1 . Nowadays, with the popularization of science and technology, people seem to have a painless, cost-effective new way to become pretty-photo retouching, currently a universal way to beautify photos through digital devices.

Even those who believe themselves to be unattractive can become easy on the eye with the push of a button. Some may say that retouching allows people to see a better side of themselves sand can help people build their confidence. However, it is more likely to deepen people’s anxieties regarding their appearance.

After you have taken a selfie and used a retouching program such as Photoshop or Meitu to glamorize yourself, you may finally see the more perfect self you’ve always desired to be. As a result, you may be boastful about yourself for a while, but when you turn your head and look at your real, imperfect self in the mirror, you will soon suffer from a strong sense of loss. Even though retouching can bring you short-term happiness and self-confidence, it can never change your actual appearance in real life. Eventually, the fantasy you had created for yourself by retouching your images will only come to make you feel more depressed after you are once again faced with the reality of how you actually appear.

Photo retouching may also lead to personal anxiety and low self-dignity. Before retouching technologies were invented, only a few celebrities and bloggers looked appealing on social media. Most people posted pictures of themselves on the internet that were very close to how their real, ordinary, everyday selves would appear in reality. They didn’t have to worry about whether their nose was delicate enough or whether they had any acne (痤疮) on their face because most of the others didn’t look flawless in pictures, either.

However, with the continuous emergence of retouching technologies, you may one day suddenly discover that all of the selfies of the people around you have become stunningly gorgeous. The delicate body curve, the doll-like enormous eyes and the supermodel-sized long legs are no longer exclusive to beauty-pageant (选美比赛) winners or movie stars.

Imagine yourself lying on the sofa while idly checking your WeChat Moments. You can’t take your eyes off these charming photos that have been posted by your colleagues, friends and classmates. Then you may have a glance at your own chubby belly and dark skin. Shame, anxiety and self-doubt begin growing in your heart. You plunge into deep fear and self-blame since you cannot figure out why everyone else looks so beautiful, while you are not. But actually, deep down in your heart, you know why, but you just can’t shake off this envy that’s going to drown you.

1. What does the underlined word “glamorize” in Paragraph 3 mean?

A．make somebody appear attractive	B．beautify oneself with more make-up
C．publicize the image that one is good-looking	D．present somebody’s image in a reasonable way

2. What can we infer from in Paragraph 4?

A．Becoming beautiful was an exclusive right for celebrities and bloggers.

B．There is no tolerance of one’s imperfection in contemporary society.

C．People posting selfies online used to enjoy the life without trouble.

D．Retouching causes an unhealthy mentality in one’s appearance.

3. According to the passage, what are the disadvantages of retouching?
① a sense of seeming happiness and temporary confidence
② ever-worsening depression, anxiety and fear
③ inability to change one’s actual situation
④ bad influence on social relationships and information distribution

A．①②

B．①②③

C．②③

D．②③④

4. What is the best possible title of the passage?

A．Ways to Decode the Retouching	B．Retouching: Causes and Treatment
C．Navigating Life without Retouching	D．Retouching: A Lift or a Lie?

2 . In the early 1990s, Eric Domb, a highly successful lawyer, came up with the idea of building a bird park. His father-in-law ________ the idea in the beginning, but when the ________ started to make shape he backed out. Domb thus had to ________ money from former clients, his two brothers and father as well as a bank to build a zoological park known as Pairi Daiza.

After the park opened in 1994, his inexperience led to many ________, but he pushed on with his venture (冒险). By 2000, the park was turning a profit, and Domb’s ambitions were ________. The park needed more than birds, he believed, and other creatures and cultural gardens would help turn it into something ________.

Since his childhood he has been fascinated by Chinese ________. In 2006, he built the first Chinese garden, Dream of Han Wu Di in his zoo. It was said to be the largest Chinese garden in Europe. Domb kept ________ new elements. It finally took more than six years to complete the project.

Domb felt ________ by the joint panda breeding program. Domb and his people spent the following months ________ building giant panda houses with no guarantee that Pairi Daiza would be fortunate enough to ________ giant pandas. The huge enclosure built includes a pool, cave and ________ plantation.

Now, Domb is eager to tell how he ________ a pair of giant pandas, Xing Hui and Hao Hao in February 2014. The sense of ________ is all the more profound in that Pairi Daiza is one of the few private zoos outside China to ________ giant pandas.

1.

A．rejected

B．supported

C．doubted

D．raised

2.

A．project

B．rule

C．law

D．document

3.

A．steal

B．win

C．earn

D．borrow

4.

A．rewards

B．wonders

C．mistakes

D．regrets

5.

A．missing

B．spreading

C．shaking

D．growing

6.

A．extreme

B．unusual

C．irregular

D．essential

7.

A．culture

B．food

C．poetry

D．dream

8.

A．containing

B．changing

C．adding

D．removing

9.

A．embarrassed

B．surprised

C．confused

D．inspired

10.

A．willingly

B．enthusiastically

C．automatically

D．confidently

11.

A．take charge of

B．pay attention to

C．get hold of

D．gain knowledge of

12.

A．grass

B．tea

C．coffee

D．bamboo

13.

A．bought

B．protected

C．received

D．tracked

14.

A．pride

B．humor

C．security

D．duty

15.

A．hide

B．house

C．train

D．save

3 . A Guide to Write Well in Business

Of many skills accounting for the success of businessmen — vision, execution, persuasion, perseverance, grit, resilience — effective writing fails to make the list.     1     Thus, I give you the following pills of advice to improve your writing.

1. Use short, simple words.

Whoever convinced the world that fancy words make for quality writing is a white lie.     2     The Gunning Fox Index (GFI) measures the readability of your text. The output of the GFI is the age at which your reader with formal education can understand your writing. For example, the GFI of a speech by Churchill is 9.8 years, which means a fifth grader could understand it.

2. Let your verbs do the work.

Effective writing leans heavily on verbs and less so on adjectives and adverbs. Look again at this Churchill’s speech. Known for delivering harsh truths, Churchill’s choice of verbs leaves little doubt to his audience: grieve, fallen, defend fight, break, lose, fail, sink, brace, bear. Choosing those words undoubtedly required careful thought.     3    

3. Get rid of unnecessary words.

“If I have more time, I would have written a shorter letter.” This quote shows the sad fact that writing concise sentences takes time and effort.     4     Then delete them.

4.     5    

The English language is blessed and cursed with many tenses. Twelve, to be specific. I trust there are reasons for each of our twelve verb tenses, and I am confident there are talented writers who can make use of each. Just choose your tense carefully if you’re not one of them.

A．Use simple verb tenses.

B．Avoid the passive tense.

C．Time permitting, do something else.

D．Yet writing skills are essential in nearly every profession.

E．Particularly in business communications, simpler is better.

F．You should consider which parts of your writing your reader will skip.

G．If we invest time and energy in our choice of verbs, our writing will definitely improve.

4 . There is a vivid world beyond our senses that wildlife knows in ways human cannot. A hummingbird sees colors that humans can only imagine. Elephants call to each other in bass rumbles too deep for human hearing, Bumblebees sense the electrical field of flowers ripe for pollination, while sea turtles feel the planet’s magnetic pull.

Working on the top of the Rocky Mountains, scientists for the first time proved that wild hummingbirds can see ultraviolet light (紫外线) invisible to humans. Researchers led by Mary Stoddard at Princeton University tested wild broad-tailed hummingbirds in their natural setting and clearly showed the birds use their ultraviolet vision to search for food.

Biologists have long known that many birds have eyes sensitive to ultraviolet light, but they did not know how it might affect their vision or their natural behavior. To find out, Dr Stoddard and her colleagues went to the Rocky Mountain Laboratory, a high-altitude breeding ground for broad-tailed hummingbirds. There the scientist set up two special feeding stations equipped with LED displays which can emit UV colors, such as ultraviolet green. One feeder, emitting a UV color, contained the sugar water that hummingbirds long for, while the other, emitting a non-UV shade of the same color, contained plain water.

During the three years of filed test, birds visited the feeders 6000 times. Once they learned the clue, their ability to distinguish UV and non-UV colors accurately guided them to the sugar water, no matter how often the researchers switched them around or changed colors. “We could see the humming birds learning there was a difference between colors that looked absolutely identical to us. And that was extremely exciting,” Dr Stoddard says.

Dr Stoddard and her colleagues then tested 3.300 examples of plumage and plants. About a third of them had displayed ultraviolet colors. In nature, color conveys more than eye appeal: Color is a clue of information ——about food, mates or predators.

1. Why are different animals mentioned in the first paragraph?

A．To compare different animal’s exceptional skills.

B．To demonstrate how vivid the world around us is.

C．To introduce some supernatural abilities of human.

D．To illustrate animals’ amazing super human senses.

2. What is paragraph 3 mainly about?

A．Research background.	B．Theoretical base of the research.
C．Research approach.	D．Place of the research.

3. Which of the following can prove the hummingbirds can see ultraviolet light?

A．They can find food source by UV colors.	B．They can emit both UV and non-UV light.
C．They can learn the names of different colors.	D．They can distinguish sugar water and plain water.

4. What can be concluded about colors in nature?

A．Colors show animals’ eyesight.	B．Colors indicate survival messages.
C．Visible colors attract hummingbirds.	D．Ultraviolet colors provide life support.

5 . The salad dressing, butter, turkey, dog food and new toothbrush came to $24.97. Laurie handed he cashier a slice of wood marked $25, and walked out.

The wooden currency (货币) is good only in the small city of Tenino. It is part of an effort to help residents and local merchants get through the economic fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic. Decades after it created a similar program during the Great Depression, the city is again giving people in need up to $300 per month in wooden currency to spend.

Nearly every business in town is accepting the wooden money. The currency is made of maple wood and printed on the same 1890s-era press that once printed the Depression currency and the local newspaper.

Businesses in town can exchange the wooden money for real dollars at City Hall or sell them on the side. Some merchants said they had been offered three times the face value from coin collectors around the country.

“The city could have given out debit cards (借记卡) or cash, but we don’t know where that money was going,” said Tyler, former president of the local department of commerce. “This is how we could keep the money here in the community.”

Tenino is a small town with round 1,800 people. In the early 1900s, it became a boom town, as its stone was in demand to help rebuild Seattle and San Francisco, following devastating fires in those two cities. Back then, there were more hotels and businesses in Tenino.

Nowadays there are no hotels and the quiet downtown is just a row of shops. “We’re a small community that relies on a lot of tourism during the summer,” said Mayor Fournier, who decided to use the wooden currency again. “Now everything’s been shut down. Our businesses, restaurants and antique stores do not have the traffic. There’s no assistance available. We are on our own.”

“When they came up with this, I was the first person in line there,” said Mahlenbrei. “I have no money. This really helps.” Maria Williams, the owner of Tenino Coffee Bistro, said, “I am really proud of my city.”

1. What can be inferred about the town Tenino?

A．Shops in it only accept wooden currency.

B．People in it are enjoying a green economy.

C．It sees a great drop in tourism this summer.

D．Wooden currency is used in it for the first time.

2. Why do the government choose wooden money to give out?

A．To ensure it really helps the local.

B．To take the place of foreign currency.

C．To show the public wealth of the city.

D．To double the face value of the money.

3. How did Mahlenbrei feel about the wooden currency?

A．It caused many shops to shut down.

B．It brought no assistance to her.

C．It made the traffic busier.

D．It met her urgent need.

4. What is the best title of the passage?

A．Creative Ideas to Print Wooden Money

B．A Wooden Town’s Fight against the Virus

C．Wooden Currency Comes Back in Hard Time

D．Wooden Money Affects People’s Purchasing Habit

6 . It’s not our fault.

It’s not our fault that we failed to earn straight A’s, make perfect College Board scores, and get into our first choice of college. It’s not our fault that we failed to earn millions of dollars in our twenties and billions by thirty-thus getting ourselves on the cover of Forbes.

It’s not our fault that our start didn’t glow white hot. However, early 21^st century society has made us feel shame exactly for that, for not exploding out of the starting blocks like an Olympic sprinter-for not blooming early. Parents, schools, employers, and the media are now crazily over celebrating early achievement as the best kind of achievement or even the only kind.

It wasn’t always so. Joanne, 55, is late bloomer. Her teenage years were unstable and unhappy. In school, Joanne earned above-average grades but hardly good enough to earn high honors and distinction. A teacher recalls Joanne as bright but not extraordinary. A quiet girl, Joanne passed through high school with few remembering her. She was rejected by her dream college but went to a fallback college instead. After graduation, Joanna worked as a secretary. Bored, she married a man she met on an outing and they had a baby girl. The marriage didn’t survive two years.

At the age of 30, Joanne saw herself at a dead end, with no job and a dependent child. She was diagnosed with depression, which prevented her from working much and earning. Strangely enough, it is this situation that took her closer to her gift. She started to write. Writing was her unique talent. In the months she depended on welfare to feed her baby, she made her name Joanne Kathleen(J.K.) Rowling known around the world with her popular Harry Potter series. And now she is a self-made billionaire who regularly appears on the Forbes.

The fact is that many of us are late bloomers of some kind. At some point, we got stuck though. Be patient, late bloomers will find their way eventually.

1. What does the underlined “that” refer to?

A．Succeeding later.

B．Exploding suddenly.

C．Blooming earlier.

D．Growing wildly.

2. Which of the following words best describe Joanna in school?

A．creative

B．ordinary

C．dependent

D．bored

3. What is the correct order of the events in Joanna’s life?
a. She was diagnosed with depression.
b. Her name appeared on the Forbes.
c. She worked as a secretary.
d. She started to write.
e. She got divorced.

A．cbdea

B．ceadb

C．eacdb

D．ebdac

4. Which statement will the author probably agree with?

A．A good start actually means half done.

B．Slow learners will achieve success if pushed.

C．Children develop and adapt at different paces.

D．Writing is effective in inspiring depressing hearts.

7 . THE EARTH DAY: Thursday April 22^nd 2:30 to 5:30

1. What will the participants do?

A．Compete in a quiz about plants.	B．Assist the gardeners to plant trees.
C．Hunt animals in the botanical garden.	D．Play a game with the help of some clues.

2. How much does each participant need to pay at least?

A．$15

B．$20

C．$40

D．$60

3. Which of the following can be used to cook?

A．Vanilla Orchid and Angel’s Trumpet.	B．Angel’s Trumpet and Voodoo Lily.
C．Voodoo Lily and Lemon Grass.	D．Lemon Grass and Vanilla Orchid

8 . New efforts are being made to prevent American college campuses from cigarette smoking. Twenty colleges in the United States recently received money to help protect their campuses from the harm of cigarettes.

Supporters say that every child deserves to grow up in a safe and healthy environment free from harmful second-hand cigarettes. And in November, smoking at college campuses may become illegal.

Before banning smoking at college campuses, the US has passed laws banning smoking at most workplaces. 27 American states ban smoking in all indoor workplaces.

Those supporting smoke-free at workplaces and college campuses give one major reason: the bad influence of smoking on health.

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) says smoking has a great influence on health. They think cigarette smoking is the leading cause of preventable deaths in the United States. Smoking is responsible for 480,000 deaths every year.

Supporters say the bad influence of second-hand smoke makes it a public health problem. Some also say that college campuses are a good place to ban smoking.

Gary Reedy, the CEO of the American Cancer Society, said it was important to stop college students from smoking, and he expected to successfully create a cigarette-free generation (世代).

The CDC found that 13 percent of adults between the ages of 18 and 24 smoke cigarettes. Reedy says that reducing the number of college students who smoke can help reduce the number of older adult smokers. He also says once a person starts smoking, it is hard to stop.

1. Who are the new efforts good for?

A．College students.	B．The CDC.
C．Young smokers.	D．People in public places.

2. What makes the action to ban smoking possible?

A．The bad influence of smoking.	B．Money wasted on cigarettes.
C．Laws passed by the US.	D．Public attention to health.

3. Which one is Reedy’s opinion?

A．Smoking spreads easily among college students.

B．Smoke-free campuses have a long-term influence.

C．It is easier for college students to stop smoking.

D．There’re more older adult smokers in the world.

4. What is the best title for the text?

A．Second-hand smoke is affecting college students too

B．Groups take steps to protect college students

C．Cigarettes should be totally banned in college

D．Banning smoking is being tried at US colleges

9 . The Smart Treat Chocolate lovers know that eating chocolate makes them happy. Now it turns out that eating chocolate may also make them smarter. Dr. Bryan Raudenbush recently conducted a study to see how eating chocolate affects people’s brains. The U.S. researchers knew that chocolate contained several stimulants. But he wasn’t sure how those stimulants actually affected chocolate eaters. To find out, Raudenbush had a group of volunteers eat 85 grams of milk chocolate. He asked another group to eat no chocolate at all. After 15 minutes, he tested their memory and their ability to solve problems. The group that ate milk chocolate had higher scores. They were able to remember more words and pictures than the group that did not eat chocolate. Raudenbush concluded that the stimulants in chocolate increased mental alertness. Of course, eating chocolate doesn’t guarantee you’ll pass every test. You’ll still need to study!

1. We can learn from the passage that ________.

A．chocolate can help people pass every test

B．chocolate lovers are smarter than those who don’t love chocolate

C．chocolate can make people happy and cleverer

D．chocolate is loved by all the people

2. Why did Dr. Bryan Raudenbush conduct a study recently?

A．Because chocolate contains several stimulants.

B．Because chocolate made him happy.

C．To make himself smarter by eating chocolate.

D．To find out how people’s brains are affected by eating chocolate.

3. The word stimulants belongs to ________.

A．medicine

B．vegetable

C．commercial

D．identification

4. The author wrote the article mainly to express that ________.

A．chocolate is good for health

B．chocolate tastes better with milk

C．people’s performance can be improved by eating chocolate

D．nothing else can be more tasty and effective than chocolate

10 . 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。

My first visit to China

I was really excited when I     1     (offer) the opportunity to go to Guangzhou in China for my work and I spent a lot of time visiting schools and observing lessons. The schools I visited were all     2     (good) equipped with computers, video screens and interactive whiteboards in most of the rooms. The buildings were     3     good condition and there were spaces for the children to play badminton or basketball.

I noticed some interesting differences in the school routine. When it was time for a class to begin or end, music was played on the intercom. I thought this was a really nice idea. There were also short breaks for eye exercises with music     4     (play) on the intercom. This was something I had never seen     5     heard of before so I was very interested in it. In some of the schools I visited, the habit of     6     (take) a nap at lunchtime is something I really like. The schools made us     7     (feel) very welcome and the children took great interest in us. They were very keen to practise their English and ask us questions. The pupils seemed to be very     8    (enthusiasm) about their English classes.

I really enjoyed my 10 days in China. It was a great experience and opened my eyes to a very different culture. In some ways it was better to be there on work than as a tourist. You learn something about people’s everyday     9     (life). If you go on work I think you learn more about the real culture of a place because you can see normal people doing normal things in normal places.     10    , next time I go to China I would like to spend some time as a tourist rather than working all the time.