1 . When people find out that I am a journalist, they often ask me: What do you think about the future of newspapers?
I tell them that I think the future of communications is moving online. People expect me to be fearful for the future of print. After all, in some people's minds I wouldn't be able to build a career in journalism if it all moves online. However, strangely enough, I’m actually comforted by the fact that online journalism is becoming usual. I am a blogger who has always been able to find a home for my writing online.
Since I began writing blogs, I have become aware of how many people you can reach with online writing. Compare this to the newspapers circulation base, and you will have a strong reason for online journalism.
In her successful blog post titled The Job I have spent the last year learning is not the one I will have, author Jenny Surane states, "Print is an expensive product to love. And general managers, publishers and editors must now figure out a profitable way to get their news into readers' heads.” She goes on to state that people don't feel like picking up a newspaper now and would rather scroll(滚屏) through their Twitter feed, and get news from many different sources.
If print is dying, then a new form of communicating information is being born. The need for information has not died. If anything, it has increased. What has died, rather, is the way in which information is presented.
Now more than ever, in this age of information, there is a desire for stories on the same topic from different points of view. The printing industry can keep pate with the need of providing a variety of sources, if it chooses to.
Is the future of print grim? Maybe, But is the future of journalism of communicating information to people, grim as well? Definitely not.
1. According to Paragraph 2, the author feels .| A．confident about the future of his career |
| B．worried about the future of print |
| C．tired of being a newspaper journalist |
| D．embarrassed about online writing |
| A．Twitter is not very popular |
| B．It is hard to manage online journalism |
| C．Prim still has its advantages |
| D．People have more choices to get information |
| A．Promising | B．Depressing |
| C．Unforgiving | D．Encouraging |
| A．To explore the future of journalism |
| B．To analyze the cause of print decline |
| C．To explain the bright future of a journalist |
| D．To introduce a successful blog post about print |
2 . There’s a good chance something you've bought online has been in the hands of a “ picker” first. These are the workers in warehouses(仓库)who pick, pack and ship all those things we’re ordering.
At Amazon and other companies, they’re working side by side with robots. Experts say while the robots are replacing some human workers, the machines aren't quite ready to take over completely.
When a robot finds its storage unit, it slides underneath, lifts it up and then delivers it to a worker 一 they’re called pickers. On a recent day, the computer told a picker to grab what looked like a fantasy board (棋盘)game. The picker found it, canned it and placed it on the conveyor belt.
“In a traditional fulfillment center where the associate would walk to the different items , it can take hours to fulfill a customer order. “ Robinson says.
Now, with the help of robots, that task takes minutes 一 and fewer humans.
So is this a sign we're entering a new industrial revolution?
“It’s definitely going to take over a lot of jobs. " says Karen Myers, a scientist at SRI, one of Silicon Valley's oldest research centers.
At the same time, she says, we're running against the limits of technology. Take “the picker” at the Amazon fulfillment center. Myers says those skills are proving to be uniquely human.
“Our fingers are incredibly flexible and the current generation of robotic operators, they’re getting much, much better,” she says. “But they're just not quite there yet. ”
There’s also the robot’s brain.
Remember that board game the Amazon worker was looking for? She could barely see the box filled into the storage bin — but she could tell it was a board game. Robots can’t do that.
Technologists say that, increasingly, humans will work side by side with robots — instead of robots working alone.
Amazon says robots and humans enabled the Tracy warehouse to fulfill customer orders faster. That means more customers and more human workers.
1. A picker does some tasks except .| A．picking goods | B．producing goods | C．spotting goods | D．packing goods |
| A．more efficient | B．less straight | C．more difficult | D．less profitable |
| A．powerful | B．artificial | C．flexible | D．energetic |
| A．Robots replacing humans completely. |
| B．The advantages of shopping online. |
| C．The future of robots. |
| D．Robots and humans working side by side. |
1. What will happen in 2022?
| A．The first space hotel will open. |
| B．A new space lab will be built. |
| C．Astronauts will live in the space hotel. |
| A．Two. | B．Four. | C．Six. |
| A．Cook food. | B．Watch movies. | C．Have a video chat. |
| A．Expensive. | B．Dangerous. | C．Relaxing. |
4 . How to change the world
You want to change the world, but you aren’t sure where to start. First, remember that changing the world can mean so many different things.
Understand what's wrong.
Know that change doesn't come overnight.
Start small.
Find ways to make a difference every day. It may feel as though you are just one tiny part of a huge system. At first, you almost certainly will be. Be patient.
Write letters to newspapers; post an article, video, or idea on the internet; wear a T-shirt. If you think that it is important and worthy of attention, try to raise awareness(意识) by telling as many people as you can.
Consider a career.
Think about which sort of job might put you in the best position to change the world.
| A．Read the news. |
| B．Spread the word. |
| C．All things begin small |
| D．Remember that you don’t need to do it alone |
| E．You could be a teacher, a reporter, or something else. |
| F．There are other, less public ways to show your support! |
| G．Don’t expect to change the world with one big heroic act. |
1. 大学计划；2. 理想的工作；3. 业余生活。
注意：1. 词数100左右；2. 可以适当增加细节，以使行文连贯；3. 开头语已为你写好。
I often imagine what my life will be like in the future. ...
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6 . I expect the travel of the future to become less physical, more mental. Through the use of technology, you’ll be able to let your brain experience the sensations of a new place without actual going there. Robots and computer simulation（模仿）will enable you to visit remote exotic places without ever leaving home---the wreckage of the Titanic, the Galapagos Island, even the moon.
As an oceanographer, I’ve spent decades developing robots to explore the depths, and now we’re putting that technology to use in our JASON Project, a cooperative effort between industry, science, and educators that’s designed to be a world classroom for children. In auditoriums throughout the country, we bring kids together and transmit back to them on large screens our live explorations of far-flung areas of the globe. Not only are the kids observers, but they truly participate. They have the sensation of really being at the site with us---through the “eyes”, “ears”, and motions of the robot.
This year we’re taking the project to the Galapagos Islands. The Galapagos are an exceedingly fragile environment, so fragile that only 60,000 people are allowed to visit them each year. But with JASON we will be able to let some 300,000 children experience those unique islands.
I believe advances in robot technology will one day be the key to an entirely new kind of travel. In the next 10 or 15 years I foresee people having rooms in their houses that will be able to simulate other environments. I like to call these rooms “home domes”---miniature theatres with wrap-around screens and sophisticated equipment that can reproduce the sights, sounds, smells, and feel of a desert, or a forest, or a meadow in high mountains.
Today, much of the world’s population never travels more than 50 or 60 miles from home. And even a person with abundant wealth and time can see only a fraction of the earth’s sights. But this new era of travel will cost so much less in both time and money that many more people will be exposed to a lot more of the globe. And simulated travel will help protect our planet. You can’t take large groups of tourists trooping up to look at Dian Fossey’s gorillas. But a small robot can get very close to a silverback and send the sights, sounds, and smells back to a million people.
I like to use this analogy（类比）to compare traditional travel with future travel: riding a horse is wonderful, but I don’t need to ride one to work anymore. That’s how I feel about traditional travel. Sometimes I still might want to hop on a plane and see a place firsthand, but sometimes I may simply want to walk into my home dome and take the trip from there.
1. Which statement best expresses the main idea of this article?| A．Protecting fragile environments like the Galapagos Islands. |
| B．Building home domes to meet people’s desire of travelling |
| C．Traveling globally without even leaving home in the future. |
| D．Owning rooms called “home domes” to be put into reality. |
| A．is a piece of equipment made for traveling |
| B．provides virtual access to actual traveling |
| C．has a negative effect on future environment |
| D．will be available in around fifty years’ time |
| A．Why is the “home dome” designed and produced? |
| B．When might a “home dome” be available to us? |
| C．What will be like in a “home dome” in future? |
| D．How much does a “home dome” probably cost? |
7 . It‟s no secret that American infrastructure is aging. Concrete(混凝土) structures, in particular, are in desperate need of repair.
Cracks (缝隙) are very common due to various chemical and physical phenomena that occur during everyday use, which can be quite harmful as they provide an easy route in for liquids and gasses and the harmful substances they might contain. But continuous repair work is difficult because it usually requires a huge amount of labor and investment. So since 2013, I‟ve been trying to figure out how these harmful cracks could heal themselves without human involvement. The idea was originally inspired by the amazing ability of the human body to heal itself of cuts, bruises and broken bones. In the same way, can we provide necessary products to concrete to fill in cracks when damage happens?
My colleagues from Binghamton University and I have found an unusual candidate to help concrete heal itself: a fungus (真菌) called Trichoderma reesei. We initially screened about 20 different species of fungi in order to find one that could stand the difficult conditions in concrete. Of all the fungi we tested, only T. reesei could survive this environment. Despite the sudden PHincrease, its spores (孢子) developed into threadlike things and grew equally well with or without concrete.
We propose including fungal spores, together with nutrients, during the initial mixing process when building a new concrete structure. When the unavoidable cracking occurs and water finds its way in, the sleeping fungal spores will start to grow. They then will work as an activator within the calcium-rich conditions of the concrete to promote precipitation (析出) of calcium carbonatecrystals. These mineral deposits can fill in the cracks. If cracks form again and environmental conditions become favorable, the spores could wake up and repeat the process.
Our research is still in the initial stage and there’s a long way to go to make self-healing concrete practical and cost-effective. But the scope of American infrastructure’s challenges makes exploring creative solutions like this worthwhile.
1. Why does the author mention the self-healing of human body?| A．To show how amazing human body is. |
| B．To prove everything will turn out to be fine. |
| C．To provide a possibility of concrete healing itself. |
| D．To stress that it’s unnecessary to have medicines. |
| A．It has been applied to building a new concrete. |
| B．It can bear the tough conditions in concrete. |
| C．Its spores will be useless after one repair. |
| D．It poses potential risks to environment. |
| A．The challenges of American infrastructure. | B．The research on self-healing concrete. |
| C．The process of cracking. | D．The promotion of spores. |
| A．The Danger of Cracks | B．The Aging of American Infrastructure |
| C．The Most Powerful Fungus | D．Concrete Filling Its Own Cracks |
8 . The office of the future will look quite different from the office of today. There will be big savings in space, because records will not to be kept on paper. Also, because things can be done at a much quicker pace, it’s likely that working hours will be much shorter.
There may be some good points to the changes for workers as well as employers however. Government should benefit from IT and have more money to spend. Because of the increase in revenue(收入) caused by higher productivity, the government could afford to spend more on things such as social work, charities and culture.
| A．However, not all the news is good. |
| B．Salaries are also expected to increase. |
| C．Even workers who can keep their jobs may have to suffer. |
| D．Their bosses will not want to employ them in a few years time. |
| E．Travel companies need to adopt IT to be competitive and survive. |
| F．Therefore, some who lose their office jobs may be able to work in these new areas. |
| G．And you will be expected to get a lot more information by using the computer than you did in the past |
This is what a typical(典型的) person's life will be like two decades from now，according to The Guardian. Want to know more?
After you get up, your apartment will be like an electronic orchestra with you as the conductor. With simple moves of your hand and spoken instructions, you’ll be able to control your apartment’s temperature, humidity, music and lighting. You’ll be able to look through the day’s news on translucent screens while your breakfast waits for you in the automatic oven.
As you move into your kitchen, you might accidentally hit your toe on a cupboard. If you do, you’ll grab your cell phone and open the diagnostics(诊断) app. Inside your phone there will be a tiny microchip(芯片) that uses X-ray waves to scan your body. The scan will tell whether your toe is bruised or broken.
After breakfast, your driverless car will take you to work. While you “drive”, your central computer system will suggest a list of chores(家务事) that your housekeeping robots can do that day and it will also remind you to buy a gift for your mother’s upcoming birthday.
As you can see, with the help of advanced technology, our lives will be more efficient(有效率的). Technology will mitigate our forgetfulness and free us of many small burdens that distract us, such as buying a ticket. Our brain will therefore be able to focus on more important things like preparing for a presentation or doing “deep thinking”.
However, the development of technology might have some disadvantages as well. By 2036, we’ll be relying heavily on the virtual(虚拟的) world, which will mean that all of our data will be stored in the cloud, a remote digital storage system with near limitless capacity(容量). That will increase the possibility of someone else accessing, sharing or manipulating(操控) our personal information.
1. What might be the author’s purpose in writing the text?
| A．To stress the importance of developing technology. |
| B．To remind people not to depend too much on computers． |
| C．To introduce one new invention that will benefit our future lives. |
| D．To describe how advanced technologies will affect our future lives. |
| A．you’ll be able to rely on an electronic orchestra to wake you up instead of an alarm clock |
| B．a tiny microchip in your phone will treat you when you are sick |
| C．you will be able to adjust the conditions of your apartment via oral instructions or simple hand gestures |
| D．technology will be smart enough to help us with important things like preparing for a presentation |
| A．Make up for. | B．Worsen. | C．Cure. | D．Take advantage of. |
10 . A 2 billion year old Martian (火星的)rock appeals to have at our time been full of water from the surface of the Red Planet.
“Here we have a piece of Mars that I can hold in my hands. That’s really exciting,” Carl Agee, director of the Institute of Meteoritics at the University of New Mexico, told the Associated Press.
Agee led a team of scientists who published their report on the newly discovered meteorite （陨石），nicknamed Black Beauty. The rock is estimated to have contained 6,000 parts per million water and scientists believe it likely interacted with water at a time when most of the planet’s surface was believed to have been arid.
The baseball-size rock was discovered in the Sahara, and scientists say it contains more evidence of water than any of the other known Martian rock samples.
“It’s fairly fresh. It hasn’t been subjected to a whole lot of weathering (风化作用），” University of Alberta meteorite expert Chris Herd told the AP.
Billions of years ago an eruption on the surface of Mars, likely caused by a volcano or planet collision, sent the rock into space, where it eventually made the journey to Earth, Agee and his team said the sample is “strikingly similar to the volcanic rocks examined by the NASA rovers Spirit and Opportunity on the Martian surface.”
Over the years, scientists have collected more than 60 Martian rock samples, with most being discovered in the Sahara and Antarctica. The new sample is much older than most of the other specimens, which are about 600 million years old or younger. The oldest known sample is an estimated 4.5 billion years old.
1. The underlined word “it”in Paragraph 3 refers to “________”.| A．Mara | B．the Red Planet |
| C．Black Beauty | D．the report |
| A．In the Sahara. | B．In Antarctica. |
| C．In Mars. | D．In America. |
| A．Black Beauty has the size of a baseball. |
| B．Blank Beauty contains the most evidence of water among the known Martian rock samples. |
| C．An eruption on the surface of Mars sent the rock into Earth directly. |
| D．Black Beauty is not the oldest known sample. |
| A．In a personal diary. | B．In a science report. |
| C．In a travel magazine. | D．In a geography textbook. |
