3 . Directions: Fill in each blank with a proper word chosen from the box. Each word can be used only once. Note that there is one word more than you need.

A. curiosity       B. inspired       C. vision     D. communication       E. possibilities F. committed       G. hooked        H. investigate       I. challenging       J. recognize       K. attention

I’ve always been an optimist and I suppose that is rooted in my belief that the power of creativity and intelligence can make the world a better place. For as long as I can remember, I’ve loved learning new things and solving problems in seventh grade. So when I sat down at a computer for the first time, I was    1    . It was an old Teletype machine. But it changed my life. When my friend and I started Microsoft, we had a    2    of “a computer on every desk and in every home,” which probably sounded too optimistic, but we believed personal computers would change the world. And they have.

After 30 years, I’m still as    3    by computers as I was back in seventh grade. I believe computers are the most incredible tool we can use to feed our    4    and inventiveness to help us solve problems. Computers have transformed how we learn, giving kids everywhere a window into all of the world’s knowledge. They’re helping us build    5    around the things we care about and stay close to the people who are important to us, no matter where they are.

Like my friend Buffett, I feel particularly lucky to do something every day that I love to do. He calls it “tap-dancing to work.” My job at Microsoft is as    6    as ever, but what makes me “tap-dance to work” is when we show people something new, like a computer that can    7    your handwriting or your speech, and they say, “I didn’t know you could do that with a PC！”

I believe that my own fortune brings with it a responsibility to give back to the world. My wife and I have    8    to improving health and education in a way that can help as many people as possible. I’m still optimistic, and I believe that progress on even the world’s toughest problems is possible. We’re seeing new drugs for deadly diseases, and new    9    paid to the health problems in the world.

I’m excited by the    10    I see for medicine, for education and of course for technology, And I believe that through our natural inventiveness, creativity and willingness to solve tough problems, we’re going to make some amazing achievements in all these areas in my lifetime.

4 . Directions: Fill in each blank with a proper word chosen from the box.Each word can only be used once.Note that there is one word more than you need.

A.reliance B.sought C.process D.contributing E.scalable F.delivered G.feasible H.efficient I.positioned J.occurring K.significant

New Path to Plastics

A crucial component could come from existing carbon sources.Ethylene (乙烯)is the world's most popular industrial chemical.Consumers and industry demand 150 million tons every year, and most of it goes into countless plastic products, from electronics to textiles.To get ethylene, energy companies crack hydrocarbons (碳氢化合物)from natural gas in a process that requires a lot of heat and energy,    1     to climate change - causing emissions.

Scientists recently made ethylene by combining carbon dioxide gas, water and organic molecules (分子)on the surface of a copper catalyst (催化剂)inside an electrolyzer - a device that uses electricity to drive a chemical reaction.The    2    , described last November online in Nature, could point the way toward using carbon dioxide as feed-stock for chemicals and potentially fuels, helping to reduce     3    on fossil fuels and to put a dent in industrial carbon emission.

The discovery grows out of work published last year by University of Toronto engineer Ted Sargent, describing a similar process that used more electricity and was less     4    overall.So Sargent says he     5    out researchers at the California Institute of Technology who are "black belts in molecular design and synthesis."

Caltech chemists Jonas Peters and Theodor Agapie and their colleagues experimented with organic molecules to add to the copper catalyst.An arylpyridinum salt turned out to be the Goldilocks molecule, Sargent says it formed a water-insoluble (不溶于水的)film (薄膜)on the copper that     6    the carbon dioxide so its molecules reacted most efficiently with one another, without slowing down the reaction.The result was more ethylene, with fewer by-products such as methane (甲烷)and hydrogen.

Still, the process must become even more efficient before it can be commercially     7    and use carbon scrubbed or captured from facilities such as coal-or gas -burning power plants.Lower energy costs, already    8     with renewable energy sources such as wind, could also help make it more     9    .

"This is a(n)     10    breakthrough," says Randy Cortright, a senior research advisesr at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, Colo., who was not involved in the study.This result, he says, is "something that a lot of people are going to pay attention to, and they're going to be able to build on."

5 . Directions： After reading the passage below， fill in each blank with a proper word given in the box. Each word can be used only once. Note that there is one more word than you need.

A. boast   B. countless   C. cloud   D. embrace   E. external   F. exploiting       G. likely     H. prospects   I. responsibilities   J. supporting   K. strictly

With fresh investments and improved standard of education in the Information and Communications Technology （ICT） sector， Nigeria's economy can witness a major turnaround.

This was the view of the Huawei Technologies， which stressed that more emphasis on education from the basic level and opportunities for the youths to     1     ICT will keep the country moving.

Managing Director， Frank Li， said， "As a foreign investor， my greatest fear in the ICT sector is not the devaluation or the scarcity of dollar but it's the uncertainties that     2     the economy. However ICT has     3     potentials in developing Nigeria's GDP. "

According to him， during the recession（衰退） period， many foreign investors had the fear of shutting down and moving out of Nigeria， "but with increase in international oil price， Nigeria is gradually experiencing more economic fortunes in     4     reserves， which have restored the confidence of foreign investors to invest in Nigeria，" Li added.

The Huawei MD noted that the company has great     5     in meeting the demands of over 90 million Internet users in Nigeria and also reaching over 200 communities， which house about 40 million people in rural areas， who still don't have access to basic telecommunication service.

Li further noted that the company has been     6     the government with the aim of creating more jobs. He however advised the central bank of Nigeria to have a stable currency policy that will attract foreign investors and encourage private sector participation.

Speaking on the company's plan for 2018， Frank Li added "we are looking at expanding our offices in Nigeria and increasing our workforce which will be     7     Nigerians in 2018. "

From his perspective， a former Director﹣General of Nigeria Television Authority， Vincent Maduka， said the ICT sector holds huge     8     for the country. As such， he called for joint efforts in     9     the various untapped potential in the sector.

Lambiase， who recommended that consistent government policies， strong private sector， long term efficient programme will help ICT     10     its contribution to GDP if government provides a more enabling environment through liberalisation of key ICT sub﹣sectors such as broadband as well as other sectors like managed services， software， and even blockchain， to create more competition and attract foreign direct investment.

6 . Directions: Complete the following passage by using the words in the box. Each word can only be used once. Note that there is one word more than you need.

A has an advantage / edge over B
competitive edge：竞争优势
A is an alternative / a substitute for to B
newly-issued regulation
a controversial issue：一个有争议的问题
a Chinese-English dictionary of the latest issue / version / edition：一本最新版的英汉字典
inflation：n. 通货膨胀（反义词：deflation：通货紧缩）

When people stop working, they need a retirement income. Some are lucky enough to have an employer-provided     1     linked to their salary. Everyone else faces a difficult choice. Some keep their pension pot in cash and watch as it is eroded by inflation. Others use savings products with high fees and risk being hurt by a stock market downturn. A third option is an annuity, which     2     a lifelong income but vanishes at death, even if that is a week after retirement.

Lionel Martellini of EDHEC, a French business school, and Robert Merton of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (a Nobel laureate in economics) have come up with a(n)     3    . Workers would buy government-    4     bonds while in employment; these would pay no interest until retirement. Over the next 20 years (the typical life expectancy on retirement) bond holders would receive payments     5     interest plus the return of the capital. These would be linked to inflation, or another measure such as     6     consumption. So a worker born in 1970, say, would buy a bond that made payments from 2035 until 2055. Every     7     innovation needs an acronym, and these are called SeLFIES (Standard of Living Indexed, Forward-starting Income-only Securities).

They would act somewhat like annuities, though without protecting against the risk of living much longer than expected. One big     8    is that if holders die before the maturity date, the capital would be passed to their heirs. They could also be attractive to corporate pension funds and institutions such as sovereign-wealth funds. But if bond yields stay as low as they are now, workers will still need a big pension pot to be able to retire     9    . The median pension pot of an American aged 40-55 is $14,500. That will not generate much income, whatever     10     it buys.

yield to = give in to = surrender to ...

7 . Directions: Complete the following passage by using the words in the box. Each word can only be used once. Note that there is one word more than you need.

A. reward B. encouraging C. progression D. serving E. supplied F. native G. skin H. rate I. loaded J. shine K. remove

Pomegranate(石榴): Still Healthy at 5,000 Years Old

The pomegranate is one of the oldest known fruits. Pomegranates are found in ancient writings and pictured in the ancient art of many cultures and religions. The pomegranate is also a symbol of health, fertility and long life.

Experts   think   the   pomegranate   is    1     to   northern   India,   Pakistan,   Iran     and     Afghanistan. Today it also grows in Southeast Asia, the western U.S., Armenia and parts of Africa, among other places.

The    2     of   a pomegranate   is   strong.   It   can be red,   purple or   orange-yellow. The   inside is filled with beautiful dark red seeds that    3    like rubies( 红 宝 石 ).     It is not easy to get them out. But the    4    is great.

Health benefits

The pomegranate grows on trees. Parts of the pomegranate tree and fruit are used to make medicine.

The pomegranate is used for many conditions. However, the U.S National Institutes of Health says there is not enough scientific evidence to    5    pomegranates as effective for any of them.

Still, in traditional medicine, the pomegranate is used for conditions of the heart and blood vessels, including high blood pressure and “hardening of the arteries”.

The jewel-like seeds of the pomegranate are    6    with many nutrients and chemicals   called antioxidants( 抗 氧 化 物 ). These antioxidants    7    poisons from the body.

Antioxidants   slow   the    8     of   age-related   sickness   and   may   slow   the   growth   of cancer cells. Men who have prostate cancer may benefit from a daily    9    of pomegranate juice.

Pomegranates are used for weight loss and used as a treatment for sore throat. Pomegranates are also high in vitamin K, phosphorus, magnesium, calcium, zinc and iron.

Let’s just say pomegranates are loaded with great things for the inside of your body.

Beauty benefits

But let’s not forget the outside, too!

Pomegranates are great for the skin. They protect the skin by    10    new skin growth,     healing wounds and repairing tissue. Pomegranates protect the skin against sun damage as well. They may help skin look younger by providing moisture and elasticity.

8 . Directions: Complete the following passage by using the words in the box. Each word can only be used once. Note that there is one word more than you need.

We often use the terms “worry,” “stress” and “anxiety” interchangeably, but they aren’t the same. Each has unique     1     and features. Identifying which one is     2     us will help us better address it. Registered psychologist Kristin Buhr, a director at the North Shore Stress & Anxiety Clinic in North Vancouver and co-author of The Worry Workbook,     3     the differences.

Worry is a negative thought you have about an uncertainty in life. Worries tend to focus on the assumption that something negative will come from future events or from the results of     4     that happened in the past.

Stress involves your reaction to pressures placed on you. You feel overwhelmed because life is demanding too much of your limited time, energy or some other personal resource. While worries are thoughts, stress is a feeling.

Anxiety is your mental and physiological response to a perceived threat. It’s like the body’s smoke detector—it     5     danger and signals your body to run to deal with it. While worry takes place only in the mind, anxiety can have physical effects, like speeding up your pulse rate. Worry, however,     6     anxiety when your mind perceives imagined uncertainties as real threats.

While worry, stress and anxiety are normal, intense and     7     anxiety can become a problem. You might have a behavioral     8     if, for instance, you have regular sleep issues or you’re skipping out on your accustomed activities. Excessive anxiety can be focused on a fear of something specific, like social gatherings (known as social anxiety) or a host of experiences (known as generalized anxiety disorder).

The best way to avoid risk is getting it all out. Telling a friend or family member what’s worrying you, or even saying it aloud to yourself or writing it down, can allow you to see the     9    . “It’s a little easier to challenge worries—to recognize that if there is a negative outcome. It’s more of a struggle than a horror—when your worries are on paper or said out loud, rather than     10     around in your head,” says Buhr.

9 . Directions: Complete the following passages by using the words in the box. Each word can only be used once. Note that there is one word more than you need.

A. overnight 　　　B. flash 　　　C. share 　　　D. enormous　　　 E. endured　　　 F. rise G. lengthy 　　　H. places　　　 I. pursue 　　　J. reflected 　　　K. plentiful

Robert Frost had aimed to be a poet since he was a teenager. But the American literary icon would not publish his first book of poetry until he was 39, and his best works would not follow until he was well into middle and old age. “Young people are good at discovering. They have a     1     here and there. It is like the stars coming out in the early evening,” he     2     at age 63, but “it is later in the dark of life that you see forms, patterns”

Frost’s     3     journey to fame during the dark of life, however, is far from the road less taken. Despite science society and silicon valley’s common belief that creativity, innovation and excellence are the near-exclusive province of the young, a surprising number of late bloomers mark the records of human history — women and men who     4     years of hardship, failure and missed opportunities before making an impact in the later stages of life. And once you move past the impressive stare of history’s Mozart-like geniuses, you find that late bloomers are quite     5    : in fact, there are many more roads to becoming an old master than a young prodigy.

Sometimes you don’t discover your passion in life until you’ve done some other things first. Sometimes you don’t get the opportunity to make the most of your experiences until relatively late in life. Ray Kroc, the founder of McDonald’s, didn’t start building his business empire until he was 53 years old. Until that point, the former Red Cross ambulance driver was a traveling salesman, peddling milk shake machines and paper cups. “I was a(n)     6     success all right,” Kroc wrote in his autobiography, “but 30 years is a long, long night.”

Sometimes, instead of opportunities, life     7     obstacles on the road to success. It wasn’t until Laura Ingalls Wilder turned 65 that her epic Little House on the Prairie series was published. By then, she had already devoted decades to being a farm wife and mother, schoolteacher, loan officer and newspaper columnist, and she had endured more than her fair     8     of hardship, from droughts to house fires. Another influential writer, Miguel de Cervantes, wrote Don Quixote in his late 50s after an eventful life in which he spent years behind bars and as a captive of Barbary pirates.

Therefore, unlike the youthful genius, whose rocket-fast     9     impresses as well as depresses the rest of the world, the late bloomer demonstrates what is possible as people     10     their own versions of full bloom.

10 . Directions: Fill in each blank with a proper word chosen from the box. Each word can be used only once. Note that there is one word more than you need.

The Rise of the Smart City

The information revolution is changing the way cities are run - and the lives of its residents. Cities have a way to go before they can be considered geniuses. But they’re getting smart pretty fast.

In just the past few years, mayors and other officials in cities across the country have begun to draw on     1     - about income, traffic, fires, illnesses, parking tickets and more - to handle many of the problems of urban life. Whether it’s making it easier for residents to find parking places, or giving smoke alarms to the households that are most likely to suffer fatal fires, big - data technologies are beginning to     2     the way cities work.

Cities have just     3     the surface in using data to improve operations, but big changes are already under way in leading smart cities, says Stephen Goldsmith, a professor of government and director of the Innovations in Government Program at the Harvard Kennedy School. “In terms of city governance, we are at one of the most     4     periods in the last century,” he says.

Although cities have been using data in various forms for decades, the modern practice of civic analytics（民情分析）has only begun to take off in the past few years, thanks to a host of     5     changes. Among them: the growth of cloud computing, which dramatically lowers the costs of storing information; new developments in machine learning, which put     6     analytical tools in the hand of city officials; the Internet and the rise of inexpensive sensors that can track vast amount of information such as traffic or air pollution; and the widespread use of smart phone apps and mobile devices that enable citizens and city workers alike to monitor problems and     7     information about them back to city hall.

All this data collection raises understandable privacy     8    . Most cities have policies designed to safeguard citizen privacy and prevent the release of information that might     9     any one individual. In theory, anyway. Widespread use of sensors and video can also present privacy risks unless     10     are taken. The technology “is forcing cities to face questions of privacy that they haven’t had to face before,” says Ben Green, a fellow at Harvard’s Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society and lead author of a recent report on open-data privacy.