1 . No one is sure how the ancient Egyptians built the pyramids near Cairo. But a new study suggests they used a little rock ‘n’ roll. Long- ago builders could have attached wooden poles to the stones and rolled them across the sand, the scientists say.

"Technically, I think what they’re proposing is possible," physicist Daniel Bonn said.

People have long puzzled over how the Egyptians moved such huge rocks. And there’s no obvious answer. On average, each of the two million big stones weighed about as much as a large pickup truck. The Egyptians somehow moved the stone blocks to the pyramid site from about one kilometer away.

The most popular view is that Egyptian workers slid the blocks along smooth paths. Many scientists suspect workers first would have put the blocks on sleds (滑板). Then they would have dragged them along paths. To make the work easier, workers may have lubricated the paths either with wet day or with the fat from cattle. Bonn has now tested this idea by building small sleds and dragging heavy objects over sand.

Evidence from the sand supports this idea. Researchers found small amounts of fat, as well as a large amount of stone and the remains of paths.

However, physicist Joseph West thinks there might have been a simpler way, who led the new study. West said, "I was inspired while watching a television program showing how sleds might have helped with pyramid construction. I thought, ‘Why don’t they just try rolling the things?’" A square could be turned into a rough sort of wheel by attaching wooden poles to its sides, he realized. That, he notes, should make a block of stone "a lot easier to roll than a square".

So he tried it.

He and his students tied some poles to each of four sides of a 30-kilogram stone block. That action turned the block into somewhat a wheel. Then they placed the block on the ground.

They wrapped one end of a rope around the block and pulled. The researchers found they could easily roll the block along different kinds of paths. They calculated that rolling the block required about as much force as moving it along a slippery (滑的) path.

West hasn’t tested his idea on larger blocks, but he thinks rolling has clear advantages over sliding. At least, workers wouldn’t have needed to carry cattle fat or water to smooth the paths.

1. It’s widely believed that the stone blocks were moved to the pyramid site by       .

A．rolling them on roads	B．pushing them over the sand
C．sliding them on smooth paths	D．dragging them on some poles

2. The underlined part "lubricated the paths" in Paragraph 4 means       .

A．made the paths wet	B．made the paths hard
C．made the paths wide	D．made the paths slippery

3. What does the underlined word "it" in Paragraph 7 refer to?

A．Rolling the blocks with poles attached.

B．Rolling the blocks on wooden wheels.

C．Rolling poles to move the blocks.

D．Rolling the blocks with fat.

4. Why is rolling better than sliding according to West?

A．Because more force is needed for sliding.

B．Because rolling work can be done by fewer cattle.

C．Because sliding on smooth roads is more dangerous.

D．Because less preparation on paths is needed for rolling.

2 . A bronze relic, which is said to have been stolen from China in 1860, has been sold for 410,000 British pounds at an auction (拍卖会) in the United Kingdom despite strong opposition from China, reports Chinanews.com.

According to the Canterbury Auction Galleries, Tiger Ying, a rare Chinese bronze water vessel (容器) with its spout and lid cast with models of tigers, dates back some 3,000 years. The vessel was recently rediscovered by Alastair Gibson, a British art dealer, along with three other bronzes from the Qing Dynasty as well as a photo and a letter that connect the bronzes to the sack (抢劫) of Yuanmingyuan by British and French armies in 1860. In the letter dated October 21, 1860, Harry Lewis Evans (1831-1883), a Royal Marines Captain during the Second Opium War, explains to his mother how he took the Tiger Ying vessel from Yuanmingyuan. Talking to media, Gibson stated that he never imagined that he would come across such a valuable relic when a friend asked him to look at his small private collection. The dealer emphasized that the Tiger Ying was an unparalleled (无双的) valuable piece since it describes a tiger, considered to be the king of beasts in Chinese culture.

A statement by China’s State Administration of Cultural Heritage on Tuesday said it "firmly opposes and strongly condemns" the auction, and promised to help bring back cultural relics illegally removed from China. It also called for an international boycott of the auction，after a request to the Canterbury Auction Galleries to stop the sale was refused.

The relic was sold on Wednesday (April 11, 2018) as planned，and for more than twice the expected price of 120,000 to 200,000 pounds.

Some Chinese experts have questioned the authenticity of the auction house’s description of the relic, saying that they can’t just rely on a letter to confirm the history of the bronze. The experts also doubt the auction house’s claim that only seven such bronzes still exist.

1. What’s the attitude of China towards the auction in the UK?

A．Opposed.	B．Neutral.
C．Indifferent.	D．Concerned.

2. The underlined word "it" in Paragraph 3 refers to       .

A．the Canterbury Auction Galleries

B．the statement

C．the bronze relic

D．China’s State Administration of Cultural Heritage

3. What can we infer from the passage?

A．The vessel was taken by Alastair Gibson from Yuanmingyuan in 1860.

B．The relic was sold for 410,000 British pounds as expected.

C．The auction house’s description of the relic isn’t reliable for lack of solid evidence.

D．There are only seven such bronzes in the world at the present time.

4. What is the passage mainly about?

A．How a Chinese relic was stolen from Yuanmingyuan.

B．A Chinese relic has been sold at an auction in the UK.

C．China made efforts to stop the sale of Tiger Ying.

D．A Chinese bronze relic was rediscovered by a British art dealer.

3 . A good way to look at failure straight in the face is by writing a failure resume(简历)or CV. Like social media，there，we usually only see our friends’“highlight part”. When we look at others’resumes，we get scared and think how ours doesn’t measure up. But even the most accomplished people have plenty of failure behind them—we just don’t see it.

Stefan felt this deeply as a scientist，so she wrote a different CV which of course boasted (夸耀)about her good grades，PhD，and published papers. But the way she deals with her failure CV is a model of what we could a11 do.

“My CV does not reflect my great academic efforts—it does not mention the exams I failed，my unsuccessful PhD or scholarship applications，or the papers never accepted for publication. During the interviews，I talk about the one project that worked，not about the many that failed，”writes Stefan in a column for Nature.com.

Stefan suggests keeping a draft on which you log，casually but regularly，every unsuccessful application，refused grant proposal and rejected paper.

And that’s the point：not to consider what we got wrong，but to use that information to both look at failure and realize it’s really okay，and also to use our failures for another purpose：as learning tools.

The point is to be real—with ourselves and about how the world works. Being real means taking an honest，critical，but also kind look at what we didn’t get right，and then doing our best to change what we can. Instead of focusing on how that failure makes you feel，take the time to step back and analyze the practical，operational reasons that you failed.

So，prctice being okay with failure，and turning your failures into lessons learned. And yes，sometimes we have to learn those lessons more than once，letting go of what you can’t change. And keep moving forward to success.

1. What does the underlined word“it”in the first paragraph refer to?

A．Plenty of failure.	B．A failure resume.
C．Highlight part.	D．Social media.

2. What did Stefan intend to tell us in paragraph 3?

A．A11 her failures in her career.

B．Benefits she got from her failures.

C．The content of her own resume.

D．The difference between her resume and others’.

3. What does Stefan advise us to do in our careers?

A．Regard failures as part of our life.

B．Keep a record of our failures.

C．Value our achievements.

D．Long for failures.

4. Which of the following best describes the author’s opinion?

A．No pains，no gains.

B．A11 roads lead to Rome.

C．Where there is a will，there is a way.

D．Failure is the mother of success.

4 . Fairies today are the material of, children's stories, little magical people with wings, often shining with light. Typically pretty and female, like Tinkerbell in Peter Pan, they usually use their magic to do small things and are mostly friendly to humans.

One explanation suggests the origin of fairies is a memory of real people. So, for example when tribes with metal weapons invaded land where people only used stone weapons some of the people escaped and hid in forests and caves. Further support for this idea is that fairies were thought to be afraid of iron and could not touch it. Living outside of society, the hiding people probably stole food and attacked villages. This might explain why fairies were often described as playing tricks on humans. Hundreds of years ago, people actually believed that fairies stole new babies and replaced them with a "changeling"-a fairy baby-or that they took new mothers and made them feed fairy babies with their milk.

While most people no longer believe in fairies, only a hundred years ago some people were very willing to think they might exist. In 1917, 16-year-old Elsie Wright took two photos of her cousin, nine-year-old Frances Griffiths, sitting with fairies. Some photography experts thought they were not real, while others weren't sure. But Arthur Conan Doyle, the writer of the Sherlock Holmes detective stories, believed they were real. He published the original pictures, and three more that the girls took for him, in a magazine called The Strand, in 1920. The girls only admitted the photos were not real years later in 1983, and that they created them using pictures of dancers that Elsie copied from a book.

1. What does the underlined words "this idea" in Paragraph 2 refer to?

A．Fairies used stone tools.	B．Fairies used metal weapons.
C．Fairies are based on real people.	D．Fairies are friendly to humans.

2. Why were fairies often described as playing tricks on humans?

A．Fairies were afraid of iron and could not touch it.

B．Fairies stole new babies and replaced them with a fairy baby.

C．People who were defeated would escape and hide in the forests.

D．The hiding people would probably steal food and attack villages.

3. Who thought the photos taken in 1917 were real?

A．Arthur Conan Doyle.	B．Elsie Wright.
C．Most photography experts.	D．Elsie Wright's cousin.

4. Which idea will the author most probably agree with?

A．Whether fairies exist or not is uncertain.

B．There are still many people believing in fairies.

C．Children should not believe in fairies any longer.

D．The attitude people hold towards fairies has changed.

5 . Scientists at the University of Oxford have developed new artificial intelligence (AI) software to recognize and follow up the faces of individual chimpanzees (黑猩猩) in the wild. The new software will allow researcher and wildlife conservationists to greatly cut back on time spent analyzing videos, according to the new paper published today in Science Advances.

“For species like chimpanzees, which have complex social lives and live for many years, getting photos of their behavior from short-term field research can only tell us so much.” says Dan Sehofield, researcher and DPhil student at Oxford University’s Primate Models Lab, School of Anthropology. “By taking advantage of the power of machine learning to unlock large video files, it makes it possible to measure behavior over the long term.”

The computers model was trained using over 10 million images (影像) from Kyoto University’s Primate Research Institute (PRI) video files of wild chimpanzees in Guinea, West Africa. The new software is the first to continuously track and recognize individuals in a wide range of posed, performing with high accuracy in difficult conditions such as low lighting and poor image quality.

“Access to this large video file has allowed us to use the newest deep neural networks to train models at a scale that was previously not possible,” says Arsha Nagrani, co-author of the study and DPhil student at the Department of Engineering Science, University of Oxford. “Additionally, our new software differs from previous primate face recognition software in that it can be applied to raw videos with limited manual intervention (人工干预) or pre-processing, saving hours of time.”

The technology has potential for many uses, such as monitoring species for conservation. Although the present application focused on chimpanzees, the software provided could be applied to other species, and help drive the adoption of AI systems to solve a range of problems in the wildlife sciences.

1. What’s the purpose of developing the new software?

A．To save wildlife researchers’ time spent in the wild.

B．To keep track of wildlife conservationists’ behavior.

C．To protect chimpanzees and help them to live longer.

D．To recognize and track the faces of wild chimpanzees.

2. What does the underlined word “it” in paragraph 2 refer to?

A．Getting photos.	B．Analyzing videos.
C．The new AI software.	D．A powerful machine.

3. What does paragraph 4 mainly talk about?

A．The unique advantages of the new software.

B．Some limitations of using the new software.

C．The working principles of the new software.

D．Controversial attitudes to the new software.

4. What can be inferred from the last paragraph?

A．The new software has a quite bright future.

B．The application of the technology can be tough.

C．Technology is the final goal of scientific research.

D．AI systems are widely used in the wildlife sciences.

6 . A rescue center in Alaska has taken in an orphaned baby seal (海豹) that was still in the body when a hunter killed its mother on Easter Sunday.

The Alaska Sea Life Center says a hunter killed the baby’s mother in a village on Nelson Island in the Bering Sea. The hunter then realized there was a live baby inside the seal and successfully delivered (接生) it.

The hunter’s daughter found a hotline of the Seward Rescue Center and called to report the incident. Guided by center staff, a village teacher helped transport the baby to the local airport, and the animal was flown to Anchorage. The Alaska Sea Life Center members met the baby, now called Maxwell, at the Anchorage airport and drove him to Seward on Monday. Staff members say the baby has responded well to food and care, but his condition is still considered very serious.

“Maxwell was close to full-term, and everything looks fairly normal,” said Pam Tuomi, a center vet. “But babies that have never received antibodies (抗体) from their mothers’ milk are at higher risk of infection (感染), so we will keep Maxwell in a separate place and watch him closely for the next few weeks.”

The Sea Life Center is Alaska’s only permanent facility licensed to house stranded marine mammals and seabirds. The staff choose a theme each year for naming animals admitted there, and this year the names are related to caffeine.

“We hope to give Maxwell a second chance to live as a wild sea,” said Brett Long, the center’s director.

1. What can we learn from the passage?

A．The mother seal was killed in order to protect the baby seal.

B．The mother seal was killed before the baby seal was born.

C．The cruel hunter was unwilling to save the baby seal.

D．Both the mother seal and the baby seal were in good condition now.

2. What did the hunter’s daughter do with the baby seal?

A．She helped to feed it.	B．She delivered it successfully.
C．She reported it to a rescue center.	D．She persuaded her father to save it.

3. The underlined “him” in the third paragraph probably refers to __________.

A．The hunter	B．The baby seal
C．a member of the center	D．the village teacher

4. What do we know about the baby seal’s condition now?

A．It still faces the danger of dying young.	B．It is only half of the normal size.
C．It is found to be difficult to feed.	D．It will be set free into the sea soon.

7 . In 1973, I was teaching elementary school. Each day, 27 kids entered “The Thinking Laboratory.” That was the name students voted for after deciding that “Room 104” was too dull.

Freddy was an average student, but not an average person. He had the rare balance of fun and compassion（同情）. He would laugh the loudest over fun and be the saddest over anyone’s misfortune.

Before the school year ended, I gave the kids a special gift, T-shirts with the words “Verbs Are Your Friends ” on them. I had advised the kids that while verbs（动词）may seem dull , most of the fun things they do throughout their lives will be verbs.

Through the years, I’d run into former students who would provide updates on old classmates. I learned that Freddy did several jobs after his graduation from high school and remained the same caring person I met forty years before . Once, while working overnight at a store, he let a homeless man sleep in his truck. Another time, he lent a friend money to buy a house.

Just last year, I was conducting a workshop when someone knocked at the classroom door. A woman excused the interruption and handed me an envelope. I stopped teaching and opened it up. Inside were the “Verbs” shirt and a note from Freddy’s mother. “Freddy passed away on Thanksgiving. He wanted you to have this. ”

I told the story to the class. As sad as it was, I couldn’t help smiling. Although Freddy was taken from us, we all took something from Freddy.

1. What do the underlined words “The Thinking Laboratory” in paragraph 1 refer to?

A．The elementary school where the kids studied.

B．“Room104”in which the kids studied.

C．The workshop in which the kids carried out experiments.

D．The high school which was fun as well as dull.

2. What can we learn about the author?

A．She hardly kept in touch with her former students.

B．She wrote the passage in 2013 or so.

C．She was very strict with her students.

D．She gave the kids special gifts after the school year.

3. Which of the following words can best describe Freddy?

A．modest and daring.	B．outstanding and calm.
C．generous and creative.	D．warm-hearted and caring.

4. What’s the author’s attitude towards Freddy?

A．Cautious.	B．Disapproving.
C．Uninterested.	D．Appreciative.

8 . Family fights are never enjoyable. Whether you are dealing with a a loud sister or a stubborn (固执的) mom or dad, the situation can be bad. At least that’s what we have learned to expect.

What if it could be different? What if family fights and conflicts(冲突) could be turned into chances to become closer? What if problems could be solved with everyone walking away feeling more deeply cared for and loved?

Family fighting is, on one level, about power. Someone is telling someone else what to do. In a short moment, emotions(情绪) can be brought out and the fight is on. You can go down that old road or you can try something different.

In any fight, you have a need to be listened to and understood. People raise their voices and shout at each other because they’re not being listened to. It’s totally unconscious(无意识的). You want your mom or dad to listen and understand. You want your brother or sister to listen and care. But you always seem to forget that the person you’re fighting with has the same need to be listened to. So if you can put aside your need for a few minutes, the situation will change quickly. Give the other person some time to express his or her feelings, and you will earn your turn to be listened to. And while you are listening, you have to listen for the right information. The best way to do this in emotional situations is to ignore(忽略) most of the words because many people can’t express what they are feeling with words alone, especially when they are upset.

But if the situation starts to get out of control, it will be wise to just calm down and leave the problem until later because many fights happen at the wrong time. The situation will die down quickly, usually in less than 30 seconds. You can either move on to problem solving or reach an agreement to work on it at a better time.

This way, everyone will feel respected and listened to, even when there is a conflict. Emotions will be understood and respected, and it will bring your family closer together.

1. The first three paragraphs mainly want to show that ____________.

A．people had better avoid family fights

B．family members fight to control each other

C．family fights are easy to happen

D．family fights can be turned into something positive

2. In the author’s opinion, the key to dealing with family fights is to ____________ .

A．meet the need to be listened to first

B．make sure that you’re the first to be listened to

C．ignore what others say in these emotional situations

D．stop saying anything when you feel you are giving orders

3. When the situation gets out of control, it’s best to __________.

A．wait for a better moment to speak

B．let the other person express his feelings

C．work on a written agreement first

D．move on to problem solving

4. What does the underlined word “this” in paragraph 4 refer to?

A．Ignoring most of the words.

B．Listening for the right information.

C．Expressing what they are feeling with words.

D．Spending time listening to others.

9 . A new study, conducted by a British company — Mindlab International, has found that listening to music at work increases accuracy（准确度）and speed, The Telegraph reported. Perhaps, some parents disagree with this idea, saying, "Turn off the music and concentrate!" Well, if that's the case with your parents, you might now be able to make them believe that you have science on your side.

The company gave 26 participants a series of different tasks for five days in a row, including spell checking, mathematical word problems and data entry. The participants completed these tasks while listening to music or no music at all.

The results showed that while music was playing, 88% of the participants produced their most accurate test results and 81% completed their fastest work. David Lewis, chairman of Mindlab International, told The Telegraph, "Music is a very powerful management tool if you want to increase not only the efficiency（效率）of your workforce but also their emotional（情绪的）state... they are going to become more positive about the work."

However, you may have a list of your favorite songs, but not all kinds of music match all homework. "For maths or other subjects involving numbers or attention to detail, you should listen to classical music," the study found. In the study, pop music enabled participants to complete their tasks 58% faster. If you are reviewing your English writing, pop music will be the best choice, as it is the best kind for spell checking. It cut mistakes by 14%, compared to listening to no music. After finishing your homework, do you often spend time in checking your answers? Maybe some dance music is suitable for you.

1. What did the participants have to do in the study?

A．Persuade their parents to listen to music.

B．Listen to the same music together.

C．Finish tasks with music or without music at all.

D．Choose the most suitable music for different tasks.

2. The author describes the study conducted by Mindlab International mainly by ______.

A．giving examples using research delta

B．describing how it was conducted

C．comparing its results with previous studies

D．following the order of time

3. What does the underlined word "they" refer to in Paragraph 3?

A．Workforce.	B．Results.
C．Tests.	D．Tools.

4. When you are reviewing your English writing, what kind of music is the best choice?

A．Classical music.

B．Pop music.

C．Dance music.

D．Rock music.

10 . As the world's resources become rarer because of continuing land development and the growing human population, the natural habitats of wild animals have continued to decrease. As a result, the survival of some species of wildlife is threatened. To help protect wildlife, a lot of practices should be carried out by environmentalist as well as the general public.

Create homes for species that are endangered because of losing their own natural habitats. Wildlife shelters should be developed, and habitats should be created in existing(现存的) national parks. Efforts(努力) should also be made to protect existing habits, such as providing food and water sources and limiting hunting. Breed(培育) endangered species in places such as zoos. Once the young animals grow up, they can be set free into the wild where they can continue to increase the population.

The general public may not realize that a species is endangered until it's too late. Educational programs making use of TV advertising and instructional meetings at national parks can be used to make the public know the situation.

The general public can help protect the wildlife by not hunting wild animals for sport or for a source of food. They should also stop supporting those who earn money from the illegal hunting of wild animals, such as hunters who kill animals for the only purpose of harvesting their body parts and selling them for money.

The public should avoid(避免) keeping wild animals as pets. This will limit the number of animals being tracked, trapped, sold and removed from their natural habitat.

1. Which of the following is not the measure of protecting animal habitats?

A．Developing wildlife shelters.

B．Creating new habitats.

C．Setting young animals free in the wild.

D．Protecting the existing habitats.

2. The underlined words "the situation" in Paragraph3 probably refer to the fact that ______.

A．the general public may not know species are endangered.

B．many endangered species are facing the danger of extinction.

C．people can do much to protect the endangered species.

D．human activities can affect the existence of species.

3. We can learn from the passage that _______.

A．some people hunt animals and sell them as pets

B．hunters get little money from hunting animals

C．general public do nothing about protecting the wildlife now

D．animal population becomes larger in the zoo

4. In which column(栏) of a newspaper can we read the passage?

A．Environment.	B．Sports.
C．Technology.	D．Education.