2 . Ieoh Ming Pei, one of the last great modernist architects (建筑师), has died aged 102. Although he worked mostly in the United States, Pei will always be remembered for a European project: his redevelopment of the Louvre Museum in Paris in the 1980s.

Pei was the first foreign architect to work on the Louvre in its long history, and at the beginning his designs were fiercely opposed. But in the end, the French—and everyone else—were won over. His glass pyramid outside the Louvre, completed in 1989, is now one of Paris’ most famous landmarks.

Pei was born in China in 1917 into a wealthy family. His father was a banker. His artistic mother—a calligrapher and musician—had a greater influence on him. Despite not speaking English, he moved to the US at the age of 18 to study at Pennsylvania, MIT and Harvard. He worked as a research scientist for the US government during World War Two, and went on to work as an architect, founding his own firm in 1955. He carried on working well into old age, creating one of his most famous masterpieces (代表作)—the Museum of Islamic Art in Doha, Qatar—in his 80s.

He had designed buildings, hotels, schools and other structures across North America, Asia and Europe. His other work includes Dallas City Hall and Japan’s Miho Museum. His style was influenced by his love of Islamic architecture. His favoured building materials were glass and steel, with a combination of concrete (混凝土)．

He won a variety of awards and prizes for his buildings, including the AIA Gold Medal, the Praemium Imperiale for Architecture. In 1983 Pei was given the fifth Pritzker Architecture Prize for giving the 20th century some of its most beautiful interior spaces and exterior forms. He used his $100，000 prize money to start a scholarship fund for Chinese students to study architecture in America. In person, Pei was always neatly dressed, good­tempered, charming and unusually modest.

1. What do we know about Pei and his work on the Louvre Museum?

A．The French approved of his designs at first.

B．Pei was the only foreign expert employed by the Louvre.

C．Pei made use of glass in his designs.

D．Pei retired after completing the work.

2. What words can be used to describe Pei according to the passage?

A．Productive and humorous.

B．Generous and modest.

C．Determined and outgoing.

D．Attractive and responsible.

3. What can be the best title of the passage?

A．The Louvre Pyramid Architect Died Aged 102

B．Prizes Awarded to Pei

C．Landmarks Created by Pei

D．A Famous Architect Donated His Prize Money

3 . Oct. 15th was International White Cane Safety Day. You may have never heard of it, but it was a day to remember for Peng Baier of Nanjing Foreign Language School. After school that day, he visited the local Disabled Persons’ Federation (残疾人联合会). He wanted to know about the sales and feedback (反馈) of his newly­published book, How to Help a Disabled Person.

Since he lives with his disabled grandparents, he understands that life can be hard for this group of people. Peng decided to write the book because he wanted to create a better life for disabled people in China.

“Crossing the street is a big problem for them,” Peng said. “Speeding cars, people walking in a hurry, bikes on the sidewalk—accidents can happen everywhere for the blind. That’s why we hardly ever see disabled people on the street, even though there are millions of disabled people in China.”

Peng’s book with pictures is easy to understand. It is a guide to the right and wrong ways to treat disabled people. The left­hand pages show the reader the right way; the right­hand pages point out mistakes that are commonly made.

The teenager had 2, 000 copies of his book printed. With the help of the Disabled Persons’ Federation, he gave them to the disabled community. “The book is bilingual, so foreigners can also use it,” said Peng.

Peng put great efforts into the book. For example, he interviewed many disabled people to get first hand materials. He also studied textbooks from different schools for the disabled. Peng finally completed his handbook, but he still had the problem of getting it printed. How did a high school student raise money needed for that?

With a smile, Peng said how he went about it. “I visited three local companies, dressed up in a suit and tie. I was lucky. The companies were warm­hearted and willing to give me a hand.”

1. Why is Peng able to understand the hard life of the disabled people?

A．Because he was born disabled.

B．Because he has a disabled friend.

C．Because he lives with his disabled grandparents.

D．Because he once read a book about the disabled.

2. What does the underlined word in Paragraph 5 mean?

A．Written in two languages.

B．Using different pictures.

C．Very easy to understand.

D．Very popular around the world.

3. Peng put a lot of efforts into the book except ________.

A．raising the money needed

B．giving away his pocket money

C．interviewing many disabled people

D．studying textbooks for the disabled

4. What words can best describe Peng?

A．Devoted and honest.	B．Brave and confident.
C．Kind and helpful.	D．Friendly and lovely.

4 . Fights at school have become an increasingly familiar sight for children. You should know what to do if you are in a fight, or see a fight at school.     1    

You should try to get away if you can. If you know someone is coming up behind you to attack, turn toward the person with your hands up in front of your body and loudly say “stop” before walking away.     2     If the person doesn’t stop, cry for help by calling out the name of a teacher whose office is nearby.

    3     In some school areas, everyone involved in a fight can be punished, no matter who started it.

What should you do if you see a fight? You mustn’t jump in to break up a fight or help a friend. If you get involved in a fight，you may suffer injuries and punishment.     4     It’s a good choice to find an adult or call the police. Shout loudly to break up the fight or warn that an adult is coming.

    5     It only provides temporary（临时的）relief for the attacker and causes more trouble. If you are concerned about fights at school, the best thing you can do is talk to an adult who will listen and take action.

A．Violence never solves problems.

B．You should support one side for good reason.

C．There’re a few ways for you to protect yourself.

D．The attacker usually stops when you’re running fast.

E．Loud voice can usually make the attacker calm down.

F．You can do something if a fight breaks out at school.

G．Fighting, even in self-protection, should always be a last choice.

5 . What are your retirement plans? Keep working? Get more exercise? Or learn something new? You may put them on hold. There’s a chance that, sooner or later, you might have to move further than you were thinking, as far as mars.

On Thursday, National Geographic will show the first-ever Mars show home, giving earthlings (地球人) an idea of what their life could look like on the Red Planet. In the not-so-distant year of 2037, the igloo-shaped structure could be the home of your future.

It shows a house built using recycled spacecraft (航天器) parts and Martian soil, called regolith, which has been microwaved into bricks. Some parts of the home are recognizable—a kitchen, a bedroom—but there are fundamental differences that are important to human survival.

As the Martian atmosphere is around one hundredth as thick as the Earth’s, people will need permanent (永久的) shelter from the sun; society will move largely indoors. Most buildings will be connected by underground passages and the houses won’t have windows. The homes will have simulated solar lighting, or natural light that has been bent several times.

Walls will need to be 10 to 12 feet thick to protect people from dangerous rays (光线) that can pass through six feet of steel, and a double air-locked entrance to keep the home under proper pressure.

“We don’t think of our houses as things that keep us alive, but on Mars your house will be a survival centre,” says Stephen Petranek, author of How We’ll Live on Mars. This is not just the stuff of sci-fi. “10 to 20 years from now there will certainly be people, on Mars.” Petranek says.

“We’ve had the technology for 30 years to land people on Mars, but we haven’t had the will,” Petranek says. But two main factors have “completely swung public attitudes”.

The private companies’ participation has forced government agencies to speed up their game, and influential films such as Gravity and The Martian have caught society’s eye.

1. What can we know about the show home from the text?

A．It has no windows or doors due to security concern.

B．Its design presents the idea of environmental protection.

C．It has thick walls keeping the home under proper pressure.

D．Its underground passages connect all the building together.

2. What do the underlined words “put them on hold” in Paragraph 1 probably mean?

A．Put them off.

B．Give them away.

C．Carry them through.

D．Take them seriously.

3. According to Petranek, what has sped up the process of sending people to Mars?

A．The great influence of the Mars show home.

B．The development of related technology.

C．The competition from private companies.

D．The popularity of influential books on Mars.

4. What is the best title for the text?

A．Living on Mars: Possible or Not

B．Sending People to Mars: Yes or No

C．First-ever show home: How Is It Made

D．Future Home on Mars: What Will It Be Like

6 . One evening, two young men were walking in the street together. They tried to find a chance to steal something.
The clock struck twelve. Most of the people went to bed. Quickly they came to a house and it seemed that everyone in the house had fallen asleep. Standing at the front gate, one said in English to the other in a low voice. You wait here. I'll walk around to the back door and then get into the house."
Suddenly out of the house ran a dog, barking at them. The two men were very frightened and ran away as fast as they could. Finally, they stopped at a lonely place. The man said breathlessly, "It's too bad. I hadn't expected that the dog could understand English."
1. Why did the two men walk in the street one evening?

A．they couldn't fall asleep.

B．they wanted to steal something.

C．they would like to take a walk.

D．they went to visit their friends.

2. From the sentence "one said in English to the other in a low voice", we know that ____.

A．he didn't know English

B．he liked speaking English quietly

C．he couldn't speak aloud

D．he was afraid of waking up others

3. The dog ran out of the house and barked at them only because _______.

A．it understood English	B．it knew them
C．it found someone outside	D．both B and C

7 . Texting pedestrians aren' t just an annoyance to their fellow walkers, but something dangerous to themselves.
"I was checking emails while walking to work this morning," said Wolbert van den Hoorn. "But it has a serious influence on the safety of people who type or read text while walking. "
Anecdotes back him up. A tourist from Taiwan walked off a port near Melbourne last month while checking Facebook-bringing an abrupt, and icy end to a penguin-watching visit. Another shopper in the U.S. was too addicted to his mobile phone to notice the fountain ahead, walking straight into it.
And as mobile-phone use has grown-to about 77% of the world's population, the study says-so has the number of phone-related accidents. The number of U. S. emergency-room visits linked to phone use on the move doubled to as many as l,500 between 2005 and 2010, an Ohio State University study recently showed.
Authorities world-wide have taken note. Signs on Hong Kong's subway system advise passengers in three languages to keep their eyes off their phones. Police and transport authorities have also warned the danger in Singapore, where the Straits Times newspaper ranked it as "No.2 Bad Habit", due to the rising number of road deaths.
Some U.S. states, including New York and Arkansas, are even considering bans on this act.
The Australian study used 26 volunteers, a third of whom admitted having hit objects while texting. They were fitted with different equipment in different parts of their body, and asked to walk 8.5 meters three times-once without a phone, once while reading a text and once while writing a text-while eight cameras captured the action.
Volunteers using the phone walked slower and with shorter steps (and slowest of all when typing), and, more seriously, they locked their arms and elbows in-like "robots", in the researchers' words. That forced their heads to move more, throwing them off balance.
"In a pedestrian environment, inability to maintain a straight path would be likely to increase potential for hits, falls and traffic accidents," said Mr. van den Hoorn. "The best thing to do is to step aside and stop, or keep off the phone."
1. Which of the following about "Texting pedestrians" is WRONG?

A．People who type while walking.

B．People who phone while walking.

C．People who text while walking.

D．People who read text message while walking.

2. The writer uses the two examples in Paragraph 3 to show

A．the advantages of mobile phones

B．the use of mobile phones in water

C．the use of mobile phones in a wrong way

D．the popularity of mobile phones

3. What is New York and Arkansas' attitude to texting pedestrians?

A．Considering forbidding their acts.

B．Ranking it as "No.1 Bad Habit".

C．Setting up signs to warn them.

D．Equipping them with advanced machines.

4. Why are texting pedestrians likely to hit or fall according to the passage?

A．They walk too fast.

B．They lock their arms and elbows.

C．They are out of balance.

D．They walk with longer steps.

5. What is the best title for the passage?

A．Text message or e-mail only?

B．Ways to avoid falls

C．Mobile phones for entertainment

D．Safety or text message?

8 . Over the last 30 years, Bangkok, once a small fishing village, has transformed into a rich, concrete, high-rise city that it is today. The spreading metropolis and its population of 12 million now produces 35 per cent of Thailand's economic wealth.
As a magnet for foreign companies, Bangkok attracts many overseas managers and business people from different fields, including tourism, automobiles and electronics. The city's population of foreigners is in the high hundreds of thousands, with tens of thousands of Japanese, Chinese and western employees working alongside hundreds of thousands of Burmese who mostly do unskilled jobs shunned by Thais.
For those used to the good life, the variety and quality of the city's food is a key attraction, says one US manager, before listing many of his favourite Italian, Mexican and, of course, Thai restaurants. Most offer quality meals for less than the cost of a takeaway sandwich in London.
Great choice and value can be found in Bangkok's other attractions, too. For overseas business people who enjoy shopping in luxury and air-conditioned comfort, the city has hundreds of modern shopping malls. Some foreigners, however, prefer the charms of Chatuchak Market, where anything can be bought at a good price by the skilled bargainer.
When the time comes to talk business many overseas business people prefer to move out of the markets and onto the golf course. Thailand has thousands of courses, which can provide a welcome break from the busy and noisy city life. But most business people go to the golf course because it's the perfect place to discuss the next big deal.
Because of the fast-paced life some foreign business people see Bangkok as a place to stay for the short term, rather than a lifetime. Australian computer software designer Sarah Huang is seven months pregnant but still working full-time in her Bangkok office. She says the city is "definitely a place I want to stay for the next five, ten years". Nannies and home help are affordable, but high fees for quality secondary education have convinced Ms. Huang to return to Australia when her child reaches high school age.
1. According to the first two paragraphs, we know that

A．Bangkok offers many working opportunities for people

B．Bangkok has always been a rich Thai city

C．most foreigners coming to Bangkok are tourists

D．Burmese in Bangkok mostly work for Thais

2. The underlined word "shunned" in Paragraph 2 is closest in meaning to _

A．forgotten	B．unwanted
C．appreciated	D．rewarded

3. What is the main attraction of golf for business people according to the passage?

A．It is the most convenient way for them to get regular exercise.

B．It is a good place in which to discuss business matters.

C．It is a great way to escape from the noise and pollution of the city.

D．It gives them the opportunity to meet local people in a social setting.

4. Sarah Huang says she'll eventually leave Bangkok because

A．she is going to have a baby

B．her working hours are too long

C．it's not easy to find suitable home help there

D．the cost of a good education there is too high

5. The main purpose of the passage is to

A．explain the reasons for Bangkok's rapid economic growth over the past 30 years

B．promote the many attractions Bangkok has to offer tourists visiting the city

C．describe the attractions of living in Bangkok for foreign business people

D．compare the lifestyles of Burmese workers and foreign business people in Bangkok

9 . How many times a day do you check your email? When you wake up? Before bed? A dozen times in between? The technology that was supposed to simplify our lives has become the vital time-suck: the average teen spends more than seven hours a day using technological devices, plus an additional hour just text-messaging friends.
The advantage of technological devices is connectedness: email lets us respond on the go, and we are in touch with more people during more hours of the day than at any other time in history. But is it possible we’re more lonely than ever, too? That’s what MIT professor Sherry Turkle observes in her new book, Alone Together, a fascinating portrait of our changing relationship with technology. Turkle details the ways technology has redefined our comprehension of closeness and loneliness—and warns us of the danger of accepting such virtual(虚拟的) relationships in place of lasting emotional connections.
For Turkle, the biggest worry is the effect all these shallow connections have on our development. Is technology offering us the lives we want to live? “We’re texting people at a distance,” says Turkle, “We’re using lifeless objects to convince ourselves that even when we’re alone, we feel together. And then when we’re with each other, we put ourselves in situations where we are alone—constantly on our mobile devices. It’s what I call a perfect storm of confusion about what’s important in our human connections.”
What can’t be denied is that technology, whatever its faults, makes life a whole lot easier. It allows us to communicate with more people in less time and makes conversation simple. But it can also be seductive(具有诱惑性的), providing more stimulation than our natural lives. There are usually some unhealthy videos online which remove teenagers’ attention from their schoolwork. Besides, some online activities make people addicted, which occupied their daily life and affected their ability to form real-world relationships.“Technology can be more immediately satisfying than the labor of building an intimate relationship,” said one highschool student, “Every time I text, I start to have some happy feelings.”
But are any of those feelings equal to the kind we feel when engaged in real, face-to-face communication? Online, you can neglect others’ feelings. In a text message, you can avoid eye contact. A number of studies have found that this generation of teens is less sympathetic than ever. That doesn’t spell disaster, says Turkle—but，
1. From the first paragraph we can infer that_________.

A．email checking helps people wake up early

B．technological device production has been simplified

C．using technological devices costs teens much time

D．people communicate mainly by text-messaging now

2. Turkle’s new book mainly discussed________.

A．ways to draw a fascinating portrait

B．how technology influences human relationships

C．the dangers of accepting emotional connections

D．the advantages of technology

3. What worries Turkle most is that more and more people are_________.

A．starting to accept emotional connections in place of virtual connections

B．convincing themselves by using fewer lifeless objects in connections

C．dropping the use of technological devices for connection with each other

D．being affected by the shallow connections through the mobile devices

4. Which of the following is True according to the passage?

A．Others’ feelings can be ignored in online communication.

B．No stimulation is provided in natural life connections.

C．People always send text messages to avoid eye contact.

D．It may be a disaster that teens are less sympathetic than ever.

5. What is the main purpose of the passage?

A．To instruct people how to do with emails.

B．To stress the importance of technology.

C．To promote a wider use of technological devices.

D．To lead us to consider what’s important in human connections.

10 . The snow cap of Mount Kilimanjaro, famous in literature and beloved by tourists, initially formed some 11,000 years ago, but will be gone in two decades, according to researchers who say the ice fields on Africa’s highest mountain shrank by 80 percent in the past century.
Lonnie G. Thompson,one professor from Ohio State University, said measurements using modern navigation satellites show that the oldest ice layers on the famous mountain were deposited during an extremely wet period starting about 11,700 years ago.The mountain appears in literature, most notably Ernest Hemingway’s “The Snows of Kilimanjaro” and some ancient beliefs in Africa hold the mountain to be a sacred place.
But a temperature rise in recent years is destroying the 150-foot-high blocks of ice that gave Kilimanjaro its unique white cap.“The ice will be gone by about 2030,” said Thompson. The disappearing ice already has reduced the amount of water in some Tanzanian rivers and the government fears that when Kilimanjaro is bald of snow the tourists will stop coming.
“Kilimanjaro is the number one foreign currency earner for the government of Tanzania,” said Thompson. “It has its own international airport and some 20,000 tourists every year. The question is how many will come if there are no ice fields on the mountain.”
Africa was not alone in the global drought. Thompson said other records show that civilizations during this period collapsed in India, the Middle East and South America.
Researchers put markers on the ice field blocks in 1962 and Thompson said measurements using satellites show the summit of the ice has been lowered by about 56 feet in 40 years. The ____of the ice also has moved back more than six feet in the past two years, much smaller than before.
“That’s more than two meter’s worth of ice lost from a wall 164 feet (50 meters) high,” said Thompson. “That’s an enormous amount of ice.”
1. The snow cap of Mount Kilimanjaro ________.

A．will disappear in two centuries

B．first developed some 11,000 years ago

C．resulted in a temperature rise in recent years

D．has decreased to 80 percent over the past century

2. According to Thompson, the disappearing of the snow may mainly influence________.

A．the local water supply

B．the local tourism

C．the weather in the surrounding areas

D．the government foreign currency exchange

3. The underlined word “margin”inParagraph6 means__________.

A．center

B．Top

C．edge

D．back

4. The writer’s tone in this article is___________.

A．concerned	B．casual
C．doubtful	D．angry

5. Which of the following can be the best title for this passage?

A．Risks of Visiting Mount Kilimanjaro

B．ASacred Place— Kilimanjaro

C．Africa’s Highest Mountain

D．Kilimanjaro Snow Cap May Melt Soon