1 . In America, the “Big Dig”, a highway project that resulted in a mess of traffic in the centre of Boston for years, came in five times over its initial budget. Even the Germans get huge projects wrong. Conception to operation of Berlin Brandenburg Airport has taken 30 years, with seven missed opening dates. The airport ended up costing $8.2 billion. However, the original estimate was about $2.7 billion.
Huge projects like Berlin Brandenburg Airport are the subject of an amusing new book called How Big Things Get Done by Bent Flyvbjerg and Dan Gardner. Mr. Flyvbjerg sets up a database of over 16, 000 projects and data analysis reveals that only 8.5% of the projects meet their initial estimates on cost and time, and 0.5% of them achieve what they set out to do on cost, time and benefits.
Over-optimistic time and cost estimates originate from both psychological and political perceptions: the reliance on intuition (直觉) rather than data, and a problem that Mr. Flyvbjerg calls “strategic misrepresentation”. This is when budgets are intentionally reduced in order to get things going. And once the projects are under way, they will not be stopped, because money spent on them will thus be wasted.
Mr. Flyvbjerg speaks highly of Pixar’s methodical approach to developing and testing films in great detail before they go into production. He also tells the story of how Frank Gehry’s well-developed architectural models helped ensure the success of the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao. Narrowing down the producing window of a project before it is actually carried out reduces the probability of unexpected events.
Big customized projects are particularly likely to run into trouble. However, the more a project can be divided into standardized processes, the better its prospects are. Projects run into problems for specific reasons as well as general ones: Britain’s trouble is not something that China has to worry about, for instance. But the iron law is that if you plan strictly and standardize where possible, you are less likely to dig yourself into a hole.
1. How does the author introduce the topic of the passage?| A．By making a contrast. | B．By giving an explanation. |
| C．By presenting examples. | D．By showing an experience. |
| A．Projects’ success rates can be estimated. |
| B．Projects’ desired outcome can’t be achieved. |
| C．Most projects suffer overspending and delays. |
| D．Most projects lack comprehensive data analysis. |
| A．Failures in decision-making. | B．Methods of reducing massive costs. |
| C．Strategies for getting work done. | D．Reasons behind inaccurate estimates. |
| A．Planning thoroughly in advance. |
| B．Analyzing specific and general reasons. |
| C．Focusing on efficiency of projects. |
| D．Drawing lessons from former experiences. |
Brit works full time as a fourth-grade teacher at Kula Elementary School. It was there that she met Seth Snyder, a student who had flown under the radar with previous teachers. Every year, Brit is given a nine-month window in which to connect with a group of new students. And with each batch of new students, she hopes to have a positive impact on their lives. But Seth was a tough cookie to crack. For the first few months of the school year, she struggled to connect with her student, who was shy but nevertheless a pleasure to have in the classroom.
One day, Brit showed her students a clip of skateboarders going all out at Tony Hawk’s ramp in California. Brit glanced over and watched Seth’s face light up; she found their connection. She went one step further to connect with Seth by inviting him to join her at the skate park after school one day. Instead of excitement, Seth shut down. He politely declined his teacher’s offer and withdrew once more. In spite of that, Brit wouldn’t give up so easily. She asked again a few weeks later, the day Seth and his fellow students were cut loose for spring break.
“What are you going to do?” she asked. “Are you going to skate?”
“No,” he mumbled, almost embarrassed. “I don’t have a skateboard.”
Brit’s heart sank into her stomach. Kula Elementary comprises mostly underprivileged (缺少机遇的) students who come from low-income families. Teachers like Brit have to tread (行事) carefully when it comes to even the smallest conversations or assignments, because a question as innocent as “What are your plans for spring break?” can be hurtful, sometimes embarrassing, for students who have so little.
Brit said to the reporter, “If your parents are working three jobs to be able to pay rent, of course they’re not going to have time to take you to skate park or, you know, take you surfing, or let alone buy you that $400 surfboard or $ 200 skateboard.”
注意：1．续写词数应为150左右；
2．请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
Brit shared the story with her best friend, Zach, a professional skateboarder.
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What began as two people coming together to do a good deed for one young boy quickly blossomed (发展) into a grassroots effort.
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3 . It’s often said that we human beings can dream in a foreign language. Could dreaming in a foreign language improve our memory? Does dreaming in a foreign language mean we are making progress in learning that language?
Before we look at multilingual (多语言) dreams, first we need to look at sleep. The connection between sleep and language can be applied to how we learn any language, including our native language. Even adults still learn about one new word every two days in their first language. But, if we are going to remember that new word better, what matters is that we need to connect it with what we have learned. And in order to do that, we “need to have some sleep”, says Gareth Gaskell, a professor at the University of York.
It’s during sleep that the integration (整合) of old and new knowledge happens. At might, one part of our brain — the hippocampus — takes whatever new information it receives during the day and passes it on to other parts of the brain to be stored. The role that dreams play in this night-time learning process is still being studied, but “it’s entirely possible that during multilingual dreams, the brain is trying to connect the two languages”, says Marc, a researcher at a university in Bern, Switzerland.
So having multilingual dreams could mean that our brain is trying to remember a new word or phrase. However, it could also have an emotional (情感) significance. Danuta, a professor of psycholinguistics at the University of Silesia in Poland, suggests that multilingual dreams can express “fears or wishes” around learning a foreign language, including the wish to be a local speaker or to be accepted within a certain community.
We clearly still have a lot to learn about multilingual dreams, but one thing seems certain: if you’re trying to learn a new language, you can sleep on it.
1. Why does the author mention questions in paragraph 1?| A．To compare different ideas. | B．To introduce the main topic. |
| C．To present different types of dreams. | D．To discuss the human language ability. |
| A．The other new words. | B．The native language. |
| C．The gained knowledge. | D．The speaking practice. |
| A．They may influence people’s sleep quality. | B．They can reflect language-learning feelings. |
| C．They are the best option to learn a language. | D．They help to clear up the useless information. |
| A．A novel. | B．A diary. | C．A guidebook. | D．A magazine. |
4 . There are two kinds of garlic, a kind of vegetable—hardnecks and softnecks.
Plant hardneck varieties in northern areas six to eight weeks before a hard frost(霜). Their heads have a single row of large divisions, formed around an underground stem(茎). They are tastier than softnecks but do not last as long in storage.
Softneck varieties are better for growing in warmer climates. Their heads contain several rows of smaller cloves(蒜瓣) . Since they last longer after harvest, softnecks are usually the kind shoppers find in supermarkets.
Separate the head into individual cloves.
If your winter temperature falls below four degrees Celsius, add a thick cover of straw(稻草) to the garden bed. Water the straw to settle it into place.
It is fine for the garlic plants to send out green growth, during autumn and early winter, even in northern climates.
Remove the straw cover in spring, after the danger of frost has passed. Put a little fertilizer between each row 5 to 10 centimeters from the stems. Keep the bed free of weeds.
Your garlic will be ready for harvest in mid-to-late summer when at least 50 percent of the plant has turned yellow.
| A．Store garlic heads in a cool, dry spot. |
| B．Do not remove the outer part of thin skin. |
| C．Choose the better kind to plant for your climate. |
| D．Carefully dig the garlic out and move off the soil. |
| E．Do not plant the garlic you find in the supermarket. |
| F．Do not worry about possible damage to this growth in cold weather. |
| G．Plant only garlic seeds from the healthiest heads saved from last year's harvest. |
One day, Dad took Tim and Lily to the supermarket. “Now where has Tim gone? ” asked Dad. Lily shrugged. Keeping track of Tim was not on her agenda today. She’d been trying to decide on the perfect gift for Dad’s upcoming birthday. This year, she was determined to prepare a present that couldn’t be bought at a store or ordered online.
“Daddy!” Tim appeared out of nowhere, disturbing Lily’s thoughts. He yelled, holding a cereal (麦片) box in the air, “Let’s get it! It’s nutritious and delicious! And it has a dragon inside! ” Tim remembered Dad saying that when he was a kid, almost every box of cereal came with a toy. Ever since, Tim was certain that he, too, would find a toy in the next box.
When they got home, Dad and Lily began putting away the groceries. Tim couldn’t wait to take the box of cereal upstairs to his room. By the time they finished, Lily could hear Tim shouting. “No! No!” Tim’s voice kept getting louder and louder. Lily imagined each word as the sound of a hammer striking metal. Then she raced towards her brother’s room. The moment she stepped inside, she felt a crunch (嘎吱声) beneath her feet. It was obvious that Tim dumped all that cereal looking for a toy dragon. “They lied! No dragon. Just a picture on the box.” Tim sounded close to tears. Annoyed as Lily was, she said quietly, “Let’s see what the box says.” “I don’t know how to read.” her brother said in a low voice.
It reminded Lily that last school year, Tim’s teacher who sent home easy-to-read books and worksheets insisted that he was ready to learn to read and just needed some extra help, but Tim complained about books “for babies” and “boring” homework assignments. It was really a headache for Dad to teach Tim to read! At the thought of these, it seemed that Tim’s dragon issue had swept away her concern for a present for Dad.
注意:
1. 续写词数应为 150 左右；
2. 请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
Paragraph 1：
Lily decided to cooperate with Tim, making up a dragon story and having Tim read for Dad.
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Paragraph 2：
After what seemed to be a century, Dad’s birthday finally came.
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3. In men’s 100 final race at the 14th National Games in Xi’an, Su Bingtian ran
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All I wanted was to sit with them at "the popular table". Jill had the best clothes. She looked like she walked straight out of a store window. Brett had the coolest haircut, plus she was already on the field hockey team and we were only in the sixth grade! Aimee was a cheerleader and Shannon could boss people around and they'd do whatever she said. I sure didn't have that kind of power, but then again, I wasn't popular.
Everyone else called them the "popular girls" and at lunch I’d watch them from across the middle school cafeteria and wonder how on earth I could get a seat at their table. I imagined how much fun they had sitting there, the envy of the lunchroom, while I ate sandwiches at the table near the dustbins. This wasn’t how I thought middle school was going to be at all.
One day, I had the nerve to walk past their table and Shannon and Jill started making fun of me, saying I smelled.
"I hate them," I sighed, sitting down beside my three friends and opening my lunch bag. "The popular girls are so mean."
"Well, we aren't mean!" said one friend, and she was right.
I looked towards the popular table. Aimee appeared to be in a fight with Jill, while the others were laughing at a red-headed boy, who was the smartest kid in our grade and maybe even our whole school. He was in tears when they got done with him. He took his tray to an empty table in the far corner of the room to eat alone.
That was when it hit me. Why would I even want to be friends with people who were so mean? My friends were far nicer and from the looks of it, we had a lot more fun. None of us fought or made fun of people. We laughed, sang, and joked to entertain one another.
"Maybe I should ask him to come eat with us," I said, gesturing towards the lonely, red-haired boy.
"Sure," said my friends.
注意：1. 续写词数应为150左右；
2. 请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
From then on, we invited everyone the popular girls made fun of to eat at our lunch table
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Later, I looked up the word "popular" in the dictionary.
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My dad always told me that when I was two years old, I told everyone I met that I was going to be the next Michael Jordan. One day when I was six, he looked me straight in the eye, asking, “Are you willing to do any amount of work to become Michael Jordan?” I hesitated for a moment, feeling the weight of his words, but then smiled brightly and nodded.
“All right. ” He produced a sheet of paper and handed it to me, warning, “This will be one serious commitment. ” He gave me a pen and gestured for me to sign my signature at the bottom of the page.
The next morning I had completely forgotten about the paper until, at the crack of dawn, my father shook me awake.
“Get up. ” he ordered. “Basketball practice starts today. ”
I complained, unwillingly getting out of my warm bed and following my dad. We headed out to the driveway and he showed me an orange basketball. He threw it to me, and I clumsily grasped it with both bands. That morning, I practiced for three hours, the most tired I had been in those years. Already, I was beginning to regret my decision to be the female version of Michael Jordan.
The next morning my dad dragged me out in the driveway at the crack of dawn, once again. It was the same the next day, and the next day. I screamed that I would never touch a basketball again, but he took out my signed contract （合同） and waved it in my face, explaining that I couldn’t take back my words now.
Years passed and I began to accept basketball practice as just a fact of life. One day, at the age of 15, I finally reached my goal — my 10, 000 hours. That morning we practiced our usual three hours, and for once, I felt like I may have learned everything there was to know about basketball. At the end of our session （训练时期）, my dad hugged and congratulated me before handing me that orange basketball and saying. “It’s yours now.”
注意:
1. 续写词数应为150左右;
2. 请按如下格式作答。
Paragraph 1:
That evening we had a party, with a huge basketball-shaped cake.
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Paragraph 2:
Dad and I held the paper to the candle’s flame and watched it slowly burn.
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