1 . It probably won’t surprise you that teens are texting more than ever before. Experts show great concern for teen texting. Students might not learn correct grammar and spelling if they write a lot of text messages. Also all that texting takes away hours that could be spent studying, exercising, pursuing hobbies, or talking with others face to face. Some kids even sleep with their phones beneath their pillows and wake up several times during the night to text.

Dr. Elizabeth Dowdell points out teens need to learn that they can—and should—turn off their phones sometimes. She and her team had two teenagers, Kenny and Franchesca, carry out an experiment. They should obey the rules: No phone for 48 hours. No computer or Internet either, unless it was for schoolwork. Would these be able to do it?

“I think I’m going to feel really alone,” Kenny worried. Franchesca was nervous but brave. “I’m excited for the challenge,” she said. “I don’t know what’s going to happen.” They handed their phones to their mothers for safekeeping. The challenge was on.

The team caught up with Kenny and Franchesca after 48 phone-free hours. “Wow, it was pure suffering,” Kenny joked. “Though life with no phone wasn’t easy,” he admitted, “it had benefits. I felt less stressed because I didn’t have to be involved. ” Sure, Kenny missed his friends, and he was sad at times. But he also felt relief from the constant texting. Instead of texting, Kenny went to the gym and caught up on schoolwork. He said that the first night he slept for 10 hours. He also spent time sitting with his family and talking. “I felt closer to my parents,” said Kenny.

Franchesca had an even happier result when she put away her phone. “I loved it!” she said.   “I was going to the gym and hanging out with friends and playing basketball. I had a wonderful experience. ” She slept better too, and she decided to continue the experiment fora while. “I think I’ll be so much smarter and healthier,” she explained. “Everybody in the world should try it.”

Kenny doesn’t plan to give up his phone again. But he now knows that he can live without it. “It was a reality check,” said the teen.

1. Experts are concerned about teens’ texting because it ________.

A．leads to learning disabilities

B．takes up their learning time

C．develops the habit of staying up late

D．causes misunderstandings with each other

2. What can be inferred from the passage?

A．Teens will live a healthier life without phones.

B．Expecting teens to live without phones is not realistic.

C．Experimenting with phone use is popular among teens.

D．Teens don’t realize how different their lives are without phones.

3. What influence did the48-hour challenge have on both Kenny and Franchesca?

A．Both teens participated in physical activities.

B．Both teens felt they were closer to their parents.

C．Both teens have planned to give up their cellphones.

D．Both teens had more time spent on their schoolwork.

4. This passage mainly talks about________.

A．giving up Texting	B．rules for Using Phones
C．two Days with No Phone	D．problems Caused by Texting

2 .                                                                                                                                 Music for Life

Learning music is important for the educational and personal development of young people!

Learning an instrument: how do pupils choose?

All our teachers are highly qualified and experienced musicians, and pupils can learn to play a wide range of instruments, from the keyboard to the drums(鼓). We have open days when new pupils who are unsure which instrument to choose can come to the centre. They are able to speak to teachers about which instrument might be best for them, and they can also see and hear classes in action.

Who is responsible for buying the instruments?

Parents usually have to provide instruments. But parents of beginners are advised not to buy an instrument until they are told that a place is available. They should also find out from the teacher the most suitable type of instrument to get.

When and where do lessons take place?

Lessons are available in many schools, usually during the day. If there is no lesson available for a particular instrument in a particular school, other arrangements can be made at one of our music centres for lessons on Saturday afternoons or weekday evenings.

How are pupils taught?

Pupils can learn in small groups, in classes or individually, depending on their needs.   Small groups of three pupils have lessons that last thirty minutes. Class lessons last forty-five minutes and have at least ten pupils. Individual lessons are offered only to pupils who have some experience.

Starting young: when can pupils begin?

Children are never too young to become interested in music. We have special “Musical Youth” classes for children from the age of 3 to 8. These are designed to encourage young children to enjoy music through a variety of activities including singing, musical games, listening and movement. “Musical Youth” classes take place on Saturday mornings   with groups of about 18 children. A parent or other adult must attend each session, and they are encouraged to sit with their children and help them with the activities.

1. What can we learn from the passage?

A．New pupils can see classes on an open day.

B．Pupils can learn special instruments on Sundays.

C．Parents must accompany pupils from all ages.

D．Teachers at the centre can provide the right instruments for pupils.

2. What is the best choice for children with some experience?

A．Lessons for groups of ten.	B．Individual lessons.
C．Lessons for small groups of three.	D．Special “Musical Youth” classes.

3. The passage is intended for ________.

A．teachers

B．parents

C．musicians

D．pupils

3 . Nowadays, video gaming has made impressive gains in the field of standardized competition. One of the fashionable debates is whether competitive video games are sports or not. If cyberathletes are competing against formal teams in a formal environment, with real titles and monetary stakes on the line, it seems strange not to consider the activity a sport. However, unless something technologically odd gains complete control over our world in the next few decades, they never should be. Cyberathletes and eSports aren’t incomparable to traditional athletes and sports because they require less physical exertion or dedication. They are incomparable because they are different from traditional sports in a number of ways.

Traditional sports are steadfast, and consistent in their structures and mechanics. A professional American football player from any past decade could be transplanted into a current football field, and would only have to be told of a few minor rule changes. The player would know what to do, where to go, and how to accomplish the ultimate goal. He may need to learn a few new plays, but it’s fundamentally the same game. However, competitive video gaming has a variety of goals, and those goals are fluid and dynamic. A competitive video gamer from decades past might be aware of the final goal (winning the game, capturing the flag, eliminating the opposing team, etc.), but the execution (执行方式) would be completely foreign. Controls change, maps change, locations change, even the minute rules are adjusted on a regular basis. As a competitive video gamer, one needs to adapt to a much more aggressive ruleset than most sports or other games. Therefore the video game competitions are less likely to be properly regulated.

Most traditional sports are approachable by Everyman, even the esoteric(深奥的) ones, at least in an educational setting, where budgets and funding are set for them. While home computers are widely accessible, a large percentage of the gaming population is unable to participate in competitive gaming due to the high-standard computing requirements. Even decade-old competitive games like Counter-Strike 1.6 require more equipment and gear than most traditional sports. A pick-up game of basketball, football, or soccer is far more accessible than a pick-up game of Counter-Strike.

Traditional sports are embedded in our culture for good reasons: they offer an entertaining diversion and a great form of physical activity for millions of worldwide fans. The principles and lessons gleaned from traditional sports emphasize teamwork, collaboration, and critical evaluations of any given game setting. While many of these lessons are applicable to competitive gaming, competitive video gamers are still distancing themselves from competing for “sport” status, when their pastime and trade is so fundamentally different and ever-changing at such a regular pace.

1. What is the author’s opinion towards competitive video games?

A．They can be seen as sports due to their emphasis on teamwork.

B．They can be seen as sports due to their standardized regulations.

C．They can not be seen as sports due to their lack of physical and mental efforts.

D．They can not be seen as sports due to the inconsistent rules and high requirements.

2. What does the underlined word “foreign” in Paragraph 2 probably mean?

A．Difficult.

B．Common.

C．Typical.

D．Different.

3. Why does the author mention Counter-Strike in Paragraph 3?

A．To explain the reason why eSports surpass traditional sports.

B．To explore the possibility that competitive video games will be sports.

C．To provide an example of the difference between eSports and traditional sports.

D．To account for the fact that the competitive features of video games are impressive.

4. How does the author develop his idea?

A．By quoting and citing.

B．By listing and analyzing.

C．By comparison and contrast.

D．By explaining and evaluating.

4 . I know what courage looks like. I saw it on a flight I took six years ago, and only now can I speak of it without tears filling eyes at the memory.

Our flight left the Orlando Airport one Friday morning. But immediately upon take-off, it was clear that something was wrong. The aircraft was bumping(颠簸) up and down. All the experienced travellers, including me, looked around with knowing smiles. If you fly much, you see these things and learn to act calmly about them. However, we did not remain calm for long.

Minutes after we were in the air, our plane began falling quickly. The pilot soon made a serious announcement. “We are having some difficulties,” he said. “Our indicators show that the control system has failed. We will be returning to the Orlando Airport. The flight attendants will prepare you for a bumpy landing. Also, if you look out of the windows, you will see that we are dumping fuel from the airplane. We want to have as little on board as possible in the event of a rough touchdown.” In other words, we were about to crash. Many travellers looked visibly frightened now. No one faces death without fear, I thought.

Then a couple of rows to my left, I heard a still calm voice, a woman’s voice, speaking in an absolutely normal conversational tone. I had to find the source of this voice. All around, people cried. Many screamed. Finally, I saw her. In this chaos, a mother was talking to her child. The woman, in her mid-30s, was staring full into the face of her daughter, who looked to be four years old. The child listened closely, sensing the importance of her mother’s words. The mother’s gaze held the child so fixed that she seemed untouched by the sounds of grief and fear around her.

Finally, I leaned over and by some miracle could hear this soft sure voice with the tone of comfort. Over and over again, the mother said, “I love you so much. Remember, no matter what happens, I love you always.” Fortunately, our landing gear held at last and our touchdown was not a tragedy.

However, the voice I heard that day never faded. That mom showed me what a real hero looks like.

1. What does the author imply by saying “some travellers’ knowing smiles” in Paragraph 2?

A．They were used to this kind of experience.

B．They were quite familiar with each other.

C．They were well-educated passengers.

D．They were pretending to be calm.

2. What happened shortly after take-off?

A．The plane met bad weather and had to return immediately.

B．The flight indicators showed the plane’s control system failed.

C．One of the passengers was badly ill and the plane had to turn back.

D．A flight attendant explained flight safety instructions to the passengers.

3. Hearing the pilot’s announcement, how did most travellers respond?

A．They asked for help.

B．They remained calm.

C．They cried and screamed.

D．They rejected the bumpy landing.

4. What is the best title for the passage?

A．The shape of love.

B．The voice of courage.

C．The wisdom of a pilot.

D．The danger of a journey.

5 . 阅读下列短文，根据短文内容填空。在未给提示词的空白处仅填写1个适当的单词，在给出提示词的空白处用括号内所给词的正确形式填空。

China has achieved a total victory in lifting the whole nation out of poverty(贫困). The poverty relief policy was put forward in November 2013.     1     (finish) this task, about 800,000 officials have been sent to work at local levels. In the past 8 years, China     2    (lift) 98.99 million poor rural     3     (resident) - a population larger than all but a few countries - out of poverty under the current poverty line.

6 . 阅读下列短文，根据短文内容填空。在未给提示词的空白处仅填写1个适当的单词，在给出提示词的空白处用括号内所给词的正确形式填空。

Once it snowed, I netted a bird.     1     (hold) it in my hands, I felt very excited. My father saw it and said he could turn this black bird into a colorful one. I didn’t believe     2    he said but decided to give it a go. I opened my hands and saw that the bird was edged with the color of the sunshine when it     3     (fly) in the sky freely. My father said no matter how beautiful a bird was, it would turn black when it was grasped in our hands and lost freedom.

7 . What is a port city?

The port city provides a rich understanding of the movement of people and goods around the world. We understand a port as a centre of island-sea exchange and a major force for cultural mixing.

Ports and harbours

Harbor is a physical concept, a shelter for ships; Port is an economic concept, a centre of land-sea exchange which demands goods for export and import. Some ports were developed from poor harbours which were improved with breakwaters(防水堤) and dredging(清淤). Madras and Colombo are examples of harbours expensively improved by enlarging, dredging and building breakwaters.

________________________

Port cities become industrial, financial and service centres and political capitals because of their water connections and the urban concentration which draws to it railways, highways and air routes. Water transport means cheap access, the chief basis of all port cities. Many of the world’s biggest cities, for example, London, New York, Shanghai, Tokyo and San Francisco began as ports-that is, with land-sea exchange as their major function. Although their port functions are no longer dominant now, they remain different kinds of places from non-port cities and their port functions account for that difference.

International city and trade

Port functions, more than anything else, can make a city more international. A port is open to the world. In it races, cultures, as well as goods from a variety of places, mix and enrich each other and the life of the city. But much domestic port trade has not been recorded. What evidence we have suggests that domestic trade was greater at all periods than foreign trade. Shanghai, for example, did most of its trade with other Chinese ports and inland cities, Calcutta traded mainly with other parts of India and so on.

Position of port city centre

Cities which began as ports keep the chief commercial and administrative centre of the city close to the waterfront. The centre of New York is in lower Manhattan between two river mouths, the city of London is on the Thames, Shanghai along the Bund. This is also true of Boston, Bombay, Madras, Bangkok and Singapore, where the commercial, financial, and administrative centres are still grouped around their harbours even though each city has expanded into a big one. Even a casual visitor cannot mistake them as anything but port cities.

1. Which port city is changed from a harbour by improving the facilities?

A．Singapore.

B．Bangkok.

C．New York.

D．Madras.

2. Which would be the best heading for Paragraph 2?

A．Good ports, huge profit centres.

B．Once a port city, always a port city.

C．Water transport, basis of port cities.

D．Port functions, a feature of big cities.

3. What can we learn about port cities?

A．They have water connections.

B．They don’t trade with inland cities.

C．They are easily mistaken for harbours.

D．They moved their chief centres away from waterfront.

8 . 假如你是红星中学高三(1)班学生李华。你的英国笔友Jim对中国的数字化生活很感兴趣，来信询问相关情况。请你给他回邮件，内容包括：
1. 介绍你身边的数字化生活；
2. 阐述你的看法；
3. 询问对方情况。
注意：1. 词数不少于80；
2. 开头和结尾已给出，不计入总词数。
Dear Jim,
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Yours,

Li Hua

9 . 阅读下面短文，根据短文内容在答题卡相应题号后的横线上写下相关信息，完成对该问题的回答。

Can a robot really freestyle?

Engineers at the Georgia Institute of Technology, led by Gil Weinberg, have designed the first musical robot capable of not only playing music, but creating it. His name is Shimon. Weinberg, who is a musician, engineer, and professor of musical technology, found himself in a creative rut(俗套) and decided to create a robot that could inspire him with new musical ideas. Shimon was trained on a vast data set of everything from progressive rock to jazz to rap. His works really surprise human listeners.

Up until recent advancements, applications of AI (artificial intelligence) have mostly consisted of well-defined tasks, but many are concerned that new technology like Shimon could result in lost jobs for millions of people, even those in creative industry.

While the concern of an offing future in which humans are entirely replaced by robots certainly isn’t unfounded, a much more likely future is one in which robots work alongside humans to improve their work. Experts say that AI will actually create jobs for humans, not destroy them. The Guardian recently reported that by 2037, AI will create more than 7 million new jobs in the healthcare, education, and science fields in the UK.

Shimon is showing us what can happen when robots don’t just work for us, but with us. Instead of putting any of our favorite musicians out of work, robots will certainly be challenging and inspiring them in new ways. The cooperation between humans and robots can produce new and attractive music, leading to novel musical outcomes. Thanks to the innovation of Weinberg and his team, rap battles, jam sessions, and symphony orchestras alike may begin to look and act considerably different.

1. What can Shimon do?
2. Why did Gil Weinberg create Shimon?
3. According to the passage, please decide which part of the following statement is false, then underline it and explain why.
Nowadays AI creates many jobs for humans, but it has a negative effect on the work of artists.
4. As a student, what is your opinion about AI applied in your daily life? (About 40 words)

10 . There are a variety of clubs which provide social and cultural activities for students wishing to meet others with similar interests from the same or from different national backgrounds.

Charles Peguy Centre	Royal Overseas League
CPC is a French youth centre, providing advice, support and information to young Europeans aged between 18-25. Facilities include an information and advice service regarding education, work placement and general welfare rights. Moreover, the centre holds a database of jobs and accommodation in London. Members may use a fax machine, a copier and computers to surf online or check e-mails for free. Hours: Monday 14:00-17:00 Tuesday-Friday 10:00-17:00 Membership: £35 per year	Open 365 days per year, ROL is a club with facilities in London and Edinburgh with restaurants, bars and accommodation. There are branches around the world and 57 reciprocal clubs worldwide. Quarterly magazines, literary lectures, annual music and art competitions, and summer and winter programme of events are provided for members. Membership fees: aged 17-20, £47 per year aged 21-25, £70 per year For further information, please contact the membership secretary.
YMCA London Central	Kensington Committee for Overseas Students
YMCA is a social club. Most members are young English professionals, but overseas visitors are welcome. Facilities include photography, art, drama, pottery, language courses at different levels, badminton, fitness testing, cycling, yoga and other activities. Hours: weekdays 07:00-22:30 weekends 10:00-21:00 Membership fees: £125 per year Hotline: 05667932	KCOS is a society for young people from all countries. Each month there are some 40 parties, discos, visits to theatres, concerts, walks and other gatherings where members will be able to meet lots of people. A new programme is sent each month directly to members. The club arranges a weekly club night in a Covent Garden bar. To find out more, telephone the club or write (freepost) to the office. Hours: 10:30-17:30 Tel: 05663801

1. The passage is mainly for ______.

A．young English professionals.

B．local students from different backgrounds .

C．European students in London.

D．the youth wishing to meet different people.

2. According to the passage, which club can provide the places to live in?

A．CPC.

B．ROL.

C．YMCA .

D．KCOS.

3. If you want more information about language study, you can ______.

A．make a phone call

B．go to the office in person

C．send a fax or an e-mail.

D．turn to the membership secretary.