1 . Directions：After reading the passage below, fill in each blank with a proper word given in the box. Each word can only be used once. Note that there is one word more than you need.

When was the last time that you dialed a phone number from memory? It probably depends on how long you’ve been using     1     like a cellphone. While some generations can recall the days of memorizing phone numbers, it’s possible that members of Generation Z have never had to remember a single     2    . Why is this? Because smartphones offer quick and convenient ways for storing and     3     information. There is no need to memorize anything. But this isn’t without consequence. As digital devices develop, more and more users’ heavy reliance on them may be having disabling effects.“Digital dementia（失智）”is the term being used by medical professionals to identify some of these effects.

Some professionals like Jim Kwik, an expert in memory improvement and optimal brain performance, are taking a closer look at this effect. Kwik describes digital dementia like this:“...we’re     4     our brains to our smart devices. We’re so reliant on our smartphones that our smartphones are making us stupid. As medical studies chart the decline in memory and cognitive skills among smartphone users, a connection is made between symptoms     5     with dementia.”

The seriousness of overuse becomes     6     when you consider just how young smartphone users are becoming. Author and speaker Simon Sinek points out that young minds“Are not ready for it! Their minds cannot cope with the dopamine（多巴胺）.”Consequently, the overstimulation of screens and sounds lead to     7     more often than not. So now parents, teachers and managers are asking how to handle the influx（汇集）of young people with this kind of addiction.

First, monitor your cellphone use. Keep downloading applications like Forest or Checky. Then cut back on any     8     usage. Set a specific goal of how much you think you should use your phone.

Determine     9     areas for cellphone use. For example, while you’re at home, only allow yourself to check your phone somewhere like a home office. This way, the time in between tasks isn’t     10     filled with staring at your screen.

2 .

It could be said that the age of adventure peaked with Sir Everest Shackleton the moment his ship, the Endurance, become hopelessly locked in ice on its way to Antarctica in January 1915. For ten months the 28 men aboard Shackleton’s ship waited and prayed for ice to break. When it finally did, the Endurance sank, leaving the crew homeless and adrift on a sea of ice in one of the world’s most dangerous environments.

In January 2000 a luxury ocean liner found itself similarly trapped in the cold waters off Antarctica. Argentine authorities sent off an icebreaker straight away from the nearest naval base, and in 24 hours, all 176 passengers and crew were free. The tour company’s spokesperson spun the potential disaster as a value-added reward in extreme travel. “The people on board are looking at this as sort of a great adventure,” she said.   

Ever since Jon Krakauer’s book Into Thin Air made Everest a household name, the subculture of adventure has blown up like a Himalayan avalanche(雪崩) into public consciousness. Magazines promise “extreme” content, television, offers adventure programs, and the growing collective fascination with adventure has produced a flow of published accounts about the world’s greatest adventurous journey. Nowadays more and more people are interested in adventure and this mass appeal makes good business sense. Today the only thing blocking a would-be adventurer’s passage to Antarctica is the cost---- which typically runs well over $10,000.

Despite very different implications, adventure was just as popular in Shackleton’s time. He has little trouble filling the Endurance----5,000 men are said to have responded to his recruitment(招募) notice: “Men wanted for risky journey. Small wages. Bitter cold. Long months of complete darkness. Constant danger. Safe return doubtful.”

After five months drifting on ice, the crew were forced to take to their lifeboats to Elephant Island. Reaching the wasteland, Shackleton went on with one lifeboat and five of his best men 1,300 kilometers across the bone-chilly Scotia Sea to South Georgia Island. Shivering with cold, dressed in rags, Shackleton marched into a whaling station and set about organizing a rescue expedition to Elephant Island. Almost two years after becoming shipwrecked on ice, Shackleton picked up his crew. “Not a life lost, and we have been through hell,” he remarked earnestly.

1. We can learn from the first sentence of this passage that _______.

A．the age of adventure began with the ship Endurance trapped in ice

B．Shackleton’s adventure marked the highest point of pure exploration

C．the age of adventure ended with the ship Endurance trapped in ice

D．Shackleton’s adventure predicted that the golden age of exploration was approaching

2. The word “spun” in the second paragraph can be replaced by “_______”.

A．summed up

B．judged

C．boasted about

D．referred to

3. Since Jon Krakauer’s book was published _______.

A．the media have got interested in the topic of adventure

B．the costs of extreme travel have gone up

C．Everest has got its name known to Europe

D．people have got fascinated by Himalayan avalanches

4. The adventure in Shackleton’s time has different implications from today’s in that _______.

A．Shackleton’s adventure lasted longer then any other adventure nowadays

B．no one was missing during Shackleton’s adventure

C．Shackleton’s adventure was entirely for the sake of adventure

D．Shackleton enrolled volunteers more easily

3 . Directions: After reading the passage below, fill in the blanks to make the passage coherent and grammatically correct. For the blanks with a given word, fill in each blank with the proper form of the given word; for the other blanks, use one word that best fits each blank.

A painter hangs his or her finished pictures on a wall, and everyone can see it. A composer writes a work, but no one can hear it     1     it is performed. Professional singers and players have great responsibilities, for the composer is absolutely dependent on them. A student of music needs as long and as tough a training to become a performer as a medical student needs    2    （become） a doctor. Most training is concerned    3     technique, for musicians have to be as muscularly skillful as an athlete or a ballet dancer. Singers practice breathing every day, as their vocal chords（声带） would be inadequate without    4    （control） muscular support. String players practice moving the fingers of the left hand up and down, while drawing the bow back and forth with the right arm,    5     are two entirely different movements.

Singers and instruments have to be able to get every note perfectly in tune. Pianists     6    （spare） this particular anxiety, for the notes are already there, and it is the piano tuner’s responsibility to tune the instrument for    7     . But they have their own difficulties; the hammers that hit the string must be dealt with carefully not to sound like drum or bass, and each tone, even if played very fast, has to sound clear.

The problem    8    （face） student conductors is that they have to learn to know every note of the music and    9     it should sound, and they need to aim at controlling these sound with enthusiastic but selfless authority.

Technique is of no use unless it is combined with musical knowledge and understanding. Great artists are those who are so thoroughly at home in the language of music    10       they can enjoy performing works written in any century.

4 .

The idea of using radio or wireless to broadcast to audiences was formed in 1916 by a president of the American Marconi Company, David Sarnoff. His superiors were doubtful about his idea to “make radio a household cause, so that by purchase of a ‘radio music box’, the audience could enjoy lectures, music performance, etc.”

Four years later the American engineer Frank Conrad, an employee at W E Corp, attracted considerable attention when a local newspaper reported on the growing audience listening on crystal radio sets to his evening and weekend amateur broadcasts. A local music store had provided records to play on the Victoria, and Conrad and his family served as disc jockeys(唱片音乐播音员). Westinghouse vice president Harry Davis asked Conrad to build a more powerful transmitter(发射台)in time to announce the outcome of the next US presidential election. Conrad completed his assignment, and on November 2, 1920, station KDKA in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, broadcast the announcement that Warren G. Harding had been elected president. About 1000 people heard this first news broadcast.

Radio communicated news much faster than did newspapers, and because crystal sets were easy to build and inexpensive, radio expanded rapidly in the following years. To stimulate the sale of radio sets, equipment manufactures provided transmitting facilities. Singers, comedians, and entire orchestras volunteered their services for publicity. The eventual financial basis of the new industry, however, was still unclear. One group in New York City tried to seek contributions from listeners while others urged that private foundations support radio stations as a public service. In August 1922 the first commercial radio advertisement was broadcast on WEAF (now WNBC) in New York City. In 1926, when about 5 million homes had radios, the Radio Corporation of America (RCA), in cooperation with the American Telephone & Telegraph Company, established the first commercial radio network. In the 1920s radio was established as a new mass medium had a practicable industry, and it became a national forum(论坛)for news and popular culture.

1. The passage is mainly concerned with _______.

A．the contribution of radio to popular culture

B．the invention and uses of radio

C．early radio programs for a mass audience

D．the history of radio broadcasting

2. Who started broadcasting radio programs to mass audience?

A．Frank Conrad

B．David Sarnoff

C．Harry Davis

D．Warren Harding

3. After 1920, radio expanded rapidly because _______.

A．people could easily get it in stores	B．it was cheaper than newspapers
C．it had advantages over newspapers	D．people were interested in anything new

4. By saying that “the eventual financial basis of the new industry was still unclear”, the author means that _______.

A．the private foundations were unwilling to support the stations

B．the stations were not sure yet where to get the operational money

C．advertising and commercial programs could not raise enough money

D．the listeners would not pay for the broadcasting stations

5 .

I used to think ants knew what they were doing. The ones marching across my kitchen counter looked so confident; I just figured they had a plan, knew where they were going and what needed to be done. How else could ants organize highways, build elaborate nests, launch impressive attacks, and do all the other things ants do?

Turns out I was wrong. Ants aren’t clever little engineers, architects, or soldiers after all --- at least not as individuals. When it comes to deciding what to do next, most ants don’t have a clue. “If you watch an ant try to accomplish something, you’ll be impressed by how awkward it is,” says Deborah M. Gordon, a biologist at Stanford University.

“Ants aren’t smart,” Gordon says. “Ant colonies are.” A colony can solve problems unthinkable for individual ants, such as finding the shortest path to the best food source, assigning workers to different tasks, or defending a territory from neighbors. As individuals, ants might be tiny dummies, but as colonies they respond quickly and effectively to their environment. They do it with something called collective intelligence.

Where this intelligence comes from raises an essential question in nature: How do the simple actions of individual ants add up to the complex behavior of a group? How do hundreds of honey-bees make a critical decision about their hive (蜂巢)if many of them disagree? The collective abilities of such animals --- one of which grasps the big picture, but each of which contributes to the group’s success --- seem miraculous even to the biologists who know them best. Yet during the past few decades, researchers have come up with fascinating insights.

1. The author’s former false impression about ants is that he thought them to be _______.

A．smart

B．awkward

C．elaborate

D．creative

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

A．Ants will function as a single body once a decision is made by the commander.

B．Ants are the only species which developed collective intelligence.

C．The ant queen plays a role in managing ant workers besides laying eggs.

D．An individual ant can’t comprehend the whole process of a big movement.

3. The paragraph following the passage will most probably deal with _______.

A．where we can observe such fantastic behavior of ants

B．which is the leading ant in charge of the action

C．how the collective intelligence works

D．what inspiration can be drawn from the collective abilities