1 . He lived his whole life as a poor man.His art and talent were recognized by almost no one.He suffered from a mental illness that led him to cut off part of his left ear in 1888 and to shoot himself two years later.But after his death, he achieved world fame.Today, Dutch artist Van Gogh is recognized as one of the leading artists of all time.
Now,150 years after his birth on March 30,1853, Zundert, the town of his birth，has made 2003 “The Van Gogh Year” in his honor.And the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam，home to the biggest collection of his masterpieces, is marking the anniversary with exhibitions throughout the year.The museum draws around 1．3 million visitors every year.Some people enjoy the art and then learn about his life.Others are interested in his life, which then helps them understand his art.
Van Gogh was the son of a pastor.He left school when he was just 15．By the age of 27, he had already tried many jobs including an art gallery salesman and a French teacher.Finally in 1880, he decided to begin his studies in art.
Van Gogh is famed for his ability to put his own emotions into his paintings and show his feelings about a scene.His style is marked by short, broad brush strokes (绘画笔法).“Instead of trying to reproduce exactly what I have before my eyes, I use color more freely, in order to express myself more forcibly，” he wrote in a letter to his brother in 1888．
Van Gogh sold only one painting during his short life.He relied heavily on support from his brother, an art dealer who lived in Paris.But now his works are sold for millions of dollars.His portrait of Dr.Gacher sold for $89．5 million in 1990．It is the highest price ever paid for a painting.“I think his paintings are powerful and the brilliant color in them are attractive to people，” said a Van Gogh’s fan.
1. All through his life Van Gogh ________.| A．depended on his brother |
| B．worked hard on art studies |
| C．was not recognized by people |
| D．expressed himself in paintings |
| A．the likeness between his paintings and the reality |
| B．the short time for him to complete a painting |
| C．the various styles mixed together |
| D．the special strokes he made |
| A．his powerful art came from his poor life |
| B．his fellow townsmen regret treating him unfairly |
| C．all his paintings were drawn in the last 10 years of his life |
| D．most of his paintings are kept in the museum of his hometown |
2 . Whenever we see a button, we want to press it because we know that something will happen.This is true in most cases, for example, on a doorbell.But some buttons are actually fake (假的), like the “close” button on a lift.
Many people are in the habit of pressing the “close” button because they don't have the patience to wait.But lifts' “close” buttons are a complete trick, at least in the US—the doors will not close any faster no matter how hard you press.
It started in the 1990s when the Americans with Disabilities Act was passed in the US, making sure that all lifts stayed open long enough so that people with disabilities could enter safely.Only repair workers can use the buttons to speed up the doorclosing process if they have special keys.
But to normal lift riders, the buttons aren't completely useless.According to psychologists, fake buttons can actually make you feel better by offering you a sense of control.
“A sense of control is very important.It reduces stress and increases wellbeing，” said Ellen J．Langer，a psychology professor at Harvard University.Experts also added that a lot of buttons that don't do anything exist in our lives for this same purpose.
For example, pedestrian crosswalk buttons don't live up to their names either.Pressing them used to help make the traffic signals change faster, but that was before computercontrolled traffic signals were introduced.
But psychologists found it interesting that even when people are aware of these little “white lies”， they still continue to push fake buttons because as long as the doors eventually close, it is considered to be worth the effort.
1. What is the author's purpose in writing the text?| A．To describe different fake buttons. |
| B．To explore the functions of fake buttons. |
| C．To analyze various habits of pushing buttons. |
| D．To explain the disadvantages of fake buttons. |
| A．They work when people press them hard. |
| B．They were designed for a sense of control. |
| C．They never speed up the doorclosing process. |
| D．They take the safety of the disabled into account. |
| A．They can make people feel better. |
| B．They help computers work faster. |
| C．They can control the traffic signals. |
| D．They help pedestrians cross safely. |
3 . Signs of Healthy Friendships
Once in a while it’s helpful to see if your friendship is as healthy as it can be. You might get used to a friendship over time to the point where you don’t see the room for improvement. And since great friendships are priceless, you should always surround yourself with the kind of people who will lift your spirits, make you laugh, and remind(提醒) you that you are loved.
Friends make you feel comfortable with yourself, so you don’t need to act like someone you’re not. Your friends know your shortcomings and love you anyway. You are perhaps the “best version” of yourself when you’re with your friends.
A healthy friendship includes plenty of gentle honesty. True friends won’t pretend(假装) just to avoid an argument.
They argue in a healthy way.
One of the biggest misunderstandings about good friends is that they never fight. But let’s face it: everyone fights.
Healthy friendships mean you can be friends with someone else, too.
| A．Even if you have the best friend, it doesn’t hurt to expand your social circle. |
| B．In a positive friendship, your friends won’t lie to you, and they won’t hurt your feelings either. |
| C．With an unhealthy friendship, you know clearly that something is “off”. |
| D．Arguing isn’t unhealthy. |
| E．Good friends lose touch with each other from time to time. |
| F．Good friends are real and honest with each other. |
| G．Is your friendship as healthy as it can be? |
4 . Fire Prevention Information
The University of Adelaide employs a full-time staff of fire prevention professionals. They inspect all campus buildings and test and maintain all sprinkler(喷水灭火装置）systems fire alarms and fire extinguishers (灭火器). They also provide educational programs or fire safety in the residence hall. Whenever you move to a new area, you should locate the fire alarm pull stations and the two exits nearest your room.
Fire Alarms
The floors of all campus buildings are equipped with manual(手动的）fire alarm systems which include fire alarm pull stations and pipes. Most are also equipped with automatic fire alarm systems consisting of heat detectors, smoke detectors and sprinklers. For your safety, never tamper with(胡乱摆弄）these systems. False fire alarms are illegal and may lead to imprisonment.
Fire Drills
A fire drill will be conducted in your residence hall every semester. During a fire drill, please do the following:
·Take your room key and ID, close and lock the door to your room.
·Exit immediately from the nearest emergency exit do not use a lift.
·Meet outside of your residence hall and wait for further instructions.
Fire Extinguishers
Fire extinguishers are located on each floor and in each apartment. Use a fire extinguisher only if you have been trained to do so. Irresponsible use of a fire extinguisher can create a dangerous situation for other residents and could result in damage to personal property.
Misuse of a fire extinguisher will result in fines.
Smoke Detector
A smoke detector is on the ceiling in your room. Some buildings also have heat detectors on the ceilings. Do the following to ensure the safe operation of your smoke detector:
·If your smoke detector is working properly, the red light should be on. If the red light is not blinking（闪动），contact residence hall staff immediately.
·Do not cover or block your smoke detector in any way.
·If a smoke detector sets off an alarm and there is no fire or smoke, inform your hall staff.
1. What is the main duty of the fire prevention professionals?| A．To provide part-time jobs for students. |
| B．To lead the students to the nearest exits. |
| C．To check and maintain fire prevention equipment. |
| D．To train teachers to be fire prevention professionals. |
| A．Pipes and smoke detectors. |
| B．Smoke detectors and sprinklers. |
| C．Fire alarm pull stations and pipes. |
| D．Sprinklers and fire alarm pull stations |
| A．rush quickly to a lift |
| B．gather at the nearest exit. |
| C．shut the door and leave at once |
| D．wait for instructions in the hall |
| A．Using them wrongly results in punishment. |
| B．Irresponsible use of them can damage them. |
| C．Improper use of them can destroy the apartment. |
| D．Using them without a trainer present is forbidden. |
| A．contact the hall staff regularly |
| B．cover the things that burn easily |
| C．start the smoke detector in a fire |
| D．make certain the red light is working |
5 . The traffic signals along Factoria Boulevard in Bellevue, Washington, generally don't flash the same length of green twice in a row, especially at rush hour. At 9:30am, the full red/yellow/green signal cycle might be 140 seconds. By 9:33am, a burst of additional traffic might push it to 145 seconds. Less traffic at 9:37am could push it down to 135. Just like the traffic itself, the timing of the signals changes.
That is by design. Bellevue, a fast-growing city just east of Seattle, uses a system that is gaining popularity around the US: intersection(十字路口) signals that can adjust in real time to traffic conditions. These lights, known as adaptive signals, have led to significant declines in both the trouble and cost of travels between work and home.
“Adaptive signals can make sure that the traffic demand that is there is being addressed, ” says Alex Stevanovic, a researcher at Florida Atlantic University.
For all of Bellevue’s success, adaptive signals are not a cure-all for jammed roadways. Kevin Balke, a research engineer at the Texas A&M University Transportation Institute, says that while smart lights can be particularly beneficial for some cities, others are so jammed that only a sharp reduction in the number of cars on the road will make a meaningful difference. “It’s not going to fix everything, but adaptive signals have some benefits for smaller cities,” he says.
In Bellevue, the switch to adaptive signals has been a lesson in the value of welcoming new approaches. In the past, there was often an automatic reaction to increased traffic: just widen the roads, says Mark Poch, the Bellevue Transportation Department’s traffic engineering manager. Now he hopes that other cities will consider making their streets run smarter instead of just making them bigger.
1. What does the underlined word “that” in paragraph 2 refer to?| A．Increased length of green lights. | B．Shortened traffic signal cycle. |
| C．Flexible timing of traffic signals. | D．Smooth traffic flow on the road. |
| A．They work better on broad roads. |
| B．They should be used in other cities. |
| C．They have greatly reduced traffic on the road. |
| D．They are less helpful in cities seriously jammed. |
| A．It is rewarding to try new things. | B．The old methods still work today. |
| C．It pays to put theory into practice. | D．The simplest way is the best way. |
6 . We are the products of evolution, and not just evolution that occurred billions of years ago. As scientists look deeper into our genes (基因), they are finding examples of human evolution in just the past few thousand years. People in Ethiopian highlands have adapted to living at high altitudes. Cattle -raising people in East Africa and northern Europe have gained a mutation (突变) that helps them digest milk as adults.
On Thursday in an article published in Cell, a team of researchers reported a new kind of adaptation - not to air or to food, but to the ocean. A group of sea-dwelling people in Southeast Asia have evolved into better divers. The Bajau, as these people are known, number in the hundreds of thousands in Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines. They have traditionally lived on houseboats; in recent times, they’ve also built houses on stilts (支柱) in coastal waters. “They are simply a stranger to the land,” said Redney C. Jubilado, a University of Hawaii researcher who studies the Bajau.
Dr. Jubilado first met the Bajau while growing up on Samal Island in the Philippines. They made a living as divers, spearfishing or harvesting shellfish. “We were so amazed that they could stay underwater much longer than us local islanders,” Dr. Jubilado said. “I could see them actually walking under the sea.”
In2015, Melissa Ilardo, then a graduate student in genetics at the University of Copenhagen, heard about the Bajau. She wondered if centuries of diving could have led to the evolution of physical characteristics that made the task easier for them. “it seemed like the perfect chance for natural selection to act on a population,” said Dr. Ilardo. She also said there were likely a number of other genes that help the Bajau dive.
1. What does the author want to tell us by the examples in paragraph 1?| A．Environmental adaptation of cattle raisers. | B．New knowledge of human evolution. |
| C．Recent findings of human origin. | D．Significance of food selection. |
| A．In valleys. | B．Near rivers. | C．On the beach. | D．Off the coast. |
| A．They could walk on stilts all day. | B．They had a superb way of fishing. |
| C．They could stay long underwater. | D．They lived on both land and water. |
| A．Bodies Remodeled for a Life at Sea | B．Highlanders’ Survival Skills |
| C．Basic Methods of Genetic Research | D．The World’s Best Divers |
7 . Before the 1830s, most newspapers were sold through annual subscriptions in America, usually $8 to $10 a year. Today $8 or $10 seems a small amount of money, but at that time these amounts were forbidding to most citizens. Accordingly, newspapers were read almost only by rich people in politics or the trades. In addition, most newspapers had little in them that would appeal to a mass audience. They were dull and visually forbidding. But the revolution that was taking place in the 1830s would change all that.
The trend, then, was toward the "penny paper"-a term referring to papers made widely available to the public. It meant any inexpensive newspaper; perhaps more importantly it meant newspapers that could be bought in single copies on the street.
This development did not take place overnight. It had been possible(but not easy)to buy single copies of newspapers before 1830,but this usually meant the reader had to go down to the printer’s office to purchase a copy. Street sales were almost unknown. However, within a few years, street sales of newspapers would be commonplace in eastern cities. At first the price of single copies was seldom a penny-usually two or three cents was charged-and some of the older well-known papers charged five or six cents. But the phrase "penny paper" caught the public’s fancy, and soon there would be papers that did indeed sell for only a penny.
This new trend of newspapers for "the man on the street" did not begin well. Some of the early ventures(企业) were immediate failures. Publishers already in business, people who were owners of successful papers, had little desire to change the tradition. It took a few youthful and daring businessmen to get the ball rolling.
1. What did street sales mean to newspapers?| A．They would be priced higher. | B．They would disappear from cities. |
| C．They could have more readers. | D．They could regain public trust. |
| A．It was a difficult process. | B．It was a temporary success. |
| C．It was a robbery of the poor. | D．It was a disaster for printers. |
8 . We spend a great amount of time listening to music. Most college students listen to music at least three or four times a week, and more than 50 percent of them go to at least one concert per year.
According to new research, we may be born liking music, because human beings are born to find certain combinations of sounds attractive. For example, young children can recognize a familiar song even when its key is changed. Similarly, they respond with more emotions to their mothers' singing than to their mothers' speech. Careful analysis of mothers' child-directed songs indicates that each mother's songs remain stable from one “performance” to the next, and this may encourage children's engagement with the songs.
Research with adults suggests that music catches our attention by activating (激活) brain pathways that are most suited to processing music than to processing other kinds of sound. Specifically, music appreciation relies on the auditory cortex (听觉皮层) on the right side of the brain, which is specialized to process sound that characterizes music — in contrast to the left auditory cortex, which processes the stop-and-start bursts of sound that characterize speech.
Although some psychologists remain skeptical about whether music may have powerful effects on our thinking, a number of studies have shown that listening to music can increase people's spatial reasoning abilities. Furthermore, it is clear that music can greatly influence our emotions. Personally significant music activates areas of the brain associated with pleasure and reward, the same areas that are activated by good food.
Researchers do not agree about how humans' abilities to process and enjoy music have come into being. Anyway, the next time you enjoy listening to a piece of music, remember that the most complex pieces of audio equipment are the ones between your headphones.
1. Which of the following might belong to the “certain combinations of sounds” in paragraph 2?| A．A debate | B．A song |
| C．A dialogue | D．A quarrel |
| A．no doubt music can increase people's thinking ability |
| B．music simply gives people positive emotions |
| C．music has a great influence on human beings |
| D．only music can give people pure pleasure and reward |
| A．at a college | B．in a brain |
| C．in the concert | D．in the headphone |
9 . A snowboarder was feeling lucky to be alive yesterday after a helicopter rescue(直升机营救).
Ben Akintola, 30, was snowboarding in the French Alps under a clear blue sky in the afternoon when a large amount of snow fell down the side of the mountain. He didn’t have time to escape(逃脱) and it hit him with full force and knocked him senseless.
He woke in the night in total darkness. He was lying on an icy rock. Amazingly, he still had a mobile phone signal(信号), so he called a friend a thousand kilometers away in Britain. His friend called the French rescue services.
“I was waiting for what seemed like hours on that rock. I was beginning to give up hope when I heard the sound of a helicopter. It was circling around in the darkness, looking for me. I was trying my best to wave my mobile around. Fortunately the helicopter pilot saw the light.”
“I was overjoyed when the helicopter headed my way. It stayed above me and began lowering a rope.”
Ben was in hospital last night but he was not being treated for any serious injuries. He’s looking forward to going home today.
The French rescue services said: “We were very pleased that we were able to save Ben. The risk of snow slide off-piste(非滑雪场地的) is much higher at this time of year. All snowboarders and skiers should stay on the ski runs and not go off-piste. Ben was very lucky.”
1. What happened to Ben?| A．He got lost in the French Alps. | B．He had a snowboarding accident. |
| C．He was separated from his friends. | D．He was knocked down by falling rocks. |
| A．from his friend | B．in the early afternoon |
| C．after receiving his call | D．when seeing his mobile |
| A．It made him strong in the darkness. | B．It caused him to hope for the best. |
| C．It was shorter than he expected. | D．It was a little discouraging. |
| A．A Lucky Escape | B．A Rocky Mountain |
| C．Risks of Snowboarding | D．French Rescue Services |
10 . There is a trend in travel that has picked up steam over the last few years. That trend is called ecotourism. As environmental welfare and sustainability have become more important to people over the last decade, travel companies around the world are the biggest winners. They cash in on people’s willingness to spend lots of money in the name of environmental protection by operating eco-tours.
But how many companies really live up to that? The Marriott or other resorts might talk about their commitments to reducing waste by using recycled toilet paper and low flow shower heads, but they have huge hotels. The nature of their hotels means they will never be truly environmentally-friendly, unless they rebuild the place. And most of their customers wouldn’t put up with higher prices to help balance the capital costs of upgrading to be eco-friendly. And if you look at the most environmentally-friendly hotels and tours, they are also the most expensive.
Companies stress how they are going green to save the environment, but they only make increasing changes designed to make us feel good. Few companies make the capital investment to truly change their business model, especially those in the tourism industry. It’s easier to change toilet paper than to change how you design your future hotels.
Eco-tours market themselves as a low effect, environmental, and Community friendly way to see the world. Tourists come, learn a bit about the local culture, and then leave, satisfied with the knowledge that they “helped” the environment. But the reality is that big companies bring you in, make you feel good about yourself, and take all the profit back home.
I see promise and hope in sustainable tourism. Ecotourism to me is about not damaging the environment and providing a little education, and sustainable tourism is about living and growing with the environment and the local cultures. I believe the ecotourism trend is here to stay and that is for sure a good thing. However, if we want it to have a greater effect, there needs to be a focus not only on “using less toilet paper” but also on sustainable, local measures that help businesses grow and protect the environment.
1. What is the main idea of the second paragraph?| A．Some hotels make money from ecotourism. |
| B．Eco-friendly companies are popular worldwide. |
| C．Many companies’ efforts to reduce waste are worthwhile. |
| D．Some companies fail to live up to the name of ecotourism. |
| A．Critical. | B．Unconcerned. |
| C．Curious. | D．Favorable. |
| A．It should focus on advertising the local cultures. |
| B．It should bring economic benefits to the local people. |
| C．It should seek temporary support from the local government. |
| D．It should be developed by taking real sustainable measures. |
