1 . Great Albums
Golden Hour
By Kacey Musgraves
Price: $10.49
It’s no surprise that many people forecast Golden Hour will be one of the best country albums of the 2010s. Country music superstar Musgraves makes listeners feel like she is speaking directly to them, thanks to her honesty and attention to detail. Although Musgraves is famous for her clever wordplay and humorous expressions about small-town life, she says she likes more direct songwriting.
Honky Tonk Time Machine
By George Strait
Price: $11.49
Honky Tonk Time Machine is a successful return for the best country music singer of all time. Radio stations often play it. Though you can listen to this album at home, the cover is a good enough reason for owning the album. The album is a must for fans of George or true country music.
Stronger Than the Truth
By Reba McEntire
Price: $9.49
If you are a country music fan, then this album is for you. There is something for everyone on this album. As the Queen of love songs, McEntire has some beautiful songs and she sings them to perfection. This may be her best country album to date.
Under Pressure
By Logic
Price: $9.49
On this album, the American rap singer talks about his growth. Under Pressure is a how of Logic’s life, his new fame, and most importantly, his family. Although Logic shows his skillful flow on this album, what makes it really special is the autobiographical (自传的) detail. The album is actually a successful project for a guy who worked hard.
1. What do we know about Kacey Musgraves?| A．She often talks with her fans face to face. |
| B．She cares about detail in golden hour. |
| C．She is the best songwriter in the 2010s. |
| D．She likes writing in small towns. |
| A．Kacey Musgraves. | B．George Strait. |
| C．Reba McEntire. | D．Logic. |
| A．Golden Hour. | B．Stronger Than the Truth. |
| C．Honky Tonk Time Machine. | D．Under Pressure. |
2 . Each year, half a million people die from brain aneurysms（动脉瘤）—when a blood vessel（血管）bursts in the brain. An aneurysm is a bulge（膨胀）in a blood vessel that can burst. If that happens in the brain, it can be deadly. For survivors, physical disabilities are often severe. They may include memory problems, loss of balance, trouble speaking and even blindness. But new technologies are increasing survival rates and reducing disabilities.
Beaumont Bacon is a survivor who makes light of her experience because she is a comedian（喜剧演员）. She uses humor to make others laugh. Now she’s working on a new show. Michael Alexander is her doctor. He operated on Beaumont Bacon after her attack. “She had bleeding in the frontal area of her brain, so right above the eyes. The part that was in the brain was about maybe the size of an egg. So, that’s a fairly large bleed.”
Ms. Bacon had a better chance at survival than most people because of Dr. Alexander. He directs the Neurovascular Center in Los Angeles. The center offers new technologies that include placing a catheter（导管）into an aneurysm, then threading wires to promote blood clots（血栓）. This technique reduces the chances of another burst blood vessel. “You don’t have to open up the skull（头盖骨）or open up the brain to do surgery. It’s all done from inside the blood vessels. So it reduces the amount of blood loss, and the recovery is much faster.”
For Beaumont Bacon’s recovery, the hospital worked to prevent problems commonly found in patients with a burst aneurysm. The problems include brain swelling that can shut down blood vessels. She spent a month in a coma（昏迷）—unable to communicate with doctors, friends and loved ones. But with a year of treatment, she recovered. Now, she is making people laugh.
1. What do you know about aneurysms?| A．No technologies can treat them nowadays. |
| B．They may cause severe disabilities. |
| C．Few people die from them every year. |
| D．They are deadly wherever they happen. |
| A．it is much faster for the patient to recover |
| B．it brings no problems after the operation |
| C．it reduces the amount of blood loss |
| D．it doesn’t need to open up the brain to operate |
| A．was always in an unconscious state after the operation |
| B．recovered soon after the treatment |
| C．returned to work after the treatment |
| D．was the first to try the new technology |
| A．providing an example | B．making comparisons |
| C．offering data | D．giving explanations |
3 . Artificial intelligence (Al) technology may soon be a useful tool for doctors. It may help them better understand and treat diseases like breast cancer(癌症)in ways that were never before possible.
Rishi Rawat teaches Al at the University of Southern California's (USC) Clinical Science Center in Los Angeles. He is part of a team of scientists who are researching how Al and machine learning can more easily recognize cancerous growths in the breast. Rawat provides information about cancer cells to a computer. He says this data helps the machine learn."…You can put the data into them and they will learn the patterns and the pattern recognition. That's important to make decisions.”
David Agus is another USC researcher. He believes that "machines are not going to take the place of doctors." Computers will not treat patients, but they will help make certain decisions and look for things that the human brain can't recognize these patterns by itself." Once a confirmed cancerous growth is removed, doctors still have to treat the patient to reduce the risk of cancer returning. The form of treatment depends on the kind of cancer. Currently, researchers take a thin piece of tissue (动植物细胞的组织)，put it on a small piece of glass and add color to better see the cells .
That process could take days or even longer. Scientists say Al can do something better than just count cells. Through machine learning, it can recognize complex patterns or structures, and learn how the cells are organized. The hope is that machines will soon be able to make a quick identification of cancer that is free of human mistakes. "A11 of a sudden, we have the computing power to really do it in real time... We couldn't have done this, we didn't have the computing power to do this several years ago, but now it's all changed." Agus adds that the process could be done "for almost no cost in the developing world.” He says that having a large amount of information about patients is important for a machine to effectively do its job in medicine .
The University of Southern California researchers are now only studying breast cancer. But doctors predict Al will one day make a difference in all forms of cancer.
1. Many diseases like breast cancer will soon be ______.| A．cured with Al | B．treated with Al |
| C．prevented with Al | D．removed with Al |
| A．Al technology is to replace doctors. |
| B．Computers can be an aid to the human brain. |
| C．Computers can work well with little information. |
| D．Al technology is not accessible to developing countries. |
| A．Helping to count cells. | B．Recognizing complex patterns. |
| C．Making a quick and right identification. | D．Learning how the cells are organized. |
| A．Research in breast cancer. | B．Potential of Al for doctors. |
| C．Imagination about Al' s future. | D．Achievements on medical care. |
增加：在缺词处加一个漏字符号（∧），并在其下面写出该加的词。
删除：把多余的词用斜线（＼）划掉。
修改：在错的词下划一横线，并在该词下面写出修改后的词。
注意：1. 每处错误及其修改均仅限一词；
2. 只允许修改10处，多者（从第11处起）不计分。
As a saying go, “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.” However, it is necessary for us take exercise. By taking exercise we can get physically and mentally relaxing. At the same time, we can have a very well figure. If we don’t take exercise for a long time, we may easily fall sick.
Actually, I enjoy a various of outdoor sports, of which swimming in the sea is mine favorite. Because there are so many swimmer in swimming pool and the water is always dirty, I have a preference in swimming in the sea. Besides, I am also interested in playing the badminton.
5 . Never did I imagine I would land into a place that I used to dislike. However, my working here in Saudi Arabia has turned out to be a
One of those is
Second is the value of
The most
| A．test | B．challenge | C．blessing | D．experience |
| A．love | B．patience | C．wisdom | D．ambition |
| A．Unfortunately | B．In return | C．By accident | D．Consequently |
| A．witnessed | B．missed | C．provided | D．replaced |
| A．paused | B．finished | C．rested | D．got |
| A．pick out | B．look for | C．deal with | D．come across |
| A．strangest | B．clearest | C．strictest | D．nicest |
| A．attitude | B．promotion | C．situation | D．theory |
| A．sincerely | B．anxiously | C．cautiously | D．happily |
| A．parents | B．neighbors | C．colleagues | D．enemies |
| A．fine | B．legal | C．equal | D．casual |
| A．trust | B．respect | C．manner | D．justice |
| A．dreams | B．bases | C．plans | D．steps |
| A．offered | B．considered | C．made | D．found |
| A．accept | B．judge | C．permit | D．use |
| A．transportation | B．food | C．performance | D．tradition |
| A．less | B．different | C．worse | D．better |
| A．ambiguous | B．significant | C．abnormal | D．unbearable |
| A．required | B．called | C．warned | D．taught |
| A．tolerate | B．remember | C．appreciate | D．organize |
6 . There are a lot of benefits to staying physically fit. You’ll have more energy, you’ll look great, and you’ll notice improvements in your health.
Find the time. Exercise is one of the most important aspects in staying (or becoming) fit and healthy.
Go outdoors. It is really good to work out at a gym—without air conditioning and televisions. But scientists report that exercising outdoors, at least part of the time, can have more benefits.
Be social. If you join other people in your exercise routine, you’ll see a positive influence in your results.
| A．Make it a habit. |
| B．Enjoy your exercise. |
| C．Unfortunately, it’s not always easy to stay in great shape. |
| D．In a word, it is absolutely good for you to stay physically fit. |
| E．Finding a workout partner can help you to stick to your exercise. |
| F．The road or sidewalk challenges your body in ways that gyms can’t do. |
| G．Experts recommend that you should be active for at least 30 minutes per day. |
7 . When my 8-month-old cries, I ask him if he’s hungry, or wet or just needs a hug.
“Babububuu,” he says.
What I need is a baby cry translator. That’s just what a team of researchers say they’ve developed.
“Experienced nurses or pediatricians (儿科医师) can identify why baby is crying because they have experience, says Lichuan Liu, a professor of electrical engineering at Northern Illinois University, who conducted the research.” We talked to them, and they mentioned that based on the cry’s’ sound there’re’ some clues (线索).”
So Liu set out to identify the features of cries that can help mark them as expressions of pain or discomfort. These features include differences in pitch (音高) and frequency. The team then developed an algorithm (算法) based on automatic speech recognition to detect and identify these features. This “cry language recognition algorithm” was trained on recordings of baby cries taken from a hospital. It uses compressed sensing, a process that reconstructs a signal based on incomplete data. It can identify a baby cry against a background of, say, adult speech or loud television sounds. By classifying different cry features, like pitch, the algorithm can suggest whether the cry is due to sickness or pain, and identify the degree of urgency.
The team had experienced pediatric care providers assess forty-eight baby cry recordings for probable cause of crying hunger, tiredness, etc. They then compared these to the algorithm’s assessments. The algorithm agreed with the humans 70% of the time. Generally, so-called “uncommon cry signals”—signs of pain or sickness—are high-pitched and very loud compared to ordinary crying.
Liu and her team continue to train the technology for greater accuracy. They also plan to add more features, like the ability to identify and classify movement and facial expressions. This could help give more detailed reading of baby’s emotional (情感的) and physical state. They also hope to begin human trials in the near future.
1. The author mentions the 8-month-old child to ________.| A．draw attention to baby cries | B．prove baby cries are common |
| C．lead in a translator for baby cries | D．show the use of cry translators |
| A．Pediatric care workers’ words. | B．The pediatricians’ strong requests. |
| C．Her own nursing experiences. | D．Her doubts about the previous research. |
| A．They collected baby cries from big hospitals. |
| B．They got 48 baby cry recordings evaluated. |
| C．They created an automatic speech recognition. |
| D．They analyzed cry features with compressed sensing. |
| A．It has been widely used in daily life. |
| B．It’s mainly meant for hungry cry signals. |
| C．It has been proved effective on babies. |
| D．It’s only been tested on recorded cries now. |
8 . Genetic modification (基因改良) dates back to ancient times, when humans influenced genetics by selectively breeding organisms (培育生物) according to an article by Gabriel Rangel, a public health scientist at Harvard University. When repeated over several generations, this process leads to great changes in the organisms.
Dogs were likely the first animals to be purposefully genetically modified, with the beginnings of that effort dating back about 32,000 years, according to Rangel. Wild wolves joined our hunter-gatherer ancestors in East Asia, where the aggressive canines were kept in the household and bred to become docile and easier to get along with. Over thousands of years, people bred dogs with different desired character and physical characteristics, eventually leading to the wide variety of dogs we see today.
The earliest known genetically modified plant is wheat. This valuable crop is thought to have originated in the Middle East and northern Africa in the area known as the Fertile Crescent, according to a 2015 article published in the Journal of Traditional and Complementary Medicine. Ancient farmers selectively bred wheat grasses beginning around 9000 B. C. to create improved varieties with larger grains and hardier seeds. By 800 B.C., the cultivation (培养) of improved wheat had spread across Europe and Asia. The continued selective cultivation of wheat resulted in the thousands of varieties that are grown today.
Corn has also experienced some of greatest genetic changes over the past few thousand years. The main crop was changed from a plant known as teosinte, a wild grass with tiny ears and only a few seeds. Over time, farmers selectively bred the teosinte grasses to create corn with large ears bursting with seeds.
Beyond those crops, many of the fruit and vegetables we eat today, including bananas, apples and tomatoes, have experienced several generations of selective raising, according to Rangel.
In 1973, researchers also modified bacteria to be used as drugs. In 1982, human insulin (胰岛素) made from genetically engineered bacteria, became the first genetically engineered human drugs approved by the FDA.
1. What does the word “docile” in paragraph 2 most probably mean?| A．Gentle. | B．Loyal. | C．Smart. | D．Ambitious. |
| A．Through selective cultivation. | B．By editing its genes constantly. |
| C．Through mixture with teosinte. | D．By planting it in large numbers. |
| A．It is rarely seen in daily life. | B．It was quite difficult to accept. |
| C．It is hardly influenced by humans. | D．It played a role in medical field. |
| A．Health. | B．Lifestyle. | C．Science. | D．Agriculture. |
9 . After a Blockbuster store in Australia closes on March 31, the American city of Bend, Oregon will have the only one left on Earth.
For years, Blockbuster was a big name in the video rental business. The company had thousands of stores in the United States and around the world. But Blockbuster began to lose money during the 2000s. By 2014, all company-owned stores had closed. Since then, locally owned Blockbusters have closed, one by one.
Operating the last Blockbuster Video on Earth is not easy. The computer system uses old disks that only the store’s general manager knows how to use. The video rentals are recorded on a kind of aging tape. The tape cannot be replaced because Radio Shack, another once famous store, went out of business.
Sandi Harding has worked at the Blockbuster in Bend for over 15 years and is the store’s general manager. She says “stubbornness” is part of the reason the store is still open. “We did everything we could to cut costs and keep ourselves relevant,” she said.
Zeke Kamm lives in Bend. He is making a documentary about the store with his friend. He notes that many people who rented videos over the years want to share memories of their experiences Kamm explained how Blockbuste were once an important part of small town in America. The Blockbuster was the only place that was open past nine at night, and a lot of them stayed open much later.
Recently, Harding has noticed that more children are coming to the store, brought in by their parents who like remembering the past. Jerry Gilless and his wife, Elizabeth, on a trip to Oregon, recently brought their two children, aged 3 and 5, to the store in Bend. They watched with a smile as their children walked from row to row, looking at movies. “How could we not stop? It’s the last one,” said Gilless. “They need to see that not everything’s on the iPad.”
1. What is the third paragraph mainly about?| A．The popularity of the video rental business. | B．The special computer system of the last store. |
| C．The value of the last Blockbuster on Earth. | D．The difficulties of running the last Blockbuster. |
| A．It has a long history in all Blockbuster stores. | B．Its employees try their best to keep it running |
| C．Its general manager is very stubborn woman. | D．It is a place where people can watch old movies. |
| A．People’s experiences of sharing their own memories. |
| B．Zeke Kamm’s work with his friend in the Blockbuster. |
| C．People’s memories of renting videos in the Blockbuster. |
| D．Blockbusters’important role in a small town of America. |
| A．Oregon Will Have the Last Blockbuster on Earth | B．Different Opinions About the Last Blockbuster |
| C．People Are Interested in the Last Blockbuster | D．A Documentary About the Last Blockbuster |
10 . The Berkshire Riding Centre Ltd is a highly recommended riding school. Everyone is welcome. Whether you are an absolute beginner or have dreams of becoming an Olympic champion, we can design the right riding lesson program for you.
Riding lessons for beginners
We help kids from the age of 4 and adults learn to ride. We start beginners with half-hour private lessons while they learn the basics. Once you ride independently (usually after 4—6 lessons), your instructor will recommend a suitable group.
Private lessons
We offer 1-to-1 private tuition (讲授) for riders of all levels. We start beginners with half-hour private lessons while they learn the basics and build their confidence. The more experienced riders will benefit from personal tuition too. Whether you want to improve specific aspects of your riding, or just enjoy riding, private lessons are tailored to your specific requirements.
Group riding lessons
We offer broad range of group riding lessons, from child or adult beginner to advanced dressage (花样骑术) lessons and jumping lessons. Call the office to discuss the weekly Group Lesson Schedule on 01344 884992.
Riding lessons on your own horse
We also welcome horse owners who would like to bring their own for either one-off lessons or a concentrated course of lessons to improve their riding. Your horse is going or to prepare you both for competitions. Pricing is the same.
How to book your riding lesson
Call the office on 01344 884992 or email us on info@brc. co. uk.
We are open 7 days a week and have evening riding lessons on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. Our three all-weather schools, two outside and one inside, make us have good all-year-round riding.
Note: All new riders, regardless of their abilities, must have a 30-minute assessment lesson so that we can design the most appropriate plan for them.
1. When are beginners likely to ride on their own?| A．Before having three private lessons. | B．Before building up their confidence. |
| C．After meeting with their instructors. | D．After taking about five riding lessons. |
| A．By making calls to the office. | B．By visiting the riding school in person. |
| C．By writing to group members. | D．By writing emails to their instructors. |
| A．Take four evening riding lessons. | B．Get assessed for proper programs. |
| C．Spend half an hour riding horses. | D．Offer plans on how to ride horses. |
