1 . One pet parrot (鹦鹉) Louie managed to save a Tennessee family. The Kleins were woken up by the bird’s repeated and
When they woke up, they were shocked to find the
Although there was nothing left in their home, the family received
| A．polite | B．noisy | C．soft | D．usual |
| A．friend | B．pet | C．hero | D．volunteer |
| A．word | B．signal | C．story | D．accident |
| A．news | B．cries | C．fire | D．air |
| A．drove | B．ran | C．looked | D．jumped |
| A．quickly | B．constantly | C．narrowly | D．occasionally |
| A．tiredness | B．reality | C．complaints | D．burns |
| A．put out | B．pick up | C．take down | D．look over |
| A．meet | B．save | C．hide | D．check |
| A．remember | B．protect | C．leave | D．repair |
| A．work | B．wait | C．end | D．stay |
| A．granddaughter | B．student | C．neighbour | D．parrot |
| A．excuses | B．invitations | C．advice | D．support |
| A．Unfortunately | B．Strangely | C．Surprisingly | D．Actually |
| A．threw | B．gifted | C．drew | D．rented |
2 . Costa Rica is about two-thirds the size of Scotland but still shelters five percent of the world’s biodiversity (生物多样性). Covered by rainforest and cloud forest, filled with 129 volcanoes and washed by both the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, it is a dream destination for visitors.
In the cloud forest, hundreds of orchid (兰花) species bloom, beautiful birds sing and butterflies flash their colorful wings, while on the Caribbean coast, four species of turtle choose the warm sands as their annual nesting sites.
If you love adventure, try hiking through the lava fields of Arenal Volcano, which is among the ten most active in the world and standing at 5,437 feet tall, or walk through the cloud forest on a series of zip lines in Monteverde. And you are happy with the choice when it comes to accommodation. Will you stay in a tree house or a hotel on the beach? The options are endless.
Now it is easier to get to Costa Rica. In 2016, British Airways launched a direct flight from London Gatwick to San Jose, so you can now reach the nation in less than 11 hours. Once you arrive, touring the country is simple. There are domestic flights if you are short of time. Many hotels and tour operators put together good packages to visit local highlights, or if you prefer, you can even rent a car.
Costa Rica is a year-round destination, with the driest period between December and April. For the rest of the year, the scenery looks more green and amazing, with sunny mornings and showers in the afternoon.
A beautiful rainforest country in Central America, Costa Rica has coastlines on both the Caribbean and Pacific Ocean and some of the world’s best beaches. Costa Rica’s diversity of scenery and natural wonders provides visitors with adventure, relaxation, romance and exploration.
1. Which of the following is Costa Rica near?| A．The Atlantic Ocean. | B．The Arctic Ocean. |
| C．The Indian Ocean. | D．The Pacific Ocean. |
| A．City explorers. | B．Desert explorers. |
| C．Nature-lovers. | D．Sports-lovers. |
| A．By car. | B．By plane. |
| C．By train. | D．By ship. |
| A．A Guide to Costa Rica |
| B．The Culture of Costa Rica |
| C．Costa Rica, a Developed Country |
| D．Costa Rica, the Most Popular Destination |
3 . You see your phone light up from the corner of your eye and quickly reach for it. What started as a simple notification (通知) check snowballs into an hour-long period as you look through rows of notifications and endless social media feeds.
This is by design. Tech companies such as Google and Facebook have spent years working to make consumer technology as addictive as possible. After all, time spent with their products could equal big profits for the company.
However, that’s starting to change. Apple takes action with the introduction of tools in its new operating system aimed at informing users to better manage their smartphone usage and parental controls that allow parents to better monitor and control their children’s phone time.
Google also offers a “Wind Down” feature to set at bedtime, which automatically puts the phone into “Do Not Disturb”. No notifications will show up on your phone, and losing all colour on-screen is certainly a cause to put your phone away.
There are still no clear guidelines on what causes tech addiction, but it’s a growing concern likely on the minds of parents everywhere as they see their kids’ faces constantly glued inches away from a screen. And everywhere you go, you’re all but guaranteed to see people buried in their phones.
Apart from Apple and Google, Facebook deserves a fair amount of blame, as an expert acknowledged in a blog post earlier this year. The social network announced plans to roll out changes aimed at making interactions more meaningful.
“By making these changes, I expect the time people spend on Facebook will go down,” the expert said. “But I also expect the time you do spend on Facebook will be more valuable. And is over the long term too.” If we do the right thing, I believe that will be good for our community and our business.
1. What has been done to change phone addiction?| A．Making some colour disappear on the screen. |
| B．Offering functions to reduce phone use. |
| C．Improving consumer technology. |
| D．Stopping sending messages. |
| A．Google. | B．Apple. | C．A blog post. | D．Facebook. |
| A．Facebook is expecting fewer people to use it. |
| B．It’s valuable for people to do the right thing on Facebook. |
| C．People should spend time on Facebook as little as possible. |
| D．Facebook and its consumers will have a win-win relationship. |
4 . I was a shy girl and I was afraid to talk to people I didn’t know. I enjoyed the
Eventually I went to college. During my third year of college, I had
I had no background in radio, and absolutely no hope of getting the job. The idea of
Although I now spend many hours each week talking with people, I’m
| A．adventure | B．loneliness | C．pleasure | D．excitement |
| A．care | B．center | C．company | D．concentration |
| A．written | B．spelt | C．listened | D．spoken |
| A．nothing | B．little | C．much | D．enough |
| A．grown up | B．picked up | C．taken up | D．woken up |
| A．explaining to | B．talking to | C．listening to | D．applying to |
| A．quickly | B．hardly | C．luckily | D．nearly |
| A．to pronounce | B．to type | C．to recite | D．to recommend |
| A．pleasant | B．challenging | C．comfortable | D．painful |
| A．hate | B．understand | C．adjust | D．enjoy |
| A．even | B．still | C．seldom | D．also |
| A．outgoing | B．quiet | C．optimistic | D．confident |
| A．persuade | B．advise | C．remind | D．interview |
| A．wealth | B．sound | C．peace | D．wildness |
| A．change | B．study | C．promise | D．arrangement |
5 . Companies which sell liquids like drinks or shampoo depend on bottles made of plastic or glass for their packaging. But as customers have become more worried about the environment, many companies have begun working to develop paper bottles.
Paper bottles have many advantages. They are easy to recycle and weigh less than glass or plastic bottles, meaning they’ll require less energy to produce and to move around.
A company called Paboco has been working with many large companies to develop paper bottles. Clearly, one of the biggest challenges is keeping a paper bottle from leaking (渗漏). Therefore, many companies are lining their bottles with a thin sheet of plastic. Though this liner can be taken away and recycled, many recycling programs don’t have the right machines to deal with these liners.
A Danish beer company called Carlsberg is working with Paboco on a paper bottle called the “Green Fiber Bottle”. In the future the company hopes to use a “bio-plastic” that will break down naturally over time. A company named Diageo has just announced the first paper bottle that’s completely plastic-free. Instead of a plastic liner, a non-plastic coating will be used on the inside of the bottles. This should make the bottle fully recyclable. Diageo says they’ll use the bottle with their whiskey in 2023.
However, there’s still lots of testing to be done before paper bottles can replace glass or plastic bottles. Companies will need to see how long liquids can be stored in the bottles, and make sure the bottles don’t influence the taste. But with so many companies working toward the same goal, it’s likely that we can expect to see paper bottles on store shelves in the near future.
1. What forces many companies to develop paper bottles?| A．The cost of making plastic or glass bottles. |
| B．The customers’ caring about the environment. |
| C．The energy needed to produce ordinary bottles. |
| D．The difficulty in shaping the plastic or glass bottles. |
| A．To make them easy to recycle. | B．To make bottles reusable. |
| C．To prevent liquid from escaping. | D．To lower the production cost. |
| A．Non-plastic coatings may be hard to recycle. |
| B．Paper bottles can’t go without a plastic liner. |
| C．There’s still a long way to go to reach the goal. |
| D．Not all paper bottles are better than glass bottles. |
| A．Traditional Bottles or Paper Bottles |
| B．Companies Work to Develop Paper Bottles |
| C．Paper Bottles Are Getting Increasingly Popular |
| D．Advantages and Disadvantages of Paper Bottles |
I need to do something in my community (社区) in order to complete the community service hours required to graduate from high school. Some of my friends had signed up to spend time at a soup kitchen, so I did, too. It seemed like a good thing to do.
I thought that we would just be passing our dinners to those in need, but I found out we would be doing everything from preparing to serving the dinner. We began preparing the food, from mixing salad dressing to separating frozen meat. Much still needed to be done before dinner was served, but already outside the building many homeless people were gathering. It wasn’t until a couple of hours later that we opened the doors and began serving dinner.
As the line of people came toward me, I got a little scared. I’d come face to face with the homeless: How should I act? How would they treat me? Would they hate me for having more than they did? While some of the people looked very friendly, some of them looked so dangerous, I didn’t have too much time to worry about it. I was assigned (分配) to serve the salad with the lady next to me. She smiled at me and said if I needed help, she’d be right there, which I found quite comforting.
I had never seen so many people wanting food. They were of all ages and nationalities. Most of them wore clothes that were torn and dirty. Some looked like they had totally given up on life, while others seemed to be making the best of the situation, smiling and joking. Some were better off than others, but they all needed a good meal and a warm place to eat. It saddened me to think of how many people there were who didn’t have a place to call home and the only food they got came from a soup kitchen.
注意：1. 续写词数应为150左右;
2. 请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
As they came in my direction, I put on my brightest and happiest smile.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________I was so happy that I had earned my service hours in this way.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________7 . The e-mail request came in to Ekiben restaurant in Baltimore late on a Thursday afternoon. The man, Brandon Jones was writing for his mother-in-law, who loved the dish. He explained that she was now in the final stages of lung cancer at her home in Vermont and that he was hoping to get the recipe (食谱) to make it for her there.
Steve Chu, one of the Asian fusion restaurant’s co-owners, read the e-mail and quickly replied with another suggestion,“Thanks for reaching out,” he wrote. “We’d like to meet you in Vermont and make it fresh for you.”
For the past six years, every time Brandon’s mother-in-law visited Baltimore, the first place she wanted to go was Ekiben so she could order that dish. She had always told us, “When I’m on my deathbed, I want to have that broccoli (花椰菜),” recalls Brandon’s wife, Rina Jones.
That Friday after work, a day after receiving Brandon’s e-mail, Chu prepared all the food ingredients and then headed for Vermont with his business partner and an employee. They stayed overnight in an Airbnb rental and drove the next day to where Rina’s mother lived. After cooking and boxing everything up, they knocked on their customer’s door.
“As soon as she opened the door, she recognized the amazing smell,” Brandon says.
Rina says her mother also recognized Chu and his coworkers. “My mom kept saying, ‘You drove all the way up here to cook for me?’ She was so happy and touched to have that broccoli.”
“It was an honor to help make the family’s wishes come true,” Chu says. “There was a lot of good positive energy in doing this.” Rina was happy that her mother was able to enjoy her beloved broccoli with a side order of excellent kindness one last time. “My mom cried later about their generosity, and so did I,” Rina says. “I’ll carry that positive memory with me always.”
1. Why did Brandon send the e-mail to Ekiben restaurant?| A．To get the recipe and give it to his mother-in-law. |
| B．To learn how to cook the dish for his mother-in-law. |
| C．To invite the owner to cook for his mother-in-law. |
| D．To ask the owner to treat his mother-in-law. |
| A．He was generous to his coworkers. |
| B．He had a strong desire for charity. |
| C．He was unwilling to share the recipe with others. |
| D．He felt honored to deliver positive energy to the family. |
| A．Positive memory valued. | B．A special order. |
| C．Kindness delivered. | D．A generous restaurant owner. |
8 . Are some people born clever, and others born stupid? Or is intelligence developed by our environment and our experiences? Strangely enough, the answer to both these questions is yes. On one hand, our intelligence is given to us at birth, and special education can never make a genius out of a child born with low intelligence. On the other hand, a child who lives in a boring environment will develop his intelligence less than one who lives in rich and varied surroundings. Thus the limits of a person’s intelligence are fixed at birth, but whether or not he reaches those limits will depend on his environment. This view, now held by most experts, can be supported in a number of ways.
It is easy to say that intelligence is something we are born with. The closer the blood relationship between two people, the closer they are likely to be in intelligence. Thus if we take two unrelated people at random from the population, it is likely that their degrees of intelligence will be completely different. If, on the other band, we take two identical twins, they will very likely be as intelligent as each other. Relations like brothers and sisters, parents and children, usually have similar intelligence, and this clearly suggests that intelligence depends on birth.
Imagine that now we take two identical twins and put them in different environments. We might send one, for example, to a university and the other to a factory where the work is boring. We would soon find differences in intelligence developing, and this indicates that environment as well as birth plays a part. This conclusion is also suggested by the fact that people who live in close contact with each other, but who are not related at all, are likely to have similar degrees of intelligence.
1. Which of these sentences best describes the writer’s point in Paragraph 1?| A．To some extent, intelligence is given at birth. |
| B．Intelligence is developed by the environment. |
| C．Some people are born clever and others born stupid, |
| D．Intelligence is fixed at birth, but is developed by the environment. |
| A．close relations usually have similar intelligence |
| B．unrelated people are not likely to have different intelligence |
| C．the closer the blood relationship between people, the more different they are likely to be in intelligence |
| D．people who live in close contact with each other are not likely to have similar degrees of intelligence |
| A．the importance of their intelligence | B．the role of environment in intelligence |
| C．the importance of their positions | D．the part that birth plays |
9 . Drew Lanham grew up on the farm his grandfather built in Edgefield County, S. C. in the 1920s. Lanbam, now 54, says his father felt a responsibility to stay on the land and care for the animals and crops there. To Lanham, that family land was connected with his love for birds. He would spend hours observing birds like the prairie warbler and the bobwhite quail when he was young.
Lanbam said he believed from a very early age he would be someone who studied birds. However, he lost track of that dream on the road to becoming an engineer. “Before I left for college, everyone around me said, “You’re good at math and science. Be an engineer. Make money, Drew. And for a while, I tried that, but hated every last moment of it,” he said.
When he took a return trip to the farm, the farm was unrecognizable. All of these wonderful forests that he’d grown up in had been cut. But some wildlife remained. “I remember the day when I left. I was driving up this dirt road, and the birds were singing ‘Zee, zee, zee’,” he said. The birds’ song lit a fire under Lanham. After his visit back to the farm, he couldn’t see himself returning to work as an engineer. Therefore, he got on track to study to become an ornithologist (鸟类学家).
Lanbam researched the eastern bluebird. “The work was often hot and bard and long hours. But there were moments when I would look up and there would be the songs of birds. These moments made me realize that I was doing what I bad always dreamed of,” he said.
Lanham thinks that his turn towards the study of nature is carrying his father’s legacy (溃产) forward.
1. Why did Drew Lanbam become an enginect at first?| A．He enjoyed studying math and science. | B．He was persuaded by people around. |
| C．He wanted to make big money. | D．He lost interest in birds then. |
| A．He was trapped on the dirt road. |
| B．He wanted to save the destroyed farm. |
| C．The birds reminded him of his childhood. |
| D．The birds awakened his love for wildlife. |
| A．Lanbam continued his father’s responsibility. |
| B．Lanham’s father would be proud of his son. |
| C．Lanbam’s job was better than his father’s. |
| D．Lanham expanded the farming land. |
10 . Many of us develop a desire to travel.
“I left home when I was 20 with a
That beginning marked the accomplishment of a
Her career has
| A．Therefore | B．However | C．Besides | D．Meanwhile |
| A．short | B．complex | C．successful | D．ordinary |
| A．funny | B．awful | C．fairy | D．different |
| A．goal | B．choice | C．hobby | D．problem |
| A．farming | B．adventure | C．employment | D．tourism |
| A．approached | B．charged | C．left | D．informed |
| A．travel | B．apply | C．wander | D．train |
| A．terrible | B．strange | C．faraway | D．lifelong |
| A．accept | B．review | C．discover | D．lose |
| A．calling for | B．giving up | C．looking for | D．breaking up |
| A．step | B．measure | C．advantage | D．lead |
| A．driven | B．shown | C．taken | D．forbidden |
| A．politely | B．patiently | C．rudely | D．honestly |
| A．explanation | B．advice | C．requirement | D．wish |
| A．on | B．by | C．of | D．with |
