1 . Directions: Fill in each blank with a proper word chosen from the box. Each word can only be used once. Note that there is one word more than you need

A. tendency               B. efficiently          C. deliver               D. evolve             E. exposing        F. imagine G. continuously   H. complication     I comparison     J. stimulate       K. intentions

The limitations of Digital Technology in the Fight against the Virus

Digital technology can help and has helped us in the fight against the novel coronavirus. But as coverage and understandable public interest - and concern - about the outbreak has intensified, it seems wise first to look at how the event is     1     some of technology's limitations both in and of itself and how we interpret what it can do for us.

Three themes emerge.

Technology is not immediate. There is a(n)     2     to believe that the recent rapid advances in processing power, algorithmic (运算法则的)development, machine learning and artificial intelligence can now     3     almost instant answers to everything. The digital landscape has changed massively since the SARS outbreak in 2003. But while we may be able to do things more    4    , some things still take time and that is particularly true of a virus. There is no one size fits all here and, indeed, there are real dangers in believing that one analytical strategy and its particular use can be applied universally.

Second, as viruses spread and     5    , so do the data sets around them. We are not dealing with a situation of simple 'garbage in, garbage out' but rather one where new information is emerging daily and there is the further    6    that there were delays in early reporting of the outbreak. That means the results even the wisest medical experts can produce are also going to change. Also, as you might     7     , their methodologies (方法论)vary.

Third, a lot of data is being placed into the digital area, across social media, specialist sites and elsewhere. Here, the    8     with 17 years ago is especially great. But the     9     behind various postings are many. Anyone might be able to access the data via a web browser - and its free availability is laudable (值得称赞的)-but its intended audiences can be very different. In some cases, experts are looking to inform the public but in seems to others they are looking to contribute to and    10    the debate taking place among themselves. These goals are laudable and necessary, but they do not always coexist harmoniously.

2 . 听下面一段独白，回答以下小题。
1.

A．The mukbanger was a little funny.	B．It was a true crime story.
C．The girl in the story couldn’t age.	D．The author was curious about it.

2.

A．Eating with lots of people is common.	B．There is something social and comforting.
C．It’s a way to have someone to chat with.	D．Connecting with others when they’re out.

3.

A．The way people eat food isn’t healthy generally.

B．The audience’s stomachs can’t agree with the food.

C．Mukbang can’t help settle serious eating problems.

D．People could be encouraged to eat alone at home.

3 . 听下面一段较长对话，回答以下小题。
1.

A．Because there were too many vehicles on the road.

B．Because the driver in front of her caused an accident.

C．Because she almost got into an accident that morning.

D．Because the drivers didn't use polite manners while driving.

2.

A．He doesn't care much about it.

B．He pays special attention to it.

C．It's just for inexperienced drivers.

D．It's really a big deal to him.

3.

A．He thought she was mindful of other drivers.

B．He became too angry to keep calm for that.

C．He really felt very grateful when he heard it.

D．He thought she shouldn't have said like that.

4.

A．Buy a car.	B．Change her job.
C．Take bus often.	D．Learn driving etiquette.

4 . 听下面一段独白，回答以下小题。
1.

A．You can increase your happiness levels by attending the classes.

B．Most of us are happier than our parents since we earn more.

C．Earn more than you can if you want to be happy.

D．Both Bill Gates and Kerry Packer are rich but unhappy.

2.

A．Always think highly of yourself and help others.

B．Compare yourself to a famous person.

C．Compare yourself to people who are inferior to you.

D．Earn more than your bank account.

3.

A．Happiness is everything.

B．Wealth is the foundation of happiness.

C．Fun is another form of happiness.

D．Money doesn't always mean happiness.

5 . At the age of twelve years, the human body is at its most vigorous. It has yet to reach its full size and strength, and its owner his or her full intelligence; but at this age the likelihood of death is least. Earlier, we were infants and young children, and consequently more vulnerable (易受伤害的), later, we shall undergo a progressive loss of our vigor and resistance which, though unnoticeable at first, will finally become so steep that we can live no longer, however well we look after ourselves, and however well society, and our doctors, look after us.

This decline in vigor with the passing of time is called ageing. It is one of the most unpleasant discoveries which we all make that we must decline in this way, that if we escape wars, accidents and disease we shall eventually “die of old age”, and that this happens at a rate which differs little from person to person, so that there are heavy odds in favor of our dying between the ages of sixty-five and eighty. Some of us will die sooner, a few will live longer—on into a ninth or tenth decade. But the chances are against it, and there is a virtual limit on how long we can hope to remain alive, however lucky and robust we are.

Normal people tend to forget this process unless and until they are reminded of it. We are so familiar with the fact that ma ages, that people have for years assumed that the process of losing vigor with time, of becoming more likely to die the older we get, was something self-evident, like the cooling of a hot kettle or the wearing-out of a pair of shoes. They have also assumed that all animals, and probably other organisms such as trees, or even the universe itself, must in the nature of things “wear out”.

Most animals we commonly observe do in fact age as we do, if given the chance to live long enough; and mechanical systems like a wound watch, or the sun, do in fact run out of energy in accordance with the second law of thermodynamics (whether the whole universe does so is a moot point at present). But these are not analogous (类似的)to what happens when man ages. A run-down watch is still a watch and can be rewound. An old watch, by contrast, becomes so worn and unreliable that it eventually is not worth mending. But a watch could never repair itself —it does not consist of living parts, only of metal, which wears away by friction. We could, at one time, repair ourselves—well enough, at least, to overcome all but the most instantly fatal illnesses and accidents. Between twelve and eighty years we gradually lose this power, an illness which at twelve would knock us over, at eighty can knock us out, and into our grave. If we could stay as vigorous as we are at twelve, it would take about 700 years for half of us to die, and another 700 for the survivors to be reduced by half again.

1. Which of the following statements is INCORRECT?

A．Our first twelve years represent the peak of human development.

B．People usually are unhappy when reminded of ageing.

C．Normally only a few of us can live to the eighties and nineties.

D．People are usually less likely to die at twelve years old.

2. The word “it” in the last sentence of Paragraph Two refers to           .

A．remaining alive until 65	B．remaining alive after 80
C．dying before 65 or after 80	D．dying between 65 and 80

3. What is ageing?

A．It is usually a phenomenon of dying at an old age.

B．It is a fact that people cannot live any longer.

C．It is a gradual loss of vigor and resistance.

D．It is a phase when people are easily attacked by illness.

4. What do the examples of watch show?

A．Normally people are quite familiar with the ageing process.

B．All animals and other organisms undergo the ageing process.

C．The law of thermodynamics functions in the ageing process.

D．Human’s ageing process is different from that of mechanisms.

6 . Asking for a little can go a long way

Throughout this book we’ve attempted to provide evidence to support our claims that we can successfully move people to say yes.    1    

Along with several colleagues, one of us set out to do just that. We thought that, when asked to make a donation, even those who would like to support the charity in some way say no, because they can’t afford to donate very much, and they assume that the small amount that they can afford wouldn’t do much to help the cause.     2    

To test this hypothesis (假设) our research assistants went door to door to request donations for the American Cancer Society. After introducing themselves, they asked the residents, “Would you be willing to help by giving a donation?” For half the residents the request ended there.     3    

When we analyzed the results we found that, consistent with our hypothesis, people in the “even a penny will help” half of the sample were almost twice as likely to donate to the cause. And the amount the individuals gave was also found to be more or less the same in both halves, so the people in the “even a penny” half did not donate less.

    4    Applications in the workplace might be: to a co-worker regarding a joint project, “Just an hour of your time would really help,” to a co-worker whose handwriting is illegible, “Just a little more clarity would help.” The chances are that this little step in the right direction won’t prove so little after all.

A．Based on this reasoning, we thought that one way to urge people to donate in such a situation would be to inform them that even an extremely small sum would be helpful.

B．The study suggests that if you want somebody to do something for you, simply pointing out that even a little assistance on their part would be acceptable is likely to be an effective strategy.

C．For the other half, however, the research assistant added “Even a penny will help.”

D．And there's enough proof that people tend to yes when they believe what they do can help.

E．But in certain situations and environment it’s also important to understand why people say no to reasonable requests, such as a request to donate to a charity.

F．For the other half the request may end with a reason why their assistance is necessary.

7 . Directions: Complete the following passage by using the sentences in the box. Each sentence can only be used once. Note that there are two sentences more than you need.

Think of Spider-Man, Iron Man and Ant-Man. Think of Black Panther, the Mighty Thor and the X-Men. Think of the Incredible Hulk, the Fantastic Four and all the other superheroes that have stimulated the popular imagination.     1    . From a small office in Manhattan in the 1960s, he helped create a lineup of fictional heroes that have crossed from page to screen in a series of TV and movie adaptations and changed the face of popular culture.

For many, he was the face of Marvel, if not comic books in general, witnessing the company's rise to become an international media giant. As a writer, editor, publisher and Hollywood executive, he played a critical role in what comic fans call one of the medium's golden ages.

    2    . Lee gave the heroes flaws and insecurities, as well as an awareness of trends, social causes and a sense of humor, trying to ''make them real flesh-and-blood characters with personality, '' he told The Washington Post in 1992. ''That's what any story should have, but comics didn't have it until that point. They were all cardboard figures. ''

    3    . Iron Man, for example, could join forces with the Fantastic Four, and Captain America could find himself a wedding guest alongside Doctor Strange. Lee created a fictional universe for readers to explore — one that made readers buy multiple series to get the whole story.

''I used to think what I did was not very important, '' Lee told the Chicago Tribune in 2014. ''People are building bridges and participating in medical research, and here I was working on stories about fictional people who do crazy things and wear costumes. But I suppose I have come to realize that entertainment is not easily dismissed. ''

Stan Lee was as extraordinary as the characters he created, said Disney chairman and CEO Bob Iger. Indeed, Lee worked tirelessly his whole life creating great characters for the world to enjoy.     4    . His legacy will outlive us all.

A．He inspired our imagination and hoped we could use it to make the world a better place.

B．If all these entertainment products can be traced to one person, it would be Stan Lee, who died last November at the age of 95.

C．Lee also appeared in a number of Marvel movies, watering his lawn, delivering the mail, and so on.

D．In order to keep multiple stories going at the same time, Lee wove them together into a seamless(无缝的) fictional world.

E．Under Lee, Marvel transformed the comic book world by humanizing its characters.

F．Through the honesty of guys like Spider-Man, we learn about different aspects of human nature.

8 . The true purpose of a business, Peter Drucker said, is to create and keep customers. “Customer value” has several definitions. I use the ______ to mean the total lifetime value of a company’s customer base. Companies can increase this value by ______ more customers, earning more business from existing ones, keeping them longer, making their experience simpler through digital improvements and so on. ______ leaders have long understood the importance of concentrating on customer value rather than pursuing short-term profits or quarterly earnings, and they’ve become enduring customer loyalty leaders in the process. It’s worth noting that a number of loyalty-leading companies are able to ______ shareholder pressure, or avoid it altogether, because they are founder-led, customer-owned, or not publicly traded.

Companies can ______ customer value in a variety of ways: To increase ______, enterprise software companies sometimes charge corporate customers change fees that can raise the total cost of ownership to as much as three times the original price. To reduce operating costs, restaurant chains sometimes ______ frozen and precooked ingredients in place of fresh and made-to-order food. The resulting profits may look good on the income statement. Such strategies may even lead to short-term earnings growth. But they also ______ potential customers and encourage disloyalty.

Given the importance of customer value, leaders should track it as much as they track other key assets (资产), such as buildings, machinery, and marketable securities. They also should reveal it in their quarterly and annual earnings releases so that investors can make ______ judgments about company performance and how it compares with that of industry peers. But most companies ________believe that measuring customer value is too difficult or costly. They continue to rely on a centuries-old accounting tradition that emphasizes physical and financial assets, and neither income statements nor balance sheets offer much ______ into the value of a company’s customers.

As investors wake up to the importance of customer value, however, many growth-stage companies now direct investors’ attention to ______ in growing the value of their customer base. Some public companies increasingly report various types of customer value metrics (指标). One of the UK’s top energy suppliers E.ON, ______, reports year-over-year customer counts in its financial report. “As a customer-focused company,” E.ON noted, “we see customer value as crucial to our success.”

This is a start, but because there are no customer-value reporting standards or requirements, investors still have a(n) ______ picture. The minority of companies that do provide customer value information decide for themselves what to disclose. ______, firms may calculate customer metrics differently or change them to tell a desired story, or simply stop reporting them if they fail to go with the company’s preferred narrative.

1.

A．item

B．version

C．term

D．definition

2.

A．persuading

B．consulting

C．acquiring

D．inspecting

3.

A．Considerate

B．Visionary

C．Determined

D．Powerful

4.

A．resist

B．relieve

C．intensify

D．maintain

5.

A．raise

B．adopt

C．calculate

D．destroy

6.

A．income

B．experience

C．productivity

D．demand

7.

A．separate

B．substitute

C．forbid

D．combine

8.

A．appeal to

B．rely on

C．put down

D．scare off

9.

A．informed

B．subjective

C．definitive

D．independent

10.

A．fully

B．hardly

C．readily

D．wrongly

11.

A．suspicion

B．extension

C．literacy

D．visibility

12.

A．sacrifice

B．success

C．prejudice

D．expense

13.

A．as a result

B．for example

C．on the contrary

D．in general

14.

A．incomplete

B．depressing

C．convincing

D．vivid

15.

A．Instead

B．Further

C．Otherwise

D．Therefore

9 . A sensational new scientific discovery in the ocean near Australia may explain the most massive extinction of living things in Earth’s history. For years, scholars have been frustrated in trying to analyze why 90 to 95 percent of sea life and 75 percent of and life vanished about 250 million years ago. The extinctions were so enormous that they are called The Great Dying. To date, some authorities on ancient life thought that a volcanic eruption or a sudden change in the environment affected all life on Earth. Other specialists have doubted these theories, maintaining that it was not plausible that a solo volcano could bring about such chaos. From the outset, critics believed these claims were exaggerated.

By contrast, there is wide acceptance of the idea that a meteor (流星)which hit Mexico’s Yucatan peninsula 65 million years ago was the primary cause of the dinosaurs’ extinction. Nevertheless, until now they had no evidence of an intense meteor impact 185 mill on years earlier. Now they do.

American geologists have been examining rock samples from a deep sea crater (火山口)near the northwest coast of Australia. The samples were initially collected and preserved by petroleum technicians seeking oil. Now the geologists and their colleagues believe that the precise splits in the rock’s structure show a typical pattern for meteors. There is a clear distinction from volcanic patterns. In fact, a spokesperson went so far as to say that these rocks completely revise the way scientists perceive the mass extinctions from the ancient era. Academics say that the meteor’s crater s the size of Mount Qomolangma, the highest mountain on Earth! Literally, the meteor made a mark on Earth as it drowned in the sea. The Earth could not absorb such a harsh blow without sustaining global devastation. Things must have come to a standstill. Evidently, the blow was fatal for many forms of life.

Bear in mind that all this was long before mammals---including humans--emerged in Earth’s history. Still, we would be wise to pay attention to the damage a meteor can cause. Fortunately, meteor strikes on Earth are few and far between.

1. The word “plausible” (paragraph 1) is closest in meaning to “______”.

A．available	B．incredible
C．reasonable	D．ridiculous

2. Why didn’t the meteor affect human beings?

A．Because they were very resistant	B．Because there weren’t any then
C．Because they lived in isolated areas	D．Because they hid themselves in the caves

3. Which of the following is TRUE according to the passage?

A．Scholars agreed that a single volcano caused The Great Dying

B．75 percent of land life continued 250 million years ago

C．Volcanic rocks and meteors have different patterns

D．When the meteor hit land Mount Qomolangma sprang up.

4. What is the best title for the passage?

A．The Dinosaurs’ End	B．Crater on Qomolangma
C．Contradictory Claims	D．A Meteor’s Impact

10 . Now elsewhere in the world, Iceland may be spoken of, somewhat breathlessly, as western Europe's last pristine wilderness. But the truth is, once you're off the ______ track of the low-lying coastal areas where everyone lives, the roads are few, and they're all bad, ______ Iceland's natural wonders have been out of reach and unknown even to its own ________For them the land has always just been there, something that had to be dealt with and, if possible, _______—the mind-set being one of land as commodity rather than land as, well, priceless art on the scale of the " Mona Lisa".

When the opportunity arose in 2003 for the national power company to enter into a 40-year ______ with the American aluminum company Alcoa to supply hydroelectric power for a new smelter （冶炼厂）, those who had been dreaming of something like this for decades ______ the opportunity. For a long time, life here had meant little more than a hut, dark all winter, cold, no hope, children dying left and right, plagues, starvation, volcanoes erupting and destroying all vegetation and livestock, all spirit— a world ______ almost entirely around the welfare of one's sheep and, later, on how good the cod catch was. In the outlying regions, it still largely does.

Ostensibly, the Alcoa project was intended to save one of these dying regions— the remote and sparsely populated east— where the way of life had steadily ______ to a point of desperation and gloom. After fishing quotas (定额) were ______ in the early 1980s to protect fish stocks, many individual boat owners sold their allotments or gave them away, fishing rights ended up mostly in the hands of a few companies and small fishermen were virtually ______. Technological advances drained away even more jobs previously done by human hands, and the people were seeing everything they had worked for all their lives turn out to be ______ and their children move away. With the old way of life doomed, aluminum projects like this one had come to be perceived, wisely or not, as a last chance. "Smelter or death."

The contract with Alcoa would infuse the region with foreign ______, an estimated 400 jobs, and spin-off service industries. It also was a way for Iceland to develop expertise that ______ could be sold to the rest of the world and ______ an economy historically dependent on fish. “We have to live,” Halldor Asgrimsson said. Halldor, a former prime minister and longtime member of parliament from the region, was a driving ______ behind the project. “We have a right to live.”

1.

A．beaten

B．explored

C．expired

D．centered

2.

A．so

B．when

C．if

D．as

3.

A．government

B．inhabitants

C．countryside

D．scale

4.

A．designed

B．retained

C．exploited

D．preserved

5.

A．stage

B．contract

C．transition

D．prosperity

6.

A．gave up

B．jumped at

C．rushed to

D．made up

7.

A．revolving

B．developing

C．Stirring

D．Initiating

8.

A．transferred

B．declined

C．grew

D．reformed

9.

A．preferred

B．presented

C．resisted

D．imposed

10.

A．wiped out

B．held up

C．kept down

D．put aside

11.

A．priceless

B．superficial

C．worthless

D．negative

12.

A．investment

B．Exclusion

C．invasion

D．landscape

13.

A．socially

B．immediately

C．accidentally

D．potentially

14.

A．stabilize

B．wreck

C．diversify

D．consolidate

15.

A．force

B．wheel

C．instructor

D．signal