1 . If you mention “voice technology”, most people think of Siri, Alexa or Cortana. While personal artificial intelligence (AI) assistants are becoming increasingly popular in our everyday lives, they are just one use of voice tech, and are primarily designed for adults.

Irish tech company SoapBox Labs wants that to change. The company has developed speech recognition technology designed specifically for children, and it’s already in use across a range of applications, from toys to education apps.

Children’s voices differ from that of adults. “Typically, they have a higher pitch (音高), and may use different language or speech patterns, which regular voice technology cannot always pick up on.” explains Patricia Scanlon, the founder of SoapBox. “It’s understandable that an industry that has spent decades working on technology and only focusing on adults runs into a fairly significant problem when they try to apply it to children.”

Rather than making slight changes to the available voice technology already on the market, SoapBox builds its voice engine from scratch-focusing on children aged 2 to 12. The company says it created a data set to train its AI system, made up of thousands of hours of children’s speech collected in real-world noisy environments-kitchens, classrooms and cars-from kids of all ages, accents and dialects (方言)，from a total of 192 countries.

This opens up a whole new market, for which there’s growing demand. More than 8 billion digital voice assistants are expected to be in use, and there is an increased focus on adapting the tech for children.

SoapBox, which is selling a technology rather than a product, has attracted more than 50 clients from around the world. The technology can help a child learn to read or learn a language. It acts as a helpful adult, reacting immediately to the child and giving them one-on-one time, and it can also help to record a child’s progress and provide recommendations to a teacher or parent.

1. What makes SoapBox different from Siri?

A．Its use of voice tech.

B．Its creative use of AI.

C．It is designed for children.

D．It is used on many applications.

2. What can we infer according to Scanlon in paragraph 3?

A．A lot of effort has gone into developing SoapBox.

B．Voice technology has much room for development.

C．There has been great demand for a system like SoapBox.

D．SoapBox understands adults’ voice better than that of children.

3. What did SoapBox use to build its voice engine?

A．Recordings of 192 dialects.

B．Data from a previous system.

C．Speech from people of all ages.

D．Newly-collected speech of children.

4. What does the underlined word “recommendations” in the last paragraph mean?

A．Markets.

B．Suggestions.

C．Experiments.

D．Problems.

2 . A great skill to have is the ability to solve problems effectively, specifically interpersonal and behavioral problems. In order to achieve this, you need to follow a few key requirements.     1    

First, you should understand “why” the problem exists.     2     If you know something about why the problem exists, you’ll have a better time to resolve the problem. Let’s take the example of a child who doesn’t want to come to school. Before you can reach a solution, it is important to find out why the child doesn’t want to come to school.

Once you have clearly identified the problem, you need to understand what you have control over and what don’t.     3     You may not control whether a child comes to school, but you are able to deal with the barrier to the child not wanting to attend school.

Don’t jump to conclusions. Once you have all of your information, analyze it carefully and look at it from various viewpoints. Be as objective as possible and don’t be quick to judge.     4     This is a time for you to use your critical thinking skills.

    5     How many options do you have? Are you sure? Which options seem reasonable? Have you weighed the pros and cons (事物的利与弊) of your options? Are there any limitations of your options? Are there any options better than others and why? Are there advantages and disadvantages you need to take into consideration?

A．Now determine your options for solutions.

B．Remain judgment-free as much as possible.

C．Ask yourself questions about what options you have.

D．That means figuring out the actual root cause of the problem.

E．Read on to find how to become a more effective problem solver.

F．The strategies in problem-solving are good lifelong skills to have.

G．Your efforts must be within the areas where you are in the driver’s seat.

3 . Writer Andrew Leland started losing his sight 20 years ago, when he was in high school, as a result of a progressive eye disease called retinitis pigmentosa (色素性视网膜炎). His first experience of loss of sight happened temporarily at night, in which he was confused that everyone else seemed to see in the dark so much better than he did. Over the years, his disease has progressed gradually. He’s now legally blind, although he still has a narrow field of vision, which allows him to see about 6% of what a fully sighted person sees.

Leland analogized his vision to the view you might get by looking through a toilet paper tube or a keyhole. He said, “Imagine having that toilet paper tube tied to your head and trying to walk down the street; there’s a whole bunch of things you don’t see but that you really ought to, like dogs.”

In his new book, The Country of the Blind, Leland writes about losing his vision and preparing for blindness, how his condition impacts his identity, how the world sees him and his marriage, and something valuable he has learned.

He said he was not going to try to tell people that having vision was not an unbelievably useful thing for a human being for many reasons. When talking about the experience of being alive and being conscious, he referred to James Joyce — Joyce believed that he was only losing one world among many, and that vision was only a tiny part of experiences when he was going blind.

He thought if you looked at the things that blind people were capable of imagining, like John Milton writing Paradise Lost as a blind person, there was this unbelievable richness in humans’ consciousness that vision had nothing to do with. Other realms (领域) such as the mental and emotional realms were all so rich that they could also help unfold things on earth before you.

1. What do we know about Leland?

A．He went totally blind in high school.

B．He experienced night blindness at first.

C．He was born with a narrow field of vision.

D．He was aware of his condition throughout.

2. Which is closest in meaning to “analogized” underlined in paragraph 2?

A．Connected.

B．Reduced.

C．Compared.

D．Exposed.

3. Why is James Joyce mentioned?

A．To help explain an opinion.

B．To stress the value of good vision.

C．To state his considerable influence.

D．To show the inconvenience of blindness.

4. What message is conveyed in the last paragraph?

A．Practice is the best teacher.

B．The blind have more vivid imagination.

C．Things are not set in concrete.

D．Vision is not the only window in the world.

4 . Tim Gjoraas doesn’t have much time left. However, there’s no ________ of supportive people in his corner.

Last year, Tim found out he had cancer. In the following months, his health ________ and then he got the news that he likely only has months left to live. He quickly retired from the Washington High School and decided to devote every moment to spending with his ________.

After ________ that he may not have much time left, Tim began taking steps to ensure his loved ones will be ________ . While he was catching up with Doug Rinken, a friend and retired teacher, Tim asked him to ________ his house next summer. He ________ that his wife Lisa has always wanted blue walls. Little did he know that the job would be finished much ________! One Saturday in September, Tim opened his doors to a(n) ________ sight. Doug had shown up with paint tools and about a dozen of Tim’s fellow teachers and friends.

This wasn’t the first time they had ________ him. After they heard about his disease, they organized fundraisers to help with his medical ________ . The project took less than a day ________ their efforts. Of course, it left a ________ mark on Tim. What a powerful act of kindness! No matter what happens, Tim ________ knows he and his family members will always hold a place in their community’s ________.

1.

A．record

B．evidence

C．shortage

D．indication

2.

A．recovered

B．maintained

C．improved

D．worsened

3.

A．friends

B．family

C．teachers

D．students

4.

A．accepting

B．announcing

C．proving

D．admitting

5.

A．caught up with

B．put up with

C．taken care of

D．kept away from

6.

A．rebuild

B． repaint

C．repair

D．reuse

7.

A．guessed

B．ignored

C．forgot

D．explained

8.

A．later

B．better

C．sooner

D．harder

9.

A．incredible

B．familiar

C．unavoidable

D．frightening

10.

A．got hold of

B．given way to

C．broken up with

D．come through for

11.

A．supplies

B．bills

C．facilities

D．problems

12.

A．as for

B．but for

C．thanks to

D．regardless of

13.

A．permanent

B．visible

C． primitive

D． fresh

14.

A．largely

B．simply

C．precisely

D．definitely.

15.

A．memory

B．heart

C． power

D． history

5 . A film, also called a movie, is a work used to communicate ideas, stories, feelings, beauty and much more through the use of moving images. This article therefore introduces some right movies or TV series which will benefit students in one way or the other.

Like Stars on Earth

This is a heart touching Indian movie that tells the story of a boy named Ishaan Awasthi. He is an 8-year-old boy with dyslexia (阅读障碍) and this greatly influences his performance in school. Ishaan has an amazing talent for art and painting, but no one would like to know him and be his friends until a new art teacher, Ram Nikumbh, arrives. He takes special interest in Ishaan and discovers Ishaan’s problem and his artistic talent.

The Social Network

It tells us the story of young Mark Zuckerberg who is an undergraduate at Harvard and also a computer genius (天才). He begins to work on an idea which grows into a globally recognized social network called Facebook. This makes Mark one of the youngest billionaires existing.

Grownish

Filled with real life situations and grown up people, this series takes us back to university-lifestyle. Grownish through four amazing seasons, teaches us how to navigate (驾驭) the university through the eyes of Zoey Johnson. Zoey is a talented fashion designer and stylist who seems to have the world all planned out for her.

King of Boys 2

If you haven’t already seen the first movie in this series, you should take two steps back so you don’t get lost in this political (政治的) forest. This movie is the type that has you sitting at the edge (边缘) of your seat from start to finish. King of Boys 2 takes us to the underworld of a truly dirty game called “politics”.

1. Why is the 8-year-old boy named Ishaan doing poorly in school?

A．He has difficulty reading.	B．His teachers dislike him.
C．He fails to make new friends.	D．He takes no interest in studies.

2. Who founded Facebook?

A．Ram Nikumbh.	B．Mark Zuckerberg.
C．Zoey Johnson.	D．Ishaan Awasthi.

3. What is King of Boys 2 about?

A．An art teacher’s story.	B．A computer genius.
C．A fashion designer’s growth.	D．A political game.

6 . 你班正在围绕“健康饮食”制作一期英文板报。请你根据以下提示撰写一篇文字稿，内容包括：
1. 健康饮食建议；
2. 表达期望。
注意：
1. 写作词数应为80左右；
2. 首句已给出可以适当增加细节，以使行文连贯。

As the living standards getting higher, nowadays people pay more attention to their health.

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7 . Palm oil (棕榈油) is the world’s most popular vegetable oil, found in half of all supermarket goods and seven out of every ten personal care products. It’s also used in some snacks, cleaning powder, and toothpaste. Since 2016, global palm oil consumption has risen 73 percent.

Yet palm oil and the appetite for it are problematic. The clearing of forests to make way for oil palm plantations is a major driver of the cutting down of trees in the hottest part of the world: Between 1972 and 2015, the world’s two largest palm oil-producing nations, Indonesia and Malaysia, lost 16 percent and 47 percent of their forests, respectively, to the crop. And that brings about environmental problems, such as climate change, and poor water quality. Biodiversity suffers a severe blow, too.

However, a better option may be just around the corner: oil made from microbes (微生物). “The technology is actually very old but was never really established in industry, and I always wondered why because it has great potential (潜力),” says Philipp Arbter, co-founder of Colipi, an emerging startup that grows and adapts microbes to produce palm oil. For instance, he says, “Microbes can be grown quickly in a climate-controlled indoor space to produce high amounts of oil. We have so far identified more than 40 algae (藻类) and 70 other microbes which are rich in oil.”

Currently, most microbial oil startups are aiming for their first products to be in beauty products, rather than food, due to the higher price points they can get and the relatively fewer rules involved. When asked if the new oil can match palm oil prices, especially when it’s used in food, Christoph Chuck, a chemical engineer at the University of Bath in England, said, “We should be in touching distance of the eatable oil market as long as mass production happens to bring the price down.”

1. What does the first paragraph show about palm oil?

A．It is widely used.	B．It is easily available.
C．It makes the food taste better.	D．It has taken the lead in the oil market.

2. Why does the author mention Indonesia and Malaysia in paragraph 2?

A．To stress the importance of palm oil.	B．To present the growth environment of palm trees.
C．To show the high price of producing palm oil.	D．To explain the challenge of planting cash crops.

3. What makes Philipp Arbter turn to microbial oil?

A．Its high quality as eatable oil.	B．The sufficient source of materials.
C．Its benefits for human health.	D．The successful practice in industry.

4. How does Christopher Chuck feel about the future of microbial oil?

A．Unconcerned.

B．Confused.

C．Worried.

D．Optimistic.

8 . 阅读下面材料，根据其内容和所给段落开头语续写两段，使之构成一篇完整的短文。

It was the first swim meet of the year for our newly formed middle-school swimming team. The atmosphere during the three-hour bus journey was filled with anticipation as the group of forty-eight young teenagers thought of nothing but victory. However, the excitement turned into shock as our kids got off the bus and stared in disbelief at their muscle-filled Greek-god-like opponents.

The coach checked the schedule “Surely there has been a mistake,” he thought. But the schedule only confirmed that this was the right location and time.

The two teams formed a line on the side of the pool. Whistles blew, races were started and races were lost. Haifway through the meet, coach Huey realized that there were no participants for one of the events.

“Okay kids, who want to swim the five-hundred-yard freestyle?” the coach asked. Several bands shot up, including Justin’s “I’ll race, coach!” he shouted. The coach looked down at the youngest boy and said, “Justin, this race covers twenty lengths of the pool. I’ve only seen you swum eight”.

“I can do it. Coach. Let me try,” Justin insisted . Coach Huey hesitantly agreed. ”After all, “be thought,” it’s not the winning but the effort and determination that build character.“

The whistle blew and the opponents rushed through the water and finished the race in just six minutes and fifty seconds. The winners gathered on the sidelines to socialize while our group struggled to finish. After three more minutes. the last exhausted (筋疲力尽的) members of our team came out from the water-except for Justin.

Justin was stealing breaths as his hands slapped against the water, pushing i: aside to push his thin body forward. It appeared that he might go under at any minute, yet something seemed to keep pushing him forward.

“Why doesn’t the coach intervene?” the parents whispered among themselves. “It looks like he’s about to drown, and the race was over four minutes ago.”

注意：
1.续写词数应为150个左右：
2.请按如下格式作答。

Approaching Justin, the coach noticed the determination in the young swimmer’s eyes.

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Touched by the scene, members of the opposing team also cheered Justin as he continued to swim.

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9 . 假定你是李华，在某海外购物网站购买了一款智能手表作为母亲节礼物，但出现了一些问题。请你给该网站客服人员写一封邮件，内容包括：
1.说明问题；
2.你的诉求。
注意：写作词数应为80个单词。
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10 . 阅读下列短文，根据短文内容或括号内所给词的恰当形式填空。

A Fuxing train departed from Nanning City, the capital of south China’s Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region on Thursday morning,     1     (mark) the launch of high-speed rail service in the karst regions of southern China.

The 482-kilometer railway, which connects Nanning with Guiyang, the capital of Southwest China's Guizhou Province, is designed     2     (facilitate) a top speed of 350 kilometers per hour, reducing travel time from over five hours to about three hours.     3     a major transportation artery (干线) in southern and southwestern China, it will     4     (significant) benefit residents in the mountainous areas and boost       5     (region) ·socioeconomic growth (社会经济增长) along the route, according to China State Railway Group, the national railway operator.

This railway is the first of its kind to be built in either Guizhou       6     Guangxi, both of which are known for their karst landscapes posing     7     obstacle to railway construction. The railway’s construction, which started in December 2017, was a challenge for its architects and engineers because its     8     (plan) route included areas with different geographic     9     (feature), including mountains, valleys and rivers. So far, the operator    10     (announce) three types of service schedules for weekdays, weekends and the peak