1 . Directions: After reading the passage below, fill in the blanks to make the passage coherent and grammatically correct. For the blanks with a given word, fill in each blank with the proper form of the given word; for the other blanks, use one word that best fits each blank.

Future living: what will the home of tomorrow look like?

What will our homes be like in the future? Growing cities, shrinking living spaces, and climate change are major challenges     1    (face) urban planners and architects. We’re sharing three trends with you     2     will shape the home we live in tomorrow.

Energy efficient and carbon neutral

One of the greatest challenges for homes of the future is our increasing energy consumption, something that cannot be covered by fossil fuels going forward.     3     the impact of climate change becoming notable, it’s perfectly understandable that the buildings of the future could function as environmentally friendly power plants. Solar collectors and heat storage systems allow     4     are known as “plus-energy buildings” to produce 100 percent renewable energy for emission-free operation.

The trend to downsizing

Living more efficiently not only means improving energy use and reducing one’s own carbon footprint, but also building to save space. Rooms     5    (design) to be multifunctional when there’s not a dedicated room available for every potential purpose. Modular and flexible furnishing systems that can be adapted to the individual floor space and room zones will replace     6    (fix) structures, ensuring that there’s room for everything even in a small space.  

Trends for living and working under one roof

Over the last few months, the office     7    (become) a feature in many people’s homes. For a number of years now, the home office has been evolving from a make-do desk into a comfortable long-term solution. This development means we need to ask     8     how we should construct our living spaces to allow us to concentrate and work productively.  

    9     you rent or own your own home in the future, what’s clear is that the home of tomorrow will be smarter, more flexible, and more sustainable. It will offer us space     10    (live), sleep and work both indoors and outdoors.

3 . Directions: After reading the passage below, fill in the blanks to make the passages coherent and grammatically correct. For the blanks with a given word, fill in each blank with the proper form of the given word; for the other blanks, use one word that best fits each blank.

Scientists and engineers     1     (prepare) for possible travel into interstellar space, the area in between stars, in the distant future. Experts believe it will likely take many years before the technology and equipment are developed     2     (send) humans to this unexplored area of space. But if it does happen, massive spaceships     3     carry humans on long trips to distant stars.

Two American researchers, Andrew McKenzie from the University of Kansas and Jeffrey Punske of Southern Illinois University, have explored one possible problem with such travel. They considered the possibility     4     changes in human language could develop over time, thus       5     (cause) major communication problems with people on Earth.

Languages naturally changes as communities grow more isolated from each other, the researchers noted in the paper. The long isolation of a community could lead to enough differences in language to make     6     impossible for community members back home to understand.

The researchers noted that in addition to new words being used, the language of people traveling on spaceships and living in colonies     7     (experience) many other changes. For example, the sounds of different letters would likely change over time, affecting not only individual words, but the whole grammatical system.

The researchers say one possible solution to     8     (limit) communication problems would be to include language experts on spaceship crews. Another suggestion is to use sign language as a form of communication. McKenzie added that space travelers might question whether it is even worth trying to learn how to communicate with people on Earth. But he believes there will always be a need,even     9     it is very limited. "You have to learn a little Earth English to send messages back, or to read the instruction manuals and information     10     came with the ship," he said.

5 . Directions: after reading the passage below, fill in blanks to make the passage coherent and grammatically correct. For the blanks with a given word, fill in each blank with the proper form of the given word; For the other blanks, use one word that best fits each blank.

Could we have zero deaths on our roads?

Cars that can think for themselves have clear advantages     1     flesh-and-blood drivers. They don’t get drunk or drowsy, daydream or get distracted by mobile phones.

Human error causes over 90 percent of these collisions. Driverless cars, which     2     sense other vehicles on the road as well as obstacles and lane markings(车道标记), are already proving much safer than human-driven cars. In trials of Google’s autonomous Prius fleet in Silicon Valley in California, the only accidents     3    (cause) by human error. How are innovations like these designed? And how safe is it    4     (put) your life in the hands of an autonomous vehicle that makes all your decisions for you?

Driverless cars use a mix of GPS, cameras, complex scanners and sensors to detect vehicles, traffic signals, curbs, pedestrians and    5     obstacles. “A central computer system analyzes the data to control acceleration, steering and braking,” says Olivier Sappin, VP of Transportation & Mobility at Dassault Systèmes—the software company whose 3D EXPERIENCE platform and industry solutions are used by motor manufacturers to design, produce and maintain driverless cars. The software can simulate different eventualities(可能发生的事情) to ensure safety on the road—and the results can be incorporated （被包含）into the design and production process.

As well as     6    (detect) their surroundings using ultra-sophisticated mapping systems, future cars will be able to communicate with each other,     7    (allow) as many cars as possible to fit on the roads.    8     (connect) vehicles will feature safety warnings that alert drivers of potentially dangerous conditions—impending(迫在眉睫的) collisions, icy roads and dangerous curves.

Experts say it’s not the technology holding us back, but legal and practical issues such as who is responsible in the case of an accident, urban planning and the security of car computer systems.     9     these details are worked out, and motor manufacturers have used sophisticated software tools to eliminate all potential problems, it won’t be long     10    we’re all a lot safer on the roads.