1 . Twelve-year-old Catherine has a lot of friends—632, actually, if you count up her online friends. And she spends a lot of time with them.

But is it possible that Catherine’s online friendships could be making her lonely? That’s what some experts believe. Connecting online is a great way to stay in touch, they say. However, some experts worry that many kids are so busy connecting online that they might be missing out on true friendships.

Could this be true? During your parents’ childhoods, connecting with friends usually meant spending time with them in the flesh. Kids played Scrabble around a table, not words with friends on their phones. When friends missed each other, they picked up the telephone. Friends might even write letters to each other.

Today, most communication takes place online. A typical teen sends 2,000 texts a month and spends more than 44 hours per week in front of a screen. Much of this time is spent on social media platform.

In fact, in many ways, online communication can make friendships stronger. “There’s definitely a positive influence. Kids can stay in constant contact, which means they can share more of their feelings with each other,” says Katie Davis, co-author of The App Generation.

Other experts, however, warn that too much online communication can get in the way of forming deep friendships. “If we are constantly checking in with our virtual world, we will have little time for our real-world friendships,” says Larry Rosen, a professor at California State University. Rosen also worries that today’s kids might mistake the “friends” on the social media for true friends in life. However, in tough times, you don’t need anyone to like your picture or share your blogs. You need someone who will keep your secrets and hold your hand. You would like to talk face to face.

1. What is the purpose of the first paragraph?

A．To tell about true friends.	B．To start a discussion.
C．To encourage online friendships.	D．To summarize(总结) the text.

2. What does the underlined part “in the flesh” mean in paragraph 3?

A．In any case.

B．In public.

C．In person.

D．In advance.

3. What is Katie’s attitude toward online communication?

A．Unconcerned.

B．Positive.

C．Worried.

D．Confused.

4. Which of the following is the Rosen’s view?

A．Teenagers need to focus on real-world friendships.	B．It’s easier to develop friendships in real life.
C．It’s wise to turn to friends online.	D．Social media help people stay closely connected.

2 . 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。

School mornings were always busy. The first sentence I usually heard was, “It's time to rise!” It was Mom's loudest voice, and there was no way I could pretend not to hear it or avoid it.

By then, I couldn't get to the kitchen fast enough. In fact, it was a race between my sister and me. We usually seated ourselves at the same time, sometimes knocking each other out of our places. After breakfast, we all rushed out to the bus stop as we took our lunch bags that contained a sandwich, fruit, and a dessert.

Then, one day, much to my surprise, there was no dessert in my lunch! What could have happened to it? Did Mom forget to make or buy it? Oh, well, I thought. It's only one time, so it's no big deal. But, for the next few days, my lunch contained no dessert! So one day, after school, as soon as I got home, I asked, “Mom! Why haven't you been putting a dessert in my school lunch?”

Mom answered, “Why, Eugene, I have been including a dessert in your lunch. If you're not getting it, then who is?”

So then we thought of my activities, and what I did with my lunch each day. As soon as I arrived at school, I always put my lunch in the classroom closet (储物间) along with all of the other lunches. And that brought us to Carl—the bad boy of the third-grade class. The teacher didn't like him in class and would send him to the closet, where he would spend most of his time each day.

Carl lived in a foster home (寄养家庭). He was loud and somewhat of a thief. He would take just about anything that wasn't fastened (盖好), so he wasn't welcome at school. Mom and I decided that with nothing else to do Carl was probably going through the lunches and eating what he liked.

注意:续写词数应为150左右。
Paragraph 1:

My mother and I talked about ways to solve this problem.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Paragraph 2:

Another day, Carl asked me if he could come to my house and meet my mother.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

3 . A work of art created by artificial intelligence (AI) has been sold by a major art seller for the first time. The print sold for an unexpectedly large amount of money, $432,500. The artwork was bought during an auction (拍卖) Thursday at Christie’s, an art auction house, in New York City. Officials had predicted it would sell for between $7,000 and $10,000.

In a website post, Christie’s said the AI-created work was the first ever sold by a major auction house. It praised the sale as a signal of “the arrival of AI art on the world auction stage”.

The artwork, called “Portrait (肖像) of Edmond Belamy”, was made by a machine having learnt the algorithm (算法). The AI system was created by members of an art group called “Obvious” in Paris, France. It shows the portrait of a man, looking similar to subjects shown in historical paintings. Christie’s described some differences between the AI-created work and other artworks it had sold. For example, it said some parts of the face were not drawn as clearly as those painted by artists. Also, some parts of the print were left empty. However, the sales organizer of Christie’s, Richard Lloyd, said the piece was very similar to many others sold over many years.

Three creators from the art group Obvious cooperated in the process of making the print. First, they put a collection of 15,000 portraits into a machine learning system. The portraits were painted by artists from the time period between the 14th and 20th centuries. Then a tool called the “Generator” made a new image based on the information entered into the system. After that, another tool, called the “Discriminator”, attempted to find differences between the human-made image and the one created by the Generator. Then the image was improved. “The aim is to fool the Discriminator into thinking that the new images are real-life portraits. Then we have a result,” Hugo Caselles-Dupré, a member of the Obvious group, said in a statement.

1. What can be inferred from the text?

A．The AI portrait received much recognition.

B．There is little true artistic value in the AI artwork.

C．Technology will one day replace human artists.

D．There is no similar AI system for art nowadays.

2. What does the underlined word “subjects” in Paragraph 3 refer to?

A．Artists.

B．Machines.

C．Figures.

D．Techniques.

3. What is the final purpose of the “Discriminator”?

A．To select useful information from real-life portraits.

B．To help the portrait look more like a human-made one.

C．To put human portraits into the machine learning system.

D．To create a portrait based on paintings by artists.

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

A．The Secrets of AI

B．An AI Portrait

C．Artworks and AI

D．AI Art at Christie's

4 . 假定你是李华,元宵节到来之际,你想请初来你校的英国交换生John一起体验这一传统节日。请你用英语给他写一封电子邮件。内容包括:
1.写信目的；
2.节日简介；
3.希望对方回复。
注意:
1.词数80左右；
2.开头和结尾部分已经写好,不计入总词数；
3.可适当增加细节,以使行文连贯。
Dear John,
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Yours,

Li Hua

5 . 阅读下面短文,在空白处填入1个适当的单词或括号内单词的正确形式。

The Lantern Festival, falling in the first Chinese lunar month, is an important and traditional festival     1     (celebrate) by people nationwide. It is the first time that people     2    (see) the full moon in the lunar year. In ancient China, night is called Xiao and the first lunar month is called Yuan month, so this festival is also called the Yuanxiao Festival in China. It marks the end of the celebration of the Spring Festival and is also the first major festival for people     3    (observe) after Chinese New Year. 

Like the Spring Festival, on the Lantern Festival, all the family members go home     4     a reunion. In the evening, people usually watch beautiful lanterns, guess interesting and     5    (challenge) lantern riddles and perform wonderful dragon dances. In     6    (add), it is a custom for people to eat yuanxiao, a kind of sweet dumpling,     7     is round balls made of glutinous rice flour with     8    (vary) of fillings inside. In some places people sometimes put a coin into a certain one when making sweet dumplings. It is believed that the one who     9     (happen) to find and eat the sweet dumpling with a coin in     10     will have good luck for the whole year.

7 . 如果你朝某人大叫，你的愤怒程度会上升。
If you _____ _____ someone, your anger level will increase.