking an adventure. |
| B．He didn’t like Harry Potter any more with aging. |
| C．He could spare enough time reading for fun as a student. |
| D．Reading helped him a lot since his early age. |
| A．Spend. | B．Lose. | C．Enjoy. | D．Hate. |
| A．Reading English stories you’re familiar with in your own language. |
| B．Reading Harry Potter in different languages. |
| C．Translating word by word. |
| D．Understanding the story in your own language. |
| A．Better Ways to Read stories. |
| B．The Benefits of Reading. |
| C．How to Improve Spelling and Vocabulary. |
| D．Is It Necessary to Know Each Word? |
8 . China will have the most 5G connections of any nation by 2025, according to a new study, while Europe will fall behind Korea, the United States and Japan in terms of 5G penetration(渗透)by that year.
5G is the fifth generation of network technology. It is expected to bring unbelievable speeds to Internet users, with some operations running 10 times faster than on 4G networks. 5G is also expected to unlock the potential in a lot of new services, including artificial intelligence, science of robots self-driving cars, and the Internet of things.
The GSMA said that China's three major mobile operators-China Unicorn, China Mobile, and China Telecom-are already moving ahead with 5G networks. While most nations will have 5G by updating existing foundations, the study noted that China plans to build part of its 5G networks.
One of the most distinguishing(显著的) factors between Chinese mobile operators and those in the rest of the world is the intention to erect the new and independent 5G networks. That is, China is determined to build a completely advanced 5G. The high cost underlines China's seriousness about paying whatever it takes.
Korea will lead the world in terms of 5G penetration in 2025, when 66 percent of the nation's total connections will be 5G, according to GSMA. This compares to 50 percent in the US, 49 percent in Japan, 36 percent in China, 30 percent in Europe, and a global average of 18 percent. Out of the five economies leading on 5G, Europe will have the lowest participation in 2025, as the area is moving more slowly in having its 5G networks.
1. What will 5G bring?| A．A completely new pattern for daily life. |
| B．Excellent networks and national safety. |
| C．Amazing speeds for public transportation. |
| D．Realizing the potential in many new services. |
| A．It will develop rapidly. | B．It may be lack of government support. |
| C．It will move forward slowly. | D．It may fall behind Europe. |
| A．bring up. | B．set up. | C．turn up. | D．pick up. |
| A．More than half Koreans use 5G in 2025. | B．Chinese cannot own 5G in 2025. |
| C．Only five countries will have 5G in 2025. | D．Europe will pay little attention to 5G in 2025. |
9 . If you have felt the skies above you seem increasingly empty of birds you are not alone. A 2018 study by Bird Life International showed that 40 percent of the world’s 11,000 bird species are in decline, and one in eight bird species is threatened with global extinction. Now, some scientists are using technology to save endangered kakapo. If successful, the technique used may help save other bird species as well.
The kakapo, a kind of parrot, is unlike any other member of its species. The bird lost its ability to fly and added on weight, giving it the double honor of being the world’s only flightless parrot and its heaviest one!
Once found in large numbers across New Zealand, the bird, which can weigh up to 5 kilograms, is now in danger of dying out. While cats are largely to blame, the kakapa’s unusual breeding habits don’t help either. For starters, the parrots, which can live up to 100 years, do not start breeding until the age of five. They also only mate (交配) when the rimu trees — their primary food source — bear large amounts of fruit, an event that happens every two to four years.
Given the impediments to increasing the population, it is not surprising that as of 2019, only 114 adult parrots remain.
To help them, the researchers tie an electronic tracker to each bird, which can pick up the information of the birds, such as where they are nesting and if they are sick. The trackers also allow researchers to control the parrots’ diet.
Once the birds lay eggs, the eggs are taken to a special room to hatch (孵化) and the newborns except one that is given to the mother kakapo will be fed by researchers until they can live by themselves.
1. What is mainly talked about in Paragraph 3?| A．The food of the kakapo. |
| B．The enemy of the kakapo. |
| C．The breeding habits of the kakapo. |
| D．The reasons for the kakapo dying out. |
| A．Importance. | B．Possibility. | C．Difficulty. | D．Experience. |
| A．All the young birds are raised by humans. |
| B．Each kakapo is moved to a special room. |
| C．The kakapo is closely observed when hatching. |
| D．Trackers are used to collect the kakapo’s information. |
Scotland! Wow !!! What a fantastic place! I'm having a great time. I’m afraid that I started off badly by making a fool of myself. I was standing in the great old Bell Tower looking across the lake at the hills on the other side.
This rather handsome guy happened to be standing next to me, so I casually(随意地) said, "It's really beautiful here in England." Do you know what he replied? "Well, why don't you go there then?" Then he laughed and explained that he was used to foreigners making mistakes about that. After that bad start we got on really great, though.
Fergus told me lots about Scotland. I'd already noticed the unusual names: Fergus, Angus, Hamish for the guys and Ina, Gillian and Aileen for girls. They also usually have family names that begin with Mac or Me - Mckay, McDonald and the like. The Mc or Mac stands for "son of".
Anyway, Fergus is a Campbell. That's another typical(典型的) Scottish name and he is from an old Scottish family. You know that the Scots have their own traditions with kilts ( 短褶裙) and all that. Fergus showed me his family's tartan (花格图案).
I tried some really strange food today. When we had lunch together, Fergus practically forced me to taste something called haggis. That was the first and the last time for me. I have no idea what it is made of and I don’t think I want to try any more.
Everybody here is very friendly, not just Fergus. By the way, all that talk about the Scots being mean is not right. Fergus is certainly the opposite. He says the jokes about the Scots have all been invented by the English, their traditional enemy.
Tomorrow Fergus is taking me to Glasgow. Can you believe it? I thought he would just say goodbye and walk off. But he really seems interested. Anyway, I'm looking forward to seeing bright lights and discos after all this peace and quiet. I love it here but there are more sheep than people. I hope I'll have some other sides of life in Scotland to report after tomorrow. Keep your fingers crossed! I'll keep you posted.
Love,
Nancy
1. What can we learn from the text?| A．Nancy knew much about Scotland. |
| B．Nancy met Fergus by chance. |
| C．Hamish is the name of a girl in Scotland. |
| D．Nancy enjoys the Scottish food. |
| A．Made up. | B．Shared | C．Laughed at. | D．Understood. |
| A．To advertise Scottish kilts. |
| B．To introduce Scottish customs. |
| C．To compare two different cultures. |
| D．To share a travelling experience in Scotland. |
