1 . We all have read those amazing stories where we feel as if we are taking part in the action: the weapons in our hands, the eyes filled with tears, and magic circling through the land.
Find inspiration everywhere
Some of the most interesting stories have come from a boy’s simple car ride back from school, or from a memorable dream a girl just can’t forget.
Live with your characters
The most interesting characters are those that seem to come to life. One of the greatest ways to have your characters jump from the pages is to imagine what it would be like to live with each of them for a day.
Everyone writes differently, but outlining your story often helps your readers follow your story more easily. List your characters, the settings, the time, and the main story plot. What happens? When? In what order?
Open with excitement
Now it’s time to begin writing!
Write to describe something
Here is a common writing idea: show, don’t tell. For example, when you write, you don’t have to say: Marie was so sad. Often, a more effective way to convey her sadness would be like this: tears rolled down her face leaving dark, salty lines.
| A．Outline your plot |
| B．Write down something special |
| C．Small details help you build them |
| D．Make up stories based on your daily life |
| E．Discover an inspiring moment to write about it |
| F．Work on the first sentence to attract your readers |
| G．They needn’t be adventurous with exciting events |
2 . The English language has many expressions that describe a fast-moving event. Some expressions relate to body movements. We say something happens in the blink of an eye or in a heartbeat. Other expressions are related to the world of nature.
For example, there is an expression related to velocity involving an animal. You might think the creature will be a big cat, such as a lion or maybe even a small but speedy animal, such as a hare (野兔). But it is none of them. The expression today involves sheep—baby lambs to be exact.
Lambs are cute, but they are not really known for their lightning speed. Our expression is about a specific part of the animal—its tail. Lambs can shake their tails very fast. And when something happens quickly, we say it happens in “two shakes of a lamb’s tail”. Here is an example, “I’m going to the store I’ll be back in two shakes of a lamb’s tail!” This expression is a cuter and more descriptive way of saying “quickly”. Maybe instead of sending a text message with the letters BRB (be right back), we could use the image of a lamb shaking its tail.
Being cute like a lamb may be fun, but it has its drawbacks. Cute things are often not taken seriously. And that is why Americans rarely use “two shakes of a lamb’s tail” in a serious situation. For example, if a person gets hit by a car, people would say something like “Help is on the way!” Generally speaking, an emergency is not a good time to use cute animal expressions.
1. What does the underlined word “velocity” (paragraph 2) probably mean?| A．language | B．speed | C．eating habits | D．body parts |
| A．The development of the expression. | B．The origin and usage of the expression. |
| C．The reason of lambs’ fast movement. | D．The characteristics of lambs’ behavior. |
| A．I’ll live in the big city in two shakes of a lamb’s tail! |
| B．Firefighters rescued the boy in two shakes of a lamb’s tail! |
| C．I’ll be back from the restaurant in two shakes of a lamb’s tail! |
| D．Medical workers arrived on the scene in two shakes of a lamb’s tail! |
| A．To stress the advantages of lambs. |
| B．To describe the behavior of lambs. |
| C．To show the features of spoken language. |
| D．To introduce an expression concerning lambs. |
1. What are scientists interested in?
| A．The ocean. | B．The desert. | C．The continent. |
| A．Roads. | B．Houses. | C．Lights. |
4 . Once upon a time, there was a man who worked very hard just to keep food on the table for his family. A few days before Christmas, he
As money was tight, he became even angrier when on Christmas Eve he saw that she had used all of the gold paper to
The next morning the little girl,
But when he
The little girl
An accident took the girl’s life only a short time later. It is said that the father
| A．praised | B．encouraged | C．thanked | D．punished |
| A．promising | B．learning | C．admitting | D．agreeing |
| A．decorate | B．draw | C．buy | D．measure |
| A．time | B．advice | C．space | D．money |
| A．filled with | B．ready for | C．different from | D．related to |
| A．thinking | B．forgetting | C．ensuring | D．regretting |
| A．closed | B．opened | C．accepted | D．found |
| A．happily | B．anxiously | C．angrily | D．shyly |
| A．hand | B．lecture | C．solution | D．present |
| A．looked up at | B．caught up with | C．lived up to | D．made up for |
| A．empty | B．broken | C．full | D．colorful |
| A．love | B．hate | C．forgive | D．defend |
| A．kept | B．observed | C．used | D．searched |
| A．interested | B．discouraged | C．surprised | D．terrified |
| A．share | B．refuse | C．remember | D．remove |
5 . As the commercialization of 5G accelerates in China, more companies are exploring what smart cities will look like in the 5G times.
US chip giant Intel Corp, for instance, is teaming up with partners such as China Unicom to build a 5G smart park in Nanjing, to offer a peek into the future of such smart cities.
The future smart city must be data-centric (以数据为中心) and intelligently interconnected. So how to better capture, transmit, store and analyze data will be the center of the future. Intel’s advantages can be found in its hardware and software solutions which can meet demands of multiple scenarios (多情景分析). The company will be devoted to opening cooperation, creating an innovative ecology and working with partners to create an intelligent future.
The company’s project, the Future Technological Smart Center in Nanjing, aims to gather a wide range of domestic and foreign partners around artificial intelligence, internet of things, 5G, cloud computing and other technological innovations to explore what future cities will look like. Intel said the Nanjing project is designed to build industry benchmarks, implement excellent solutions, and offer experience for the construction of smart cities and parks in the Yangtze River Delta region and even the entire country.
A Deloitte report said that China has already included the smart city initiative in its national strategy and made significant investments in these projects.
Both first-tier cities and small and medium-sized cities are home to smart city projects. The nation has formed many smart city groups across the eastern and southern coastal areas of China, Deloitte said.
Deloitte senior partner Ma Jionglin said in an earlier interview that China is one of the most active countries in the world in building smart cities. With advances in urban management and the increasing emphasis on the work and lifestyle of people, smart cities will be entering a new stage of development.
1. Why is the US Intel company mentioned?| A．To show Intel is a high technical company. |
| B．To accelerate 5G commercialization in China. |
| C．To offer a peek into the future of such smart cities. |
| D．To prove many companies are exploring 5G smart cities. |
| A．Through intelligent interconnection. |
| B．Through the help of foreign partners. |
| C．Through teamwork and innovative ecology. |
| D．Through advanced hardware and software technology. |
| A．Negative. | B．Positive. | C．Critical. | D．Indifferent. |
| A．The construction process of smart cities. |
| B．Intel’s exploration to build smart cities in China. |
| C．Chinese national strategy and investments on smart cities. |
| D．China’s leading role in building 5G technology in the world. |
6 . Many of us have had this experience: we lie down in a bed other than our own, perhaps at a friend’s house or in a hotel room, and find it difficult or impossible to fall asleep. Is it because the bed is uncomfortable? Maybe, but perhaps there can be other reasons.
According to a new study published in Current Biology, a significant reason is what the scientists call “first night effect”. They believe that one side of the brain acts as a “night watch” to warn us about potential dangers. It forces us to stay awake on the first night in a new environment.
For the study, 35 young volunteers were asked to sleep in a sleep lab for several days. Meanwhile, researchers watched their brain activities.
According to the researchers, on their first night, the left brains were more active than the right brains and people had a hard time sleeping. However, left-brain activity decreased as days went by, falling even to the point of complete calm. In this process, the participants got an increasingly better sleep experience.
The findings suggest that the different rhythms of the sides of the brain affect our sleep. When the two sides work differently, the balance between them is broken. Thus, the brain can’t relax and is sensitive to anything strange in the surroundings, just as it is in daytime.
“At some level, the brain is continuing to analyze things, even though you are not aware of the analysis,” US professor Jerome Siegel told Smithsonian Magazine. “If something unusual happens – if a door opens or you hear a key in a lock – you can be alert, even though the intensity of the stimulus is quite low.”
More surprisingly, this phenomenon is similar to the way some animals sleep. Whales, dolphins, and many birds can sleep with half of their brain while the other half stays awake, with its corresponding eye staying open.
The researchers think that it is the result of evolution, and works to protect us in potentially dangerous environments.
If you have ever had what you think is “first night effect”, researchers suggest that you bring your own pillow or sleep in a room similar to your bedroom next time you sleep away from home.
1. What did the new study published in Current Biology find?| A．A comfortable bed could help people sleep well in a new environment. |
| B．Most people could sleep well in a new environment after the first night. |
| C．Brain activities affected people’s sleep in a new environment. |
| D．The right brain determined how well people slept in a new environment. |
| A．Their left brains were more active on the first night. |
| B．Their right brains became more active as days went by. |
| C．Their right brains kept them awake the whole night. |
| D．They slept better in the sleep lab than at home. |
| A．The bad sleep experiences people have had. |
| B．The tiredness that people suffer from in daytime. |
| C．The imbalance between the two sides of the brain. |
| D．The strangeness of the things that people come across. |
| A．It has evolved as a way to protect us. |
| B．It’s a characteristic that animals don’t have. |
| C．It’s completely different from the way animals sleep. |
| D．It helps people to get used to new environments quickly. |
7 . Parrots have been known to imitate words, but have you ever thought how they communicate? The sounds they make may sound meaningless to us, but new research has found that wild parrots are actually given names by their parents.
According to a study led by Karl Berg of Cornell University in the US, baby birds are given a unique sound of their own, which stays with them for their entire lives.
In the study, the team placed hidden cameras in the nests of 17 different wild parrots. After studying their sounds, the team identified slight differences in the calls parents used to communicate with each chick. And even before the baby birds had learned to communicate properly, the baby birds seemed to recognize and imitate their calls.
Sounds very similar to humans, doesn’t it?
The study also proved that these signature calls are acquired socially not genetically. To do this, scientists switched the eggs in nine of the 17 nests, so that half of the parrots were raising baby birds that weren’t theirs. Using the recordings, the scientists concluded the baby birds all used names similar to those the parents (whether biological or nonbiological) called them for the first weeks of their lives.
Lucie McNeil, from National Geographic, said, “this would be the first [proven] example of a non-human species teaching acoustical (声学的) communication.”
Lead scientist for the study, Karl Berg told National Public Radio of the US, “Most people say, ‘Well, all those calls are just noise,’ but I think they’re having conversations.”
Fox News also asked Berg what else the parrots might be saying? He replied, “The theory is that these birds are deciding where the food is, ‘Do we want to go 3 km North-Northwest?’ “Do we want to go to that field?’ They are sort of arguing or discussing.”
Natural science author, Virginia Morell, wrote: “Very gradually, scientists are learning to decode the conversations of very different animals that live lives rich with plans, quarrels, and romance.”
You never know, if the science of animal translation keeps advancing, we might one day be watching a reality series about parrots.
1. What did the new research find about wild parrots?| A．They can talk by learning from people. |
| B．The sounds they make are meaningless. |
| C．They have names given by their parents. |
| D．They have a unique way of making sounds. |
| A．Different parrots are called differently by their parents. |
| B．Baby parrots can tell who their biological parents are. |
| C．Baby parrots can mimic their biological parents’ calls better. |
| D．Parrots are the most skilled animals in acoustical communication. |
| A．To see whether the parents could recognize their own babies. |
| B．To see whether the parrots made the same sounds all their lives. |
| C．To see whether the signature calls were acquired socially or genetically. |
| D．To see whether biological and nonbiological parents named babies differently. |
| A．imitate | B．understand |
| C．practice | D．create |
8 . You’re chatting with friends on the phone, but you can’t help browsing through shopping websites in the meantime. You’re having lunch alone in the canteen, but it only feels right when you start playing a show on your phone – as if it’s a necessary “side dish”.
We’re now living in a world that bombards us with information. It seems unnatural to do only one thing at a time. It’s as if we’re all suffering from what a recent daily article called “multitasking OCD (多任务强迫症)”.
“With news reduced to 140 characters and communication increasingly by emojis (表情符号), we have developed the ability to focus our attention on several activities and devices at once,” Sabry Otmani, founder of Pulpix website, once wrote. “We need lots of stimuli to keep us interested and to fight off boredom.”
But perhaps “fighting off boredom” is not the only reason.
My own obsession with multitasking mainly comes from the fact that everyone around me seems to be constantly studying. Each minute I’m not taking in something new feels like a waste of time. So I always have my headphones on, whether I’m commuting, exercising or walking in the park. I’m forever listening to something – a course on classical music, or on new media management, and heaven knows what else – just so I can keep up with the world.
People who can’t stay away from social media are known by “FOMO” (fear of missing out): They have to be constantly updated about what their friends are doing and saying. But I’d guess that “FOFO” better describes me – “fear of falling out”.
No matter what reason you’re doing it for, “multitasking” is already a part of the modern lifestyle. Just make sure you make the most out of it.
1. With the examples in the first paragraph, the author intends to ______.| A．explain what “multitasking OCD” is like |
| B．show how busy today’s life is |
| C．show that people today often feel lost |
| D．tell readers that people like comparing themselves with each other |
| A．It can help them to communicate their ideas. |
| B．It can prevent them from being bored. |
| C．They lack the patience to finish one thing at a time. |
| D．They are more able than the past generations. |
| A．interest | B．knowledge |
| C．understanding | D．worry |
| A．She thinks it is boring to do one thing at a time. |
| B．She wants to stay ahead of her friends. |
| C．She wants to have something to show off. |
| D．She doesn’t want to get left behind by others. |
9 . As Internet users become more dependent on the Internet to store information, are people remember less? If you know your computer will save information, why store it in your own personal memory, your brain? Experts are wondering if the Internet is changing what we remember and how.
In a recent study, Professor Betsy Sparrow conducted some experiments. She and her research team wanted to know the Internet is changing memory. In the first experiment, they gave people 40 unimportant facts to type into a computer. The first group of people understood that the computer would save the information. The second group understood that the computer would not save it. Later, the second group remembered the information better. People in the first group knew they could find the information again, so they did not try to remember it.
In another experiment, the researchers gave people facts to remember, and told them where to find the information on the Internet. The information was in a specific computer folder (文件夹). Surprisingly, people later remember the folder location (位置) better than the facts. When people use the Internet, they do not remember the information. Rather, they remember how to find it. This is called “transactive memory (交互记忆)”
According to Sparrow, we are not becoming people with poor memories as a result of the Internet. Instead, computer users are developing stronger transactive memories; that is, people are learning how to organize huge quantities of information so that they are able to access it at a later date. This doesn’t mean we are becoming either more or less intelligent, but there is no doubt that the way we use memory is changing.
1. The passage begins with two questions to ________.| A．introduce the main topic | B．show the author’s attitude |
| C．describe how to use the Internet | D．explain how to store information |
| A．Sparrow’s team typed the information into a computer. |
| B．The two groups remembered the information equally well. |
| C．The first group did not try to remember the formation. |
| D．The second group did not understand the information. |
| A．keep the information in mind |
| B．change the quantity of information |
| C．organize information like a computer |
| D．remember how to find the information |
| A．We are using memory differently. |
| B．We are becoming more intelligent. |
| C．We have poorer memories than before. |
| D．We need a better way to access information. |
