1 . 任务型阅读

For Sara’s family, decorating the yard was always a celebration for the New year. This year it was Sara’s father’s turn to hang colorful lights all round their roof according to family tradition.

On New Year’s Eve, light enveloped the whole house. Everything seemed to be going fine until misfortune happened: Sara’s father passed away suddenly. Sara was very sad. However, seeing the hanging lights, she was in a state of feeling happy, gaining a tiny thread of relief.

The lights reminded her of her beloved father. Taking them down meant the final connection with her father would disappear, which she wasn’t ready to accept. So she kept them. One day in March, Sara received a typed note in the mail. “Take your New Year’s lights down!” The letter read, which made Sara angry. She couldn’t hold back her anger, and shared it with her story online. Messages of support flooded into Sara’s inbox quickly. Besides, one day, Sara was driving back home and surprised to find that New Year’s decorations reappeared on houses in her neighborhood —her neighbors had made a collective (共同的) decision to hang their lights back up in honor of her father!

She never learned the sender’s identity. But for her, that hurtful deed was far less important than so many acts of kindness. A few weeks later, Sara eventually took down the decorations. “It was hard. But due to all the support and love, it was not as hard as I thought.”

1. 选词填空：根据文本内容从方框中选择恰当的词并用其正确形式填入文本图示中，每词限用一次，有两词为多余选项。

hang     relief     remind     painful     willing     annoy     kind     easy     appearance     tradition     lucky     post

Sara’s New Year Lights

It is _________ for Sara’s family to celebrate the New Year by decorating the yard.	→	Sara’s father ________ the colorful lights all round their roof.
↓		↓
_________, Sara’s father died suddenly and she was in great ________.	→	The lights were a _________ of her father, so Sara was ________ to take them down.
↓		↓
Sara received a typed note asking her to take the New Year’s lights down, which made her _________.	→	Sara ________ it with her story online and messages of support came flooding in.
↓		↓
Sara was surprised to find the _______ of the New Year’s decorations in her neighborhood.	→	Because of the ________ and support of her neighbors, Sara was relieved and decided to take down the decorations.

2. Why did Sara feel happy when seeing the hanging lights and what did she decide to do with the colorful lights?
_________________________________________________________________________________________________
3. What’s the purpose of Sara sharing the typed note with her story online?
_________________________________________________________________________________________________
4. How did Sara feel when she made a decision to take down the decorations?
_________________________________________________________________________________________________

2 . Little was road testing his mountain bike outside of Columbus, when his ________ partner, Dixon, stopped suddenly. Something in the ________ moving among the trees caught her attention. It ________ out to be a young Labrador, when they approached.

“He was really bony, and had a ________ leg,” Little told CBS News. They fed the ________ dog food and water. They also quickly realized the dog was coming with them, but they had no ________ how. “Ten miles from the town, we couldn’t ________ him,” Little said. “Out there next to the Oxbow Meadows, he was going to ________ as alligators’ (鳄鱼) food.”

An idea hit Little. He ________ picked up his new friend and slipped the 38-pound dog’s hind legs (后腿) into the ________ pockets of his cycling suit. Then he hung the dog’s front paws over his ________.

“He was injured, so he wasn’t trying to ________,” Little said. “He was also happy that we were there, touching and ________ him.” After a 30-minute ride, they arrived at a store. That was when Andrea Shaw, a lawyer on business, ________ to pass by. The dog went directly toward her, licking her, and “________ her”, said Dixon. Shaw was ________ and, after learning what had happened, declared her plan: “I am ________ this dog.” Shaw named him Columbo after the town where they’d met and ________ an operation on his leg.

Today, Columbo is living a ________ life on a farm with a horse, a pony, and her six-year-old boy keeping him ________. Literally the luckiest dog alive.

1.

A．hiking

B．riding

C．skipping

D．hunting

2.

A．air

B．center

C．distance

D．open

3.

A．burst

B．set

C．turned

D．left

4.

A．weak

B．broken

C．hairy

D．artificial

5.

A．poor

B．aggressive

C．fierce

D．stubborn

6.

A．finding

B．idea

C．suspicion

D．assumption

7.

A．punish

B．follow

C．forget

D．leave

8.

A．refer to

B．end up

C．die out

D．tear apart

9.

A．powerfully

B．desperately

C．casually

D．carefully

10.

A．long

B．short

C．back

D．front

11.

A．shoulders

B．head

C．arms

D．back

12.

A．fight

B．witness

C．wonder

D．remove

13.

A．urging

B．identifying

C．comforting

D．separating

14.

A．submitted

B．attached

C．accustomed

D．happened

15.

A．thankful to

B．cautious about

C．sympathetic to

D．keen on

16.

A．touched

B．annoyed

C．convinced

D．terrified

17.

A．keeping

B．training

C．walking

D．calming

18.

A．canceled

B．performed

C．scheduled

D．observed

19.

A．noisy

B．disturbing

C．specific

D．merry

20.

A．leader

B．company

C．defender

D．inspector

3 . It’s an attractive idea: by playing online problem-solving, matching and other games for a few minutes a day, people can improve such mental abilities as reasoning, language skills and memory. But whether these games deliver on those promises is up for debate.

Now, in perhaps the biggest real-world test of these programs, Stojanoski, a cognitive (认知的) neuroscientist at Western University in Ontario, and colleagues tested more than 1,000 people who regularly use brain trainers against around 7,500 people who don’t do the mini brain workouts.

The researchers involved 8,563 volunteers globally. Participants filled out an online questionnaire about their training habits, opinions about training benefits and which, if any, program they used. Some 1,009 participants reported using brain training programs for about eight months, on average, though the time length ranged from two weeks to more than five years. Next, the volunteers completed 12 cognitive tests assessing memory, reasoning and language skills. They faced memory exercises, spatial reasoning tasks such as mentally rotating objects and pattern-finding puzzles, and strategy challenges.

When researchers looked at the results, they saw that brain trainers on average had no mental ascendancy over the other group in memory, language skills and reasoning. Even among those who had used training programs for at least 18 months, brain training didn’t increase thinking abilities above the level of people who didn’t use the programs.

“No matter how we sliced the data, we were unable to find any evidence that brain training was associated with cognitive abilities,” says Stojanoski, “brain training may be beneficial in specific situations, but part of our goal was to look at brain training in the real world.”

That real world may be the best brain trainer, says Elizabeth Stine, a cognitive aging scientist at the University of Illinois. While it’s possible to improve mental abilities, she advocates practicing those skills in different real-life situations. “That’s a much better use of one’s time than sitting at a computer and doing little tasks.”

1. What’s the purpose of the research?

A．To test participants’ mental ability in the real world.

B．To discover new ways to improve people’s intelligence.

C．To find out whether brain trainers are beneficial to users.

D．To compare the effects of two types of brain training games.

2. What scientific methods were applied to the research?

A．Survey and comparison.	B．Experiment and analysis.
C．Interview and examination.	D．Observation and recording.

3. What does the underlined word “ascendancy” in paragraph 5 probably mean?

A．Problem.

B．Advantage.

C．Ability.

D．Benefit.

4. Which can be the best title for this passage?

A．Smart Games: Not Useful in Reality	B．Brain Training: Better than Expected
C．A Research: the Biggest Real-world Test	D．An Attractive Idea: Getting Smart via Games

4 . 假设你是学校英语报的记者。上周你校举办了田径运动会，请你根据下列内容，写一篇英语报道：
1. 参加人员;
2. 印象最深刻的项目;
3. 活动反响。
注意：1. 标题已为你写好;
2. 词数100左右。

An Unforgettable Sports Meet

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8 . 听下面一段长对话，回答以下小题。
1. What does the woman like most about China?

A．Warm-hearted Chinese.

B．Mouth-watering food.

C．Breathtaking scenery.

2. Where did the man go this summer?

A．France.

B．Canada.

C．England

9 . 假定你是李华。你的外国朋友Smith对中国饮食文化很感兴趣。新年临近，他写信向你了解新年的传统食物，请你给他写一封回信。内容包括：
1. 年夜饭经典的食物；
2. 食物的寓意；
3. 邀请他来中国体验。
注意：写作词数应为80左右。
参考词汇：年夜饭 family reunion dinner
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10 . 阅读下面短文，在空白处填入1个适当的单词或括号内单词的正确形式。

Zibo city in China’s Shandong province has     1     (unexpected) gone heated on social media since late February due to its unique taste of barbecue. This has provided an opportunity for the local government     2     (promote) tourism and spending.     3     latest promotion gives visitors free admission to 10 scenic spots in the city as long as their train ticket’s final destination is Zibo. Passengers     4     take the train are greeted by posters reading “Welcome to the Special BBQ Train” and they receive special gifts. Videos of the experience have been posted on social media,     5     (attract) more visitors.

Zibo’s barbecue is different from other types in China as it     6     (make) on a stove (炉灶) . Many young people     7     (crowd) into the city to try the dish since a group of college students posted videos of themselves enjoying it in February.     8     (search) for “Zibo barbecue” on the Internet have increased by 770 percent compared to the same period last year, and lines outside barbecue restaurants on several streets reach for more than 100 meters     9     the weekends.

Zibo is now a must-visit destination for food     10     (love), because they can experience the unique and delicious barbecue and explore the city’s scenic spots there.