1 . When a close friend dies, it often forces you to consider your own death. The more you have in common with the friend, the more his death will make you wonder about your own. Sometimes you will naturally say to yourself, "It could just as easily have been me." Such a death has a way of reminding us how fragile life is, and it may cause you to reassess(重新评价)the direction of your own life.
Jack's story is a good example. A successful businessman making a lot of money, Jack didn't spend as much time with his family as he wanted. His job required him to work long hours. But three years ago one of his best friends, a man who worked in the same office, had a heart attack. He died while celebrating his daughter’s eighteenth birthday in a restaurant. He was only fifty years old.
Not long after his friend's death, Jack started to have a chest pain. Finally he had a good physical check-up. He received a clean bill of health. But the chest pain continued. He kept thinking of the death of his friend. Jack thought about how much his friend missed in life and he saw how hard it was for his friend's family to manage after he passed away.
Jack realized that he didn't want to end up his life that way. He talked his feelings over with his wife and children, and decided to change his way of life. The family moved to a small town where he started a simple life. Now he is running a small art gallery（画廊）. He is relaxed, and says he has never been so happy in his life, and he has got no more chest pain.
1. Your close friend's death is ________ to you.| A．a warning | B．common | C．a direction of life | D．an example |
| A．The doctor didn't write a word on his bill |
| B．The doctor didn't want Jack to pay for the bill |
| C．The doctor didn't find anything wrong with him |
| D．The doctor didn't want to treat his pain |
| A．lose much interest in life | B．realize that he missed the friend very much |
| C．doubt his way of life | D．ill for some time |
| A．earns less money | B．gets more time |
| C．has a happier life | D．does all these mentioned above |
2 . The story of English language is a story of change.The old English language, or old English, is quite different from Modern English.If we do not study old English, we can’t understand it.Some of the words are the same, but many are not used now.The story of the English language begins some time after the year 400 AD.At this time, some people came to England from North-west Europe.There were many groups of people.They were called Angles (盎格鲁人), Saxons(撒克逊人)and Jutes(朱特人),whose language, old English, is like some of the modern language of North-West Europe.In old English, the ending had many meanings.They showed past time and present time and many other things.In Modern English, most of these endings are gone.This is the biggest difference between Old and Modern English.
1. What does the first sentence of the passage mean?| A．English is a language that has changed a lot as time passes by. |
| B．The story of English language often changes. |
| C．The old English language has changed into Modern English. |
| D．The story of English language is one of how people change the language. |
| A．2,500 years | B．2,300 years | C．more than 1,600 years | D．more than 400 years |
| A．Old English | B．North-West Europe | C．North-West English | D．English |
| A．The endings of words gave different special meanings. |
| B．It was spoken by many groups of the people from North-West Europe. |
| C．Its words are very different from those Modern English. |
| D．It is easy for most English-speakers today to understand the language. |
3 . What is language for? Some people seem to think it's for practicing grammar rules and earning lists of words—the longer the list, the better. That's wrong．Language is for the exchange（交流）of ideas and information．It's meaningless knowing all about a language if you can't use it freely. Many students I have met know hundreds of grammar rules, but they can't speak correctly or fluently（流利地）．They are afraid of making mistakes．One shouldn't be afraid of making mistakes when speaking a foreign language. Native speakers make mistakes and break rules, too．Bernard saw once wrote, "Foreigners often speak English too correctly．"But the mistakes that native speakers make are different from those that Chinese students make. They're English mistakes in the English language．And if enough native speakers break a rule, it is no longer a rule. What used to be wrong becomes right．People not only make history, they make language．But a people can only make its own language．It can't make another people's language. So Chinese students of English should pay attention to grammar, but they shouldn't overdo（做过头）it. They should put communication first.
1. Language is used to ________.| A．express oneself | B．practise grammar rules |
| C．talk with foreigners only | D．learn lists of words |
| A．never makes mistakes | B．often makes mistakes |
| C．can't avoid making mistakes | D．always makes mistakes |
| A．foreigners speak correct English |
| B．foreigners speak incorrect English |
| C．foreigners speak English according to the grammar rules |
| D．foreigners never make mistakes when they speak English |
| A．speak in Chinese way |
| B．speak by the rules |
| C．speak to native speakers |
| D．not be afraid of making mistakes |
4 . A mother of a cheerful five-year-old just returned from a meeting of the National Organization for Women. Inspired by exciting dreams for the possibilities of womanhood, she asked her daughter what she wanted to be when she grew up. Little Lisa quickly answered, “A nurse.”
There was a time when nursing was thought of as a woman’s job and the answer somehow seemed not to be satisfied. She had, after all, just returned from a new meeting.
“You can be anything you want to be,” she reminded her daughter. “You can be a lawyer, a doctor, a banker, president of the country — you can be anything.”
“Anything?” Lisa asked.
“Anything!” her mother smiled.
“I know,” Lisa said. “I want to be a horse!”
Lisa’s dream may need some improvement, but there is plenty of time for that. When do we give up dreaming about the future? When do we resign (听任) ourselves to simply replaying dreams from the past?
Maybe her dream needs to mature (成熟) a bit, but would you rather have the optimism (乐观) of a five-year-old girl who wants to be a horse, or the pessimism (悲观) of an adult who says in despair, “I can’t be anything at all”?
Teddy Roosevelt said, “Keep your eyes on the stars and your feet on the ground.” I believe that is the way to make those dreams come true. So everyone need look up and dream of something beautiful while working hard to the dream.
1. What did the girl really want to be when she grew up?| A．A nurse. | B．A horse. | C．A banker. | D．A lawyer. |
| A．Satisfied. | B．Puzzled. | C．Disappointed. | D．Excited. |
| A．stop children dreaming of something strange |
| B．advise parents how to educate children |
| C．encourage adults to learn from children |
| D．help children to set up a big goal |
| A．Stand on the ground and watch the stars |
| B．Have a big dream and work hard |
| C．Protect your eyesight while working |
| D．Find a good way to watch the stars |
5 . “I have cancer.”Mom said and held me in a tight hug.I could feel her chest shaking as she tried not to cry but failed.
For all of my twenty-four years,my mom had been supportive.Strength and protection had always flowed from her to me.Now I knew it would have to flow the other way.
Mom didn’t stay down for long.After the shock of breast-cancer,she armed herself with a notebook and a pen and a thousand questions for the doctors.She took notes on white blood cell counts and medications(药物)with long names as though she were studying for entrance exams into medical school.”The not-knowing is the worst.”she said.
The operation was successful.The chemo(化疗)was the harder part.I went with Mom to every chemo treatment.She rarely complained,though her hair was gone and her toenails and fingernails fell out one by one.She joked that she could save money on nail polish and put it toward the doctor bills,even though she never wore nail polish.”Cancer can take my hair,my nails,my health,my very life. But it can’t take my smile.”Mom said.
Mom learned to share her fears with me,and it formed an even deeper bond between us.Yet I am certain there were fears she didn’t share because she was still protecting me-worries she only shared with Dad.Even in the darkest hours,she would just joke about the cancer. Mom always said,”When you look your greatest fear in the eye and laugh at it,you take away some of its power.”
Mom was one of the lucky ones.She did beat her cancer,though not without scars.From her,I’ve learned I may not get to choose what I face,but I do get to choose how I face it.
1. What does the underlined sentence in Paragraph 2 mean?| A．There were other ways to treat cancer. |
| B．Knowledge of cancer would be helpful. |
| C．Mom had to stay stronger to beat cancer. |
| D．I should be the one being there for Mom. |
| A．Humorous and generous. |
| B．Considerate and ambitious. |
| C．Optimistic and determined. |
| D．Caring and knowledgeable. |
| A．The fear Mom shared with me. |
| B．The ways Mom faced fear. |
| C．The jokes Mom told me. |
| D．The bond Mom and I formed. |
| A．Luck counts in beating diseases. |
| B．Complaint does no good to one’s health. |
| C．Positive attitudes get one through hardship for |
| D．Sharing feelings helps reduce sufferings a lot. |
6 . From driving to landing on moon, more and more human tasks are being taken over by artificial intelligence(AI-人工智能). It will make everyday tasks easier and bring benefits to different industries.
And yet, like any other technology, AI will also bring risks and dangers. When people mention that AI could be dangerous, they think of the situation in films where an AI program decides to kill or enslave all humans. While this possibility is unlikely for now, there are many other dangers that AI could bring to mankind.
In February 2018, a group of AI experts got together to discuss the possible misuse of AI. What they found was that “Every AI advance by the good guys is an advance for the bad guys, too”. Their main worry was that criminals could use AI for many bad purposes, including using AI to create websites that could steal people’s personal information. Another possible risk was faster hacking(黑客)—AI programs could be taught to find weaknesses in software and break into computer systems. Some other risks were as dramatic as the ones we see in books and movies. For example, long-distant attacks could be made easier through the use of AI. And, finally, there were some worries on imitating voices as well. It is possible that AI could be used to make false photos and videos. In china, tech giant Baidu has developed a program called Deep Voice that can “clone” anyone’s voice by studying a 3.7-second audio sample (声音样本).
Many people in the tech world have expressed worry about AI. People like US businessmen Bill Gates and Elon Musk have called for the industry to be more strictly controlled, as there are few laws currently governing the use of AI. Famous British Physicist Stephen Hawking even thought AI could finally cause the end of mankind. “Once humans develop artificial intelligence, it will take off and redesign itself at an alarming rate. Humans…couldn’t compete and would be replaced.”
1. What cannot possibly be done by AI right now?| A．Driving cars. | B．Landing on moon. |
| C．Playing games. | D．Ruling all humans. |
| A．Every coin has two sides. | B．Prevention is better than cure. |
| C．Risk nothing, gain nothing. | D．One’s meat is another’s poison. |
| A．One. | B．Two. |
| C．Three. | D．Four. |
| A．To show Hawking’s perfect prediction. |
| B．To strengthen the high position of Hawking. |
| C．To help readers understand the serious situation. |
| D．To introduce the famous scientist--Stephen Hawking. |
| A．Risks and dangers of AI. | B．Guidance of AI usage. |
| C．Advantages and disadvantages of AI. | D．Development of AI industry. |
7 . Downloading music over the Internet is pretty common among high school and college students. However, when students download and share copyrighted music without permission, they are against the law.
A survey of young people’s music ownership has found that teenagers and college students have an average of more than 800 illegally copied songs each on their digital music players．Half of those surveyed share all the music on their hard drive (硬盘), enabling others to copy hundreds of songs at any one time. Some students were found to have randomly linked their personal blogs to music sites, so as to allow free trial listening of copyrighted songs for blog visitors, or adopted some of the songs as the background music for their blogs. Such practices may be easy and free, but there are consequences.
Sandra Dowd, a student of Central Michigan University, was fined US $7,500 for downloading 501 files from Lime Wire, a peer-to-peer file sharing program. Sandra claimed that she was unaware that her downloads were illegal until she was contacted by authorities. Similarly, Mike Lewinski paid US $4,000 to settle a lawsuit（起诉）against him for copyright violation (违反). Mike expressed shock and couldn’t believe that this was happening to him. “I just wanted to save some money and I always thought the threat was just a scare tactic(战术).” “You know, everyone does it,” added Mike.
The RIAA （Recording Industry Association of America）, the organization that files lawsuits against illegal downloaders, states that suing (控告) students was by no means their first choice. Unfortunately, without the threat of consequences, students are just not changing their behavior. Education alone is not enough to stop the extraordinary growth of the illegal downloading practice.
1. Why is it common for students to download copyrighted music?| A．They want their friends to know that they are smart. |
| B．They don’t think that they will be caught. |
| C．They think it is a good way to make some extra money. |
| D．They are against copyright protection over Internet music. |
| A．One should not be afraid of threats. |
| B．A lawsuit will result from the threat. |
| C．No serious consequence will follow the threat. |
| D．It is unfair to scare people with a threat. |
| A．Copyright Violators, Beware! |
| B．How to Get Free Music Online! |
| C．A Survey of Students’ Downloading Habits |
| D．Get rid of Illegal Music Download? Impossible! |
