1 . A new survey by Harvard University finds more than two-thirds of young Americans disapprove of President Trump’s use of Twitter. The implication is that Millennials prefer news from the White House to be filtered through other source, not a president’s social media platform.

Most Americans rely on social media to check daily headlines. Yet as distrust has risen toward all media, people may be starting to beef up their media literacy. Such a trend is badly needed. During the 2016 presidential campaign, nearly a quarter of web content shared by Twitter users in the politically critical state of Michigan was fake news, according to the University of Oxford. And a survey conducted for BuzzFeed News found 44 percent of Facebook users rarely or never trust news from the media giant.

Young people who are digital natives are indeed becoming more skillful at separating fact from fiction in cyberspace. A Knight Foundation focus-group survey of young people between ages 14 and 24 found they use “distributed trust” to verify stories. They cross-check sources and prefer news from different perspectives---especially those that are open about any bias(偏向). “Many young people assume a great deal of personal responsibility for educating themselves and actively seeking out opposing viewpoints,” the survey concluded.

Such active research can have another effect. A 2014 survey conducted in Australia, Britain, and the United States by the University of Wisconsin-Madison found that young people’s reliance on social media led to greater political engagement.

Social media allows users to experience news events more intimately(密切地) and immediately while also permitting them to re-share news as a projection of their values and interests. This forces users to be more conscious of their role in passing along information. A survey by Barna research group found the top reason given by Americans for the fake news phenomenon is “reader error,” more so than made-up stories or factual mistakes in reporting. About a third say the problem of fake news lies in “misinterpretation or exaggeration of actual news” via social media. In other words, the choice to share news on social media may be the heart of the issue. “This indicates there is a real personal responsibility in counteracting(抵制) this problem,” says Roxanne Stone, editor in chief at Barna Group.

So when young people are critical of an over-tweeting president, they reveal a mental discipline in thinking skills---and in their choices on when to share on social media.

1. According to the Paragraphs 1 and 2, many young Americans cast doubts on ________.

A．the justification of the news-filtering practice

B．peoples preference for social media platforms

C．the administration’s ability to handle information

D．the reliability of social media as a source of news

2. According to the Knight Foundation survey, young people ________.

A．prefer biased perspectives on news

B．tend to voice their opinions in cyberspace

C．check out news by referring to diverse resources

D．like to exchange views through “distributed trust”

3. The Barna survey found that a main cause for the fake news problem is ________.

A．readers’ lack of knowledge	B．journalists’ mistaken reporting
C．readers’ misinterpretation	D．journalists’ made-up stories

4. Which of the following would be the best title for the text?

A．A Rise in Critical Skills for Sharing News Online

B．A Counteraction Against the Over-tweeting Trend

C．The Accumulation of Mutual Trust on Social Media

D．The Platforms for Projection of Personal Values and Interests

2 . Directions: Complete the following passage by using the words in the box. Each word can only be used once. Note that there is one word more than you need.

A. contact；B. shifting；C. precisely；D. term；E. identifying；F. illustrated G. initially；H. sounding；I. divided；J. caution；K. frustrating

On Jan. 22, two days after Chinese officials first publicized the serious threat posed by the new virus ravaging the city of Wuhan, the chief of the World Health Organization held the first of what would be months of almost daily media briefings,     1     the alarm, telling the world to take the outbreak seriously.

But with its officials     2    , the W.H.O., still seeing no evidence of sustained spread of the virus outside of China, declined the next day to declare a global public health emergency. A week later, the organization reversed course and made the declaration.

Those early days of the epidemic     3     the strengths and weaknesses of the W.H.O., an arm of the United Nations that is now under fire by President Trump, who on Tuesday ordered a cutoff of American funding to the organization.

With limited, constantly     4     information to go on, the W.H.O. showed an early, consistent determination to treat the new contagion(接触性传染病) like the threat it would become, and to persuade others to do the same. At the same time, the organization repeatedly praised China, acting and speaking with a political     5     born of being an arm of the United Nations, with few resources of its own, unable to do its work without international cooperation.

It was on the day of the lockdown in Wuhan that the W.H.O. at first declined to declare a global emergency, its officials split and expressing concern about     6     a particular country as a threat, and about the impact of such a declaration on people in China. Such caution is a standard — if often     7     — fact of life for United Nations agencies, which operate by consensus(共识) and have usually avoided even a hint of criticizing nations directly.

It is impossible to know whether the nations of the world would have acted sooner if the W.H.O. had called the epidemic a global emergency a week earlier than it did.

But day after day, Dr. Tedros, in his rambling(冗长含糊的) style, was delivering less formal warnings, telling countries to contain the virus while it was still possible, to do testing and     8     tracing, and isolate those who might be infected.

The organization was criticized for not     9     calling the contagion a pandemic, meaning an epidemic spanning the globe. The     10     has no official significance within the W.H.O., and officials insisted that using it would not change anything, but Dr. Tedros began to do so on March 11, explaining that he made the change to draw attention because too many countries were not taking the group’s warnings seriously enough.

3 . Directions: Read the following passage. Summarize the main idea and the main point(s) of the passage in no more than 60 words. Use your own wors as far as possible.

Pedestrians only

The concept of traffic-free shopping areas goes back a long time. During the Middle Ages, traffic-free shopping areas were built to allow people to shop in comfort and, more importantly, safety. The modern, traffic-free shopping street was born in Europe in the 1960s, when both city populations and car ownership increased rapidly. Dirty exhaust fumes from cars and the risks involved in crossing the road were beginning to make shopping an unpleasant and dangerous experience. Many believed the time was right for experimenting with car-free streets, and shopping areas seemed the best place to start.

At first, there was resistance from shopkeepers. They believed that such a move would be bad for business. They argued that people would avoid streets if they were unable to get to them in their cars. When the first streets in Europe were closed to traffic, there were even noisy demonstrations, as many shopkeepers predicted they would lose customers.

However, research carried out afterwards in several European cities revealed some unexpected statistics. In Munich, Cologne and Hamburg, visitors to shopping areas increased by 50 percent. On Copenhagen’s main shopping street, shopkeepers reported sales increases of 25-40 percent. Shopkeepers in Minneapolis, USA, were so impressed when they learnt this that they even offered to pay for the construction and maintenance costs of their own traffic-free streets.

With the arrival of the traffic-free shopping street, many shops, especially those selling things like clothes, food and smaller luxury items, prospered. Unfortunately, it wasn’t good news for everyone, as shops selling furniture and larger electrical appliances actually saw their sales drop. Many of these were forced to move elsewhere, away from the city centre. Today they are a common feature on the outskirts of towns and cities, often situated in out-of-town retail zones with their own car parks and other local facilities.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

4 . There have been many great violinists but none could hold a candle to Kuznetsov, a miraculous young Russian. On his emergence while still in his teens, his playing was filled with timeless wisdom beyond his years; he now holds the stage with immense authority. So it comes no surprise that he is about to add a new string to his bow. When he performs with the English Chamber Orchestra, it will be as both soloist(独奏者) and conductor. “It’s something I’ve often thought about,” he says.

Other musicians who have traded the bow or piano for the baton(指挥棒) have failed; the transition is not easy, of which he is aware. “The most crucial thing is the human chemistry between conductor and players. You must avoid at all costs being an outsider, as though saying to the orchestra,‘You make your music while I imagine mine. ’”

He is quite relaxed about not yet having his own hand-language---every conductor is different. Kuznetsov believes the connection between notes is not just physical, but also spiritual. Spiritually is, for Kuznetsov, the conductor’s key characteristic. “And it should ideally be expressed through beauty of movement,” he says. Some conductors throw themselves about, others hardly move a muscle. Where will Kuznetsov fit on that scale? “We must wait and see,” he says.

Kuznetsov himself moved straight as an arrow toward his goal. His father was an oboist(双簧管演奏者) and his mother conducted a choir, but at the age of four, young Leonid settled on the violin. “The violin is located at the front of the orchestra. It seemed very desirable to sit there and show off.” He gave his first concert at the age of five. “When I went on stage, I bowed so deeply and so long that the audience laughed---but I knew that this was what great artists always did. I felt it was an honour for the audience to listen to me.” His programme that day included Paganini variations, “which were very easy for me”.

What is his view now of the recordings he made at that age? “I didn’t have the technique I have now but across the years the intuition has not changed. I still feel every time I go on stage as though I’m newborn.”

Kuznetsov cautiously paces his own development. He didn’t give his first performance of Beethoven’s Violin Concerto until he felt ready for it, and he’ll let Bach’s works stay in his mind for some years.

One of Kuznetsov’s admirers wonders whether he is in danger of not hanging onto “the fearlessness of youth”. On the evidence of Kuznetsov’s bravely assured new interpretation of the Brahms Concerto, which he plays on a new CD release, I’d say that his fearlessness is in no danger yet.

1. Kuznetsov thinks ________ is most important in conducting.

A．the players’ recognition of the conductor

B．the understanding between the conductor and the orchestra

C．whether the conductor has cooperated with the players before

D．the conductor’s and the orchestra’s knowledge of the composition

2. What can be learned about Kuznetsov from the passage?

A．He isn’t as enthusiastic as before about the violin.

B．He was confident while giving his first concert.

C．He didn’t start to play the violin until five.

D．He plans to give Bach’s works a try first.

3. What can be inferred from the passage?

A．It’s easy for piano or violin players to become conductors.

B．Violin players are usually those who like to show off in an orchestra.

C．The writer thinks highly of Kuznetsov’s performance as a conductor.

D．Kuznetsov hasn’t decided which conductor’s hand-language to follow.

4. What is the passage mainly about?

A．A violinist’s understanding of music.

B．Kuznetsov’s efforts that have led to his success.

C．A violinist’s new attempts in his musical ambitions.

D．Kuznetsov’s insight into how techniques matter in performance.

5 . On Aug 29, 1988, the University of Wisconsin-Madison juniors Tim Keck and Christopher Johnson published the first-ever issue of The Onion. The two founders claimed it was the US’ “finest news source”.

Nearly thirty years later, the news outlet has become one of the most _______ media presences in the US. But don’t expect _______ and timeliness from it, because The Onion, which is now a website, only publishes fake news, or news satire. Its aim is to make readers _______, and perhaps make them see things from a different angle.

The Onion’s articles comment on current events both real and fictional. Using a traditional newspaper layout, it _______ traditional newspapers with stories, editorials, op-ed pieces, and street-talk interviews.

Its humor often depends on presenting ordinary, everyday events as _______. Stories with headlines such as “Area man knows all the shortcut keys”, or “Area man too poor to afford movers, too old to get help from his friends” are good _______. “You know somebody like that,” Will Tracy, The Onion’s editor-in-chief, told the NPR in an interview. Their stories are presented “in that sort of news voice which _______ them to a certain level of importance that they don’t actually deserve.

_______ The Onion is most famous for its political reporting. An article in New Republic magazine says The Onion is the US’ “best op-ed page”, because it has “an ability to _______ locate and address a problem with an economy of words”. For example, when George W. Bush became the US president in 2001, The Onion published a satire piece predicting massive debt and a huge boost in military spending. The article ________a speech Bush delivered to the public; its headline said it all: “Bush: ‘Our long national nightmare of peace and prosperity is finally over’.”

While traditional media outlets are ________ when reporting on sensitive topics such as religion and race, Tracy says nothing is off limits for The Onion, “no matter how uncomfortable they may make some readers.”

But editors at The Onion do tread a fine line (如履薄冰), as Tracy explains: “What you have to be really careful about is what the target of the joke is. If the target of the joke is wrong, if you’re targeting the victim or someone who doesn’t ________ our anger, then it doesn’t feel right and it also doesn’t feel funny.” The Onion caused public ________when earlier this year, it tried to make fun of a 9-year-old Oscar-nominated actress by using highly offensive language. It later apologized.

For those unfamiliar with the concept of fake news stories, their satire and humor can easily be ________. The Onion published a fake poll last year announcing that rural white Americans had a more favorable opinion of Iran’s then-president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, than of Barack Obama. An Iranian state news agency covered this as ________ news. The news agency immediately became an international laughing stock.

1.

A．established

B．progressive

C．reliable

D．authoritative

2.

A．comprehensiveness

B．accuracy

C．uniqueness

D．complexity

3.

A．motivated

B．entertained

C．awakened

D．informed

4.

A．makes improvements of

B．makes use of

C．makes fun of

D．makes sense of

5.

A．newsworthy

B．trustworthy

C．creditworthy

D．praiseworthy

6.

A．materials

B．instructions

C．opinions

D．examples

7.

A．exposes

B．commits

C．attaches

D．elevates

8.

A．But

B．Moreover

C．Instead

D．Therefore

9.

A．elegantly

B．intensively

C．earnestly

D．instantly

10.

A．criticized

B．invented

C．carried

D．reviewed

11.

A．considerate

B．inefficient

C．imprecise

D．cautious

12.

A．value

B．tolerate

C．deserve

D．comprehend

13.

A．alarm

B．doubt

C．confusion

D．anger

14.

A．missed

B．removed

C．accused

D．imitated

15.

A．inspiring

B．remarkable

C．misleading

D．real

6 . 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.

Black Mamba a Legend That Will Never Die

It’s hard to believe Kobe is gone.

The NBA superstar,     1     great talent and win-at-all-costs spirit made him one of the most distinguished athletes in history, was the rare celebrity who didn’t need a last name.

Still youthful at 41, Bryant — who died in a helicopter crash on January 26 in California — looked     2     he could suit up any minute and drop 30 points on a rival(竞争对手) NBA team. It doesn’t seem that long ago that he was scoring 60 points in his final NBA game.

With a highly decorated career spanning 20 years — all with the Lakers — Bryant is all but     3     (assure) of being a first-ballot inductee (第一候选人) into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, alongside Tim Duncan and Kevin Garnett, later this year.

Bryant,     4     18-time All-Star, was famous for his astonishing scoring ability and his championship pedigree (总冠军血统). He teamed up with fellow All-Star Shaquille O’Neal     5     (win) three consecutive NBA titles from 2000 to 2002, and later won two more rings, in 2009 and 2010.

Known as the “Black Mamba”, Bryant finished his career with 33,643 points in the regular season, which put him at No. 3 among NBA’s scoring leaders, behind only Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (38,387) and Karl Malone (36,928)     6     LeBron James surpassed him just one day before Bryant’s untimely death.

“Kobe was so much more than an athlete. He was a family man, which was     7     we had most in common. Whenever we got together, I would hug his kids and he would embrace     8    .” O’Neal wrote on Twitter.

“Kobe was one of the most extraordinary players in the history of our game with accomplishments that are truly legendary(传奇般的),” NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said in a statement. “But he     9     (remember) most for inspiring people around the world to pick up a basketball and compete     10     the very best of their ability.”

7 . Up-skilling is the future - but it must work for everyone

Automation and job replacement will be one of the most significant challenges for the global economy of the coming decades. A 2017 Mckinsey report established that 375 million workers will need to switch occupational categories by 2030. The World Economic Forum suggests that by 2022, automation will replace 75 million jobs globally - but create 133 million new ones.

Research into the likelihood that a job will be impacted by digitization has largely focused on the "auto-matability" of the role and the following economic regional and political effects of this. What this research doesn't take into account is something more important for the millions of taxi drivers and retail workers across the globe: their likelihood of being able to change to another job that isn't automatable. Recent research suggests that the answer to this may be that the skills that enable workers to move up the ladder to more complex roles within their current areas might be less important than broader skills that will enable workers to change across divisions.

In July, Amazon announced that it would spend $700 million retraining around 30% of its 300,000 US workforce. While praiseworthy, it will be interesting to see the outcome. In the UK, the National Retraining Scheme has largely been led by employers, meaning that those on zero-hours contracts and part-time workers - often low-skilled --- will miss out. Governance will be a crucial element of ensuring that such schemes focus on individuals and life-long learning, rather than upskilling workers into roles that will soon also face automation.

According to the Mckinsey report, "growing awareness of the scale of the task ahead has yet to translate into action. Public spending on labour-force training and support has fallen for years in most member countries of the Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development," which impacts more than just the low-skilled.

The global impact of automation is also put into relief by research demonstrating that, between 1988 and 2015, income inequality increased throughout the world. Billions of people do not have the essentials of life as defined by the UN Sustainable Development goals.

Alongside climate change, automation is arguably tech's biggest challenge. As with globalization, governments and employers -- and us workers -- ignore its potential consequences at risk to ourselves.

1. It can be known from Paragraph 2 that ________.

A．recent research has found ways to face automation

B．broad skills are of great significance in changing jobs

C．regional economy can affect the automatability of a job

D．it is even harder for workers to move up the social ladder

2. What is the author's attitude towards retraining programs?

A．Supportive.

B．Critical

C．Doubtful

D．Sympathetic

3. According to the author, what is one consequence of automation?

A．Less spending on training	B．A slowdown of globalization
C．Social unrest and instability.	D．An increase in income inequality

4. The passage is written to ________

A．argue the urgency of creating new jobs

B．compare globalization with automation

C．analyze the automatability of certain jobs

D．stress the important of upskilling workers

8 . Celebrating Czech traditions

Have you ever witnessed the 300-year anniversary of a village? To me, it is so amazing that this village, named Bysicky, which is located in Bohemia in the Czech Republic, has sustained blizzards and wars for all this time, but has still kept its special charm.

Unlike transportation you’d find in Prague such as the metro or tram, the most common way to get around in the countryside is by bike, as it’s a lot more convenient. So on Saturday morning. I departed from home on a bike ride with my host family. After an 8-kilometer journey, we finally arrived at the village.

There was a road that led straight into the center of the village. Many stalls selling pizza, beer and ice cream were by the roadside. You could hear guitar music coming from the other side of the road, where an outdoor stage stood on large area of meadow.

When the performance from the guitarists finished, group of children wearing traditional costumes came on stage. As the crowd applauded loudly, the children were divided into three groups. A group of older kids playing different musical instruments stood on the left side, a group performing typical Czech dances was on the right, and a choir sang beautifully in the center.

Many of those present were relatives of the children, and we were there because my sister was a member of the dancing group. On the edge of the grassland, there were girls riding horses.

The end of the road led to a circled space, where the city hall stood in the middle, surrounded by a circle of colorful cottages. In front of the houses there were also many markets and a radio station reporting on the event.

So this is what a typical village celebration looks like, with markets food and performances from traditional Czech culture, which was quite different from festivals in big cities. Czech people value their history, so there will always be parties to celebrate a place’s existence or an important person from history. There are no high buildings in these villages, but people still like to go there to spend their weekends because of the peaceful environment. I guess that is what life really means.

1. What can we learn from the text about Bysicky?

A．The most convenient transport here is the metro.

B．The outdoor stage was set up in front of the city hall.

C．The author’s host family lives in the village.

D．It has a long history and is usually peaceful.

2. After they arrived in Bysicky, the author ______.

A．came across a famous choir giving a performance	B．heard music played by a group of guitarists
C．danced with local kids in traditional costumes	D．rode horses on the grass nearby

3. What can we infer from the last paragraph?

A．The author dislikes festivals in big cities.

B．Czech people take pride in their culture and history.

C．Czech people don’t like to live in high buildings.

D．Czech people always enjoy their lives to the fullest.

4. What is the author’s main purpose in writing the article?

A．To describe a typical village celebration in the Czech Republic.

B．To give tips on how to tour around Bysicky.

C．To inform us of different traditional Czech festivals.

D．To explain the long history of Bysicky and its people

9 . Directions: Read the following passage. Summarize the main idea and the main point(s) of the passage in no more than 60 words. Use your own words as far as possible.

Classroom Pets

Watching duck eggs hatch in a classroom was a “wow” experience that brought the topic to life, says Sarah Holmes, teacher in Derby High School’s primary department. Classrooms across the UK house a wide range of school pets: hamsters, fish, guinea pigs and even tortoises. But though they teach children about nature, it is not always a happy story, animal charities say, and it might be teaching children the wrong lessons.

In some schools, animals die because the school cannot afford vets’ fees. The eggs at Derby High came from a company that provided detailed instructions on how to care or the ducklings and took them back to rear, but the service costs money not all schools can afford. The Potteries Guinea Pig Rescue based in Stoke-on-trent, has taken in a number of guinea pigs from schools in North Stafforshire that have found themselves unable to care for the animals. The schools thought it was a good idea until the animal experienced health issues and they had to pay for vet treatment.

Many teachers who keep classroom pets do so with good intentions. But as a matter of fact, a classroom simply isn’t a suitable home for an animal. The sleep-wake cycles of nocturnal(夜间活动的) animals such as mice and hamsters are disturbed by bright classroom lights and by pupils taking them out of their cages and handling them.   Peta (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) says it hears complaints that animals have died after being over-handled or through accidents occurring when being played with. “I can’t imagine many things worse than being limited to a cage stuck in a noisy classroom all day,” one citizen said.

Nevertheless, Debs Howe, a former biology teacher who now runs an egg hatching company, says that done responsibly, looking after animals can be an experience children don’t forget. For children who may have issues accessing the curriculum often due to autism (自闭症) or emotional or behavioral issues, the hatching of chicks has an incredible effect. It’s also particularly appealing to those who always live in cities with little access to farms or nature.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

10 . Top College Graduates Get Paid More, but do They Perform Better?

It’s generally believed that better universities attract better students and provide better training, so it makes sense to use the university rank as a predictor of employee performance. But is it a good hiring strategy? Do university rankings predict job performance? Our research suggests yes — but only to a degree.

In a recent study, we tested the relationship between the university rank and performance of graduates. We tracked the performance of 28,339 students from 294 universities that ranked from Top 10 to about top 20,000 in the Webometrics global university rankings.     1    Importantly, we captured not only the quality of the output, but a wide range of hard and soft competencies including cooperation with team members, leadership, language proficiency, technical skills, emotional intelligence, creativity, and more.

Our results offer some comfort to the traditional recruiters. After controlling for age, gender, and the year of study, we found that graduates from higher-ranked universities performed better, but only nominally and only on some dimensions of performance.

    2    The first was selection: higher-ranked universities usually can choose from a larger pool of applicants, which leads to steeper competition and a higher quality of the incoming class. Corroborating the selectivity hypothesis, our data demonstrated that students at higher-ranked universities indeed score higher on general cognitive ability tests, have more international experience, better English proficiency, and higher cultural intelligence.

Second, higher-ranked universities should provide better training. Top universities employ better instructors, offer access to better-equipped facilities, attract better speakers and guests to campus, which in turn, should lead to better training and subsequent performance.

Finally, it might be expected that higher-ranked institutions might provide a more stimulating academic environment.     3     Having notable, hardworking, celebrity-status professors, along with being around intelligent, highly-motivated, achievement-oriented peers, positively affects self-efficacy, motivation, effort, and work ethic.

Despite their slightly better overall performance, hiring graduates from higher-ranked institutions could have a downside. Our data suggest that students from higher-ranked universities might damage team cooperation, sometimes carelessly.     4     In some instances, graduates from top universities tend to be less friendly, are more prone to conflict, and are less likely to identify with their team.

A．Indeed, education is not only lectures and seminars.

B．However, our study revealed no difference in the following aspects.

C．They clearly know that interpersonal relationships at work play a critical role in career success.

D．They tend to excessively focus on the instrumental tasks, paying insufficient attention to interpersonal relationships.

E．We also found several reasons why the graduates from the top universities performed better than those from the lower-ranked schools.

F．We observed the students’ performance for two months as they were working in global virtual teams on real-life business consulting projects.