1 . In the mid-1990s, Tom Bissell taught English as a volunteer in Uzbekistan. He left after seven months, physically broken and having lost his mind. A few years later, still attracted to the country, he returned to Uzbekistan to write an article about the disappearance of the Aral Sea.
His visit, however, ended up involving a lot more than that. Hence this book, Chasing the Sea: Lost Among the Ghosts of Empire in Central Asia, which talks about a road trip from Tashkent to Karakalpakstan, where millions of lives have been destroyed by the slow drying up of the sea. It is the story of an American travelling to a strange land, and of the people he meets on his way: Rustam, his translator, a lovely 24-year-old who picked up his colorful English in California, Oleg and Natasha, his hosts in Tashkent, and a string of foreign aid workers.
This is a quick look at life in Uzbekistan, made of friendliness and warmth, but also its darker side of society. In Samarkand, Mr Bissell admires the architectural wonders, while on his way to Bukhara he gets a taste of police methods when suspected of drug dealing. In Ferghana, he attends a mountain funeral(葬礼)followed by a strange drinking party. And in Karakalpakstan, he is saddened by the dust storms, diseases and fishing boats stuck miles from the sea.
Mr Bissell skillfully organizes historical insights and cultural references, making his tale a well-rounded picture of Uzbekistan, seen from Western eyes. His judgment and references are decidedly American, as well as his delicate stomach. As the author explains, this is neither a travel nor a history book, or even a piece of reportage. Whatever it is, the result is a fine and vivid description of the purest of Central Asian traditions.
1. What made Mr Bissell return to Uzbekistan?| A．His friends' invitation. | B．His interest in the country. |
| C．His love for teaching. | D．His desire to regain health. |
| A．Developing a serious mental disease. |
| B．Taking a guided tour in Central Asia. |
| C．Working as a volunteer in Uzbekistan. |
| D．Writing an article about the Aral Sea. |
| A．Romantic. | B．Eventful. | C．Pleasant. | D．Dangerous. |
| A．To introduce a book. | B．To explain a cultural phenomenon. |
| C．To remember a writer. | D．To recommend a travel destination. |
2 . The traffic signals along Factoria Boulevard in Bellevue, Washington, generally don't flash the same length of green twice in a row, especially at rush hour. At 9:30am, the full red/yellow/green signal cycle might be 140 seconds. By 9:33am, a burst of additional traffic might push it to 145 seconds. Less traffic at 9:37am could push it down to 135. Just like the traffic itself, the timing of the signals changes.
That is by design. Bellevue, a fast-growing city just east of Seattle, uses a system that is gaining popularity around the US: intersection(十字路口) signals that can adjust in real time to traffic conditions. These lights, known as adaptive signals, have led to significant declines in both the trouble and cost of travels between work and home.
“Adaptive signals can make sure that the traffic demand that is there is being addressed, ” says Alex Stevanovic, a researcher at Florida Atlantic University.
For all of Bellevue’s success, adaptive signals are not a cure-all for jammed roadways. Kevin Balke, a research engineer at the Texas A&M University Transportation Institute, says that while smart lights can be particularly beneficial for some cities, others are so jammed that only a sharp reduction in the number of cars on the road will make a meaningful difference. “It’s not going to fix everything, but adaptive signals have some benefits for smaller cities,” he says.
In Bellevue, the switch to adaptive signals has been a lesson in the value of welcoming new approaches. In the past, there was often an automatic reaction to increased traffic: just widen the roads, says Mark Poch, the Bellevue Transportation Department’s traffic engineering manager. Now he hopes that other cities will consider making their streets run smarter instead of just making them bigger.
1. What does the underlined word “that” in paragraph 2 refer to?| A．Increased length of green lights. | B．Shortened traffic signal cycle. |
| C．Flexible timing of traffic signals. | D．Smooth traffic flow on the road. |
| A．They work better on broad roads. |
| B．They should be used in other cities. |
| C．They have greatly reduced traffic on the road. |
| D．They are less helpful in cities seriously jammed. |
| A．It is rewarding to try new things. | B．The old methods still work today. |
| C．It pays to put theory into practice. | D．The simplest way is the best way. |
3 . On a recent afternoon, some 60 years after they graduated from grammar school, Kathleen Rys, 72, and her sister Lorraine O’Kelly, 70, sat down and had a meal with a classmate, Bruce Smit, 71 for the first time.
In the 1950s, Lorraine and Kathleen Rys’ family moved from Chicago to Monee. As new kids at Monee Elementary School, they soon found themselves on the outs with other students.
“I would be with the other guys and see Kathleen walking down the hallway, her head down, holding her books, walking slowly. And all of us guys would be flat against the wall until she passed. Then we’d burst into laughter. How rude is that? It’s just crazy.” said Smit, a doctor whose wife, Tammy, organized the meeting.
The women said none of the teachers cared about it. “We just kept it to ourselves.” Lorraine said.
Over the years, Tammy Smit said, “Bruce would just start to cry at times. He’d wonder what happened to the sisters, if they landed OK.” One day a few weeks ago, Tammy took to the internet and found Mary O’Kelly, Lorraine’s daughter, and offered to set up a meeting. The idea of revisiting the pain was not well- received by Kathleen, who had never married, let alone gone on a date. It took some convincing, but Lorraine finally got Kathleen to agree to meet with Bruce.
Bruce broke into tears. “I’m so ashamed, so embarrassed,” he said. “But I’m so happy you’re still here and that I can finally apologize.” He said he hopes his apology will encourage others to seek forgiveness for the pain they make on others. Lorraine said, “This is a beautiful thing. It’s just wonderful that a person from 60 years ago can ask for forgiveness. It’s like a miracle to us. It’s a healing to us.”
1. What can we learn from the first three paragraphs?| A．Kathleen made her classmates afraid of her at school. |
| B．Kathleen was once hurt by her classmates at school. |
| C．Bruce Smit asked his wife to organize the meeting. |
| D．Bruce Smit spoke ill of Kathleen. |
| A．The guys’ meeting. | B．Kathleen’s slow pace. |
| C．The guys’ apology. | D．Kathleen’s suffering. |
| A．Angry. | B．Excited. | C．Anxious. | D．Unwilling. |
| A．Bruce was embarrassed for his apology. | B．The other guys apologized to the two sisters. |
| C．Bruce and the two sisters felt a sense of relief. | D．Lorraine thought the apology came a little late. |
4 . Over a four-year period, Swiss researchers have developed a machine that can keep human livers (肝)alive outside of the body for one week.
Livers are among the most commonly transplanted (移植)human organs. Current technology can only keep human livers alive for up to 24 hours. It is reported that, in 2017, about 8.000 liver transplants were performed in the U.S., of which 360 used livers from living givers In addition, about 11,500 people were registered on a waiting list to receive a liver transplant. Keeping livers alive and functioning for longer periods could greatly improve the chances of survival for patients.
The researchers say the purpose of their “Liver4Life” machine is to perform what they call liver perfusion (灌注)operations outside of the human body. Perfusion is the process by which blood or other liquids are pumped through organs and tissue. The machine keeps the liver at the right temperature and moves it in a way that would be natural in the body. Using a pump to fill the liver with blood acting like a human heart, the machine also provides oxygen to the organ, controls red blood cell levels and removes waste.
The research team began their experiments with livers from pigs. After repeated testing and engineering development, they succeeded in getting the pig livers to survive for seven days with support only provided from the Liver4Life machine. They also discovered the system can work to repair damaged livers. The team is now planning its next step to transplant machine-treated organs into patients.
Pierre-Alain Clavien. leader of the research said in a statement. “This technology will greatly increase the number of livers available for transplant, improving the chances of survival for patients. The success of this unique machine opens the way for many new applications in transplantation and cancer medicine.”
1. What does the author intend to do in paragraph 2?| A．Introduce a brand new topic for discussion. |
| B．Provide some latest data about present liver transplants. |
| C．Show the urgency of tech improvement in liver transplants. |
| D．Remind readers concerned of the importance of a healthy liver. |
| A．The machine. | B．The liver. |
| C．The temperature. | D．The tissue. |
| A．It is among the most commonly used machines for liver transplants. |
| B．It is aimed to carry out liver perfusion operations in the human body. |
| C．It can perform several functions to keep the liver working normally. |
| D．It can be used to keep the pig livers alive for more than one week. |
| A．A biology textbook. | B．A first aid brochure. |
| C．A social web page. | D．A health magazine. |
As many as two-thirds of the city’s 21 million residents live in slums. “Most girls are trapped in a terrible cycle of poverty. Many of them are not thinking of education, a plan for the future,” Abisoye Ajayi-Akinfolarin, a computer programmer in Lagos, recalls. But several times a week, girls like Okpoe get a glimpse of another world when they attend GirlsCoding, a free program run by the Pearls Africa Foundation that seeks to educate and excite girls about computer programming. Since 2012, the group has helped more than 400 disadvantaged girls gain the technical skills and confidence they need to transform their lives.
It’s the vision of Ajayi-Akinfolarin, who left a successful career to devote herself to this work. She'd noticed how few women worked in this growing field-a 2013 government survey found that less than 8% of Nigerian women were employed in technology jobs. She wanted to fix the gender gap. “Technology is a space that’s dominated by men. Why should we leave that to guys?” she said. “I believe girls need opportunities.”
Now, dozens of girls aged 10 to 17 get trained in computer programming technology. “I believe you can still find diamonds in these places,” Ajayi-Akinfolarin said. “They need to be shown another life.” One way her program does this is by taking the students to visit tech companies — not only showing them what technology can do, but also helping them visualize themselves joining the industry.
Okpoe, for one, has taken this to heart. She helped create an app called Makoko Fresh that went live this summer, enabling fishermen like her father to sell seafood directly to customers. She even wants to become a software engineer and hopes to study computer science at Harvard. “One thing I want my girls to hold onto is, regardless of where they are coming from, that they can make it,” Ajayi said. “They are coders. They are thinkers. Their future is bright.”
1. What can we learn about GirlsCoding?| A．It encourages girls to land a job in education. |
| B．It offers Nigerian girls in need part-time jobs. |
| C．It helps girls working in Lagos to fight poverty. |
| D．It teaches girls in Makoko computer programming. |
| A．Men could do far better in technology jobs. |
| B．Girls should get equal work opportunities. |
| C．Men normally got paid more than women. |
| D．Girls tended to devote themselves to work. |
| A．Rebuilding the girls’ confidence. |
| B．Training the girls to find diamonds. |
| C．Presenting a different life to the girls. |
| D．Taking the girls to technology companies. |
| A．She got fishermen to benefit from her app. |
| B．She was admitted to Harvard University. |
| C．She took her father’s suggestion to heart. |
| D．She made some changes to computer science. |
6 . When I stepped out of Heathrow Airport, the British accents were music to my ears! The roads were so empty and traffic was so organized, with open spaces everywhere and so few people on the streets—what a difference from where 1 came—Mumbai. The difference was even more obvious after I had spent 21 years of my life living in that place. The streets were unfamiliar, and the faces were all foreign.
I boarded my bus for my university town. I felt like I had been in a fairytale book—the small houses, the quiet streets and the well-dressed people among other things. A small and beautiful three-storeyed building is quite a rarity back home and here, I have yet to see a building taller than that! Back home in India, the kind of rent I pay here could have afforded me a luxurious(豪华的） 2 bedroom-hall-kitchen apartment in a good location. But my accommodation here is the size of my bathroom back home! It’s just a fact... reality can be rude at times!
I really cherish the first day of my new university. I’ve met so many students from countries that I didn’t even know. But living alone in a new place, away from the protection of my family and friends, is a different experience altogether—a wonderful experience of further education!
It's been almost two months now. The novelty(新奇)is gradually disappearing, and the dust is settling down. It’s all just daily now but I feel fully settled. I really like this place. It feels like home!
1. What does the underlined part “that place” in paragraph 1 refer to?| A．Heathrow Airport. | B．Britain. |
| C．Mumbai. | D．A university of India. |
| A．Dirty and noisy. | B．Different but poor. |
| C．Hopeful and inspiring. | D．Strange but beautiful. |
| A．An international student. | B．A tourist from India. |
| C．A British college teacher. | D．An unknown writer. |
| A．The author is less interested in everything because of dust. |
| B．The author still feels curious about everything around. |
| C．The author has been used to the new environment. |
| D．The author feels like going home after nearly two months. |
7 . Pigeons (鸽子) may be considered mice of the sky, but some scientists have found greater value in these urban birds: the blueprint for a new generation of flying machines.
Birds can transform the shape of their wings by fanning out their feathers or moving them closer together. Those adjustments allow birds to cut through the sky more flexibly than rigid drones (无人机). Now, using new insights into exactly how pigeons ‘joints control the spread of their wing feathers, researchers have built a robotic pigeon. This research paves the way for creating more light aircraft, says Dario Floreano, a roboticist in Switzerland not involved in the work.
“What’s really cool about this robot is that you can make adjustments in a robotic wing that you could never do when studying flight in a bird”, says David Lentink, an engineer and biologist at Stanford University. A controllable robotic pigeon solves that problem. In flight tests, Lentink’s team observed that bending only the fingers of one wing eased the robot into a banked turn-offering the first evidence that birds may sometimes use just their fingers to direct in flight. In a second study, Lentink’s group used their robotic wing design to confirm another insight into bird flight: how gaps are prevented from forming between feathers on extended wings.
This is the best set of robotic wings yet for testing how birds adjust their flight feathers to move through the air, says Tyson Hedrick, a biomechanist. But “there’s plenty of room for improvement.” For instance, a future flying robot could include a shoulder joint to investigate how waving a bird’s wings up and down influences flight, he says.
1. What is the newly-found worth of pigeons?| A．They help study other species. |
| B．They protect other urban birds. |
| C．They provide proof of mice’s harm. |
| D．They inspire a new aircraft. |
| A．Negative. | B．Positive. |
| C．Neutral. | D．Critical. |
| A．Pigeons in flight can hardly be observed. |
| B．People can’t make adjustments in birds’ wings. |
| C．It is difficult for pigeons to make a banked turn. |
| D．Pigeons fail to control the spread of their wing feathers. |
| A．A travel journal. |
| B．A travel brochure. |
| C．A science fiction. |
| D．A science magazine. |
8 . In life，once on a path，we tend to follow it，for better or worse.What's sad is that even if it's the latter，we often accept it anyway because we are so used to the way things are that wed don't even recognize that they could be different This is a phenomenon psychologist call functional fixedness.
This classic experiment will give you an idea of how it works and a sense of whether you may have fallen into the same trap: People are given a box of tacks (大头钉) and some matches and asked to find a way to attach a candle to a wall so that it burns properly.
Typically, the subjects try tacking the candle to the wall or lighting it to fix it with melted wax. The psychologists had, of course, arranged it so that neither of these obvious approaches would work. The tacks are too short, and the paraffin (石蜡) doesn't stick to the wall. So how can you complete the task? The successful technique is to use the tack box as a candle-holder. You empty it, tack it to the wall. and stand the candle inside it. To think of that, you have to look beyond the box's usual role as a receptacle just for tacks and re-imagine it serving an entirely new purpose. That is difficult because we all suffer to one degree or another from functional fixedness.
The inability to think in new ways affects people in every corner of society. The political theorist Hannah Arendt coined the phrase“frozen thoughts”to describe deeply held ideas that we no longer question but should. In Arendt's eyes, the self- content reliance on such accepted “truths”also made people blind to ideas that didn't fit their worldview, even when there was plenty of evidence for them.
Frozen thinking has nothing to do with intelligence, she said,“It can be found in highly intelligent people.”
1. What does the underlined word“it”in paragraph 2 refer to?| A．The experiment. | B．Functional fixedness. |
| C．The path. | D．The thinking. |
| A．Tacking the candle to the wall. |
| B．Fixing the candle with melted wax. |
| C．Using the tack box as a candle-holder. |
| D．Lighting the candle to stand it. |
| A．People should question. |
| B．We should be used to the way things are. |
| C．People shouldn't accept the idea that doesn't fit their worldview. |
| D．The smarter people are，the more open to the new things they are. |
| A．An interesting experiment |
| B．A psychological phenomenon. |
| C．A theory to be proved. |
| D．The opinion of Hannah Arendt. |
9 . It is a well accepted assumption that students come to colleges to get good grades and that they are usually too busy to do anything else.
But Connie Snyder Mick, an academic director of the Center for Social Concerns at the University of Notre Dame, says it is just half of the truth. There are many volunteering centers like hers at the colleges and universities in the United States. Mick says these centers help students seek an experience that may not be directly related to a student’s academic progress, but that is still important.
Volunteering is not uncommon in higher education. Many college groups organize volunteer events for different causes. Officials in charge of student housing often organize such events to help build a sense of community. Participation in these kinds of activities is good for students, Mick says. For example, the busy nature of college life can create a lot of stress for students. Doing something completely unrelated to a student's studies can help calm them by putting their mind on other things.
For a more meaningful addition to their college experience. Mick urges students to visit centers like the one she heads. She says these centers exist to create volunteer opportunities that are more complex and meaningful than just a day spent cleaning a local park or raising money, for example.
Such volunteering centers often partner with local organizations that serve the people of the nearby communities. Even for students with little interest in building a connection with the local communities, there is still value in what volunteer centers have to offer, Mick says. She notes some opportunities can push students to use what they are learning in the classroom out in the real world and having that kind of experience can make a student appealing to employers in the years to come.
1. What does the underlined word “that” in paragraph 2 refer to?| A．Academic progress. |
| B．College education. |
| C．Volunteering experience. |
| D．Center for Social Concerns. |
| A．To give students good part-time jobs. |
| B．To raise money for different celebrations. |
| C．To help build a closer bond among the students. |
| D．To improve the living conditions for the students. |
| A．By helping them focus on their study. |
| B．By offering chances to test their knowledge. |
| C．By protecting them from the local communities. |
| D．By increasing their competitiveness in the job market. |
| A．Colorful College Life in the USA |
| B．Guidelines for Volunteering Center Selection |
| C．Volunteering: a Meaningful Addition to College Life |
| D．A Valuable Platform: Mick's Center for Social Concerns |
10 . Last May I was hired by a large government agency. I had seven coworkers and a boss, Mrs. King. Our job was to sort huge amounts of mail into four hundred slots( 位置). We delivered the mail out of grocery carts we wheeled from office to office, picking up outgoing mail as we went along. Each mail delivery took an entire half-day to sort and deliver.
My troubles began almost as soon as I arrived. I was horrified to see that the slots were labeled not with people’s names but with their initials. Without thinking, I asked why this was a good idea, only to receive a sharp glance from Mrs. King. So I repeated the question. This time Mrs. King told me not to question what I didn’t understand. It was the first of many such exchanges, and I hadn’t been on the job a half-hour. The longer I worked at the job, the more I saw how inefficient all the procedures were, from delivery routes to times for coffee breaks.
When I asked Mrs. King about the procedures, however, she always reacted the same way. I continued with it over the next seven weeks, but my efforts were fruitless, even counterproductive.
Two months later, I was fired. I objected, of course. The personnel manager asked me if I had ever heard of the barnyard pecking order: the top chicken pecks on the one below it, the second pecks on the third, and so on all the way down the line to the lowliest chicken, whose life is a constant misery. Mrs. King, the manager said, was that lowliest chicken at the bottom of the pecking order in the agency’s management. No one should doubt for a moment that she ruled her rooster.
I reflected upon my adventure in the agency. Eventually I saw how arrogant, and how unsympathetic, my behavior had been. In my next job, I ’ll learn the pecking order before I become a reformer, if I do.
1. What trouble did the author meet when he started his job?| A．He had too many co-workers and a boss to work with. |
| B．He found the slots were labeled not with full names but initials. |
| C．He had to spend too much time in sorting and delivering. |
| D．His boss Mrs King glanced at him sharply and answered him quickly. |
| A．He questioned his boss Mrs King endlessly. |
| B．He did not work according to work procedures. |
| C．He worked inefficiently. |
| D．He did not make his efforts to work. |
| A．work procedure | B．job morality |
| C．production line | D．ranking system |
| A．Honesty | B．Self-confidence |
| C．Respect | D．Perseverance |
