1 . There are about fifteen hundred languages in the world.
But only a few of them are very
Is it easy or difficult to learn English? Different people may have different
“Learn English in six month, or your
The only language that seems easy to learn is the mother tongue. We should remember that we all learned our own language well when we were
So it is hard to say that learning English is easy, because a good command of English
| A．difficult | B．important | C．necessary | D．easy |
| A．native | B．foreign | C．useful | D．mother |
| A．questions | B．problems | C．ideas | D．answers |
| A．found | B．watched | C．noticed | D．known |
| A．knowledge | B．time | C．money | D．English |
| A．make | B．help | C．let | D．allow |
| A．spelling | B．grammar | C．English | D．pronunciation |
| A．happens | B．knows | C．seems | D．feel |
| A．students | B．children | C．babies | D．grown-ups |
| A．Imagine | B．Mind | C．Do | D．Think of |
| A．using | B．thinking | C．trying | D．practicing |
| A．time | B．money | C．language | D．practice |
| A．depends | B．tries | C．has | D．takes |
| A．uses | B．takes | C．gets | D．costs |
| A．do | B．work | C．help | D．master |
2 . Japanese automaker Toyota has announced plans to create a model “city of the future” to test and develop new technologies. The project will involve “building a complete city from the ground up” at the foot of Japan’s Mount Fuji. The company announced the plans during the yearly CES technology show in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Toyota calls the project “Woven City”. It is meant to be a model for creating “smart cities” around the world. A smart city is an area developed with high-speed internet connectivity to link major information and communication systems. These systems-powered by data and sensors-can improve living conditions relating to things like energy, transportation and health.
Smart cities can be designed to greatly cut human-caused pollution, reduce traffic problems and create new uses for internet technology to affect everyday life. The Woven City will aim to be a “living laboratory” for technologies including self-driving systems, robotics, smart homes and artificial intelligence.
The city will be built on land where an automobile factory currently operates. The city will cover about 70 hectares of land and is designed to hold around 2,000 people. Residents could include Toyota employees and visiting researchers. The city will have its own police officers, fire and emergency services and schools. The city’s main electrical power will come from hydrogen fuel technology. The city is planned to be fully sustainable, with buildings made mostly of wood. Buildings will be made with solar equipment to produce additional electricity.
1. What do we know from Paragraph 2?| A．The explanation of a smart city. | B．The living conditions in the future. |
| C．Clean energy for “city of the future”. | D．The importance of communication systema |
| A．When Woven City will be completed. | B．Who will be allowed to live in Woven City. |
| C．Why solar energy will be used in Woven City. | D．How a car factory will be changed into Woven City. |
| A．Safe. | B．Rapid. | C．Intelligent | D．Comfortable |
| A．The Way Human Beings Will Live in the Future |
| B．World-Leading Technologies of Toyota’s Smart Home |
| C．“City of the Future” to Be Built to Test New Technologies |
| D．Great Changes Brought by the Internet in Our Future Life |
3 . VARK is a questionnaire that helps with your learning by suggesting the strategies you should be using. According to VARK, some people learn best by reading materials, while others are more visually-oriented (视觉导向的) and must see something to understand. Others might fall into the auditory learning subtype, meaning they tend to urderstand materials by listening to instructions. There are also kinesthetic (动觉的) learners, or those who learn best through hands-on activities.
Learning style theories had their popularity in the 1990s, when Beth Rogowsky was just starting as a middle school teacher. “At that time, when my students were given some learning material, if they disliked reading it, they could listen to it instead as long as they’d like to listen to others reading it; whatever they preferred, they would be encouraged to do it,” says Rogowsky, who is now an associate professor of teaching and learning at Bloomsburg University in Pennsylvania.
But when it comes to preferred learning styles, there’s a problem. The idea of using learning styles emerged in the 1980s as many researchers voiced their support, but few actually tested their concepts to confirm the validity in randomized, experimental settings. In the 2000s, when researchers started to do just that, they found little evidence that matching students to their supposed learning style helped them memorize information better.
Rogowsky herself has confirmed the belief that learning styles don’t hold up in her recent studies. In one study published in Frontiers in Psychology this year, Rogowsky and her colleagues tested fifth-graders with preferred auditory and visual learning styles. Students were given standardized reading tests, in both written and audio formats. The team didn’t uncover a relationship between their preferred learning styles and academic performance, according to Rogowsky.
The team’s study noted that a preference to learn material using a certain method could mask skill lack. “Someone who prefers to lean by listening instead of visual approaches might just have underdeveloped reading skills. Letting students learn in their preferred manner doesn’t push them to improve weaker skill sets,” Rogowsky says. “If you need to improve your skills, don’t just keep doing what’s easy to you.”
1. What’s the purpose of Paragraph 1?| A．To explain the complexity of the learning process. |
| B．To inspire people to actively engage in a questionnaire. |
| C．To show different people have different learning styles. |
| D．To suggest using VARK to choose efficient learning styles. |
| A．Encourage students to learn creatively. |
| B．Allow students to use their preferred learning style. |
| C．Help students improve their reading and listening ability. |
| D．Provide varied reading materials for students to choose from. |
| A．Correctness. | B．Faulty. | C．Arrangement. | D．Budget. |
| A．Students need to focus on their academic performance. |
| B．Students should stick to their favorite learning materials. |
| C．Students hiding skill lack can boost their confidence |
| D．Students should go beyond a certain preferred learning style. |
Lightning flashed through the darkness over Sibson’s bedroom skylight(天窗). Sibson was shaken by a clap of thunder before he knew what was happening. The storm had moved directly through his two-story wooden house. Then he heard the smoke alarm beeping.
Sibson rushed down the stairs barefoot to check. He opened the door to the basement, and flames exploded out. Sibson ran back upstairs to call 911 from his bedroom. “I felt glad because the room had a separate outdoor stairway,” he explained to the media later.
But the phone didn’t work, and when he tried to go down the outdoor stairway, he was stopped by a wall of flames. Sibson realized he was trapped. Suddenly, a piece of wood fell from the roof. Sharp pain raced through his body as he looked down and found his leg bleeding.
Sibson’s house was three kilometers off the main road and was so well hidden by trees that he knew calling for help would be fruitless.
Up a hill nearby lived Sibson’s neighbor, Huggons. He was lying in bed when something like a smoke alarm struck his ears. He jumped out of bed, took his phone and flashlight, and headed down the hillside toward the noise. That was when he saw the rolling heavy smoke.
Huggons dialed 911, and the operator warned him not to enter the house. But Huggons said, “There is no way I am going to listen to Sibson scream and die in that fire.”
“Anyone there?” Huggons called out. Then he heard “Help! I’m trapped!” coming from the second floor balcony. He entered the house, but soon had to run back to catch his breath.
After one more attempt to get inside the house, Huggons gave up and circled around back. The wind parted the smoke just enough for him to catch sight of Sibson. But there was no way to get to him.
With the wind fueling the fire, there was no time to waste and the second floor seemed to be falling down in the next minute.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
“Go! Leave me alone!” shouted Sibson with desperate tears in his eyes, “It will kill you, too.”
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
5 . “I think therefore I am”— mind over matter. What you expect from yourself and the world makes a big impact on the results of your efforts.
From a neuroscience perspective, the brain will believe anything you tell it, right and wrong. Research has shown that this phenomenon can have huge benefits when we approach a significant or difficult task. “We do know there’s the mind-body connection, which isn’t kind of mysterious or magical, and that this is in itself changing our physiology,” said David Robson, a science writer. “Think that you could catch up in a race or that your public speaking anxiety could help you perform better.”
Expectations, even negative ones, are meant to help our brains navigate (理解) a complicated world by simplifying our predictions of the wide range of outcomes to any situation. Those negative expectations can help us anticipate and avoid danger, but they aren’t always up to date with the context that surrounds us. And when you’re in the face of a challenge, inaccurate information can create obstacles of its own. Pessimistic thoughts really just put you in a position where you’re more vulnerable to actually experiencing that unpleasant or negative outcome.
Setting more positive expectations and hopefully acquiring the rewards starts with how you talk to yourself. When baseball players step up to the plate, they tell themselves they will knock it out of the park. Being aware of your thoughts and how you talk to yourself about a challenge can make a big impact.
We tend to see ourselves and our obstacles in two ways. Either our abilities are fixed or can grow, and our obstacles are a threat or a challenge. Shifting focus to believe that we can see difficulties as a challenge to be met rather than a threat to be avoided has been shown to result in more success. If you interpret that situation as a challenge, your physiological response will empower and equip you to be more creative and effective.
Having realistically optimistic expectations does better equip each of us to take up a challenge with our best resources, experts said.
1. What does the third paragraph mainly talk about?| A．The outcome of pessimistic thoughts. |
| B．The connection between the mind and body. |
| C．The advantages of positive expectations. |
| D．The pros and cons of negative expectations. |
| A．Thinking out loud. |
| B．Stepping up to the plate. |
| C．Challenging themselves. |
| D．Improving their abilities. |
| A．Avoiding threats and troubles. |
| B．Removing our obstacles in the way. |
| C．Shifting our focus to something else. |
| D．Regarding difficulties as challenges. |
| A．A history book. |
| B．A fantasy novel. |
| C．A science & wellness paper. |
| D．A sports & health report. |
6 . Role models are important for inspiring scientists, but new research suggest that scientists who are known for their hard work are more encouraging than scientists who are viewed as naturally brilliant.
In a series of studies, researchers found that young people were more motivated by scientists whose success was connected with efforts than those whose success was because of natural intelligence, even if that scientist was Albert Einstein.
Danfei Hu, a doctoral student at the Pennsylvania State University, and Janet N. Ann, an assistant professor of Psychology at William Paterson University, said the findings—recently published in Basic and Applied Social Psychology—will help deal with the certain secret about what it takes to succeed in science.
According to the researchers, there is concern in the science community with the number of students who run after careers in science during school only to drop out of those career paths once they graduate from college. To help solve the problem, Hu and Ann wanted to research role models, who give the students specific goals, behavior or strategies they can follow.
The researchers performed studies with 176 and 162 participants in each study respectively. In the first study, all participants read the same story about common struggles a scientist met in his science career. However, half were told the story was about Einstein, while half were told it was about Thomas Edison. Although the stories were the same, participants were more likely to believe natural brilliance was the reason for Einstein’s success. In addition, the participants who believe the story was about Edison were more motivated to complete a series of maths problems.
“This proved that people generally seem to view Einstein as a genius, with his success commonly linked to extraordinary talent,” Hu said. “Edison, on the other hand, is known for failing more than 1,000 times when trying to create the light bulb, and his success is linked to his efforts.” Hu added, “Knowing that something great can be achieved through hard work and efforts, more students will step into the science career confidently.”
1. What kind of scientist is more encouraging?| A．Those who are famous around the world. |
| B．Those who are viewed as naturally brilliant. |
| C．Those who are famous for their hard work. |
| D．Those who are viewed as great inventors. |
| A．There are fewer role models for students to follow. |
| B．Some scientists cannot give students specific goals. |
| C．The students will drop out of school soon. |
| D．Fewer students will work on science. |
| A．They knew the problems were given by Edison. |
| B．They believed they could solve the problems by working hard. |
| C．They believed they were as intelligent as Einstein. |
| D．They knew they were to work together with Einstein and Edison. |
| A．Einstein Is Less Encouraging Than Edison |
| B．Edison’s Achievements Are Greater |
| C．How to Be a Great Scientist |
| D．Einstein’s Success Story |
Once I went to a German city for vacation. The trip left a
Wherever I went, I asked people for directions. It surprised me that almost every young German could speak English
I thought Germans were not
Toby Mott was just an ordinary person working as an artist. But then, at the age of 36, he had an idea that made him famous. It started when he wanted
He took the Tshirts to a clothing store and they sold 40 in a week.
The 
Mott says, “I’m successful,
Most painters discover a style of painting that suits them and stick to that, especially if people admire their pictures. But Picasso, the great Spanish painter, was like a man who had not yet found his own particular style of painting. He kept on struggling to find the perfect expression till his death in 1973.
Some of Picasso’s paintings are rich, soft, colored and beautiful. Others are ugly and cruel and strange. But such paintings allow us to _____________ for ourselves. They force us to say to ourselves, “What does he see that makes him paint like that?” And we begin to look beneath the surface of the things we see.
Picasso painted thousands of pictures in different styles. Sometimes he painted the natural look of things. Sometimes he seemed to break them apart and throw the pieces in our faces. He showed us what the mind knows as well as what the eye sees. At the age of 90 he remained as curious about the world as he had been when he was young. That is why people have called him “the youngest painter in the world”.
1. What is the best title of the passage? (Please answer within 10 words.)2. Which sentence in the passage can be replaced by the following one ?
At times, things in some of his pictures seemed to be in disorder.
3. Please fill in the blank with proper words to complete the sentence.(Please answer within 10 words.)
4. Translate the underlined sentence in the last paragraph into Chinese.
10 . A decreasing birthrate depends to a large extent on the availability and use of birth control and on high living levels that make the production of additional children to provide necessary and inexpensive labor unnecessary. Family planning is a national policy in many industrial countries, such as Japan and most of European countries. As a result, in most cases the birthrate has decreased. Many developing countries have followed the lead of India (which has since 1952 conducted an extensive, but not totally successful，birth control program) in trying to promote family planning as a national policy. These countries include China, Kenya, Pakistan, Turkey, Egypt, and Chile.
In the United States, facts of the population question, such as birth control and abortion,_are among the most bitterly debated subjects. The United States has disagreed strongly at times with the use of foreign aid appropriations (拨款) for family planning overseas and doing that is thought against human rights; family planning in the country is mainly run by private groups such as Planned Parenthood.
A number of nongovernmental organizations concerned with population growth have also appeared. Zero Population Growth, an educational group founded in 1970, aims to stop population growth, first in the United States and then in other countries. On the international level, besides the International Planned Parenthood Federation, the United Nations Economic and Social Council provides birth control aid to underdeveloped nations.
1. All the following countries try to take family planning as a national policy EXCEPT ________.| A．Kenya | B．Pakistan |
| C．Chile | D．Russia |
| A．they take measures in family planning |
| B．they don't want to provide necessary and cheap labor |
| C．they want to live a life of high living standards |
| D．they don't want to bear more additional children |
| A．Food supplies. |
| B．An operation to end a pregnancy. |
| C．Foreign aid. |
| D．High growth of population birthrate. |
| A．Americans think there is no need to keep birth control |
| B．the government would rather not copy ways of other countries |
| C．Americans think that is against human rights |
| D．the government is rich enough to keep more children |
| A．prevent birthrate from growing |
| B．provide birth control aid |
| C．advise people to notice the population question |
| D．call on the UN to give help to undeveloped countries |
