1 . “May 17, 2157
Dear diary,
Today, Tommy found a real book!...”
“What’s it about?” Margie asked.
“School.” replied Tommy, turning the yellow pages.
“Why would anyone write about school? I hope they can take my geography teacher away.”
“It’s not our school. This is the old sort that they had centuries ago.”
“Anyway, they had a teacher.” Margie said, reading the book over his shoulder.
“Sure, they had a teacher, but it wasn’t a regular teacher. It was a man.”
“A man? How could a man be a teacher?”
“Well, he just told the boys and girls things and gave them assignments and asked them questions.”
“A man isn’t smart enough.”
“Sure, he is. My father knows as much as my teacher.”
Margie wasn’t prepared to argue about that. She said, “I wouldn’t want a strange man in my house to teach me.”
Tommy laughed. “The teachers didn’t live in the house. They had a special building and all the kids went there.”
“And all the kids learned the same thing?”
“Sure, if they were the same age.”
“But my mother says a teacher has to be adjusted to fit the mind of each boy and girl it teaches and that each kid has to be taught differently.”
“If you don’t like it, you don’t have to read the book.”
“I didn’t say I didn’t like it,” Margie said quickly.
They weren’t even half-finished when Margie’s mother called, “Margie! School!”
“Not yet, Mamma.”
“Now!” said Mrs. Jones.
Margie said to Tommy, “Can I read the book some more with you after school?”
“Maybe,” Tommy said.
Margie went into the schoolroom, right next to her bedroom, and the mechanical teacher was on waiting for her.
The screen was lit up, and it said, “Please insert yesterday’s assignments in the proper slot.”
Margie was still thinking about the old schools they had when her grandfather’s grandfather was a little boy. All the kids from the whole neighborhood came, laughing and shouting in the schoolyard, sitting together in the schoolroom, going home together at the end of the day. They learned the same things, so they could help one another on the assignments and discussed them.
And the teachers were people…
1. Which of the following can be inferred from the passage?A.Margie doesn’t like her school. |
B.It’s common to read paper books in 2157. |
C.Online learning is what Margie wants. |
D.Tommy feels his father is smarter than his teacher. |
A.There are only female teachers at school. |
B.Teachers give no assignments to students. |
C.A special building is constructed for teachers. |
D.Students learn different things at their own pace. |
A.Envelope. | B.Opening. |
C.Screen. | D.Schoolroom. |
A.Longing. | B.Objection. |
C.Suspicion. | D.Tolerance. |
2 . Life in the future will be different from the life today. Between then and now many changes will happen. But what will the changes be?
The population is growing fast. And most of them will live longer than people now.
Computers will be much smaller and more useful, and there will be at least one in every room. And computer studies will be one of the important subjects in schools then. People will work fewer hours than they do now and they will have more free time for sports, watching TV and travel. Travelling will be much cheaper and easier. And many more people will go to other countries for holidays.
There will be changes in our food, too. More land will be used for building new towns and houses for all the people. Then there will be less room for cows and sheep, so meat will be more expensive. Maybe no one will eat it every day. Instead, they will eat more fruits and vegetables. Maybe people will be healthier. Work in the future will be different, too. Robots will do dangerous and hard work. Because of this, many people will not have enough work to do. This will be a big problem.
1. In the future there will be________.A.fewer vegetables | B.much more fruit |
C.more people | D.less people |
A.walk on foot | B.work long hours |
C.work fast | D.eat meat |
A.people will eat more fruits and vegetables |
B.many people may not be able to find work |
C.room for growing fruits and vegetables will reduce |
D.all the work will be done by robots |
3 . Every Friday evening when the sun looks like a giant orange and is starting to dip into the blue ocean, Old Eddie comes to his favorite pier with shrimp. Before long, dozens of seagulls fly to diet and
Suddenly, Eddie felt something land on the top of his cap. It was a
Eddie Rickenbacker never forgot the sacrifice of that first lifesaving seagull. That’s why almost every Friday night he would walk to the pier with a bucket full of shrimp and a feeling of
A.attack | B.assist | C.envelop | D.drag |
A.Up | B.Ahead | C.Off | D.Back |
A.missions | B.skills | C.travels | D.lectures |
A.Unfortunately | B.Miraculously | C.Horribly | D.Comfortably |
A.died | B.survived | C.fled | D.floated |
A.climbed | B.walked | C.landed | D.moved |
A.burned out | B.cut out | C.tested out | D.ran out |
A.sea | B.land | C.boat | D.home |
A.bird | B.eagle | C.angel | D.seagull |
A.normal | B.still | C.awesome | D.comfortable |
A.flash | B.slam | C.pat | D.push |
A.save | B.grasp | C.alarm | D.pull |
A.noisy | B.ordinary | C.abundant | D.slight |
A.imagination | B.rule | C.cycle | D.business |
A.affection | B.bitterness | C.thankfulness | D.regret |
4 . When almost everyone has a mobile phone, why are more than half of Australian homes still paying for a landline (座机)?
These days you’d be hard pressed to find anyone in Australia over the age of 15 who doesn’t own a mobile phone. In fact plenty of younger kids have one in their pocket. Practically everyone can make and receive calls anywhere, anytime.
Still, 55 percent of Australians have a landline phone at home and only just over a quarter (29%) rely only on their smartphones according to a survey (调查). Of those Australians who still have a landline, a third concede that it’s not really necessary and they’re keeping it as a security blanket — 19 percent say they never use it while a further 13 percent keep it in case of emergencies. I think my home falls into that category.
More than half of Australian homes are still choosing to stick with their home phone. Age is naturally a factor (因素)— only 58 percent of Generation Ys still use landlines now and then, compared to 84 percent of Baby Boomers who’ve perhaps had the same home number for 50 years. Age isn’t the only factor; I’d say it’s also to do with the makeup of your household.
Generation Xers with young families, like my wife and I, can still find it convenient to have a home phone rather than providing a mobile phone for every family member. That said, to be honest the only people who ever ring our home phone are our Baby Boomers parents, to the point where we play a game and guess who is calling before we pick up the phone (using Caller ID would take the fun out of it).
How attached are you to your landline? How long until they go the way of gas street lamps and morning milk deliveries?
1. What does paragraph 2 mainly tell us about mobile phones?A.Their target users. | B.Their wide popularity. |
C.Their major functions. | D.Their complex design. |
A.Admit. | B.Argue. |
C.Remember. | D.Remark. |
A.They like smartphone games. | B.They enjoy guessing callers’ identity. |
C.They keep using landline phones. | D.They are attached to their family. |
A.It remains a family necessity. |
B.It will fall out of use some day. |
C.It may increase daily expenses. |
D.It is as important as the gas light. |
5 . What if the Moon had never existed? For starters we know that the geophysical and climatological history of the Earth would have been different. Although there is still large uncertainty about how the Moon was formed, the most currently favored theory describes a disastrous collision between the Earth and another planetary object.
That event forever changed many aspects of the Earth's evolution. For example, with a relatively large natural satellite putting gravitational tidal forces (潮汐力) on it, the Earth's spin behavior has been quite different than it would have been otherwise. Day length has increased more rapidly than without a moon. And the natural changes in the direction of the Earth's spin axis (轴)-its poles-have been less than they would have been otherwise. A shorter day length and axial variations like these would have changed the Earth's climate history, and almost certainly have changed the way any life evolved.
But if a species like us had still appeared, its landscape for space exploration would also have been completely different. Without a large natural satellite, a mere quarter of a million miles away, there would have been no "easy" trip to make to another world. If there had been a first human mission to another world, it would likely have been to Mars. But this would surely have called for far more extensive designing of spacecraft and life-support systems for deep space. Perhaps instead the initial focus would have been entirely on Earth-orbiting equipment for people and robotic missions to other worlds. Or, maybe the attraction of the seemingly near impossible would still have encouraged these humans from an alternate reality to take the great leap to Mars as their first step outwards.
It is of course, impossible to know exactly what our world would really be like without the Moon-both physically, and in terms of human exploration. But one thing does seem clear: we probably take our natural satellite's existence far too much for granted. Not every inhabited planet in the universe will have its own ready-made gateway to the universe.
1. Why does the author use the question at the very beginning?A.To introduce the widely accepted theory. | B.To mention the destructive collision. |
C.To prove a wrong assumption. | D.To attract readers' interest. |
A.Compare day lengths in different climates. |
B.Introduce the evolution of life on the Earth. |
C.Explain why the Earth's spin behavior remains. |
D.Show how the Moon greatly influences the Earth. |
A.The Earth's evolution. | B.The mission to Mars. |
C.The trip to the Moon. | D.Earth-orbiting equipment. |
A.To call on people to study the Earth. |
B.To stress the significance of the Moon. |
C.To speak highly of human exploration. |
D.To prove assumptions about moonless Earth. |
5G is developing, but most of us aren't really sure what it is or the reason
Experts believe that 4G is on
Work will likely become much easier as 5G will allow quicker downloads and a better ability to work online even if there is no wi-fi connection. With the
A number of