1 . 阅读下面短文，根据其内容写一篇 60 词左右的内容概要。

Among all the fast growing science and technology, the research of human genes, or biological engineering as people call it, is drawing more and more attention now. Discussions about it are increasingly heated around the world.

The greatest thing that gene technology can do is to cure serious diseases that doctors at present can almost do nothing with, such as cancer and heart disease. Every year, millions of people are murdered by these two killers. And to date, doctors have not found an effective way to cure them. But if the gene technology is applied, not only these two diseases can be cured completely, bringing happiness and more living days to the patients, but also the great amount of money people spend on curing their diseases can be saved. Therefore, it benefits the economy as well. In addition, human life span( 寿命) can be prolonged.

Gene technology can help people to give birth to more healthy and clever children. Some families have genetic diseases. This means their children will for sure have the family disease, which is a great trouble for these families. In the past, doctors could do nothing about genetic diseases. But gene technology can solve this problem perfectly. Scientists just need to find the wrong gene and correct it, and a healthy child will be born.

Some people are worrying that the gene research can be used to create human beings in large quantities. In the past few years, scientists have succeeded in cloning animals such as mice, sheep, and dogs; therefore, these people predict that human babies would soon be cloned( 克隆) and that it would be beyond control, leading to some disastrous consequences. But many believe that cloned babies will not come out in large quantities, for most couples in the world can have babies in a very normal way and they also believe the governments will control gene technology and make laws to make sure the gene technology will help improve our lives instead of harming us.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

2 . 假如你是李华，最近你收到英国笔友Jones给你的来信，在信中他询问你对未来生活的看法。请根据以下要点，给Jones写一封回信。内容要点：
1. 人类健康与寿命;
2. 环境保护与新能源;
3. 日常生活的变化；
4. 感慨未来生活的精彩。
注意：
1. 词数 100 左右;
2. 可以适当增加细节,以使行文连贯。
3. 文章开头，结尾已给出，不计入总数。
Dear Jones,

I’m glad to receive your letter. I’d like to tell you my opinion about the life in the future.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Yours,

Li Hua

3 . These days, it seems like everyone wants to go out into space and live on new planets.Rather than depend on another pre-existing planet, could we make a new, proper planet ourselves?

To start with, if we do want to be living on it, we should find a good place in space to put the new planet. We’d want it to be in a habitable zone, meaning the planet should be at the right distance from its star to make sure there would be perfect temperatures and most importantly, liquid(液态的) water.

We’d also need the right materials to make the planet. Our Earth is made up of many different elements(元素). If we made our own new planet we’d probably want it to have similar elements and a similar structure(结构) We’ d also want enough water to form some oceans.

But even if we get all of the materials creating a new planet like Earth could have many troubles. It might be something more like a huge space station. It would be pretty expensive if we wanted it to be super big.

We would probably also need a lot of food since there s going to be many scientists and astronauts out in space working on this project!

According to NASA, each astronaut uses about 0. 83 kilograms of food per meal, including 0.12 kilograms of packaging(包装) material. Without the weight of the packaging material, we’d need about 780 kilograms of food just to feed one astronaut for a year.

Putting all these together could make it possible to make our own planet one day! In reality, creating a new planet would probably require a very modern technology and there would be tons of other things to think about. And if this is even possible, it likely won’t happen for a very long time.

1. What's the first thing we should do if we want to create a new planet?

A．To prepare enough food.

B．To design its inner structure.

C．To find a proper place to set the planet.

D．To collect materials similar to our Earth.

2. What does the underlined word “it” in Paragraph 3 refers to?

A．Our Earth.	B．Outer space.
C．The new planet.	D．The ocean water.

3. How much food does an astronaut actually eat each meal?

A．About 0. 12 kilograms.	B．About 0. 71 kilograms.
C．About 0. 83 kilograms.	D．About 0.95 kilograms.

4. What does the author think of creating a planet?

A．It is a waste of money and time.	B．It should be one of NASA’S next plans.
C．It is not a good idea for humans.	D．It won’t come true in the near future

4 . Researchers in Australia have discovered an effective new method to capture the atmospheric carbon dioxide that is damaging our planet and transform it into something solid, making it much easier to store.

Carbon capture isn’t new, but previous methods call for the gas to be compressed into liquid and then injected underground. Widespread usage of that technology has been locked by economic and environmental concerns due to possible leaks. Instead, in a study published in Nature Communications, the group details their sustainable and cost-effective plan for transforming CO2 into coal.

This new process involves a liquid metal catalyst( 催化剂 )that is efficient in conducting electricity. CO2 gas is dissolved in a container with some liquid. Once electricity charge is introduced, the CO2 begins to turn into solid pieces of carbon, which can be collected and stored.

What makes this particularly unique is that the entire process can occur at room temperature. Previous experiments have only shown a gas to solid conversion at extremely high temperature, which made it impossible on a large scale. Now, the researchers are hoping that their work will be used to create even further when it comes to carbon storage.

In an interesting side benefit, the solid carbon also works as an electrode( 焊 条 ), which opens up a world of possibilities. “A side benefit of the process is that the carbon can hold electrical charge, becoming a super battery, so it could potentially be used as a part in future vehicles,” explains Dr. Dorna Estrafilzadeh, a researcher. “The process also produces fuel as a by-product, which could also have industrial applications.”

1. What can we know about the previous carbon capture methods?

A．People have to inject liquid to the gas.

B．The previous methods can be done easily.

C．The previous methods are not very popular.

D．People have widely accepted previous methods.

2. What is the special part of the new method?

A．It needs electricity to make the process efficient.

B．It can be done in any kind of container.

C．It doesn’t need extreme temperature.

D．It can produce much solid carbon.

3. What can we infer from the last paragraph?

A．The method will make fossil oil disappear.

B．The method will influence the future industry.

C．The method will make developed countries more powerful.

D．The method will be used to make new vehicles.

4. What is the best title for the passage?

A．How to change carbon into CO2.

B．A new carbon capture technology.

C．A new technology to get useful carbon.

D．Australia makes the world cleaner than before.

5 . Directions:Write an English composition in 120-150 words according to the instructions given below in Chinese.
最近，在一本英文旅游杂志上刊登了国际空间站(TSS-- International Space Station)将在2020年对游客开放的信息（见下表)。如果有可能（具备足够的时间和金钱)，你是否会去争取成为第一批游客。请谈谈你的理由。
Information About the Trip to ISS
Number of visitors 2 every year
Length of stay 30 days (at most)
Cost $ 27000 per night (stay)
$ 40 million (transport)
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

6 . Complete the passage with appropriate words or the correct form of the words in brackets.

A Capsule Fails the Test of Time

The US state of Oklahoma, the 48th state in the Union, celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2007. In a year full of official     1    (celebrate), one event in June attracted spectators and media from all around the world. On 15 June 2007, thousands of people gathered in Tulsa to watch the unearthing of a time capsule that had been buried half a century earlier. There was a feeling of     2    (excite) in the air. As well as     3    (wait) to see the time capsule, the crowd was also waiting to find out who had won a competition which     4    (launch) when the capsule was buried 50 years earlier.

The time capsule was a large concrete box. People said it was strong     5     to survive a nuclear strike. It had to be large and strong, because it contained a car: a brand new 1957 Plymouth Belvedere. Inside the car     6    (be) lots of everyday items from the 1950s. For example, there was a can of petrol and a case of beer in the boot. In the glove box was a handbag     7    (contain) a lipstick and other small items considered     8    (essence) for a ‘typical’ woman in the 1950s.

Before the capsule was buried, officials ran a competition. Entrants had to guess what the population of Tulsa would be in 2007. The organizers recorded all the guesses and saved     9     on a roll of microfilm. The microfilm was placed in the Plymouth Belvedere. The organizers’ idea was that     10     the time capsule was opened in 2007, the winner would be announced – and he or she (or his or her hers) would win the entire contents of the time capsule, plus the contents of the savings account.

7 . If you're a fan of smart technology, you may have had some sleepless nights lately. That's because Alexa, the artificial intelligence （Al） behind US company Amazon's Echo smart speakers, has been "letting out an unprompted （自发的）,creepy （令人毛骨悚然的）cackle for no apparent reason, according to BBC News.

Many social media users shared their stories of Alexa scaring them with the seemingly unprompted laugh.

“Every time Alexa laughs, an angel dies," Tesla and SpaceX founder Elon Musk joked on social media.

On March 7, Amazon released an update that fixed the problem, saying that the laugh was caused by Echo devices mistakenly thinking that users had said the command " Alexa, laugh".

However, what should have been a funny story raised the ongoing topic of man versus machine.

With the rise of artificial and robotic technology, " Digital machines started to demonstrate broad abilities in pattern recognition, complex communication, and other area that used to be particularly human," wrote Erik Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAfee in their book The Second Machine Age: Work, Progress, and Prosperity in a Time of Brilliant Technologies. They believe that AI will "do more and more, and our lives will get better".

However, ever since the earliest days of AI there have been concerns that some day, software will take over the world. leaving the fate of humans unknown.

“With artificial intelligence we are order the demon （魔鬼）Musk told students during a meeting at MIT in 2014. "If I had to guess at what our biggest existential threat is, it's probably that. So we need to be very careful

Many scientists have shared the same concern. The late British physicist Stephen Hawking said at a technology conference in Portugal in November that "computers can. in theory, imitate human intelligence, and exceed it ••• AI could be the worst event in the history of our civilization."

If creators are to safely control AL however, Hawking suggested that they " employ best practice and effective management" .

I am an optimist and I believe that we can create AI for the good of the world," he said at the conference. "We simply need to be aware of the dangers, identify them, employ the best possible practice and management, and prepare for its consequences well in advance/*

1. What does the underlined word "cackle" in Paragraph I probably mean?

A．movement

B．laughter

C．scream

D．story

2. The story of Alexa is intended to .

A．lead into the discussion about humans and AI

B．prove artificial intelligence has its weaknesses

C．inform readers of the development of AI

D．show how Alexa's problem was fixed

3. According to Brynjolfsson and McAfee, which statement below is probably TRUE?

A．The development of AI could threaten our survival one day.

B．Digital machines have complete ability to recognize something without mistakes.

C．Robots will never match humans in complex communication.

D．Humans lives will be greatly improved with the help of robots.

4. What can be a suitable title for the text?

A．Man VS.Machine	B．Time to Control Rise of AI
C．Creepy AI	D．AI: The Biggest Threat

8 . What’s next after the smartphone?

Humans can play tricks today that magicians couldn’t have imagined 50 years ago. Armed with only a tiny device today, our smartphone allows us to access a lifetime’s worth of information, connect with anyone in real time even if they are miles away. But the most astonishing part of this technological “magic” is the speed at which new opportunities and experiences are coming out.

For generations, we have seen the inevitable connection between humans and technology as advancements are applied to serve us and improve our quality of life. And the rate of technological progress is doubling every year.

Twenty years ago, who would have thought that we would be walking with robots and cyborgs (半人半机器的生物)? With the development of technology, we humans are accepting digital technologies to improve and expand our senses and abilities. Take Moon Ribs and Neil Harbison for example. They are both cyborgs, with Ribs having a chip put into her arm so she can feel earthquakes all around the world in real time and Harbison, who is color blind, has an antenna (天线) put into his head to allow him to be aware of visible and invisible colors via sound waves.

This is only the beginning. As we continue to spend more time with machines, the more they will become embedded (嵌入) in our lives. Technology already feels like it has a mind of its own, and over the next two decades, this will become even more pronounced.

Machines will eventually become as intelligent as us, and, while today they may just live in our pockets, tomorrow they could be in our blood stream and our minds, linking us to the cloud. And as this gap separating humans and machines continues to close, we will reach a point where they can be hardly identified. Technology and humanity will fuse (融合) together some day in the near future.

1. The first paragraph of the passage is intended to tell readers _____.

A．smartphone brings us convenience and lifetime’s worth of information

B．the magical and powerful functions of smartphone

C．the most astonishing technological magic of smartphone

D．new opportunities and experiences are approaching at a high speed

2. The writer of this passage takes Moon Ribas and Neil Harbisson for example to _____.

A．make a comparison between the two of them

B．introduce the founders of the Cyborg Foundation

C．prove they are much more intelligent than human beings

D．show that machines has become embedded in human lives

3. Neil Harbison is a cyborg that can _____.

A．help human to create other cyborgs

B．sense colours by using sound waves

C．see both visible and invisible colours

D．feel earthquakes all around the world

4. What is the main idea of this passage?

A．The new technologies related to smartphone in the near future.

B．Machines will eventually become as intelligent as human beings.

C．The future tendency that technology and humanity will fuse together.

D．We are reaching a point where we can’t tell technologies and machines apart.

9 . Several recent studies examined how machine automation and artificial intelligence (AI) will change the future of work.

Some people predict these technologies could replace up to 30 percent of workers worldwide by 2030. The possibility of being replaced will greatly increase for workers with less education, said Price Waterhouse Coopers, an international company providing financial and tax services. It estimated(估计) that in Britain, up to 46 percent of workers without a college degree could be in danger because of automation. This would drop to about 12 percent for workers with undergraduate degrees or higher.

“New smart machines have the hidden power to replace our minds and to move around freely in the world,” the study said. It added that the greatest job replacement is expected to come in the areas of transportation, storage, manufacturing (制造业)and retail（零售）.

The Rand Corporation recently published its own report on the future effects of automation and AI on jobs and the workplace. Osonde Osoba was a co-author of the report. He noticed that fears over machines taking jobs from humans goes back centuries. He agrees there will be major job disruptions(混乱) because of AI and automation, especially for lower skilled workers. But he believes the future problems have been overestimated(高估) without historical evidence to support the predictions. “It’s not so much that the jobs are getting replaced, but it’s more like tasks are getting replaced and jobs are reconfiguring(重新装备) over time to account for that automation.” He added that it will be very difficult for companies to completely automate most jobs, because they request a worker to perform many different duties and to respond to unexpected situations.

“If you are thinking about detailed things an individual(个人) might do to prepare themselves, I guess being more adaptable and being able to reeducate yourself to fit into a different job.” Osonde Osoba suggests.

1. According to the whole passage, _________are most likely to lose their job?

A．scientists in laboratories	B．teachers in colleges and universities
C．milkmen in milk companies	D．officers in governments

2. Which of the following is RIGHT according to the passage?

A．Companies have completely automated most jobs for saving cost.

B．Humans have feared to be replaced by AI and automation.

C．The job replacement has come in transportation and retail.

D．People with high degrees get higher danger of losing jobs than those with no college degree.

3. What do you think is the best title of the passage?

A．Future workers: what to do to keep the job.

B．Job replacement: who is to blame.

C．Automation and AI: how to replace the future job.

D．New studies: why the future job is replaced.

10 . What do you use your fridge for: It can not only keep your food cold, but also make ice and freeze food. But in the future smart fridges may do much more than you can think. They may tell you what food is inside, what food you need, what food is healthy for you, and even shop for you, too!

Some companies are making online fridges which have a computer screen on the door. And it can be very useful that the computer is linked to a supermarket through the Internet. For example, when you finish your orange juice, you can put the empty juice carton (纸盒包装) near the computer screen. The computer reads the bar code on the juice carton. Then it orders more orange juice from the supermarket. You can also use the computer screen to order other things from the supermarket. The computer screen has a series of things that are in the store. You can choose what you need. The supermarket will send the food to your home.

Companies are making other kinds of “smart” appliances (电器), too. There is a new kind of microwave oven (微波炉) which has a computer memory. It can remember 365 different cookbooks. There is also a smart mixer that can remember cookbooks. Even it can test ingredients for you!

Of course, sometimes these smart appliances don’t work. When they do, they will tell you. And then they can call someone to fix them, too!

1. Your fridges can do the following things except                .

A．keep food warm	B．make ice
C．keep food cold	D．freeze food

2. What’s the meaning of the underlined word “linked” in paragraph 2?

A．prepared	B．connected
C．offered	D．formed

3. Which is not true?

A．The oven can call someone to fix itself when it doesn’t work.

B．The oven can store 365 cookbooks.

C．The mixer can test ingredients for you.

D．The mixer can help you clean the kitchen.

4. What is the main idea of the text?

A．Online fridges have a computer screen on the door.

B．Fridges of the future will order food from the supermarket.

C．Smart appliances, like online fridges, can be very helpful.

D．People won’t have to go to supermarkets to buy food in the future.