1 . Directions: Fill in each blank with a proper word chosen from the box. Each word can only be used once. Note that there is one word more than you need.

A. established       B. present        C. compared          D. light          E. annoyingly F. distinct   G. beneficial       H. well-being        I. experiences        J. devote        K. striking

Honey Bees Remember Happy and Sad Times

While the brains of honey bees are tiny, the insects are capable of some surprisingly advanced thinking. A study published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society has now cast new     1     on the insect’s cognitive abilities.

A team of researchers from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign found that honey bees can remember positive and negative     2     — such as taking care of their young or fending off an enemy. These memories are stored in specific areas of their brains, according to how good or bad they are.

Scientists have long known that vertebrates — animals with tail bones — like ourselves are capable of sorting memories of pleasure and pain in     3     brain areas such as this. However, this has never been documented before in the minds of bees.

“We found that bees     4     different parts of their brain to processing social information that is either negative or positive,” Gene Robinson, an author of the study, told Newsweek. This discovery is     5    given how small their brains are; we did not expect such spatial separation of social information of different valence. Valence is a term used in psychology when discussing emotions to refer to the intrinsic (内在的) positivity or negativity of an event, object, or situation.

In the study, the researchers looked at regions of the honey bee brain that’s     6     in other invertebrates (非脊柱动物), referred to as “mushroom bodies,” which are associated with sensory processing, learning and memory. They     7     the expressions of genes following aggressive or collaborative social interactions, demonstrating that different parts of the these mushroom bodies were specially activated depending on the valence of the interaction — in other words, whether the interaction was harmful or     8    .

“These findings can help us better understand ‘biological embedding (嵌入),’ or how social information ‘gets under skin’ to affect the behavior,’ he said. “Biological embedding is an important issue in understanding health and     9     in humans.”

Furthermore, because the type of memory that the researchers documented is     10     in the brains of vertebrates, the latest findings demonstrated a link between vertebrate and invertebrate cognition despite the two animal groups diverging (分岔) in evolutionary terms around 600 million years ago.

2 . 选词填空

A. convinced     B. probably       C. generalize     D. distinguish       E. attached       F. prominent     G. notorious       H. narrowed       I. readily        J. households       K. displays

Cats are     1     for their indifference to humans: Almost any owner will testify to how     2     these animals ignore us when we call them. But according to a study published Thursday in Scientific Reports, domestic cats do recognize their own names - even if they walk away when they hear them.

Atsuko Saito, a behavioral scientist at the University of Tokyo, previously showed that cats can recognize their owners’ voices. In her latest study she     3     this down, investigating whether they respond to hearing their names. The study included 78 cats from Japanese     4     and a ”cat cafe.“ (Such cafes, where patrons can interact with felines, are popular in Tokyo and have started to catch on in London and New York.)

During their experiments Saito and her colleagues used what behavioral psychologists call the habituation-dishabituation method. This involves repeatedly exposing a subject to a stimulus (in this case a spoken word) until the subject no longer     5     any reaction. Then the subject is presented with a test stimulus ( in this case, its name), and researchers observe whether it reacts. This step helps rule out responses to random stimuli.

For the new study, the scientists first had cat owners repeatedly say four words that were similar to their cats’ names, until the cats habituated to those words. Next the owners said the actual names, and the researchers looked at whether individual cats (when living among other cats) appeared able to distinguish their monikers. The cats had more pronounced responses to their own names - moving their ears, heads or tails, or meowing - than to similar words or other cats’ names.

Then the researchers had people unfamiliar to the cats speak the names, to test whether the cats still recognized them. Although their responses were less     6     than when their owners called them, they still appeared to recognize their names after being habituated to other words.

”This new study clearly shows that many cats react to their own names when spoken by their owners,“ says biologist John Bradshaw, who studies human-animal interactions at the University of Bristol’s Anthrozoology Institute and was not involved in the new study. But Bradshaw says he is less     7     cats can recognize their names when spoken by someone unfamiliar. ” I think that it’s entirely possible that some cats are able to     8     between one human voice and another, but I’d like to see more trials before I’d say that the evidence is compelling,“ he says.

Saito says she thinks feline pets learn to recognize their names because of what is in it for them. ”I think cats associated their names with some rewards or punishments,“ she says - adding that she thinks it is unlikely the cats understand their names are     9     to them. ”There is no evidence that cats have the ability to recognize themselves, like us,“ she explains. ”So, the recognition about their name is different from ours.“ Still, she says, it may be possible to teach cats to recognize other words. Whether that could allow humans to train cats to respond to commands - as dogs readily do -- is another matter.

”Cats are just as good as dogs at learning,“ Bradshaw says. ”They’re just not as keen to show their owners what they’ve learned.“ Most cat owners would     10     agree.

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 words as far as possible.

Major trends that may affect education systems

The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), which promotes policies that will improve the economic and social well-being of people around the world, has been looking at the future of global education. Its head of education, Andreas Schleicher, has been talking about some major international trends affecting education systems around the world.

One trend is the widening gap between rich and poor. In OECD countries, the richest 10% have incomes 10 times greater than the poorest 10%. This inequality is a challenge for schools who want to offer equal and fair access to education for everyone.

Another trend is the rising wealth in Asia. It’s suggested that a large rise in the middle-classes in countries like India will increase demand for university places. Andreas Schleicher asks the question “What values will these newly wealthy consumers want from their schools?”

Increasing migration will also have an impact on education systems. Mobility results in more culturally diverse students eager to learn and develop good life for themselves. But that can be challenge, too, as Andreas Schleicher asks: “How should schools support pupils arriving from around the world? Will schools have a bigger role in teaching about shared values?”

Funding pressure is another issue: as our demand and expectation for education rises and more people go to university, who’s going to pay for it all? The rise in dependency on technology is another concern. What should students learn when many of their talents can be reproduced by machines? And how reliant should we be on learning from the internet?

These are just some of the issues the OECD is highlighting. But they remain irrelevant for hundreds of millions of the world’s poorest children who don’t even have access to school places or receive such low-quality education that they leave without the most basic literacy or numeracy.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

4 . Thanks to Top Gear, a British television show for motoring enthusiasts that is now a global brand, a former WWⅡ airfield called Dunsfold has become one of the best-known testing tracks in the world. On October 15, however, instead of booming to the roar of supercars driven by the show’s racing driver, it witnessed the sight of what appeared to be the cableless trailer of an articulated lorry (铰接式卡车) running almost silently around the course at over 80kph.

The Pod, as this vehicle is known, was made by Einride, Swedish firm founded in 2016 by Robert Falck, an engineer who used to work for Volvo. Mr. Falck thinks that the technology of vehicle autonomy, long experimental, has now evolved sufficiently for driverless goods vehicles to begin earning their livings properly. Some Pods are already in trials for real jobs: running between warehouses, dragging logs from forests and delivering goods for Lidl, a supermarket group.

Pods use the same technology of cameras, radar, lidar (the optical equivalent of radar) and satellite-positioning as other competitors in the field, but they differ from those others in the way their maker tries to deal with the regulatory concerns which prevent fully autonomous vehicles from being let loose on public roads. Einride’s approach, at least at the moment, is to avoid these by avoiding the roads in question. Instead, the Pod’s first version operates on designated routes within the limits of enclosed, private areas such as ports and industrial parks. Here, Pods act like bigger and smarter versions of the delivery robots which already run around some factories—though by having the ability to carry 16 tons and with room on board for 15 industrial pallets’ worth of goods, they are indeed quite a lot bigger.

The second difference from most other attempts at vehicle autonomy is Einride’s approach to the word “autonomy.” Some makers take the idea literally, and aim to keep humans out of the decision-making process entirely. Others, often prompted by traffic regulations, arrange things so that a normally passive human occupant can take the controls if necessary. Pods represent a third way. They always have a human to keep an eye on what is happening and to take over the driving for a difficult operation or if something goes wrong. But this human operates remotely.

Having the driver sitting back at headquarters rather than in the vehicle itself is departure from convention, but not a huge one. Aerial drones are usually controlled in this way. The dramatic step is that Mr. Falck believes you do not need a remote driver for each Pod. Einride already uses one person to control two Pods, but plans eventually for a single driver to look after ten.

1. What purpose does the first paragraph mainly serve?

A．To inform readers about a popular racing show.

B．To explain the significance of the Dunsfold track.

C．To introduce a much-sought-after global brand.

D．To offer a glimpse of the main subject of the passage.

2. Pods differ from other autonomous vehicles mainly in that ______.

A．they can be used in many different real job settings

B．they use advanced satellite-positioning technology

C．their maker is not seeking to put them on public roads

D．they are actually meant to be smart and big delivery robots

3. What can be inferred from the passage?

A．The carrying capacity of Pods has yet to be fully exploited.

B．Aerial drones are usually operated remotely from headquarters.

C．Low-performance self-driving vehicles have a human standby.

D．No remote driver will be needed in the future for each Pod.

4. What does the passage mainly talk about?

A．A British TV show advertises a newly-developed self-driving vehicle.

B．A new lorry being tested approaches autonomous driving differently.

C．A remote handler plays a crucial role in future autonomous driving.

D．A driverless lorry is being tested on a famous track.

5 . Directions: After reading the passage below, fill in the blanks to make the passages 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.

Ancient Whale Skeleton Holds Clues to Climate Change

A whale skeleton thought to be up to 5000 years old has been discovered, almost perfectly preserved, by researchers in Thailand.

The skeleton, believed     1     (be) a Bryde’s whale, was found in Samut Sakhon, west of Bangkok. Researchers have excavated (挖掘) 80% of the remains and so far have identified nine complete vertebrae (椎骨), five ribs, shoulder blade and fins. The skeleton     2     (measure) 12 metres, with a skull that is 3 metres long.

The bones will be carbon dated to identify their age, but it is thought that they are     3     3000 and 5000 years old.

Bryde’s whales are still found in Thailand’s waters,     4     they are considered a protected species. The whales—which prefer waters above 16℃ and feed on schooling fish such as anchovies—face threats from fishing equipment     5     tourism.

The remains, which were found about 12 kilometres inland, will help scientists understand the evolution of the species, and track     6     sea levels have changed over thousands of years.

Marcus Chua, of the National University of Singapore, said the discovery adds to evidence of “relatively large sea level changes around 6000 years to 3000 years ago in the Gulf of Thailand, where the shoreline was up to tens of kilometres inland in comparison to the present coast.”

Previously, only marine deposits     7     (contain) small fossilised marine shells or crabs had been found inland, and it was not clear     8     those fossils had been moved by humans, said Chua. “A large subfossil whale dated thousands of years ago near Bangkok would provide strong evidence of where the sea was during that time.” he said.

Such evidence is highly relevant, given that the climate crisis is contributing to rising sea levels. “This     9     certainly bring attention to the issue, and show how and where low-lying areas was flooded,” said Chua.

The discovery will also help deepen researchers’ understanding of the Bryde’s whale, and other marine life. Alongside the skeleton, researchers found preserved items including shark teeth and shells. “Scientists could also study the deposits     10     (find) at the same level as the whale to reconstruct the biological communities present during that time, and compare them to present day systems,” said Chua.

6 .

A．Regretful.	B．Confident
C．Indifferent.	D．Sympathetic.

7 . The US Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) recently asked scientists, lawyers, social scientists and other experts to consider some of these ethical dimension. To give two examples: on privacy, as we let more listening devices into our homes, how do we prevent the data they collect falling into the wrong hands through hacking (黑客) or simply being sold between companies without us receiving any money? Another example: mixed reality, including virtual reality, will become pervasive in the next few years. As we move from headsets to what the IEEE committee describes as “more delicate sensory enhancements” we will use technology to live in an illusory world in many aspects of our lives. How do we balance the rights of the individual, control over our virtual identity, and the need to live and interact on a face-to-face basis while being empowered to live rich lives in mixed reality?

There is, of course, always a tension between innovation and regulation. But it can often seem that giant steps are taken in technology with minimal public discussion. Take the self-driving car: although it may be safer than human drivers and is likely to save more than a million lives a year worldwide, it will also take jobs from drivers, traffic police, sign-makers, car-repair companies, carmakers and more. Is this a bargain we want to make? In taking that decision, have we given thought to a car that knows everywhere we go, decides routes, perhaps, based on paid advertisement from shops along the way—and listens and sees everything we do on board? What will happen to that data and can it be kept safe?

Additionally, while some worry about the uncommon “trolley problem” of whom the car should choose to hit in a strange accident—an old lady or a mother and baby—perhaps the more frequent issue will be how we find out what the algorithm (运算程序) was thinking at the time of an accident, because AIs (Artificial Intelligence) are self-learning and devise their own strategies.     

Similar concerns are emerging over the internet of things. Robot vacuum-cleaners already plot cleaning cycles using computer-aided vision that, for some models, is relayed to their manufacturers. As more things at home become connected, they will be hackable and the data they collect saleable.

It’s time for some messy, democratic discussions about the future of AI.

1. Two examples in paragraph 1 are used to________.

A．shed some light on hacking in our modern life

B．lead the reader to think of ethical issues brought by hi-tech

C．lead in the following example concerning the self-driving car

D．list the existing problems that caught the attention of experts

2. The word “pervasive” in paragraph 1 probably means “________”.

A．intelligent

B．powerful

C．widespread

D．skillful

3. We can infer from the passage that________.

A．innovation should be accompanied by guidelines to relieve tension

B．more giant innovative steps will lead to fewer public discussion

C．disadvantages of the self-driving car will outweigh its advantages

D．artificial intelligence fails to have a promising and bright future

4. In the passage, the author intends to ________.

A．expose some underlying problems in high-technology

B．call on professionals to enforce law and order

C．illustrate AI’s abilities in self-devising and self-learning strategies

D．display our inter-connected computer-aided life in future

8 . You know it’s fun to take in the wine country sights. But have you thought about trying the heights?

Whether you’re zooming down a zip line or floating through the air in a hot-air balloon, there are quite a few ways to experience the high life in wine country.

Here are three options ranging from thrill to chill.

1. Up, up in the air: Multicolored hot-air balloons dotting a blue sky are a signature of wine country and you can be part of the picture-postcard scene. Several companies offer balloon flights, including Napa Valley Aloft, which launches from the V Marketplace in Yountville and has two alternate launching places if it’s foggy. Be aware this is a bird’s-eye view for early birds. Flights launch just after dawn when winds are calmest and temperatures lowest. Prices start at $220 for a ride in a gondola that holds up to 14 people followed by an optional $20 Champagne breakfast. Booking in advance recommended, especially in the high seasons of summer and fall.

2. Zip-n-sip: In Paso Robles, the grape-growing area along California’s Central Coast that was featured in the popular 2004 buddy movie, ”Sideways,“ Margarita Adventures has zip lines that will have you whizzing over forests, canyons and vineyards. The tour concludes with optional tastings at neighboring Ancient Peaks Winery. Tickets are $109 on weekdays, $119 on weekends and holidays, $89 for youth under 18 at all times. Details at http://www.margarita-adventures.com.

3. Glide in a gondola: For a brief but lovely time aloft, ride the aerial tram at Sterling Vineyards in Calistoga. You get a smooth ride up a tree-studded hill and are greeted at the top with a glass of wine as you begin a self-guided tour of galleries and overlooks. Finish with a wine and food pairing on the South Terrace which has sweeping views of the Napa Valley. Open Monday-Friday 10:30 a.m.—5 p.m., weekends 10 a.m.—5 p.m. Admission starts at $29, with additional fees for food pairings, and tickets can be booked through http://www.SterlingVineyards.com.

1. In which column of a magazine can you find the article?

A．Geography and People.	B．City Beats.
C．Food and Entertainment.	D．Travel.

2. What can you learn from the first option?

A．V Marketplace in Yountville is the only spot for the launch of balloon flights.

B．Viewing birds is also an important part of the flight.

C．Balloon flights will not start until the sun sets.

D．Weather plays a critical role in balloon flights.

3. Which of the following is True?

A．Booking in advance is highly recommended for all of the three options.

B．Tickets can be bought through their respective websites.

C．Tourists can have choices to taste wine in any of the options.

D．There is a special offer for children in all of the three options.

9 . 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. precisely       B. statistical       C. gender       D. enrolled       E. restriction       F. spotted G. frank       H. execute       I. identified       J. confidence       K. dramatically

Female Grandmaster—Hou Yifan

Even by the standard of chess geniuses, Hou Yifan stood out. It wasn’t so much the way she played the game     1     with an aggressive but flexible style. It was that she was a girl. Thirteen years after she became a Grandmaster, at the age of fourteen, people still mentioned two big hairpins that used to pin back her bobbed hair. “I never felt     2     or limitations,” she told me recently from her home in Shenzhen, China, where she is a professor at Shenzhen university’s Faculty of Physical Education.

“My parents never told me that as a girl you should do this or that,” she said. “Teachers never shaped my views in that way.” These days her hair falls to her shoulders and black cat’s-eye glasses frame her face. She speaks English quickly and     3    . She is the only woman among the hundred best chess players in the world.

Chess is not like basketball or soccer. Men and women face one another on equal terms, and no one can tell the     4     of a player from the moves on a scorecard. Still, of the seventeen hundred and thirty-two Grandmasters in the world, just thirty-eight are women. Much of this gap stems from how many women compete versus the number of men who do: around sixteen percent of tournament players are     5     as female and most of them are children. As a purely     6     matter, you would expect few, if any, women at the extreme of the rankings. Still, this appears to be an incomplete explanation of the inequality at the top of the game, about which Hou is     7    . “You cannot deny it, you cannot pretend it doesn’t happen,” she told me, of the absence of women from chess highest echelon(梯队). For years, she has been the only one who stood a chance.

Hou was born in 1994 in Xinghua, a small city near China’s coast. As a child she     8     a chess set in a shop window and liked the shapes of the pieces. When she was five, she started playing the game with other kids at the home of a chess teacher and showed enough talent that her parents     9     her a year early in the local school which had a chess program. She and her classmates would consult a large chess dictionary and write out the first few moves of famous openings on a sheet of paper. Then they would set up their boards, dutifully     10     their copied instructions and launch their wild attacks.

She moved to Shandong with her mother and attended chess classes. Two years later, she joined the national team and won the girls under ten championship in 2003. In the next year, she finished boys under ten tournament tied for first.

10 . Directions: Read the following two passages. Fill in the blanks to make the passage coherent. For the blanks with a given word, fill in each blank with the proper from of the given word. For the other blanks, fill in each blank with one proper word. Make sure that your answers are grammatically correct.

The Industrial Monopoly and Its Decline

Upon the completion of the Industrial Revolution by 1850 England became the workshop of the world. The population went on increasing rapidly, if not as rapidly as before, reaching 41 million by 1900. Big towns grow bigger. Production and export of both textiles and heavy industries reached new high levels.

After the abolition of the corn law, other forms of protection     1    (drop) one after another. For instance, the Navigation Acts and protective tariffs on hundreds of articles. By 1860 great Britain was well on the road to free trade. Certainly, this was aggressive in character. While Britain opened her own ports to Free Trade, she demanded open ports in other countries     2     economic pressure and naval strength, thus     3    (extend) foreign markets and increasing demands for British goods.

It was in the boom that collapsed in 1873 when there was great anxious concern about both markets and materials     4     Mid-Victorian prosperity reached its peak. The fact that there was a retardation in the national rate of growth to below two percent per year was even harder to bear with the growth rates of competitors such as America and Germany rising.

Arable and meat producing farmers felt the full weight of foreign competition between 1870 and 1900. In industry,     5     there were new forms of power and a trend toward bigger plants, and     6    (impersonal) organization, there was a similar situation. Britain was never as strong or as innovatory in the age of steel     7     in the early age of iron. By 1896 British steel output was less than     8     of either the United States or Germany and the textile industry was declining absolutely. With its former easy advantage in world markets     9    (lose), both opinion and government policy lost faith in the merits of free trade. During years of economic challenge at home, capital exports greatly increased, until they reached a figure of almost £200000000 every year before 1914, and investment income poured in to improve adverse balance(贸易逆差)on trade accounts. During the last 20 years of peace before 1914 when Britain’s role as rentier was at its height, international prices rose again, continuing to rise     10     after the end of World War I.