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. division B. submits C. range D. Naturally E. suppliers F. unopposed G. commercial H. potential I. dominated J. Therefore   K. head

When Yoshino akira, a Japanese chemist, worked on rechargeable batteries in the 1980s, it was with a view to powering portable devices. His Nobel prize-winning research led to the first     1     lithiumion (Lion) battery. These now power everything from smartphones to electric vehicles (EVS). But the Japanese firms that, building on Mr Yoshino's work,     2     the Lion business early on have lost their edge. CATL, China's battery giant, and the energy arm of LG, a South Korean group, have surpassed Japan's Panasonic as the world's largest     3     of EV batteries. Others are catching up in the production of materials and components.

Japanese battery-makers want to regain their rightful place at the     4     of the pack. To do so they are betting on solid-sate batteries. These still shuttle lithiunions between the anode (阳极) and the cathode (阴极) to charge and discharge, but the electrolyze (电解液) where this shutting happens is solid not liquid. That makes the batteries more stable and potentially more powerful. It also avoids the need for bulky cooling systems, required for fast-charging Lion systems. Cars equipped with solid-state batteries could be lighter, which increases     5    .

Japan     6     more battery-tech patents a year than any other country; second ranked South Korea files half as many. Japanese firms and inventors accounted for more than one in two solid-state-related patents between 2014 and 2018. More are coming. Industrial and chemicals firms, of which Japan has plenty, are preparing for the materials needed to bring the technology to market.

Murata, a big manufacturer which bought Sony's battery     7     in 2017, plans to begin mass-producing smaller solid-state batteries this autumn. Nakajima Norio, Murata's boss, sees "lots of     8     in wearables", since the batteries do not bum or get hot (which is hwy they are already used in things like pacemakers). Honda and Nissan, two other carmakers, are also eyeing the technology.

    9    , if making solid-state batteries were easy, manufacturers would be mass-producing them. It isn't. Water stains the materials, so factories must be kept ultra-day. Mitsui Kinzoku, an engineering firm, has been testing mass production of solid electrolytes and found that it is "indeed a very difficult process", in the words of Takahashi Tsukass, who is involved in the project.

Even if they can get the technology right, Japanese firms are not running     10    , as they had seen in Liion's early days. Most big carmakers, including Ford, Hyundai and Volkswagen, have solid-state cars in the works. They may want to make the batteries themselves. That's some solid competition.

2 . Until 1964 most forms of gambling were illegal in the United States. Since then, however, more and more stales have legalized gambling in order to raise income. The U. S. gambling industry has gone from an attitude of “prohibition” to one of “promotion”, as all but five states have now legalized gambling as a solution to their depressed economies.

Most states in the United States now depend on incomes from state lotteries (博彩) and use them for good causes, such as improving public education, maintaining slate parks, and developing environmental programs.

State governments maintain that the voluntary contribution of funds through state lotteries is preferable to increase state sales or income taxes, and the residents of states using the lottery system tend to support this. The gaming industry has also benefited some of the nation’s poorest citizens: Native Americans. The U. S. government ruled in 1988 that slates could not tax the revenues earned by gambling on Native American reservations. Having taken advantage of this ruling an open cosmos (赌场) on their reservations, many Native Americans moved from a life of poverty to a life of wealth.

Although there are many advantages to legalized gambling, there has also been a good deal of criticism of state-supported gambling. As states increase their support of state lotteries, they seem to encourage commercial gambling in all its forms. About 50 percent of the U. S. population plays the lottery, according to a study by the University of Chicago. This trend has led to an increase in habitual gambling. More than 5 million Americans suffer from gambling addiction. Those most at risk of becoming addicted include the poor, young people between twelve and eighteen years old, and women over the age of fifty, who are looking for some entertainment. As a result, many of them will end up in prison or even homeless. The promise of winning big fortune has created big problems.

Perhaps the most important concern is the moral issue of legalized gambling. The lottery is the only form of gambling that is essentially a government control. Critics ask whether gambling is a proper function of government. Should the government be the spokesman for the expansion of gambling? Critics say state advertising of lotto emphasizes luck over hard work, instant happiness over careful planning and entertainment over savings. The traditional work ethic (道德准则) is being devalued by the pipedream of striking it rich, and this is sending confusing messages to young people.

In 1996, Congress created a commission to conduct a legal study of the social and economic impacts of gambling in the United States. After two years of study, the Commission recommended an end to the expansion of legalized gambling and a ban on Internet gambling. Some feel this will severely hurt the gambling industry. Others fear that it is not enough and are asking the government to take a tough stand against gambling.

1. According to the passage, we know that________.

A．any forms of gambling were banned before 1964 in the USA

B．the economical problems led to the rise of gambling industry in the USA

C．all American stales have legalized gambling since 1964

D．only five states have now legalized gambling because of the depressed economies

2. Which of the following is NOT mentioned in the passage?

A．State lottery system helps to raise money to improve people's public welfare.

B．Gambling industry helps to change the American way of life.

C．Gambling industry helps to improve the life of some poor Native Americans.

D．State lottery system helps to increase state sales or income taxes.

3. What is the author most concerned about?

A．The expanding of the gambling industry.

B．The suffering of the gambling-addicted people.

C．The moral problems brought about by the legalized gambling.

D．The disadvantage of Internet gambling.

4. In Paragraph 5, the word “pipedream” means________.

A．wonderful idea	B．creative idea
C．unworkable plan	D．practical plan

3 . Directions: Read the following three passages. 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.

Ann Grand: a visual thinker

Ann Grand is a visual thinker. When somebody speaks to her, the words are instantly translated into pictures. like a video in her head. Unlike most people, her thoughts move from ideo-like images to generalizations and concepts. Furthermore, her memories usually appear in her imagination in order of time. and the image visualized are always specific. For example. if she thinks about a chimney, she sees detailed pictures. like the one in her old house. and then those in her hometown. That one word can turn into a full-length video in her head. Grand's mind works like the Internet search engine which produces dozens of images of an object a user is searching for.

Visual thinking has enabled Grand to build entire systems in her imagination, which works similarly to a computer program because it can produce three-dimensional design simulations. This was important to her as an equipment designer for the livestock industry. Before she started construction on her designs, she would test-run the equipment in her mind. She formed mental pictures of her designs in every possible situation, with different sizes and breeds of cattle and in different weather conditions. This process made it possible for her to correct mistakes before construction started.

Grand's mind is also sensitive to details, which was important in her work with cattle. Her sharp awareness of the visual world led to noteworthy observations about animals. She noticed many little things that most people would not consider that scared the cattle. For example, a coat on a fence or a pipe on the floor would frighten them away. Grand's visualization abilities have also helped her understand the animals she has worked with. This led her to create designs ranging from sweeping, curved fences intended to reduce the stress experienced by animals that were going to be killed to systems for handling sick cattle and pigs.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

4 . If you enjoy American stories, you'll have noticed that quite a few of them take place on the road. The United States is a vast country whose long highways connect very distant places. Many famous American novels and films are about stories that occur while their characters are traveling along these highways. These novels are often celebrations of American life.

Jesmyn Ward's National Book Award winner Sing, Unburied, Sing is a road novel, but not a celebration. The road journey here is through Mississippi as an African-American mother and her two children travel to collect her white husband -the children's father -as he's released from jail.

Nether the mother Leonie, nor the father Michael, are ideal parents. Leonie in particular is so full of anger and regret that she takes out her unhappiness on her children, the 13-year-old Jojo and his little sister Kayla. And the pain of lacking proper financial support makes the journey even harder.

The telling of the story is divided between various narrators. Jojo, the boy, is the most sympathetic of them. But it is worrying to read about how he experiences the world. Even though he's young. he's already experienced the dark side of life. The opening sentence of the book gives a sense of Jojo's unnatural maturity. "I like to think I know what death is. I like to think that I could look at it straight. "This maturity is tested when a white policeman pulls a gun on him when Jojo puts his hand in his pocket.

But who, or what, is to blame for these sad circumstances? For Ward, it's clearly the past. She admires the work of fellow novelist William Faulkner. When she thinks about the past, she's of the same mind as him.

Faulkner famously wrote: “The past is never dead. It's not even past.” At one point. Ward says that her characters are “pulling the past with them,” like a too-heavy trailer coupled to the car as they journey on through Mississippi to the jailhouse. The biggest part of this past, of course, is racism -the remains of slavery -which is always there, and ruining life.

This is probably why The Washington Post listed Sing, Unburied, Sing as one of its 10 choices of 2017's Best Books. “The plight of this one family is tired to crimes that stretch over decades.” wrote the newspaper. “These are people pulling all the weight of history.”

1. What can we learn about Sing, Unburied, Sing from the article?

A．It was recently adapted as a film.	B．It's a celebration of American life
C．It's one of 2017's best-selling American novels.	D．It is a story of a road trip through Mississippi.

2. According to the text, the character Jojo _________.

A．is the main narrator of the novel	B．is the youngest child in the family
C．fights with a white policeman on the road	D．shows an unusually mature mind of a child

3. What is the root cause of the family's difficulty according to the article?

A．The unhappy marriage of the parents	B．The lack of educational opportunities
C．The remaining slavery and racism.	D．The lack of financial support from the government.

5 . Directions: Read the following three passages. 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.

Is Sensitivity Always Beneficial?

Sensitivity is, for the most part, seen as an overall positive-human characteristic. But it's not necessarily always beneficial to an individual. While there are certainly times that being sensitive can be advantageous, there are other times in which being overly sensitive can absolutely influence a person.

Sensitive people are able to see from a variety of perspectives. They almost live vicariously(间接感受到地)through other people's emotions, especially when dealing with people they truly care about. This leads to deeper human connections, as their loved ones will see how much the sensitive person really cares by how they react in a given situation. The encouragement a sensitive person gives a loved one just by their response makes it clear that the person truly enjoys seeing others happy.

When things aren't going so well for your friends, you'll feel the weight of the world on your shoulders. Obviously, you just want everyone around you to be happy—but that won't always be the case. While it's obviously reasonable to be upset when your friend is feeling down and you're doing your best to help them out of the sadness, overly sensitive people are unable to separate themselves from the situation and realize the sadness of their loved ones is not their sadness.

Sensitive people pick up on the overall mood of a place or event immediately and instantly find themselves in that same mood, regardless of how they felt when they walked in. This allows them to fit into a variety of social situations, as they understand the appropriate way to act wherever they find themselves.

But sometimes, this is not a good thing. Sensitive people are incredibly in tune with minor fluctuations(波动)in an environment, so something as simple as a change in volume or brightness in area can have a negative effect on a sensitive person. When a sensitive person experiences pain, it's almost impossible for him/her to let it fall away.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

6 . Coral Refugees

As the planet and oceans continue to heat up, sites where coral (珊瑚) has recently boomed are becoming less and less habitable. For instance, thanks to extreme ocean temperatures, much of Australia's Great Barrier Reef suffered mass bleaching in 2016 and 2017 that turned parades of colorful coral into dull, white masses.

    1     By studying fossils in Daya Bay, just northeast of Hong Kong in the South China Sea, a team of researchers found that during periods of warming in the distant past, coral reefs migrated away from equatorial warm waters to the bay's more hospitable subtropical latitudes.

"We showed that the higher-latitude reefs up around China did grow during earlier warm periods," says Tara Clark, a paleontologist at the University of Wollongong in Australia.     2     There the researchers randomly collected dead corals and calculated their ages using radio isotopic (同位素的) dating techniques. The ancient reefs grew between 6,850 and 5,510years ago, the scientists reported in January in Geology, which coincides with a time when ocean temperatures around South China and nearby seas were one to two degrees Celsius warmer on average than they are today.     3     Of course, the idea of refuges for endangered reefs on the move is not new, but using the fossil record to help locate such places is relatively novel approach.

Although the fossil evidence suggests that Daya Bay could one day provide a heaven for corals, there are some hurdles in the way of making the refuge an inviting place, Clark says.     4     And Daya Bay is now heavily polluted, which could threaten its ability to sustain reefs. But in light of the new discovery, Clark says, "we might as well do the best we can to protect these areas, just in case."

A．This trend suggests that some of today's reefs may be able to set up shop in places such as Daya Bay in the decades to come, as temperatures climb.

B．Such change often occurs on broader time scales than those of humans.

C．In 2015 Clark led a group of scientists on an expedition to Daya Bay.

D．It's absolutely fundamental to understanding the dynamics of ecological communities and their responses to ecological change.

E．Not all corals, for instance, are equally fit to journey across the ocean to a new home.

F．But paleontologist (古生物学家) have now discovered a haven (港口) to which one region's reefs might relocate to escape overheating.

7 . With economies in free fail, managers need up-to-date information about what is happening to their businesses, so that they can change course rapidly if necessary. Cisco, an American network-equipment giant, has invested over many years in the technology needed to generate such data. Frank Caideroni, the firm's CEO, says that every day its senior executives can track exactly what orders are coming in from sales teams around the world, and identify emerging trends in each region and market segment. And at the end of each month, the firm can get reliable financial results within four hours of closing its books. Most firms have to wait days or even weeks for such certainty.

Admittedly, Cisco's financial results have not made happy reading recently because, in common with many other large technology companies, it has been demand for its products drop in the downturn. In early February it announced that its fiscal second-quarter revenues of %9.1 billion were 7.5% lower than the same period in 2019 and that its profit had fallen by 27%, to $1.5 billion.

In response to hard times, Cisco plans to cut $1 billion from its costs this year by, among other things, making use of its own video-conferencing and other communication technologies to reduce the amount its executives travel. It is also using these facilities to convey information from employees on the ground to its senior managers, and to get instructions from Cisco's leaders back out to its staff of 67,000. A rapid exchange information and instructions is especially valuable if the company wants to alter course during stormy times.

If everybody in a company can rapidly grasp what they have to do and how it is changing, they are more likely to get the job done. But some firms are reluctant to share their goals with the wider world. Unilever, a big Anglo-Dutch consumer-goods group, has decided against issuing a 2020financial forecast to investors, arguing that it is difficult to predict what is going to happen, given the dangerous state of the world economy. "We're not just going to provide numbers for the sake of it," explains James Allison, the company's head of investor relations. Other companies that have decided not to provide annual earnings estimates for 2020 include Costco, a big American retailer, and Union Pacific, an American railway company.

Some firms, such as Intel, seem to have chosen to take things quarter by quarter. The giant chip maker said in January that it would not issue an official forecast for the first quarter of 2020 after its fourth-quarter 2019 profit decreased by 90%. Several retail chains have also stopped providing monthly sales estimates because they cannot see what the future holds. Retailers, chip makers and firms in many other industries may have to wait a while before the economic fog finally lifts.

1. What can we learn about Cisco from the passage?

A．It plans to cut $1 billion in costs by solely relying on its own technologies.

B．It will keep a record of the orders from its sales teams.

C．Only employees can use the video-conferencing technologies to pass on information.

D．Unlike other technology companies, its financial reports are encouraging.

2. What is important during unstable time if a company wants to change its strategies?

A．Issuing its financial reports faster.	B．Predicting what is going to happen in the future.
C．Obtaining up-to-data information of its business.	D．Waiting until the economic fog finally lifts.

3. What can we infer from paragraph 4?

A．Employees who are willing to share their goals can do the job well.

B．Unilever is unwilling to forecast its finances due to its poor performance.

C．Those who refuse to update will be eliminated from their companies.

D．Economic prospects play a key role in investment decisions.

4. What we can know about the chip maker Intel from the passage?

A．Intel's profits had greatly decreased in the last quarter of 2019.

B．Intel chain stores used to report sales estimates by the year.

C．Only retailers and chip makers have been affected by the economic downturn.

D．It did not issue a first-quarter forecast because of its big decrease in profit in January.

8 . SOME SECRETS HOSPITALS WON'T TELL YOU

1.

It's more cost-effective — and usually OK — to bring your own medicines from home, but the hospital pharmacy will have to check them to confirm they are what the bottle says. Just ask your doctor to write the order.

MICHELE CURTIS, MD,

a doctor in Houston, Texas

2.

In many hospitals, VIP patients get special treatment. They may stay in special areas or have a VIP notation on their chart, which means that whenever their bell goes off, we are expected to make that patient's request a priority, whether it's "I need some water" or "Can you get me some stamps?" Hospitals don't add more nurses；they just take away from the care everybody else gets.

DEBORAH BURGER, RN

3.

Eight out of ten hospital bills we see contain an error, so check your bill carefully. You may identify a drug you didn't take. Or you know that discontinued treatment on Tuesday, but you were charged for Wednesday. The number on the bill is only a starting point. Try to negotiate for 35 to 50 percent off the charges.

PAT PALMER, CEO of Medical Billing

Advocates of America

4.

Hospitals used not to care about you once you were discharged (出院). But under new rules, they face financial punishment if you are re-admitted within 30 days. So now you may get a call from a nurse case manager a day or two after you're discharged asking if you have any questions, checking if you got your prescription filled, and making sure you have transportation to your follow-up appointment.

JOHN W. MITCHELL,

former CEO of three hospitals

5.

You can stay overnight in the hospital but never officially be "admitted." Instead, the hospital can say you are there "under observation." That can be tricky for seniors because if they're then sent to nursing home for rehab (复原). Medicare won't pay for it unless they were actually admitted. Always ask whether you're admitted.

DEBORAH BURGER, RN

6.

One time, I ran into a patient I had performed an appendectomy (阑尾切除) on. He thanked me for saving his life; then he told me it almost ruined him because he couldn't pay the bill. Four hours in the hospital, and they charged him $12,000, and that didn't even include my fee. I showed his bill to some other doctors. We took out an ad in the newspaper demanding change.

HANS RECHSTEINER, MD.

a general surgeon in northern Wisconsin

1. Which of the secrets above offer advice on lowering treatment fees?

A．1 and 3

B．5 and 3

C．2 and 4

D．1 and 6

2. What is secret 6 mainly about?

A．Low cost of Hans Rechsteiner's operation.	B．The human side of medical staff.
C．The difficulty of putting ads in newspaper.	D．The ease with which an appendectomy is performed.

3. Which of the following CANNOT be inferred from the passage?

A．Elder patients should be alert to whether they are admitted.

B．Some hospitals were indifferent to patients leaving hospitals.

C．Nursing staff may fail to attend to some patients promptly.

D．Hospitals will be fined if an error on the bill is found.

9 . Gossip—all humans take part in some form of it. Whether its workplace chatter, the sharing of family news or group texts between friends, it's ________ that everyone who talks, well, talks about other people. ________ , a 1993 study found that male participants spent 55% and female participants spent 67% of their conversation time on "the discussion of socially relevant topics."

People tend to think of gossip ________ to ill-intended rumors, negative comments or the breathless spread of a tabloid scoop（小报独家新闻）. But researchers often define it more broadly—as "talking about people who aren't ________ ," says Megan Robbins, an assistant professor of psychology at The University of California, Riverside. "It`s something that comes very ________ to us"—it's an essential part of conversation, information sharing and even community building.

In a 2019 study published in the journal Social Psychological and Personality Science, Robbins and a colleague found that, of the 52 minutes a day, on average, that the 467 subjects spent gossiping, three-quarters of that gossip was actually ________ . One subject, for example, spoke about someone who was watching a lot of movies to keep up with the times.

Just a small portion of the conversations analyzed—around 15%—was considered to be negative gossip. So while it is true that people can spend a significant amount of time talking about their peers, oftentimes that chatter is quite ________ .

So, why do people gossip?

Some researchers argue that gossip helped our ________ to survive. Evolutionary psychologist Robin Dunbar first pioneered this idea, comparing gossip to the grooming（清洁皮毛）that monkeys and other primates ________ as a means of forming close relationships. ________ picking fleas and dirt off one another to bond（联系）, we now talk. This is "where gossip comes in, because chit-chat is mostly talking about other people and ________ social information." Says David Ludden, a professor of psychology at Georgia Gwinnet College.

Gossiping, Dunbar's work argues, gives humans the ability to spread ________ information to very large social networks. "We are much more social than our ancestors, so it can be very helpful to get information about people from others when this network is too ________ to observe by ourselves." he explained in a 2003 paper published in the Review of General Psychology.

Some scholars view gossip as evidence of cultural ________ , providing people with examples of what's socially acceptable—and what's not. For example, if there's someone who cheats a lot in a community or social circle and people start to talk about that person in a negative way, says Robbins, the collective criticism should warn others of the consequences of cheating. And as word will almost always travel back to the source of said gossip, it can "serve to keep people in check, ________ speaking," Robbins adds.

1.

A．advisable

B．embarrassing

C．insignificant

D．unavoidable

2.

A．By Chance

B．In comparison

C．In fact

D．For short

3.

A．applicable

B．equivalent

C．familiar

D．resistant

4.

A．approachable

B．friendly

C．present

D．reliable

5.

A．importantly

B．naturally

C．rapidly

D．secretly

6.

A．positive

B．independent

C．neutral

D．unusual

7.

A．amusing

B．critical

C．harmless

D．pointless

8.

A．ancestors

B．associations

C．customs

D．relatives

9.

A．appeal to

B．call for

C．engage in

D．fight against

10.

A．Excluding

B．Instead of

C．In spite of

D．In response to

11.

A．assessing

B．conveying

C．requesting

D．translating

12.

A．detailed

B．incredible

C．processed

D．valuable

13.

A．delicate

B．extensive

C．strong

D．supportive

14.

A．building

B．exchanging

C．learning

D．understanding

15.

A．historically

B．legally

C．morally

D．strictly

10 . 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. slippery            B. negative            C. extending            D. combination            E. refocus            F. guilty G. scan            H. tough            I. escape            J. reasonable            K. motivating

When Stephanie Andel can feel her eyes glaze over scrolling through academic papers, institutional emails or student marking, she'll open a new tab in her web browser and explore. "I take a few minutes every hour or two to surf the web, look at news or     1     my Facebook feed to catch up with friends," Andel, assistant professor of psychology at Indiana University—Purdue University of Indianapolis, admits.

This phenomenon is "cyberloafing." The word is a（n）     2     of "cyber," which means "related to computers," and "loafing," which means "relaxing in a lazy way."

It is a（n）     3     slope, which can damage productivity. A study from the University of Taxes suggests we are     4     of this form of procrastination（拖延）for 14% of our working day. On a Friday afternoon, it's more than that.

Cyberloafing is often presented as a     5     . Yet more recent research suggests that a degree of cyberloafing may be beneficial to employees；those small breaks help them     6     between tasks and even deal with workplace stress.

The key question is when a short break to reset after a     7     task turns into procrastination. "There's a fine line between cyberloafing to refresh the mind and when people are doing it as an     8     from the task because they find the task challenging," says Dr Fuschia Sirois of the University of Sheffield's Department of Psychology.

Sirois says that     9     a break to recalibrate（重新校准）needs to be done with care. "You've always got to be     10     ," she says. "A 15-minute break because your brain is turning into mush is fine. But if you find yourself saying you just need another few minutes, it's bad. If you go past the point where you set a limit on your break time, it just becomes procrastination."