1 . The future of energy production is here and some of the materials used to supply the energy may surprise you! Companies have developed a way to turn plant wastes and other garbage into fuel. It has been called one of the most promising technologies in alternative energy. And the process is expected to become more common this year.
The American-based company, Fiberight, is taking the lead in this new form of energy production. A great deal of garbage is sent to Fiberight’s test plant in Southern Virginia. Old vegetables, cardboard boxes and other wastes become something much more valuable through the work done at the factory. The garbage is loaded into a huge pressure cooker. The material that comes out of the cooker is mostly cellulose (纤维素)，a substance that can be made into sugar. The sugar can then be turned into ethanol (乙醇).
This year, several other fuel production plants are expected to start making ethanol from the cellulose in plant materials. Madhu Khanna is an agricultural economist at the University of Illinois. She said, “Making cellulosic ethanol turned out to be harder than expected. We know how to do that in a lab. The main problem is doing that continuously and massively.”
Ethanol production from cellulose has yet to meet expectations. However, this year could be the turning point. But Madhu Khanna explained, “Our cars may limit how much the industry can grow. Only a few models of automobiles can operate on high-ethanol fuel. Without more of them, there is only so much gas made from garbage that will sell.”
1. What does paragraph 2 mainly talk about?| A．The benefit of making fuel from garbage. |
| B．The great importance of alternative energy. |
| C．Fiberight’s way to turn wastes into ethanol. |
| D．Fiberight’s influence on the American energy market. |
| A．The high cost. |
| B．The low productivity. |
| C．The high pollution risk. |
| D．The long-term mass production. |
| A．It is cheap for most people. |
| B．It is only suitable for cars. |
| C．It is hard to be used widely at present. |
| D．It is more environmentally friendly. |
他斜移了椅子，以便坐着观察她。
无论你做什么，我都将支持你，一直到你取得成功。
建议每个学生在听报告时要记笔记。
5 . Have you ever taken photos by using mobile phones with selfie sticks(自拍杆)? This new invention is a small, useful and cleverly－designed tool.
However, a pair of US artists from New Mexico, Arie Snee and Justin Crowe believe they have invented a better one and they call it “selfie arm”. For better or worse, they have taken the world by storm. It makes those people in the pictures seem to be holding hands with a loved one．
The pair say it offers a far better experience than using a straight stick. The selfie arm makes people feel they are not alone when they take photos. It seems that they are together with their friends. They think their invention solves the main problem that the selfie stick has — people look alone while they are taking pictures of themselves with great interests. The product, at present, just an art project and a model, conveniently provides you a welcoming arm. And better yet in the future, it'll talk in a friendly way and never get angry or upset. The pair say they are fascinated by these new ideas.
The “selfie arm” is made of fiberglass(玻璃纤维). It is lightweight and easytaking.
The project that they work on shows the growing selfie stick phenomenon(现象) directly and the increasing need for narcissism(自恋) and Internet agreement.
1. The selfie arm is ________．| A．the latest mobile phone |
| B．lightweight and easy-taking |
| C．cleverlydesigned but useless |
| D．a useful digital camera |
| A．a selfie stick | B．a selfie arm |
| C．a hand | D．a loved one |
| A．The storm | B．The selfie arm |
| C．The pair | D．The selfie stick |
| A．a new kind of fiberglass |
| B．a pair of artists who are interested in taking photos |
| C．an invention that can reduce loneliness |
| D．a cleverlydesigned tool for taking photos with mobile phones |
6 . The Little Prince was written by a French pilot and writer Antoine de Saint—Exupery. It is one of the most famous books around the world. It was published in 1943. This story has been translated into 42 languages and was adapted(改编) into a movie.
The little prince lives on a small planet alone. He leads a happy life. One day the winds bring him a seed. The seed then turns into the loveliest flower he has ever seen. He takes good care of the flower, but finally he decides to leave it and his planet in search for a secret—the most important thing in his life.
During his journey in space, the little prince meets a king, a businessman, a lamplighter and a geographer. They all live alone on different planets. At last he finds out the secret from a fox of the Earth. Before he returns to his planet, he tells his secret to the writer of the book, whom he meets in the desert. The secret is: the power of love.
When you read this touching and sincere story of the little prince, you can’t help smiling and feeling the beauty of life and love in your heart.
1. Where did the writer of The Little Prince come from?| A．England | B．France |
| C．America | D．Canada |
| A．who wrote the book | B．when the book was published |
| C．what is the book about | D．who adapted the book into a movie |
| A．无聊的 | B．感人的 |
| C．惊讶的 | D．失望的 |
7 . Henry worked in a factory. He came from a poor family and was in school for only four years. He had to do the hard work, but he was paid less. He liked to watch football matches very much and spent much time on them.
One afternoon there was a big football match on the playground. He borrowed some money from his friend and hurried there. There were a lot of people there. And all the tickets were sold out. He was sorry for it. He saw a pole (杆子) outside the playground and climbed it quickly. A policeman came and said, “It is dangerous to stay on it! Come down!”
“Wait a minute, please!” Henry said and just at that moment the policeman heard cheers on the playground and asked in a hurry, “Which team has kicked a goal (进球)?” “Ours!” “Wonderful! You can stay there. But take care!” The policeman said happily and left. When the match would be soon over, he came back again and asked, “Who has won?” “Theirs, 3:2.” “Come down,” the policeman said angrily. “Such a match is not worth watching!”
Henry had to come down. But soon they heard cheers again. The policeman said in a hurry, “Climb up quickly and see who has kicked a goal.”
1. Henry failed to get a ticket for the match that day because ________.| A．he had no money to buy a ticket | B．he didn’t want to buy a ticket |
| C．he had no time to buy a ticket | D．all the tickets were sold out |
| A．it was dangerous | B．Henry had no ticket |
| C．their team kicked a goal | D．the other team kicked a goal |
| A．cheer for their team | B．see the result of the match |
| C．cheer for the other team | D．say goodbye to their team |
9 . Everyone is afraid of something. Maybe you're afraid of spiders, or heights, or dogs, or the dark. And traditionally, we’ve thought that's because you learned to be afraid. Probably because you had a bad run-in with something at some point. But there's a different idea out there that's been getting more attention lately: the idea that fears aren’t just learned …they also can be inherited.
It sounds like a wild idea. How do you inherit something as abstract as fear? But over the last fifty years, researchers have been studying just how much fears have to do with inheritance and genetics. And their results have been kind of surprising.
In this work, they’ve put a lot of effort into understanding one extreme kind of fear, called a phobia. To get a sense of how much genes influence fear, scientists have begun looking at identical twins. Since identical twins have almost the same DNA, researchers can figure out how heritable a fear is by comparing how often specific phobias appear in identical twins as opposed to other brothers or sisters. Because even though twins often have lots of similar experiences, they probably don't share the types of experiences that cause phobias — like getting bitten by a dog or falling out of a tree.
One 1998 study of 659 pairs of identical and fraternal twins in Australia looked at how many had a fear of blood. The study found that genetics accounted for 71 percent of the variation among those people, meaning genetic factors play a pretty big role in determining whether a person has some specific fear.
A 2016 study also found that fear of dental work was over 30 percent heritable. So, if you are afraid of going to the dentist, it really might not be your dentist's fault. Overall, first-degree relatives of people with phobias are more likely to have similar phobias than people with no family history.
So, it's pretty clear that phobias are heritable!
1. What does the author mean by saying the underlined sentence in Para. 2?| A．It's unbelievable that people can inherit something so abstract like fear. |
| B．It's surprising that people know so little about inheritance and genetics. |
| C．It's natural that people become afraid of things that they had bad experience with. |
| D．It's interesting that people are afraid of so many things such as spiders and the dark. |
| A．They look very much alike. | B．They have shared experiences. |
| C．They have similar personalities. | D．They share basically the same DNA. |
| A．Dentists are scary to many kids. | B．Most people have some kind of fear. |
| C．Fear of blood is the most common phobia. | D．Fear of things can be a result of genetic inheritance. |
| A．A travel brochure. | B．A science talk show. |
| C．A commercial advertisement. | D．A history book. |
1．表明写信的目的；
2．推荐该书的理由；
3．希望知道他对该书的看法。
注意： 1.可以适当增加细节，使行文连贯；
2.词数100左右；
参考词汇：世界读书日World Book and Copyright Day；推荐 recommend
Dear David,
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Yours,
Li Hua
