内容包括：
1. 榜样的事迹；
2. 对你的影响。
注意：1. 词数100左右；
2. 开头和结尾已给出，不计入总词数。
My Role Model
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1．讲座的具体内容并说明理由；
2．讲座时间和其他相关事项。
注意：1．词数100左右；
2．开头和结尾已给出，不计入总词数。
Dear Mr Jenson,
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Yours sincerely,
Li Hua
注意：1.词数100左右；
2.开头和结尾已给出，不计入总词数。
Dear editor,
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Sincerely yours,
Li Hua
4 . The environmental practices of big businesses are shaped by a fundamental fact that offends our sense of justice. A business may maximize the amount of money it makes by damaging the environment and hurting people. When government regulation is effective, and the public is environmentally aware, environmentally clean big businesses may out-compete dirty ones, but the reverse is likely to be true if government regulation is ineffective and the public doesn’t care.
It is easy to blame a business for helping itself by hurting other people. But blaming alone is unlikely to produce change. It ignores the fact that businesses are not charities but profit-making companies, and they are under obligation to maximize profits for shareholders by legal means.
Our blaming of businesses also ignores the ultimate responsibility of the public for creating the conditions that let a business profit through destructive environmental policies. In the long run, it is the public, either directly or through its politicians, that has the power to make such destructive policies unprofitable and illegal, and to make sustainable environmental policies profitable.
The public can do that by accusing businesses of harming them. The public may also make their opinion felt by choosing to buy sustainably harvested products; by preferring their governments to award valuable contracts to businesses with a good environmental track record; and by pressing their governments to pass and enforce laws and regulations requiring good environmental practices.
In turn, big businesses can exert powerful pressure on any suppliers that might ignore public or government pressure. For instance, after the US public became concerned about the spread of a disease, transmitted to humans through infected meat, the US government introduced rules demanding that the meat industry abandon practices associated with the risk of the disease spreading. But the meat packers refused to follow these, claiming that they would be too expensive to obey. However, when a fast-food company made the same demands after customer purchases of its hamburgers dropped, the meat industry followed immediately. The public’s task is therefore to identify which links in the supply chain are sensitive to public pressure.
Some readers may be disappointed or outraged that I place the ultimate responsibility for business practices harming the public on the public itself. I also believe that the public must accept the necessity for higher prices for products to cover the added costs of sound environmental practices. My views may seem to ignore the belief that businesses should act in accordance with moral principles even if this leads to a reduction in their profits. But I think we have to recognize that, throughout human history, government regulation has arisen precisely because it was found that not only did moral principles need to be made explicit, they also needed to be enforced.
My conclusion is not a moralistic one about who is right or wrong, admirable or selfish. I believe that changes in public attitudes are essential for changes in businesses’ environmental practices.
1. The main idea of Paragraph 3 is that environmental damage__________.| A．is the result of ignorance of the public |
| B．requires political action if it is to be stopped |
| C．can be prevented by the action of ordinary people |
| D．can only be stopped by educating business leaders |
| A．reduce their own individual impact on the environment |
| B．learn more about the impact of business on the environment |
| C．raise awareness of the effects of specific environmental disasters |
| D．influence the environmental policies of businesses and governments |
| A．Meat packers stopped supplying hamburgers to fast-food chains. |
| B．Meat packers persuaded the government to reduce their expenses. |
| C．A fast-food company forced their meat suppliers to follow the law. |
| D．A fast-food company encouraged the government to introduce regulations. |
| A．Will the world survive the threat caused by big businesses? |
| B．How can big businesses be encouraged to be less driven by profit? |
| C．What environmental dangers are caused by the greed of businesses? |
| D．Are big businesses to blame for the damage they cause to the environment? |
What may well be the oldest metal coins in the world have been identified at an ancient abandoned city known as Guanzhuang in China. Like many Bronze Age (青铜时代) coins from the region, they were cast in the shape of spades with finely carved handles. These ancient coins existed during an in-between period between barter (以物易物) and money, when coins were a novel concept, but everybody knew that agricultural tools were valuable.
Reading about this incredible discovery, I kept thinking about the way modern people represent computer networks by describing machines as having “addresses”, like a house. We also talk about one computer using a “port” to send information to another computer, as if the data were a floating boat with destination. It’s as if we are in the Bronze Age of information technology, grasping desperately for real-world reference to transform our civilization.
Now consider what happened to spade coins. Over centuries, metalworkers made these coins into more abstract shapes. Some became almost human figures. Others’ handles were reduced to small half-circles. As spade coins grew more abstract, people carved them with number values and the locations where they were made. They became more like modern coins, flat and covered in writing. Looking at one of these later pieces, you would have no idea that they were once intended to look like a spade.
This makes me wonder if we will develop an entirely new set of symbols that allow us to interact with our digital information more smoothly.
Taking spade coins as our guide, we can guess that far-future computer networks will no longer contain any recognizable references to houses. But they still might bring some of the ideas we associate with home to our mind. In fact, computer networks — if they still exist at all — are likely to be almost the indispensable part of our houses and cities, their sensors inset with walls and roads. Our network addresses might actually be the same as our street addresses. If climate change leads to floods, our mobile devices might look more like boats than phones, assisting us to land.
My point is that the metaphors of the information age aren’t random. Mobile devices do offer us comfort after a long day at work. In some sense, our desire to settle on the shores of data lakes could change the way we understand home, as well as how we build computers. So as we cast our minds forward, we have to think about what new abstractions will go along with our information technology. Perhaps the one thing we count on is that humans will still appreciate the comforts of home.
1. Many Bronze Age coins were made into the shape of a spade because ___________.| A．a lot of emphasis was put on agriculture |
| B．this stylish design made the coins valuable |
| C．these coins also served as agricultural tools |
| D．the handles made the coins easily exchanged |
| A．To show they both used to be new concepts when first invented. |
| B．To explain abstract digital worlds are different from concrete coins. |
| C．To suggest computers will experience dramatic changes as coins did. |
| D．To highlight their same importance in our civilizational transformation. |
| A．Flexible. | B．Essential. | C．Wasteful. | D．Alternative. |
| A．What Coins and Computers Bring Us |
| B．How Agriculture Loses to Digital Industry |
| C．How Bronze Age Develops to Information Age |
| D．What Ancient Money Tells Us About the Future |
Some of the world’s most important scientists think the idea of people living on Mars will come true one day. Stephen Hawking believed humans must move into space to survive. “Once we spread out into space and establish independent colonies, our future should be safe.” he said. Robert Zubrin, a rocket scientist, agrees and thinks starting with Mars makes the most sense. He thinks sending people to Mars will allow us to learn a lot — for example, about the ability of humans to live in a very different environment.
However, scientists will need to terraform Mars for people to be able to live. Terraforming means changing the environment on a planet so that it is similar to Earth’s. One of the main goals of terraforming Mars is to warm it up because the average temperature there is about -60℃. One idea for warming Mars is to build factories there that produce greenhouse gases. This could take many centuries. However, it should lead to rainfall and the growth of plants, resulting in more air that people can breathe.
Another big concern for scientists is whether humans can move to Mars and still stay healthy in mind and body. As a test, six people lived in a Mars-like environment in Hawaii for a year before “returning to Earth” recently. It was a 1,200-square-foot room that was on the side of a volcano and used the sun for energy. Christiane Heinicke, one of the people who lived there, said that one of the biggest issues was feeling bored. So humans on Mars would always need to keep themselves busy with various activities.
One particular organisation based in Europe is planning to send the first humans to Mars before 2030. The organisation believes that its project is giving people worldwide the chance to be part of the first human crew ever to live on Mars for good. However, many experts think the project’s cost of USS6 billion is too low for it to be successful. The American space agency NASA believes that sending people to Mars would cost about USS100 billion, although this estimate is based on bringing them back to Earth, too. Regardless, it seems that humans living on Mars may well happen a lot sooner than most people believe.
1. What can we learn if we send humans to Mars according to Robert Zubrin?2. What does “terraforming” mean?
3. Please decide which part is false in the following statement, then underline it and explain why.
According to the test, in order to stay healthy in mind and body on Mars, it is necessary for humans on Mars to stay away from various activities.
4. What should we do now before humans can live on Mars? (In about 40 words)
7 . If you’ re reaching for the last piece of pizza at a party, and meanwhile see another hand going for it, your next move probably depends on how you feel and whom the hand belongs to. Your little sister — you might just grab the pizza. Your boss — you probably will give up. But if you’re hungry and feeling particularly confident, you might go for it.
Now researchers have made progress in understanding how mammals’ brain encodes social rank and uses this information to shape behaviours — such as whether to fight for that last pizza slice. They discovered that an area of the brain called the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) was responsible for representing social rank in mammals; changes to a mouse’s mPFC affect its dominance (支配) behaviour. But it was unknown how the mPFC represented this information and which neurons (神经元) were involved in changing dominance behaviour.
In the new study, Professor Kay Tye let groups of four mice share a cage, allowing a social hierarchy (等级) to naturally develop — some mice became more dominant and others more subordinate. As soon as the mice were paired up, he discovered, the activity of their mPFC neurons could predict — with 90 percent certainty — the rank of their opponent.
“We expected animals might only signal rank when they are in a competition,” says co-researcher Nancy. “But it turns out animals walk around with this representation of social rank all the time.”
When the researchers next asked whether the activity of the mPFC neurons was associated with behaviour, they found something surprising. The brain activity patterns were linked with slight changes in behaviour, such as how fast a mouse moved, and they also could predict — a full 30 seconds before the competition started — which mouse would win the food reward.
The winner was not always the more dominant, but the one engaged in a “winning mindset”. Just as you might sometimes be in a more competitive mood and be more likely to snatch that pizza slice before your boss, a subordinate mouse might be in a more “winning mindset” than a more dominant mouse and end up winning.
The areas of the mPFC associated with social rank and “winning mindset” are next to one another and highly connected. Signals on social rank impact the state of the brain involved in “winning mindset”. In other words, a subordinate mouse’s confidence and “winning mindset” may partially decrease when faced with a dominant one.
“This is further evidence to suggest that we are in different brain states when we are with others compared to when we’re alone,” says Tye. “Regardless of who you’re with, if you’re aware of other people around you, your brain is using different neurons.”
1. The author writes Paragraph 1 in order to ________.| A．tell an interesting story | B．present a typical example |
| C．introduce a major topic | D．provide a convincing proof |
| A．The mPFC neurons. | B．The researchers. |
| C．The brain activity patterns. | D．The changes in behaviour. |
| A．mPFC neurons change dominance behaviour. |
| B．Brain activities can influence social hierarchy. |
| C．Dominant opponents boost “winning mindset”. |
| D．Social rank and “winning mindset” affect behaviour. |
| A．Those eager to win may succeed. | B．When alone, we are more confident. |
| C．Social rank guides competitive behaviour. | D．“Winning mindset” establishes dominance. |
内容包括：
1. 比赛的时间和地点
2. 比赛的场景及结果
3. 活动的意义
注意：1.词数 100 左右；
2.题目自拟。
友好学校：sister school
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9 . Lia Thomas, a student at the University of Pennsylvania, is an excellent swimmer. She often beats her rivals by tens of seconds, breaking records. Her success is based on three things. One is natural talent. Another is persistent training. And the third is biology.
For although she identifies as a woman,Ms Thomas was born male.Since humans cannot change their sex (unlike their self-identified gender),she remains that way.On the eve of her biggest competition, Ms Thomas finds herself at the centre of the bad-tempered debate about whether trans women-males who identify as women-should compete in women’s sports.That,in turn,is part of a broader argument: should brute (纯粹的) biological facts sometimes override people’s deeply held feelings about their identities?
This newspaper believes it is almost always unfair to allow transgender women to compete in women’s sports.The advantages bestowed by male puberty (青春期) are so big that no amount of training or talent can enable female athletes to overcome them.Florence Griffith Joyner’s 100-metres world sprinting record has stood for three decades.A male matching it would not even make it to the Olympics, let alone the final.In 2016,at an American event for high-schoolers, four of the eight boys in the 100-metres final ran faster.
Much of the male advantage is granted by testosterone (睾丸素), a potent anabolic steroid whose levels rise sharply in male puberty.For many years,many sporting bodies, following the lead of the International Olympic Committee, hoped to deal with the issue by allowing trans women to compete in women’s events provided they took testosterone-suppressing drugs.But the science suggests this does not level the playing field.Suppressing testosterone in adults, it seems, does little to undo the advantages granted by a male adolescence.
Sports must therefore choose between inclusion and fairness; and they should choose fair play. That does not mean, as is sometimes claimed, that trans women would be barred from all sport.One way to make that clear would be to replace the “men’s” and “women’s” categories with “open” and “female” ones.The first would be open to all comers.The second would be restricted on the basis of biology.
Sport is public, and results can be measured objectively. That means the argument that the material facts of biology should sometimes outrank a person’s subjective sense of identity is easier to make. But bias exists, as a Republican bill in Florida to restrict “instruction” in schools about gender identity or sexual orientation makes plain.
That should be resisted. Most of the time,it costs little or nothing to respect people’s choices about how they wish to present themselves.In the rare cases where rights clash (不相容), society must weigh the balance sensitively and with open eyes.
1. The author mentions Joyner’s 100-metres world sprinting record to show that ________.| A．most female athletes can’t rival trans women athletes |
| B．male puberty is the best time for sports competition |
| C．it is unfair for Ms Thomas to compete in women’s sports |
| D．this record can’t make a male reach the threshold of the Olympics |
| A．bill | B．bias | C．instruction | D．identity |
| A．disagreeable | B．open-minded | C．sympathetic | D．conservative |
| A．Inclusion and Fairness | B．Respect People’s Choices |
| C．“Open” and “Female” in Sports | D．Biology Matters A Great Deal |
10 . Language Acquisition(习得)
Almost all humans acquire at least one language before the age of five. How do young children understand and produce complex sentences with complicated meanings? Do adults learn language differently from children? Most linguistic(语言学的) researchers agree that both nature and nurture(后天) are involved in language acquisition. They disagree， however， about how much linguistic knowledge children have from birth-and thus whether genetics or experience is more important in language acquisition.
For many linguists， biological factors are the most important in language learning. Some argue that some linguistic knowledge must exist in our brains from birth because children cannot possibly experience every feature of their language before the age of five. These linguists point out that nearly all children can produce the same kinds of complex sentence structures by the age of five， even without having heard them before.
Many researchers have theorized what this innate(先天的) linguistic knowledge must look like. One popular theory(理论) is universal grammar. This theory believes that all languages have the same basic structural foundation. That foundation is the innate knowledge universal to all humans. While children are not genetically tending to speak a particular language， a universal grammar gives them certain linguistic information as a starting point， which allows them to readily acquire the rules and patterns of whichever language they are exposed to.
Not all linguists， however， believe that an inborn ability for language is the most important factor in language acquisition. These researchers place greater emphasis on the influence of usage and experience. They argue that children are exposed to a wealth of linguistic structures over the course of five years. They gather data and determine language patterns and structures from what they have observed.
Linguists on both sides of the debate are still working to explain the different language learning abilities of adults and children. Early childhood seems to be an important period for mastering certain aspects of language. Children also tend to have a heightened ability to learn second languages. While adults may have some advantages when studying in a formal classroom， they usually do not learn second languages. While adults may have some advantages when studying in a formal classroom, they usually do not learn as quickly and easily as children. Are these different abilities a result of differences in how adults and children are exposed to a new language? Are they the result of biological changes， or do both biology and experience come into play?
While our understanding of language acquisition is incomplete, this pursuit is well worth the effort. “We still don’t understand how a child learns its first language, why some children have language disorders, or how children and adults learn a second language,” explains Professor Joan Ma ling.
Explaining the process of language acquisition promises not only to help scientists answer these questions, but also to explain fundamental features of learning and the human brain.
1. What does the passage mainly talk about?| A．The control of nurture over nature in language acquisition. |
| B．The influence of universal grammar in language acquisition. |
| C．The best methods for children and adults to acquire language. |
| D．The role of biological and environmental factors in language acquisition. |
a. Studying language acquisition will help understand language and the brain better.
b. Some experts focus on the role of environmental factors in language acquisition.
c. Some experts believe innate factors explain children's language development.
d. Acquiring a language is complicated， and it involves both nature and nurture.
| A．abcd | B．dcba | C．dbca | D．adcb |
| A．present a general argument and then explain a specific theory |
| B．present a specific theory and then propose a new study to prove it |
| C．present a general argument and then disprove an opposite argument |
| D．present a scientific debate and then discuss what all linguists agree on |
| A．To raise open questions that all linguists have. |
| B．To present two different viewpoints on language learning. |
| C．To stress the importance of experience in language learning |
| D．To introduce adult language acquisition and show why it's unpopular. |
