1 . Robots make me nervous—especially the ones which seem to think for themselves.I was embarrassed to admit this till I heard that Bill Gates，the founder of Microsoft，felt the same way.
Gates said in an interview with the social networking and news website Reddit：“I am in the camp that is concerned about super intelligence.First the machines will do a lot of jobs for us and not be super intelligent.That should be positive if we manage well.A few decades after that though the intelligence is strong enough to be a concern.”
Well，maybe I don’t have to worry about my computer and kitchen equipment yet.After I use them I can always pull the plug.But in the future，machines might find a way to prevent us from switching them off.There’s a terrible thought!
Maybe the problem with computers too clever for us is not that they are evil like some we’ve seen in scifi movies.What could put us in danger is that they might be too efficient.That’s what philosopher Nick Bostrom from Oxford University believes.He says that machines are indifferent to humans and in pursuit of their own goals，the destruction of people might be just additional damage.Bostrom gives us an example：A machine which might have as its only goal to produce as many paperclips as possible might look at human bodies as extra material for paperclips and go after you.Because it is，well，a machine，it would not take pity on you.
It’s a good thing that American writer Isaac Asimov thought about how far robots can go and left us his three rules of robotics.He states that a robot may not hurt a human being or allow the human being to come to harm.
I’m glad my machines at home are “dumb”．All my cleaner wants to take over is the carpet in my living room.Let’s hope they don’t create an appliance which wants to take over the world!
1. The author quoted Bill Gates’ words in Paragraph 2 in order to make the text .| A．betterknown | B．more persuasive |
| C．betterorganized | D．more interesting |
| A．it is much cleverer than us |
| B．it would take over the world |
| C．it would see us just as material |
| D．it has the strong feeling of destroying us |
| A．Optimistic. | B．Sympathetic. |
| C．Disappointed. | D．Regretful. |
Thanks to the magic of the Internet, booking your yearly trip is just a few clicks away.
Not having travel insurance
What you should do: Get travel insurance! It only costs a few dollars a day and it offered through many of the credit card companies.
Mismanaging your money
Whether it’s by using traveler’s checks, or getting cash before you go, you don’t look for the best rates.
What you should do：
Booking too early
People get excited about their trip and, to make it real, book their flight right away.
What you should do：Book your flight about two to three months in advance to secure the lowest fares.
Asking where to eat the wrong way
Even if you’re doing the smart thing and asking locals, “Where should I eat?” you’re asking the question in a wrong way.
What you should do:It seems simple but asking,“Where do you eat?”means a world of differ ence. Instead of guessing what you might like, a local can direct you to a place he likes to visit
| A．But you will make a mistake in finding a wrong place or booking a wrong hotel. |
| B．Use the ATM for cash and a credit card for all your shopping. |
| C．But you may throw money away when you travel. |
| D．A lot of people think “I’m just going away for a short time.I’ll be fine.” |
| E．Go to a bank and exchange for local cash you need in the country you will visit at the best rate before you set off. |
| F．You will be sent to restaurants that loca1s think tourists would want to visit. |
| G．Or they forget and wait until the last minute. |
3 . It’s easy to observe an athlete like Tiger Woods and feel like he’s from another planet. He has won 14 major tournament(锦标赛) titles and about $122 million in prize money and ads. He also has a happy family. It seems that he is too perfect to be one of us. But Woods has more in common with you than you might think.
Woods’ parents — particularly his father — set high expectations for him when he was a child. Before Earl Woods’ death in 2006, he told Golf magazine, “My purpose in raising Tiger was not to raise a golfer. I wanted to raise a good person.”
By age two, Woods was already swinging(挥舞) a golf club. But once he entered school, Woods’ father was careful to send the message that school work came first. Woods wasn’t allowed to practice until his homework was done.
When Woods finally reached the professional tour, his father continued to expect a lot of him. “Tiger will do more than any other man in history to change the course of human. The world is just getting a taste of his power,” he said in 1996. Clearly, Earl Woods had great expectations of his son.
In this way, Tiger Woods is actually like a lot of us. Many of us feel a similar pressure to make our parents proud. When this happens, it’s easy to let that pressure overwhelm(压倒) us.
In a perfect world, we would all grow up to be Tiger Woods-like successes in our own fields. But that isn’t possible. There are many things that we can’t control in this life, despite our best efforts.
There is, however, one thing that we can do: we can try to be a “good person”, as Earl Woods asked his son to do.
1. Which of the following is NOT mentioned in the first paragraph?| A．The number of tournament titles Tiger Woods has won. |
| B．The family members of Tiger Woods. |
| C．The money Tiger Woods has made in prize money and ads. |
| D．The impression that Tiger Woods leaves on us. |
| A．Tiger Woods is too perfect to be one of us. |
| B．Tiger Woods wasn’t allowed to play golf after class. |
| C．Tiger Woods did very well in golf as a child. |
| D．Tiger Woods didn’t like playing golf when he was a child. |
| A．get high marks in the exam | B．make his parents proud |
| C．change the course of human | D．try to be a good person |
| A．Tiger Woods has a happy family |
| B．Tiger Woods’ mother didn’t set high expectations for him |
| C．Tiger Woods has changed the course of human |
| D．Tiger Woods’ father plays an important role on his road to success |
4 . 假定你是李华，你上星期六参加了去敬老院（nursing home）的社会实践活动，请你给在英国的笔友Cindy写信，给她介绍这次活动及你的感受。书信的内容要点如下：
1. 活动目的（关爱老人、了解社会等）；
2. 活动内容（陪老人聊天、表演等）；
3. 你的感受。
注意：
1. 词数 100 左右；
2. 可以适当增加细节，以使行文连贯；
3. 开头语及结尾已为你写好，不计入词数。
Dear Cindy,
I am writing to share with you the social activity organized by our school last Saturday.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Looking forward to hearing from you.
Yours,
Li Hua
5 . Steve Jobs knew from an early age that he was adopted (收养). “My parents were very open with me about that,” he recalled. He had a clear memory of sitting in the yard of his house, when he was six or seven years old, telling the girl who lived across the street. “Does that mean your real parents didn’t want you?” the girl asked. “My whole world was falling apart,” according to Jobs. “I remember running into the house, crying. And my parents said, ‘No, you have to understand.’ They were very serious and looked me straight in the eyes. They said, ‘We specially picked you out.’ Both of my parents said that and repeated it slowly for me. And they stressed every word in that sentence.”
Abandoned (被抛弃). Chosen. Special. These words became part of who Jobs was and how he thought of himself. His closest friends think that the knowledge that he was given up at birth left some scars (伤疤). “He wants to control everything because of his personality and the fact that he was abandoned at birth,” said one longtime colleague (同事), Del Yocam.“He wants to control his environment, and he sees his product as a part of himself.” Greg Calhoun, who became close to Jobs right after college, saw another effect. “Steve talked to me a lot about being abandoned,” he said. “It caused great pains and made him independent. He was different from others because he was born into a different world.”
Later in life, Jobs became a father and abandoned one of his children. Andy Hertzfeld, who worked with Jobs at Apple in the early 1980s, is among the few who remained close to Jobs. “To understand Jobs, you have to know the reason why he can’t control himself and is sometimes cruel and harmful to others,” he said. “That goes back to being abandoned at birth. The real problem was the theme of abandonment in Steve’s life.”
1. Which of the following is true about Jobs’ childhood?| A．He left his parents at the age of six or seven. |
| B．He was shocked knowing he was abandoned. |
| C．He couldn’t remember how he was abandoned. |
| D．His parents chose him because his family was poor. |
| A．He hated to be born with scars. |
| B．He liked to get things under control. |
| C．He enjoyed good working environment. |
| D．He wanted to influence everyone. |
| A．The fact that Jobs was abandoned. |
| B．Jobs’ pain from the abandonment. |
| C．Jobs’ talk with Greg Calhoun. |
| D．The world where Jobs lived. |
| A．Jobs didn’t bring up any children. |
| B．Jobs had a lot of close friends. |
| C．Abandonment influenced Jobs. |
| D．Nobody likes Jobs’ character. |
| A．Steve Jobs | B．Jobs’ Childhood |
| C．The Abandonment | D．A Terrible Memory |
6 . The Swedish Academy’s mid-October announcement regarding literature seldom fails to cause second-guessing.
Bob Dylan was awarded the big prize this morning, and my social media has been alive with indignation ever since. The Nobel did not go to those excellent novelists but to a songwriter. Some of those same people are still protesting that last year it was warded to Svetlana Alexievich, a “journalist”. They have decided, for whatever reasons, that song lyrics(歌词) are not literature.
And people are upset because Bob Dylan is the voice of some generation other than theirs, because he works in a popular style, because he does not work in this minute’s popular style, because he appeared on a car commercial that aired during the Super Bowl, because his songwriting skills dropped off — he was famous long ago, after all.
You may not think of Dylan as a poet, but Dylan created a climate in which lyrics were taken seriously. And Dylan accomplished something that few novelists or poets or for that matter songwriters have managed to do in our time: he changed the time he lived. Through words, with music, he affected the opinions and ambitions of hundreds of millions of people all over the world.The Nobel Prize in Literature cannot ever be all things to all people, and while this year’s award failed to accomplish various possible objectives, it was not in any way misapplied.
1. What does the underlined word “indignation” in Paragraph 2 probably mean?| A．Curiosity. | B．Happiness. |
| C．Excitement. | D．Anger. |
| A．He failed to represent any generation. |
| B．He didn’t have good songwriting skills. |
| C．He played badly in the Super Bowl. |
| D．He is not popular any longer. |
| A．style | B．influence |
| C．efforts | D．ambitions |
| A．No dish suits all tastes |
| B．Great minds think alike |
| C．Misfortune may be actual blessing |
| D．Judge not according to the appearance |
The English Renaissance
The English Renaissance began in the later part of the fifteenth century and lasted until the 1660s. Among the most famous women writers of this period is Aphra Behn, who is seen as the first professional woman writer in English. Aphra Behn's works include also the plays The Amourous Prince, The Town Fop, The Dutch Lover and her only tragedy, Abdelazer.
The neoclassical period
Among the well-known women in British literature during the neoclassical period, from 1660 to the end of the eighteenth century, is Anne Finch. She wrote poetry and tried to express all that she saw and experienced. Another woman was recognized for her contribution to neoclassical British literature: Mary Astell. Mary Astell was a philosopher and a feminist writer. She is best known now for her theories on the education of women.
The Romantic period
Jane Austen is one of the most famous women writers that worked during the Romantic period (1798-1832). Her works include several novels, most of which focus on marriage as a way for young women to secure social standing and economic security. Her most famous novels are Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility and Emma.
The Victorian period
The Victorian period, between the 1830s and 1900, was the time when the Bronte sisters, George Eliot and Elizabeth Gaskell lived and wrote. Charlotte Bronte, Emily Bronte and Anne Bronte produced many British literary classics. Mary Anne Evans adopted the male pen name George as she wanted to set herself apart from the feminine genre（女性主义流派） of cookbooks and domestic moral tales. Her most famous novel is The Mill on the Floss published in 1860.
1. According to the passage, Aphra Behn was famous for ________.
| A．novels | B．poetry | C．plays | D．cookbooks |
| A．Women were forbidden to write novels then. | B．Her works would be different. |
| C．It helped promote her works. | D．It sounded more popular. |
| A．Anne Finch’s. | B．Mary Astell’s. |
| C．Mary Wortley Montagu’s. | D．Mary Shelley’s. |
8 . Parents feel that it is difficult to live with teenagers. Then again, teenagers have
The research, conducted by St. George University, shows that different parents have different
Psychologists say that
| A．natural | B．strong | C．guilty | D．similar |
| A．interest | B．argument | C．link | D．knowledge |
| A．noisy | B．crowded | C．messy | D．locked |
| A．homework | B．housework | C．problem | D．research |
| A．washing | B．using | C．dropping | D．replacing |
| A．approaches | B．contributions | C．introductions | D．attitudes |
| A．complex | B．popular | C．scientific | D．successful |
| A．later | B．deliberately | C．seldom | D．thoroughly |
| A．behavior | B．taste | C．future | D．nature |
| A．failures | B．changes | C．consequences | D．thrills |
| A．defend | B．delay | C．repeat | D．reconsider |
| A．communication | B．bond | C．friendship | D．trust |
| A．reply | B．attend | C．attach | D．talk |
| A．hate | B．scold | C．frighten | D．stop |
| A．loving | B．observing | C．understanding | D．praising |
9 . The Science of Risk-Seeking
Sometimes we decide that a little unnecessary danger is worth it because when we weigh the risk and the reward, the risk seems worth taking.
The reason why any of us take any risks at all might have to do with early humans. Risk-takers were better at hunting, fighting, or exploring.
So why aren’t we all jumping out of airplanes then? Well, even 200,000 years ago, too much risk-taking could get one killed. A few daring survived, though, along with a few stay-in-the-cave types. As a result, humans developed a range of character types that still exists today. So maybe you love car racing, or maybe you hate it.
No matter where you are on the risk-seeking range, scientists say that your willingness to take risks increases during your teenage years.
As experts continue to study the science of risk-seeking, we’ll continue to hit the mountains, the waves or the shallow end of the pool.
| A．It all depends on your character. |
| B．Those are the risks you should jump to take. |
| C．Being better at those things meant a greater chance of survival. |
| D．Thus, these well-equipped people survived because they were the fittest. |
| E．This is when you start to move away from your family and into the bigger world. |
| F．However, we are not all using the same reference standard to weigh risks and rewards. |
| G．New brain research suggests our brains work differently when we face a nervous situation. |
Travis laughed as he tore at the wrapping paper on his birthday present. He was so ________! Finally, he would have the coolest pair of name-brand basketball shoes.
All the guys on his team were wearing the name-brand shoes of a popular basketball ________, Chuck Hart. ________ Hart was criticized for his poor sportsmanship and infamous ________, he was a great player. In fact, Travis wasn't thinking about Hart's behavior; he had only expected to see Hart’s ________ on the side of the box. The first indication that something was ________ came as he tore away the last piece of paper. Not Hart’s. The new shoes were the name-brand of another player, Robert Ryann, who was ________ for his amazing work in the community.
Travis’s hands ________; his heart stopped. It wasn't that the Ryann shoes weren’t nice, but what would his friends think? They were the wrong shoes and Travis would be ________ by the other players. When he looked up into his dad’s eyes, however, Travis ________ he would not tell him. "Thanks, Dad. I was really hoping for shoes," Travis said as he pulled the shoes out of the box.
Next morning his dad drove him to school. When they ________ in front of his destination, Travis slowly opened the car door. Just then, his dad stopped him.
“Hey, Travis, wait a minute, look...” his dad said ________, “Travis, I know those aren’t the shoes you had hoped for, but I saw the names of the two guys and made a（n）________. The guy whose name is on those shoes,” he said, pointing down at Travis’s feet, “is someone I ________. Do you know how often Ryann has found himself in ________?”
“No,” Travis said.
“Never. He’s never talked back to his coach or started a fight, and he’s a team player. You could have acted like a (n) ________ when you didn’t get the shoes you wanted, Travis, but you were ________ and made the best of it. You have such a good ________, like the guy whose name is on these shoes. I’m hoping that someday, your name will be on the coolest pair of shoes I’ll ever see.”
When Travis looked down at his feet, he saw the shoes ________. His dad had used his mind and heart to give the son a thoughtful ________.1.
| A．surprised | B．ashamed | C．excited | D．worried |
| A．team | B．player | C．coach | D．game |
| A．Unless | B．If | C．Because | D．Although |
| A．skill | B．performance | C．behavior | D．action |
| A．name | B．photo | C．sign | D．model |
| A．strange | B．wrong | C．true | D．funny |
| A．known | B．encouraged | C．adopted | D．influenced |
| A．fell | B．froze | C．shook | D．folded |
| A．questioned | B．noticed | C．teased | D．attacked |
| A．hoped | B．believed | C．decided | D．wished |
| A．pulled up | B．put up | C．took up | D．turned up |
| A．peacefully | B．hesitantly | C．delightedly | D．naturally |
| A．choice | B．effort | C．comment | D．mistake |
| A．believe | B．miss | C．admire | D．remember |
| A．danger | B．surprise | C．sorrow | D．trouble |
| A．teammate | B．adult | C．kid | D．student |
| A．upset | B．rude | C．polite | D．glad |
| A．quality | B．courage | C．dream | D．belief |
| A．clearly | B．carefully | C．patiently | D．differently |
| A．gift | B．look | C．hope | D．lesson |
