1 . “I knew when I saw you, I wanted to take you home,” my dad says to me. I am sitting beside him for our Saturday morning visit. While our conversation may repeat at times or be filled with silence, sometimes I get these _______ words.

My father has Alzheimer’s (阿兹海默症病人). It has been a long time since he _______ me by my name. When he says these words, my tears _______ . There is a deep-seated _______ of a father seeing his daughter when she was born. It makes me think of a rare photo I have of my father with me as a baby. In the photo, he is holding me, with arms outstretched as if inspecting me.

Another Saturday, it happens again. He is looking at a photo of me in high school. He points to the photo and says, “She’s smart. She can do anything.” I am shocked. The emotion catches in my throat. Does he _______ the same person is sitting beside him? It does not _______ . In that moment I feel his love and it’s a/an _______ of my pain.

Our weekly visits repeat. We sit. I listen. He talks.

The more I listen, the more I _______ that his words are tied to a memory from long ago. He may _______ to find a word but he finds a way to express himself. I am ________ to be by his side when he says these unexpected words. He’s giving me what he can.

1.

A．simplified

B．invaluable

C．abnormal

D．anxious

2.

A．called

B．taught

C．contacted

D．evaluated

3.

A．summed up

B．rolled over

C．welled up

D．ran out

4.

A．need

B．memory

C．dream

D．intention

5.

A．believe

B．wonder

C．found

D．know

6.

A．last

B．appear

C．work

D．matter

7.

A．relief

B．reminder

C．instance

D．absence

8.

A．expect

B．imagine

C．sense

D．doubt

9.

A．attempt

B．hesitate

C．forget

D．struggle

10.

A．grateful

B．curious

C．ashamed

D．amused

2 . 语法填空

This afternoon a poorly-dressed gentleman     1     (come) into my restaurant. Nobody knew who he was. It was     2     (surprise) that he finished two orders of food in a very limited time. We wondered     3     he was so hungry. We also had doubt whether the man was able to pay the bill. The gentleman asked whether we should mind waiting for just a few minutes. After some time,     4     shocked us was that he took out of a letter and a million pound bank-note.

3 . 用方框中词或词组的适当形式完成下列句子，每个词或词组只能用一次(每组有一个多余的选项)。

guilt     strive   sacrifice   breath   apart from   at risk

1. People are concerned about the quality of the air they __________.
2. I felt __________ about not visiting my parents more often.
3. Newspaper editors all __________ to be first with a story.
4. As with all diseases, certain groups will be more __________ than others.
5. __________ Germany, they also visited Italy and Austria.

4 . Tornadoes

Tornadoes are essentially funnels of air rotating as fast as 300 miles per hour. Of course, not all tornadoes are so dangerous.     1     Such small tornadoes occur in many places around the world, even in southern Taiwan, where several are usually reported every spring.

It is, however, the big tornadoes that receive the most attention.     2     There can be flocks of dead birds dropping out of the sky, chickens still alive but with all of their feathers gone, pieces of straw stuck in trees. In a 1999 US storm, violent winds from one tornado lifted a church into the air and dropped it onto a house. In the same storm, a baby was whipped from its mother’s arms and, miraculously, found alive in a nearby tree.

    3     Although scientists now know a great deal about tornadoes, they still cannot determine exactly when and where one will form. In addition, the path of a tornado can also be impossible to predict. It is unlikely to move in a straight line, and will often turn quickly. A tornado might blow down a line of houses, then suddenly lift up and leave one home unhurt, then touch back down and destroy the rest of the line.

To better understand tornadoes, scientists have developed special heavy-duty vehicles and weather-monitoring equipment that allow them to make close-up observations of these dangerous storms. Radar equipment is put on trucks and driven near a tornado, where it records wind speeds and other weather data.     4    

In addition, better communication and warning systems are also helping to reduce deaths and injuries in many tornado-prone areas. Radio and television warnings as well as sirens help to alert people to potential danger. Public awareness is also important. When tornadoes do occur, people must act quickly. They should move immediately to a safe place such as a basement or under a strong stairway and cover themselves with blankets or heavy coats.     5    

A．Either big storms or small ones can form quickly causing damage to some degree.

B．These bring not only death and destruction, but also stories of strange phenomena.

C．Many more are small storms that form quickly and disappear, causing little or no damage.

D．A tornado can arrive so unexpectedly that a matter of seconds can mean the difference between life and death.

E．Driving the radar hundreds of miles to chase down a tornado is a best job that can be quite dangerous.

F．What makes tornadoes so dangerous is not just their great power but also their unpredictable nature.

G．Scientists often have to drive the radar hundreds of miles to chase down a tornado — a job that can be quite dangerous!

5 . Our green spaces are shrinking, despite all the benefits they give us. If we want to save them, we need to value the ecosystem and health and wellbeing services they offer.

Sheffield city council’s balance sheet shows its parks as a £16m liability (负担). Traditional accountancy methods focus on a park’s saleable value, or its operational costs associated with maintenance. So England’s 27,000 parks are considered as financial liabilities rather than the amazing asset to our health and wellbeing that any of their 37 million regular users could vouch for. They also deliver a range of ecosystem services such as improved air and water quality, flood risk reduction by absorbing water run-off, and cooling the urban environment as well as providing much-needed habitat for wildlife. By using a “natural capital” accounting approach that puts a value on all these social, environmental and economic contributions, Sheffield discovered that for every £1 spent on its parks, they generate £34 of benefits.

Yet this true value is not widely measured or recognised. As Ian Walmsley, Stockport council’s green space manager told the Communities and Local Government select committee parks inquiry, “an argument has never been successfully made that if you spend a certain amount of money on a park, there will be a saving in the health budget and therefore you should take money out of the health budget and put it into parks”. As a result, the MPs inquiry report published last week warned that parks are at a tipping point of decline, threatened by a 92% reduction in their budgets since 2010-11 because of local authority cuts. Less money means fewer park rangers, less maintenance, more litter, dog poo and antisocial behaviour, including gang and drug-related activities, and gradually much-loved local parks turn into dangerous and unappealing areas. Tragically it’s the small, green spaces in poorer, built-up areas that suffer disproportionate cuts to park keepers and maintenance. We have been here before. Uncared-for, litter-strewn parks were characteristic of Thatcher’s Britain before an injection of public spending by a Labour government and £850m of lottery cash brought them back to life.

But it doesn’t have to be this way. Andrew Hinchley, green space development officer at the London Borough of Camden, told MPs if we had new ways of valuing the services parks provide for improving water quality, for example, then you could ask water companies to pay towards their upkeep.

The committee wants councils to publish strategic plans to recognise the real value of parks and to set out how they will be managed (possibly by a charitable trust, as Newcastle is looking into) to maximise their contribution to wider local authority goals such as promoting healthier lifestyles. It suggests the government’s obesity strategy could fund parks. It also suggests that it could be a legal requirement for councils to produce such strategies.

1. According to the text, parks are regarded as financial liabilities because ________.

A．the area of the park is gradually decreasing due to poor protection

B．the budget for the construction of the park is gradually decreasing

C．the value of the park is low by using a “natural capital” accounting approach

D．the traditional accountancy methods focus on a park’s saleable value

2. According to the text, which of the following is NOT the benefit of the park?

A．Improving air and water quality.

B．Symbolizing the city civilization.

C．Cooling the urban environment.

D．Providing much-needed habitat for wildlife.

3. Due to the reduction in budgets, what could probably happen?

A．The government will take money out of the health budget.

B．The local authorities will centralize the management of the park.

C．Much-loved local parks will turn into unwelcoming places.

D．The true value of the park will be widely measured or recognised.

4. What can be learned from the last two paragraphs?

A．The committee has published strategic plans to recognise the real value of park.

B．It could be a legal requirement for councils to produce such strategies.

C．The local citizens should pay for the improving water quality.

D．The Labour government will spend £850m of lottery cash to revive the park.

6 . A new survey reviews that more than 60% of websites and apps intended for Canadian children may be collecting personal information and passing it on to a third party. The survey was completed by the Global Privacy Enforcement Network, which reviewed 1,494 websites and apps.

Focusing on trends among Canadian users, the sweep team reviewed 118 websites and apps targeted directly at children, as well as 54 that are known to be popular with and used by kids. The team’s findings showed that more than 50% of Canadian sites collect personal information from children, including names, addresses, phone numbers and photos, audio or video. In addition, 62% of sites admitted they may show that personal information to third parties. Another 62% allowed the user to be redirected to a different site, and only 28% of the sites and apps involved any form of parental control or protection.

A member of the team Tobi Cohen, outlined a few of the sites that did and did not live up to the standards of children’s privacy online. She praised both Family.ca and Lego.com for their message boards that did not allow users to post personal information, and noted that santasvillage. ca asked users to provide their full name and email address. Gamezhero.com was also singled out for allowing users to display personal information, including names, age, sex and locations. Pbskids.org, on the other hand, was praised for only offering generic, pre-set avatars (头像) and barring users form uploading personal photos.

The Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada refused to release a full list of the websites and apps reviewed. When asked what would be done with results, commissioner Daniel Therrien said that companies reviewed in the sweep would be kept informed of the findings. “It’s our usual practice after conducting a sweep to write a number of companies to point out the things that we’ve seen, to sometimes ask that things be changed, and on the whole the companies react positively to these requests.” Therrien added.

In an attempt to help kids better understand why their privacy matters, the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada has created a lesson plan for kids in Grade 7 and 8 that explains the Global Privacy Enforcements Network and has kids conduct privacy reviews of their own.

“We know that companies are not the only ones responsible for the protection of kids’ privacy.” Therrien said. “Parents and teachers obviously have a role. We have a role, particularly in the area of increasing awareness of privacy issues among the public.”

Matthew Johnson, director of education at Media Smarts, said that the sweep’s results were sadly unsurprising. Media Smarts, an Ottawa-based non-profit digital literacy outfit intended to improve media literacy and empowering the youth to better engage with media, offers age-appropriate tips to parents concerned with keeping their kids safe online.

Johnson explained that in addition to educating themselves on the issue, the best thing parents could do to protect children’s privacy online is to educate kids on the importance of the function of their personal data. He mentioned an initiative by Media Smarts called Privacy Pirates, an online game that aims to teach kids at the age of seven to nine that all forms of personal information should be protected and added that their personal information has value and they should think twice before giving it out.

1. We can conclude from the data mentioned in Paragraph 2 that ________.

A．parents must be to blame for letting out their kids’ privacy

B．the time that children spend on the Internet should be limited

C．more children have realized the importance of personal privacy

D．more attention should be paid to the protection of kids’ privacy

2. What will most of the companies do when receiving a request from the sweep team?

A．They will help kids better understand why their privacy matters.

B．They will ask the team never to make their website public.

C．They will ask for further information about the research.

D．They will take some measures actively in response.

3. Daniel Therrien seems to stress in Paragraph 6 that ________.

A．the team should develop a good relationship with the companies

B．the protection of kid’s privacy involves joint efforts from adults

C．the public is unaware of their role in protecting kids’ privacy

D．the sweep team’s work is worth nothing without parents’ help

4. According to Johnson, parents should ________.

A．guide their kids to play online games

B．get kids to know the value of their privacy

C．set a good example to their kids in daily life

D．think twice before giving personal information out

7 . 根据句子语境，选用方框中单词填空。

enormous       demonstrate       interaction       break down       ultimately

1. In Japan, it may ________respect to look down when talking to an older person.
2. She hopes to build bridges and ________misunderstandings between different cultures.
3. We use both words and body language to express our thoughts and opinions in our________with other people.
4. ________, my duty is helping every student to learn.
5. Disneyland also has many exciting rides to amuse you, from ________swinging ships to scary fall drops.

8 . 根据句子语境，选用方框中单词填空。

critical       advocate       prospect       adopt       stretch

1. I am not a Sami, but in Sarek I`ve ________some of their habits.
2. The Northeast Tiger and Leopard National Park was set up in Jilin and Heilongjiang, with boundaries ________ all the way to the border and joining with Russia`s wildlife reserves.
3. The Amish people ________a simple life with an emphasis on hard work, family, and community.
4. Of course, when new technology changes the way we live, it can be a scary________.
5. They can warn you early on if there is something abnormal or if you have a ________ illness, such as cancer, and potentially save your life.

9 . 根据句子语境，选用方框中单词填空。

academy       objective       evaluate       encounter       secure       routine

1. These smart homes will keep us ________, save us energy, and provide a more comfortable environment to live in.
2. Your home will also learn your daily ________and preferences, so everything will be ready for you when you get home each evening.
3. In 1967, the Chinese government formed a team of scientists with the________ of discovering a new treatment for malaria.
4. Her team examined over 2,000 old medical texts, and ________280,000 plants for their medical properties.
5. All incoming students at the ________are required to take a college writing class in their first term.
6. In fact, Einstein often ________people on the street who would stop him and ask him to help explain things.

10 . 阅读下面短文, 根据短文内容填空。在未给提示词的空白处仅填写1个适当的单词, 在给出提示词的空白处用括号内所给词的正确形式填空。

Along a great part of this track is the     1     (surprise) waterfalls which hikers pass by. These include Empress Falls. It is a wonderful waterfall in the Valley of the Waters. It     2     (go) down a series of rocks to a pool. These are stepping stones for hikers to cross the falls and some shady spots     3     tired travelers can rest.