1 . Travelling abroad can present many challenges, including long journeys, language problems, and culture shocks, plus the expense of transport and accommodation.
One of the wonderful benefits of going abroad is that you can learn history and culture without real effort. There’s a natural tendency to absorb other cultures and pick up historical concepts, while enjoying yourself at the same time.
Another great benefit is that living in a foreign culture is the only real way to fully understand its language.
Removing yourself from the familiar and travelling to a new country can be a very powerful tool for gaining self-awareness and deeper understanding.
A.It’s far superior to learning it in a classroom. |
B.The new land gives you a fresh social environment. |
C.The direct experience helps you remember something easily. |
D.Many people wonder what they should do in a foreign country. |
E.Travelling abroad can also boost creativity and drive innovation. |
F.Another benefit of travelling abroad is the relaxation you can get. |
G.However, there’s rarely a dull moment when you’ re in a different country. |
Having worked at a small food store for two years, I thought I had become successful at what our manager called “customer relations”. I firmly believed that a friendly smile and an automatic “sir”, “madam”, “thank you” and “sorry” would see me through any situation. But on a Christmas night an old woman shook my belief that such a glib (油嘴滑舌的) response could smooth over any difficulty while dealing with other human beings.
The moment she entered the store, the woman presented a sharp contrast to our shiny store with its bright lighting and neatly arranged shelves. Walking as if each step were painful, she slowly pushed open the glass door. On such a zero-degree night, she was wearing only a faded print dress, a thin sweater too small to button, and black slippers with the backs cut out to expose heels. There were no stockings or socks on her blue-veined (青筋的) legs.
After walking around the store for several minutes, the old woman stopped in front of the rows of canned vegetables. She looked at the row of cans, finally picked up a can of corn and stared at the label. At that point, I decided to be a good and polite employee and asked her if she needed help. As I stood close to her, my smile became harder to maintain. An unpleasant smell of sweat rose from her torn clothing.
“I need some food,” she muttered in reply to my bright “Madam, can I help you?”
“Are you looking for corn, madam?”
“I need some food,” she repeated, looking down at the can in her hand, “Any kind.”
“Well, the can of corn is ninety-five cents, madam.” I said in my most helpful voice. “Or if you like, we have a special on bread today.”
After a short pause, she lifted her head and said, “But I can’t pay.”
For a second, it was on the tip of my tongue to tell her that she could take the corn. Then the employee rules flooded into my mind: remain polite but do not let the customers take advantage of you.
注意:1. 续写词数应为150左右;
2. 续写部分分为两段,每段的开头语已为你写好。
At the thought of that, I managed a friendly smile.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Instantly I rushed out of the door with the can of corn and stopped the old woman.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
In 2000, when I was around seven years old, all my family were coming back from a T-ball game, which was our usual weekend adventure, but unlike every other weekend, a surprise was waiting for us in our driveway—two adult geese and a small goose. Obviously startled by our return, the adults flew away in panic, with their baby, too young to fly, left in place, tiny and delicate.
Hours passed one after another, and night eventually fell. However, with it also came a deep chill and a fear of watchful animals. It was apparent that the gosling needed protection, warmth, and food to make it to the morning, so we had to help it, and we brought him onto our back yard.
We all pretty much slept with one eye open till morning came. And then another morning. And still another. Each morning, we would try to drive the goose away to his parents, who kept coming back to our yard. He wouldn’t go to them, though, and neither would they come close enough to claim him. We kept this up for five days, but no luck. Realizing the young goose had clearly decided we were his family by then, we had to give him a name, calling the little guy Peeper, because he would often follow us around the yard making a peeping(唧唧叫) noise, nonstop. Besides, we decided that Peeper was a boy. I don’t know why; it just felt right.
A year passed and we settled into a routine. Peeper slept on our back yard each night and, in typical goose fashion, used it as a latrine(公共厕所). My dad would spray off all the goose droppings daily. Part of this ceremony included Dad throwing Peeper up into the air so he could flap its wings and flew a loop(圈) around the house, and then came back again once the porch was clean.
Days turned into weeks, and weeks turned into months.
Paragraph 1:
Before we knew it, the little thing had grown into a big bird with two powerful wings.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Paragraph 2:
It came as a total surprise to me when, in 2020, an adult goose made his way back to my family home.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
1.写邮件的目的;
2.简要介绍该社团;
3.推荐的理由。
注意:1.写作词数应为80左右;
2.请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
Dear Steven,
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Yours,
Li Hua
They’d been planning this forever. From her birth, most likely. Mya's mother, Helena loved hosting parties. And Aunt Beatrice loved birthdays. Together, they'd make her Sweet Sixteen a hundred times bigger, bolder, and brighter than it needed to be. They selected a theme every year and stuck to it. Her fourteenth had been the “Snow White” and her ninth had been the “Frozen”. They never told her what the theme was the day before. She'd just wake up her birthday morning, a brand new birthday outfit (一套服装) laid neatly on her dresser (an outfit related to the theme, of course) and she would open her door to see the adventure that lay ahead of her that day.
Mya had a few guesses as to what this year’s theme would be. A play on the words “Sweet Sixteen” was likely — a candy themed party, perhaps? But she’d had a baking party a few years ago — and Helena was anything but repetitive. Mya didn't have any interest in cars, so she doubted a sports-car party was on the menu. She’d tried to look through her mother’s purchase history online, but her mother had been careful enough to delete everything recent. So the only clue left was the birthday outfit she would receive the next morning.
May 1st, Mya woke. The bright sunlight begged her eyes to open and she loved the day that her birthday took place. It was always nice out on May 1st and it never rained. This morning was no different than her previous birthdays. She sat up in her bed and looked to her dresser before slipping out of bed and inspecting the outfit. She unfolded it and held it against her body, seeing how it was like. It reached down, just above the ankle. Mya dressed, eyed herself in the mirror and found it was not so much a pretty outfit as she had received before. It was totally one for blue-collar workers!
注意:1. 续写词数应为150左右;2. 请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
Suddenly, her thoughts were interrupted by a knock.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
With everything done, her face shone with a sweet smile.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
1. How does the woman feel about the result of the competition?
A.Excited. | B.Delighted. | C.Disappointed. |
A.Amber. | B.Mary. | C.Linda. |
A.They were not fair. |
B.They made a hard decision. |
C.They didn’t listen carefully. |
Desiree, a 4-year-old girl, was sobbing quietly over her father, Ken, who had died nine months earlier. She was hugging a photograph of her father with her fingers running around his face. “Daddy”, she said softly, “Why won't you come back?”
Instead of gradually adjusting to her father's death, Desiree refused to accept it “Daddy will be home soon,” she'd tell her mother. “He's at work.” When she played with her toy telephone, she pretended she was chatting with her father “I miss you, Daddy,” she'd say. “When will you come back?” Desiree's situation made her mother worried.
Days later, it was Ken's birthday. “How will I send him a card?” Desiree asked her mother “How about if we tie a litter to a balloon.” her mother said, “and send it up to heaven?” Desiree's eyes immediately lit up.
Her mother took her to a store and Desiree picked out a balloon with HAPPY BIRTHDAY above a drawing of The Little Mermaid (美人鱼). Desire and her father had often watched it.
The child's eyes shone as they were on the way to Ken's grave. Then Desiree dictated (口述) a letter to her Dad. “Daddy, Happy birthday, I love you and miss you,” she rattled off (快速说). “I hope you get this and can write to me on my birthday in January.”
Her mother wrote the message and their address on a small piece of paper, which was then wrapped in plastic and tied to the end of the string on the balloon. Finally, Desiree let fly the balloon. For almost an hour, they watched the shining spot of silver grow smaller and smaller till disappear. “Now Dad's going to write back to me,” Desiree said confidently.
Every day since they'd flew the balloon, Desiree had asked her mother, “Do you think Daddy has my balloon yet?” Several weeks passed, and she stopped asking.
Paragraph 1One day, 3,000 miles away, Wade was on a duck hunt when suddenly something in the bush caught his eyes. ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Paragraph 2
Desire's fifth birthday came and later on the afternoon, a package arrived.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________1.网络对教育的影响(利与弊);
2.你的建议。
注意:
1.写作词数应为80左右;
2.请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
9 . Artificial Intelligence (AI) is making it possible for companies to monitor workers’ behavior in great detail and in real time. Start to slack off (懈怠), and AI could talk to your boss.
One company offering such services is London-based start-up Status Today. Its AI platform relies on a regular supply of employee data, including everything from the files you access to when you use a key card. From this, it builds a picture of how employees normally function and signals any unusual performance. The idea is to spot when someone might become a security risk by doing something different from their usual behavioral patterns. “All of this gives us fingerprint of a user, so if we think the fingerprint doesn’t match, we raise a warning”, says Mircea Dumitrescu, the company’s chief technology officer.
The system also aims to catch employee actions that could accidentally cause a security breach (漏洞), like opening malware (恶意软件).“We’re not monitoring if your computer has a virus.” says Dumitrescu. “We’re monitoring human behaviors.”
But catching the security breach means monitoring everyone, and the AI can also be used to track employee productivity. “It seems like they are just using the reputation of AI to give an air of lawfulness to old-fashioned workplace surveillance (监视),” says Javier Ruiz Diaz of digital campaigning organization the Open Rights Group. “You have a right to privacy and you shouldn’t be expected to give that up at work.”
Exactly how companies use the system will be up to them, but it’s hard to shake the picture of an AI constantly looking over employees’ shoulders. “It will bother people, and that could be counterproductive if it affects their behavior,” says Paul Bemal at the University of East Anglia.
Phil Legg at the University of the West of England says it will never catch every security risk. “If people know they’re being monitored, they can change their behavior,” he says.
1. According to the text, AI monitors employees by ________.A.taking pictures of them | B.getting access to their data |
C.signaling their usual performance | D.catching their actions |
A.Doubtful. | B.Supportive. |
C.Uncaring. | D.Negative. |
A.Security breach. | B.Employees’ productivity. |
C.The right to privacy. | D.Workplace surveillance. |
A.it is too risky to be used at work |
B.it will affect employees’ emotions |
C.it may not be so effective as expected |
D.it will encourage employee, productivity |
I had been in Cancun, Mexico for a week when I lost my bag in a shopping centre. My friend and I were occupied with taking photos in front of a mural (壁画) and forgot that one of my bags was dropped in a corner. When I realized, we had walked away for at least 10 minutes. We quickly retraced our steps to the place where it had been left. By then, it was nowhere to be found. “It can’t be gone. ” I told myself. We called the phone. It didn’t get through. We started asking people around the plaza, including the security guard. After hearing my story, they only shook their heads and looked at me with pity. “Oh no, no. This is Mexico. It’s already taken and you won't get it back. I’m sorry for you,” a man who spoke English said to me. My friend Marcela helped me turn on “Find My iPhone” from her phone. My hope was once again dashed when the results returned “this device is offline”. We sent a message to the phone and left a contact number, begging the person to give back my things. Nothing. At this point, we concluded that the person must have switched off my device. They did not have good intentions. Everything was truly gone.
We walked back to our hotel and the rest of the day passed gloomily. I felt guilty, sad and a mess. That bag contained not only my phone, but also new camera gear I had bought and most of my cash. I had two weeks left in Cancun as I was on a volunteering trip. Thankfully, I had a place to stay with the rest of my volunteer family who are the sweetest people. They comforted me and helped me look on the bright side. By then I had totally given up the idea of being able to get back my things.
注意:1. 续写词数应为150左右:
2. 请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
Three days later, we suddenly received an unexpected call from a stranger.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
I checked my bag and found all of my things were untouched.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________