1 . When was the last time you used a telephone box? I mean to make an actual phone call — not to shelter from the rain. Ages ago, right? The last time I used a phone box for its intended purpose was…2006. I was conducting auditions (试演) for my play in my tiny old shared house in London. Hoping to impress some talented actors to come and work for me for nothing, I spread some throws over the sofas and lit candles to make it seem a bit more ”young professional”.
As I rushed outdoors to empty the wastepaper baskets, the door swung shut behind me. Suddenly I was locked outside. My mobile phone was inside, but luckily there was a telephone box across the street. So, I called Directory Assistance, got put through to our landlady’s managing agent, and had a spare key sent to me with just enough time to get back in before the actors arrived.
As it has been many years since I last used one, I should hardly be surprised that then are no longer any public telephones near my house. The last one standing has just been turn into a “mini community library”: any passer-by can “borrow” a book from its shelves return it later, or replace it with another title from their own collection.
For a few months after the “library” opened, I didn’t bother taking a look, as I had assumed that it would be stuffed full of cheese love stories. Then I noticed fork conducting spring cleans dropping boxes of voluminous books on various subjects there. And these books were free. This unbeatable price-point encouraged me to experiment with dozens of titles that I would never normally consider buying. And I’ve discovered some great books!
If I ever get trapped outside my house again, my local telephone box will, sadly no longer be able to connect me with my keys. But it can certainly keep me entertained while I wait for my wife to rescue me.
1. What does the underlined word “it” in the first paragraph refer to?A.The play. | B.The shared house. |
C.The sofa. | D.The telephone box. |
A.To place an urgent call. | B.To put up a notice. |
C.To shelter from the rain. | D.To hold an audition. |
A.It provides phone service for free. | B.Anyone can contribute to its collection. |
C.It is popular among young readers. | D.Books must be returned within a month. |
A.He wanted to borrow some love stories. |
B.He was encouraged by a close neighbour. |
C.He found there were excellent free books. |
D.He thought it was an ideal place for reading. |
2 . As a child I was one of the 125 people at our family gathering for New Year. These days we were a much smaller group in Belle Valley, Ohio. I insisted (坚持要求的) on acting as hostess and wanted to bring back the joy I’d felt at my childhood New Year that filled with love.
As family members arrived at the hall, I handed each one of them a numbered card and said, “Time for the alphabet game.” “What kind of game is that?” one of my great-grandchildren asked. “well,” I said, “who’s got number one?” A cousin raised her hand. “Tell us something you never forget,” I said. “Something that begins with the letter A.” My cousin smiled. “Apple pie!” she said. Great-granddaughter Mindy was next. “B,” she said. “I am impressed by Buckeye Country.” “Cookies!” Number 3 shouted.
Until Number 17, “The next one’s a challenge,” I said. “Who’s got 17?” Ryan, my son, slowly raised his hand. “Q,” he said. “Quaker City Carnival (嘉年华).” The room went silent.
“It’s one of the oldest traditions in Ohio,” Ryan said. “Grandma and Grandpa met there. That’s where they fell in love. That’s where this whole thing started. This whole family.” Ryan looked around the room, making eye contact with everyone. “We wouldn’t be here celebrating New Year together if it wasn’t for Quaker City Carnival.”
The room burst into laughter and was full of the love that had kept us connected to our Ohio traditions. “This is the best New Year we’ve ever had,” a great-grandson said to me secretly. Whatever their New Year would look like when they grew up, they’d remember this one. And for me, I had an unforgettable New Year to treasure — a memory where love started with the letter Q.
1. Why did the author organize the alphabet game?A.To enjoy the family gathering. | B.To bring joy and love to the children. |
C.To share moving stories with family. | D.To experience long-lost New Year happiness. |
A.It is related to guessing. | B.It is one of Ohio’s traditional games. |
C.It is mainly about numbers and letters. | D.It describes the history of some words. |
A.It reminded them of a tradition. | B.It was related to their family roots. |
C.They knew their grandparents better. | D.They understood the meaning of love. |
A.A Letter Full of Love | B.A Celebration of New Year |
C.A Family Custom at New Year | D.A Love Story About the Carnival |
3 . What picture do you have of the future? Will life in the future be better, worse or the same as now? What do you hope about the future?
Futurologists(未来学家) predict that life will probably be very different in 2050 in all the fields of activity, from entertainment to technology. First of all, it seems that TV channels will have disappeared by 2050. Instead, people will choose a program from a “menu” and a computer will send the program directly to the television. By 2050, music, films, programs, newspapers and books will come to us by computer.
In what concerns the environment, water will have become one of our most serious problems. Demand for water will increase ten times between now and 2050 and there could be serious shortages. Some futurologists predict that water could be the cause of war if we don’t act now.
In transport, cars will run on new, clean fuels and they will go very fast. Cars will have computers to control the speed of the car and there won’t be any accidents. Today, many cars have computers that tell drivers exactly where they are. By 2050, the computer will control the car and drive it to your destination.
In the domain(领域)of technology,robots will have replaced people in factories. Many factories already use robots. Big companies prefer robots-they do not ask for pay rises or go on strike, and they work 24 hours a day. By 2050, we will see robots everywhere-in factories, schools, offices, hospitals, shops and homes.
Last but not least, medicine technology will have conquered many diseases. Today scientists have discovered how to control genes. They have already produced clones of animals. By 2050, scientists will be able to produce clones of people and decide how they look, how they behave and how much intelligence they have. Scientists will be able to do these things, but should they?
1. What’s the purpose of the first paragraph?A.To arouse the interest of the reader. |
B.To tell the background of the passage. |
C.To show the author’s doubts about the future. |
D.To describe the pictures of the future. |
A.Computer will finally take the place of the media nowadays. |
B.Robots will completely have replaced people in factories. |
C.Not all diseases will be conquered by scientists. |
D.The clones of animals have a long way to go. |
A.Excited but pessimistic. |
B.Optimistic but worried. |
C.Eager but afraid. |
D.Enthusiastic but cautious. |
A.Travel. |
B.Sports. |
C.Education. |
D.Life. |
4 . If you could travel in time, where would you go? Perhaps you would watch an original performance of a Shakespeare’s play in Elizabethan England? What about hanging out with Laozi in the Spring and Autumn Period? Or maybe you’d voyage far ahead of the present day to see what the future holds.
The possibility of time travel is indeed appealing. Stories exploring the subject have been around for hundreds of years. Perhaps the best known example is the science fiction novel The Time Machine, which was written by H. G. Wells and published in 1895 for the first time. It was adapted into at least two feature films of the same name, as well as two television versions, and a large number of comic book adaptations. It is generally credited with the popularization of the concept of time travel using a vehicle that allows an operator to travel purposefully and selectively. The term “time machine”, coined by Wells, is now universally used to refer to a vehicle transporting people into the far future.
But could time travel actually be possible? Some scientists say yes, in theory. They propose using cracks in time and space called “wormholes”, which could be used as shortcuts to other periods. Einstein’s theory of relativity allows time travel in extreme circumstances. And British physicist Stephen Hawking said you could travel into the future with a really fast spaceship—going at nearly the speed of light. Though building such a spaceship would of course be no simple task.
Even if you could travel into the past, there is something called the “grandfather paradox”. It asks what would happen if a time traveller were to go back in time and have his own grandfather killed for some reason, and therefore prevent himself from being born. If the time traveller wasn’t born, how would he travel back in time?
And would you really like to visit the future? In H. G. Wells’ book, the main character travels into distant time where he arrives at a beach and is attacked by giant crabs. He then voyages 30 million years into the future where the only living thing is a black object with tentacles (触角). If that’s what’s in store, maybe we are better just living in the present day after all.
1. The novel The Time Machine mentioned in Paragraph 2 aims to show .A.people’s interest in time travel |
B.the special features of the book |
C.the long history of time travel |
D.the contribution of H. G. Wells |
A.have similarities in many ways |
B.push the invention of the first spaceship |
C.have proved wrong by some time travellers |
D.suggest the possibility to invent the time machine |
A.the traveller is prevented from meeting his grandfather |
B.the traveller goes back in time to seek for his grandfather |
C.the grandfather’s death makes the traveller’s birth impossible |
D.The reunion of the traveller and his grandfather brings happiness |
A.Unclear. | B.Skeptical. |
C.Supportive. | D.Unconcerned. |
5 . With the rapid development of science and technology, we don’t know how different our life will be in the future.
At first we think about human relationships. In the year 2050, we will use computers almost every day. We will be making new friends through the Internet — even our husbands or wives will be met in this way.
Computers will also help us in many other activities in 2050. For example, they will be used by the children at school to make their learning easier. In addition, there will be much more other machines which will play a similar role as computers, like robots which will do the housework for us.
We could expect that the faster technological progress would lead to a more polluted environment. But it isn’t true.
Although we can’t predict the exact changes which will be made in the world, we often think about them. We worry about our and our children’s future; we have expectations, hopes as well as fears. But I think we should be rather confident about our future.
A.However, we are convinced of the following |
B.We should be happy and believe good things will happen |
C.We will pay more attention to protecting the environment |
D.We can only imagine it |
E.Spending holidays will also be completely different |
F.It will be much faster and easier for us |
G.Our environment will be more polluted |
6 . Last August, I visited Melbourne Zoo and saw a baby Sumatran orangutan (苏门答腊猩猩). His birth was part of an international program to help the Sumatran orangutan survive as a species. At the moment these beautiful animals are in danger of disappearing in the next 10 to 20 years.
Melbourne Zoo is a modern zoo. Like most modern zoos, it cares very much about animals. It is not a cruel place. You could certainly argue that zoos were cruel places in the past, but I don't believe you can argue that they are cruel places today.
In the past, zoos were exhibition parks. Their only purpose was to give humans pleasure, by showing them wonderful animals that they would otherwise never see. Because animals were only there for the good of humans, no one took much care of them. They were transported thousands of miles around the world, then locked up in small, lonely cages (笼子). In those days, zoos were cruel.
These days, things are very different. The whole purpose of zoos has changed. Now zoos have three main purposes: education, conservation (保护) and research. They aim to make animals better off everywhere. Because of this, the way animals are cared for is also different.
Education is a big part of the activity at zoos. At Sydney's Taronga Park Zoo, for example, 130, 000 school children attend special programs every year to learn about how animals behave and what they need to live. The aim is to make children learn more about animals now so that they will care about them when they are adults.
Zoos play a major role in the protection and conservation of endangered species. The Sumatran orangutan is just one example of the many animals that are better off because of special programs.
Zoos carry out many important research programs which help animals in captivity (囚禁) and in the wild. Recent research, for example, has shown that many intelligent animals enjoy playing games while in captivity.
Modern zoos care about animals first, and people second. Zoos are not cruel places.
1. What does the author think of Melbourne Zoo?A.Old. | B.Cruel. | C.Caring. | D.Big. |
A.To please human beings. | B.To look after sick animals. |
C.To bring pleasure to animals. | D.To give visitors a chance to learn. |
A.It introduces new species. |
B.It holds animal exhibitions in schools. |
C.It has special animal programs for adults. |
D.It educates children about animals' behavior. |
A.Zoos are not cruel places | B.Zoos need to be changed |
C.Zoos are popular with kids | D.Zoos should set animals free |
7 . What will future schools look like in 100 years? Imagine future schools in which students are totally engaged in a class. They are concentrating on working together to solve real-world problems. They are self-driven and are coming up with amazing ideas on the spot. They are concerned with each other’s well-being as part of a team. Their concerns reach far beyond the classroom to others all over the globe.
The school of the future will be an amazing melting pot of different peoples coming together to solve real-world problems.
Will they even be called “schools” in the future?
The teacher-student relationship is changing. Teachers are acting more as helpers rather than keepers of all knowledge. Students are driving their own education to the path that they feel best fits them. In the future, employers may not be as concerned with a diploma. They’ll look more at cases and examples of how students contribute to solving real-world problems. They’ll want to know how well they work in a team.
What will problem-solving look like in the future?
Information from the Internet is accessible everywhere and at unimaginable speeds. Kids are connected to news around the world in real time. Imagine someone could put out a request to the global community to help solve an issue in their own community! Classes can adopt an issue and work with other classes around the world in real time to create solutions.
What will information look like in the future?
It’s already everywhere. Users can get flooded by the constant flow of information. The need to understand what is true and what is not is important. The flipped classroom (翻转课堂) has already completely changed lecture-based lessons. It presents interesting content to students before they even come to class. They can access the Internet as many times as they want to review the lessons.
1. What is the key message of the first paragraph?A.The things students will do in the future school. |
B.The situation where students will be in the future. |
C.The attention students will pay to in the classroom. |
D.The methods students will use to study in the classroom. |
A.Respect. | B.Patience. | C.Teamwork. | D.Concern. |
A.Teachers encourage students to develop leadership. |
B.Students are really relaxed with their heavy study. |
C.The employers value students’ diplomas most. |
D.Students have the right to choose the most suitable lessons. |
A.To help students to improve the problem-solving ability. |
B.To provide the lessons for students to study before or after class. |
C.To help students to keep in contact with the outside world. |
D.To help students to understand the most difficult content. |
8 . During the cool months from October to March, camel caravans (骆驼车队)arrive in the desert city of Timbuktu (廷巴克图)every few days. Led by Tuareg and Arab traders, the caravans have traveled from the salt mines of Taoudenni in Mali.
Nowadays, each salt caravan has from 60 to 300 Camels. Each Camel carries four to six bars of salt. The journey from the mines to Timbuktu takes 15 days.
At Taoudenni, salt is mined from ancient lake-beds that dried up millions of years ago. The mines lie deep below the Earth’s surface and are reached by tunnels. Large blocks of salt are dug out and then cut into small blocks above ground.
Trucks are taking the place of camels carrying salt. One truck can carry hundreds of bars of salt. And a truck can make the 900-mile round trip in about a week.
A.Mining salt is a very hard job. |
B.Traders are familiar with the mines there. |
C.Something bad happens to the camels on the way. |
D.The days of the camel caravans are coming to an end. |
E.It is a trade that has not changed in thousands of years. |
F.To avoid the hot sun,the caravans travel only at night. |
G.Timbuktu is near a river at the crossroad of three trade routes. |
9 . 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. |
10 . A robot with a sense of touch may one day feel “pain”, both its own physical pain and sympathy for the pain of its human companions. Such touchy-feely robots are still far off, but advances in robotic touch-sensing are bringing that possibility closer to reality.
Sensors set in soft, artificial skin that can detect both a gentle touch and a painful strike have been hooked up to a robot that can then signal emotions, Asada reported February 15 at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. This artificial “pain nervous system,” as Asada calls it, may be a small building block for a machine that could ultimately experience pain. Such a feeling might also allow a robot to “sympathize” with a human companion’s suffering.
Asada, an engineer at Osaka University, and his colleagues have designed touch sensors that reliably pick up a range of touches. In a robot system named Affetto, a realistic looking child’s head, these touch and pain signals can be converted to emotional facial expressions.
A touch-sensitive, soft material, as opposed to a rigid metal surface, allows richer interactions between a machine and the world, says neuroscientist Kingson Man of the University of Southern California. Artificial skin “allows the possibility of engagement in truly intelligent ways”.
Such a system, Asada says, might ultimately lead to robots that can recognize the pain of others, a valuable skill for robots designed to help care for people in need, the elderly, for instance.
But there is an important distinction between a robot that responds in a predictable way to a painful strike and a robot that’s able to compute an internal feeling accurately, says Damasio, a neuroscientist also at the University of Southern California. A robot with sensors that can detect touch and pain is “along the lines of having a robot, for example, that smiles when you talk to it,” Damasio says. ‘It’s a device for communication of the machine to a human.” While that’s an interesting development, “it’s not the same thing” as a robot designed to compute some sort of internal experience, he says.
1. What do we know about the “pain nervous system”?A.It is named Affetto by scientists. | B.It is a set of complicated sensors. |
C.It is able to signal different emotions. | D.It combines sensors and artificial skin. |
A.Delivered. | B.Translated. | C.Attached. | D.Adapted. |
A.Robots can smile when talked to. |
B.Robots can talk to human beings. |
C.Robots can compute internal feelings |
D.Robots can detect pains and respond accordingly. |
A.Machines Become Emotional | B.Robots Inch to Feeling Pain |
C.Human Feelings Can Be Felt | D.New Devices Touch Your Heart |