1 . Directions: Write an English composition in 120 -150 words according to the instructions given below in Chinese.
俗话说：与其诅咒黑暗，不如点亮光明。（It’s better to light a candle than to curse the darkness），结合你自己或者身边人的一个事例，谈谈你对这句话的理解。

2 . What is the woman’s suggestion?

A．Putting the cost after the product information.

B．Making an overall change.

C．Reducing the cost.

3 . Directions:After reading the passage below, fill in the blanks to make the passages coherent and grammatically correct.For the blanks with a given word,fill in each blank with the proper form of the given word；for the other blanks,use one word that best fits each blank.

Old Folks Struggle With New Technology

Fang is a bright, lively,82-year-old woman from Beijing who is learning to use smartphone…but it’s been a struggle. “Technology advances so fast that     1     is supposed to make life easier is instead creating problems for us old people,” she says.

Fang grew up in a simpler age     2     you had to actually leave your house to shop,buy a train ticket or make a doctor’s appointment. Now all of these things     3     be done with a smartphone and,in some cases,only with a smartphone. Recently an elderly man in Dalian was unable to travel on the subway because     4     (enter) the subway,he had to have his QR health code scanned. “What is a Qrcode?” the man asked. “I have money to buy a ticket,why do I need a smartphone?” Admittedly, It is     5     criticism that senior citizens do not always carry a smartphone with them. In the end, he left the station,confused and embarrassed.

I can certainly sympathize with Fang and the man from Dalian.They have spent their almost entire lives contributing to society and now they feel     6    (exclude) from that society. Fortunately,some college students volunteer to teach the elderly how to use smartphones. However,teaching old folks about smartphones is only one part of the problem.

Many older people have physical and health issues. Poor eyesight makes it almost impossible     7     ( read）on small screens. And “leathery fingers”,the fingers     8    （sensitive）,make it hard to use touchscreens. Perhaps these are problems that smartphone makers should try to resolve.

New solutions are going to be needed to make sure that the elderly     9     (not leave) behind the rest of society. If you have grandparents, or know some elderly people, lend a helping hand to them when they need it. And remember to be patient. New technology young people take for granted is not so much a great convenience     10     a bitter struggle for the elderly.

4 . Directions: After reading the passage below, fill in the blanks to make the passage coherent and grammatically correct. For the blanks with a given word, fill in each blank with the proper form of the given word; for the other blanks, use one word that best fits each blank.

Young Chinese are rebelling against society through a simple act of resistance: lying down. Examples of the tangping, or “lying flat”, way of life     1     (include) not getting married, not having children, and refusing to work extra hours or to hold a job at all. “I stay at home and sleep and watch television series.Sometimes I go out for walks, read books and just think a lot,” said Daisy Zhang, 28, who described herself as “lying flat” for the last two weeks     2     leaving her job in the film industry in Wuxi.

Tangping     3    (emerge)over the last few months as the rallying call of Chinese millennials who have had enough of the rat race. Some compare them to the 1950s Beat Generation in the United States.     4     call their behavior a form of nonviolent resistance or “ideological emancipation” from consumerism. Supporters portray it as a rejection of struggle and endless striving. Critics say it is defeatist.

“People realize there is no upward mobility,” said Yicheng Wang, a PhD student in political science at Boston University,     5    studies propaganda and popular discourse. It’s a negative acceptance: “My life is like this. It will always be like this.”

The term developed after an April post on the Tieba forum where the author, unemployed for the last two years, described a low-effort, low-cost lifestyle that consisted of working just a few months out of the year.

“Lying flat is my sophistic movement,” he wrote, referring to the Greek philosopher Diogenes, who was known for living in a barrel. He posted a picture of himself lying in bed in the middle of the day with the curtains     6     (draw).

In the following weeks, a “lying flat” group on the online forum Douban surged to 9,000 members. Internet users identified themselves as “lying flatists”,     7     (post) photos of cats and seals lying supine.

But     8     tangping gained popularity, it also drew a level of opprobrium. Nanfang Daily called the philosophy “shameful”. Global Times made light of it describing “lying flat” as “not a serious philosophy”. The Youth League pointed out that young medical workers on the front lines during the pandemic “never chose to lie down.”

For Zhang in Wuxi, lying flat is not about giving up or withdrawing from society. “Many people want to lie down because 996 is too tiring,” she said, referring to the notorious hours common in tech industry,     9     staff are expected to work from 9a.m. to 9p.m, six days a week. The philosophy is also about giving oneself a break. On Douban, new groups have emerged that support “lying down and then standing up.” Zhang，who is thinking about getting into media, says she has started sending out resumes.

“I’m interviewing for jobs while writing a little and looking for direction,     10     nothing too active,” she said. “It’s better than doing nothing.”

5 . New York City has a housing problem. Currently, it has 1.8 million one-and two-person households, and only one million studios and one-bedroom apartments.     1    

In January, Bloomberg’s office announced the winner of its 2012 competition to design and build a residential tower of micro-units apartments between 250 and 370 square feet-on a city-owned site at East 27 street in Manhattan. According to the Mayor’s press release, the winning proposal, by the Brooklyn-based firm NARCHITECTS, was chosen for its innovative layout and building design, with nearly 10-foot ceilings and Juliet balconies that give residents “substantial light and air.”

    2     For some residents, the potential health risks and crowding challenges might outweigh the benefits of affordable housing. And while the Bloom-berg administration hails the tiny spaces as a “milestone for new housing models,” critics question whether relaxing zoning rules and experimenting with micro-design on public land will effectively address New York’s apartment supply problem in the long run.

“Sure, these micro-apartments maybe fantastic for young professionals in their 20’s,” says Dak Kopec, director of design for human health at Boston Architectural College and author of Environmental Psychology for Design. “    3    ”

Home is supposed to be a safe haven, and a resident with a demanding job may feel trapped in a claustrophobic (导致闭恐惧症的) apartment at night forced to choose between the physical crowding of furniture and belongings in his unit, and social crowding, caused by other resident, in the buildings common spaces. Research. Kopec says, has shown that crowding-related stress can increase rates of domestic violence and substance abuse.

For all of us, daily life is a sequence of events, he explains. But most people don’t like adding extra steps to everyday tasks. Because micro-apartments are too small to hold basic furniture like a bed, a table and a couch at the same time, residents must resent their quarters throughout the day: folding down a Murphy bed (墨菲隐蔽床), or hanging up a dining table on the wall.     4     In this case, residents might eventually stop folding up their furniture every day and the space will start feeling even more constrained.

A．But they definitely can be unhealthy for older people, say, those in their thirties or forties, who face different stress factors that can make tight living conditions a problem.

B．The obvious solution seems to be to develop more small residential units.

C．New Yorkers may actually face more expensive housing, paying the same amount to rent a studio in the neighborhood where they used to be able to afford a one-bedroom.

D．Nobody is claiming that micro-apartments will be a silver bullet.

E．What might seem novel at the beginning ends up including a lot of little inconveniences, just to go to sleep or make breakfast before work.

F．But as New York City “Micro-apartment” project inches closer to reality, experts warn that Micro-living may not be the urban panacea (灵丹妙药) we’ve been waiting for.

6 . The story of chocolate begins with the discovery of America in 1492. Columbus was the first European to come into contact with cacao. Columbus was struck by how much value the Indians placed on them as he did not know the beans were used by currency. It is unlikely that Columbus brought any of these beans back to Spain and it was not until about 25 years later that Cortez grasped the commercial possibilities when he found the Aztecs using the beans to make the royal drink “chocolate”.

The Spanish, in general, were not fond of the bitter drink so Cortez and his followers made it more palatable by adding cane sugar and later cinnamon and vanilla were added. Spanish monks let the secret out back home and, although the Spanish hid it from their neighbors for a hundred years, finally chocolate’s popularity grew until it was their fashionable drink at the French court and the wise choice of customers at London meeting houses.

The cacao tree is strictly a tropical plant only in hot, rainy climates. Thus, its cultivation is limited to countries not more than 20 degrees north or south of the equator (赤道). The cacao tree is very delicate and sensitive. It needs protection from the wind and requires a fair amount of shade under most conditions. This is true especially in its first two or three years of growth. A newly planted young cacao tree is often sheltered by a different type of trees. It is normal to plant food crops for shade such as bananas, plantain, coconuts or cocoyams. Rubber trees and forest trees are also used for shade. Once established, however, cacao trees can grow in full sunlight, provided there are fertile soil conditions and intensive farming. With cutting and careful cultivation, the trees of strains will begin bearing fruit in the fifth year. With extreme care, some strains can be stimulated to produce good crops in the third and fourth year.

The process of turning cacao into chocolate hasn’t changed much since the Swiss made the major breakthroughs in the process in the late 1800s. First the beans go through a process of fermentation ( 发酵 ) and drying. They are then sorted by hand before cleaning and then roasting. Winnowing ( 风 扬 ) follows which removes the hard outer layers and leaves what is as the “grains”. A crushing and heating process known as Hunte’s Process is then used to remove nearly half of the cocoa butter from the nibs. This makes unsweetened chocolate. Basic eating chocolate is made from a mixture of the unsweetened chocolate with some of the cocoa butter along with other ingredients such as sugar and vanilla. The resulting product is then “purified” and this purifying gives chocolate the silky texture that we know so well. The finished result is then shaped, cooled, packaged by machine, distributed, sold and of course, eaten!

1. Why didn’t Columbus bring beans back to Spain at once when he found cacao?

A．Because he couldn’t afford to buy the cacao bean.

B．Because he didn’t know how to turn cacao bean into chocolate.

C．Because he was not aware of the monetary value of cacao bean then.

D．Because Spaniards then didn’t favour the chocolate that the Aztecs originally drank.

2. The underlined word “palatable” in paragraph 2 probably means .

A．affordable

B．agreeable

C．patent

D．portable

3. Which of the following is correct about cacao tree?

A．Cacao trees need a lot of looking after to be used commercially.

B．Cacao trees require hot, rainy climates and adequate sunlight.

C．Cacao trees won’t produce fruit until the fifth year.

D．Cacao trees can grow well in all continents.

4. Which is the correct order of turning cocoa into chocolate?
① The chocolate is reheated to melt it, put into patterns and then cooled to make its final shapes.
② The beans are harvested on the farm.
③ Some cocoa butter is then obtained using Hunte’s Process to make cooking chocolate.
④ The cooking chocolate is then mixed with other ingredients to make the various types of eating chocolate available today.
⑤ The beans are winnowed after fermentation and drying and these two processes produce the grains.
⑥ The finished product is wrapped, sent to shops and then sold.

A．②①③④⑤⑥

B．②③①⑤④⑥

C．②④⑤①③⑥

D．②⑤③④①⑥

7 . When she was ten years old, Isadora Duncan dropped out of school to teach people dance. If that job was left to any other ten-year-old, it would have turned out frustrating, difficult, and a little discouraging.

But Duncan was different. Not only was she already talented enough to earn money even at that age, but she also had a rare kind of confidence that helped her treat troubles as fuel —something to elevate the fire that is already burning inside of her.

It’s no surprise, then, that when she moved to New York to join a theatre company, she found herself restricted. The existing dancing style, their way of operating—all of this seemed to her the work of a misguided past. Duncan was very direct about what she wanted, confidently telling people she had a different vision of dance that she was going to spread in the world. This, naturally, led to ridicule and laughs early on, but as she built up her work, these instances became less frequent. Today, she is remembered as “The Mother of Dance,” with much of the modern art owing its expressive style to her influence. Inspired by the ancient Greeks, she brought the style to life.

In her autobiography (自传), one of the things Duncan frequently refers to as the basis of her expressive spirit is the fact that she had a childhood where she wasn’t constantly watched. The expectations of her mother (who raised her) were open-ended. It was the freedom of this lifestyle that drove her to see what she could do.

Growing up, before she left school, she was told one of two things: that she was either completely useless or that she was a genius. There was nothing in between. Even when she started working, people either bowed to her or they basically ignored her. But there wasn’t one moment Duncan doubted her own genius.

There is an old quotation “if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.” And it captures an important truth. At school, Isadora Duncan was a failure. In the dance hall, she gave form to brilliance.

1. What does the underlined phrase “treat troubles as fuel” mean?

A．Duncan used troubles to push her forward towards her dream.

B．Duncan was good at burning away everyday troubles.

C．Troubles turned Duncan into a confident girl.

D．Troubles lit the fire of dancing in Duncan.

2. Which of the following is TRUE about Duncan?

A．Her experience in New York was the foundation of her career.

B．Her teaching job when she was little destroyed her confidence.

C．Her dancing style was not very well received at the beginning.

D．Her mother set higher expectation on her than she could bear.

3. What does the author try to tell the readers in the last paragraph?

A．It is useless climbing a tree to catch fish.

B．Everybody is a genius in his own way.

C．Miseries come from human stupidity.

D．Teachers can impact students greatly.

4. What is this passage mainly about?

A．Isadora Duncan’s childhood and her achievements today.

B．Duncan’s career development and other dancers’ opinions of her.

C．Isadora Duncan’s early experiences and the reasons for her success.

D．Duncan’s high status in the dancing world and her unique expressive style.

8 . Directions: Read the following passage. Summarize the main idea and the main point(s) of the passage in no more than 60 words. Use your own words as far as possible.

Lower Oxygen Levels Threaten Marine Life

Oxygen in the oceans is being lost at an alarming rate, with “dead zones” expanding rapidly and hundreds more areas showing oxygen dangerously exhausted, putting sharks, tuna, marlin and other large fish species at particular risk. Dead zones, where oxygen is effectively absent, have quadrupled(翻两番) in extent in the last half-century, and there are also at least 700 areas where oxygen is at dangerously low levels, up from 45 when research was undertaken in the 1960s.

The reasons behind this environmental collapse are multiple. Among all, pollutants generated by the industrial world have been the most destructive force to cause the unbalance, including a rising tide of plastic waste, as well as other pollutants. Seas are about 26% more acidic than in pre-industrial times because of absorbing the excess carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, with damaging impacts on shellfish in particular.

Low oxygen levels are also associated with global heating, because the warmer water holds less oxygen and the heating causes stratification(分层), so there is less of the vital mixing of oxygen-rich and oxygen-poor layers. Oceans are expected to lose about 3-4% of their oxygen by the end of this century, but the impact will be much greater in the levels closest to the surface, where many species are concentrated, and in the mid to high latitudes.

Another major cause for lower oxygen is intensive farming. When excess artificial fertilizer from crops, or wastes from the meat industry, runs off the land and into rivers and seas, it feeds algae(藻类) which bloom and then cause oxygen consumption as they die and decay.

The problem of dead zones has been known about for decades, but little has been done to tackle it. Now is high time to take actions and help the oceans function better.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

9 . What was the best gift I ever received? Well, I’m a music lover, so I’d have to say it was either a Spotify subscription or my top-of-the-range Sony MDR-7506 headphones. Together they’ve provided me with countless hours of high-quality audio accompaniment. Growing up in a loving, well-off family in one of the richest countries in the world, what more could I want?

Giving gifts to loved ones is great: it’s a rewarding way to spread joy and strengthen friendships and family ties. But at this time of year I’m always reminded of how many people not only get no presents but also lack the basics to allow them to live healthy lives. For me, luxury headphones were the perfect gift; for the world’s poorest, it would be nutritious food, clean water and health care.

The poorest 10% of the world’s population, some 700 million people, live on less than $1.90 per day. And that’s adjusting for local purchasing power: they live on what $1.90 would buy in the

U.S. Faced with this kind of budget, and often geographically isolated, they are forced to eat whatever they can find and drink and wash in unsafe water. They can only pray that they don’t succumb to malnutrition, malaria or any number of other diseases that, while perfectly curable in rich countries, frequently ruin or end lives in the developing world.

I don’t seek to make anyone feel guilty for exchanging luxury goods with the people they love. But it seems to me that there’s another type of giving that is, if anything, even more profound: giving the basics of life to those most in need. Sure, you might not get a thank-you letter(who does these days?), but you’ll have done something extraordinary.

However, I’m not just interested in people giving more to charity(although that is important). I’m also passionate about people giving smarter, because where you give can make a huge difference on the impact you’ll have.

What do I mean by that? Well, to start with, there’s a reason I’ve been talking about the developing world. Even average earners in the West are incredibly rich compared with the global poor, so a sum of money considered moderate for some could make a huge difference in the poorest countries.

That’s not to say that all developing world poverty-relief charities ate good at making a difference—that’s certainly not the case. Plenty of money donated in good faith is lost to local corruption, poor administration or programs of intervention that sound great in theory but don’t achieve much in practice. As a result, it’s crucial to look at the effectiveness of the work a charity does before committing your money. How much good does it achieve for each dollar donated? Is there robust evidence for the impact of its programs?

It’s not always easy for people to find the answers, but they are vital questions to ask. That’s why there are now organizations devoted to finding and promoting the best charities. As part of the   effective-altruism(利他主义)   movements,   they   are   dedicated   to   helping   people   make   the biggest possible difference with their donations.

I love my music, and I love my headphones. But this year, the best gift I could get is to see as many people as possible giving generously to the most effective charities in the world.

1. What does the phrase “succumb to”(paragraph 3, line 5)mean?

A．be unaffected by	B．cease opposition to
C．be unconnected with	D．help to cause

2. Which of the following statements is TRUE according to the passage?

A．The author thinks that people giving luxury gifts to the ones they love should feel guilty.

B．The author believes that there is nothing more he wants because he grows up in very rich family.

C．The author argues that compared with those poor, an ordinary worker in the West doesn’t earn much.

D．The author says that some diseases which might be deadly in poor countries can be cured in developed countries.

3. Which of the following statements can you possibly infer from the passage?

A．People used to receive a letter of compliment from the receiver after they donated money to charities.

B．Giving smarter means that those who donate should know clearly how the charity works with the government.

C．Some charity programs fail to achieve much and seem to be less effective because they are not very practical.

D．The organizations devoted to finding the best charities aim to appeal to people to donate more money.

4. Which of the following is the best title of the passage?

A．Giving the basics of life to those in need

B．Giving best gifts to your beloved ones

C．Making the best gift count

D．The effective-altruism movement

10 . The number of devices you can talk to is multiplying—first it was your phone, then your car, and now you can boss around your appliances. Children are likely to grow up thinking everything is sentient, or at least interactive: One app developer told The Washington Post that after interacting with Amazon’s Alexa, his kid started talking to coasters. But even without chatty gadgets, research suggests that under certain circumstances, people anthropomorphize everyday products.

We personify things because we’re lonely. In one experiment, people who reported feeling isolated were more likely than others to give free will and consciousness to various devices. In turn, feeling attached to objects can reduce loneliness. When college students were reminded of a time they’d been excluded socially, they made up by lying about their number of friends on social networks—unless they were first given tasks that caused them to interact with their phone as if it had human qualities. The phone apparently stood in for real friends.

When we personify products, they become harder to cast off. After being asked to evaluate their car's personality, people were less likely to say they intended to replace it soon. And anthropomorphizing objects is associated with a tendency to accumulate.

So how do people assign characteristics to an object? In part, we rely on looks. On humans, wide faces are associated with dominance. Similarly, people rated cars, clocks, and watches with wide faces as more dominant-looking than narrow-faced ones, and preferred them—especially in competitive situations. An analysis of car sales in Germany found that cars with grilles(格栅) that were upturned like smiles and headlights that were slanted（倾斜的）like narrowed eyes sold best. The purchasers saw these features as increasing a car’s friendliness and aggressiveness, respectively. It’s little wonder so many companies use mascots（吉祥物）to bring brands to life. An analysis of 1,151 brand characters found symbols that were human or humanlike to be common.

Personifying products and brands can backfire, however. When a coffee maker was anthropomorphized in an ad (“I am Aroma” versus just “Aroma”)，consumers felt betrayed by increases in its price. Now that speech-enabled coffee makers are on the market, maybe the machines can sweet-talk their way back into consumers, hearts.

1. The word “anthropomorphize”（in paragraph 1) most probably means_________.

A．think highly of something	B．find a better way to rate something
C．see something as humans	D．use something as often as possible

2. For the college students, the interaction with the phone served as a reminder that_________ .

A．they were not lonely

B．the phone had human qualities

C．they needed real friends

D．the phone was not always necessary

3. The writer mentions an analysis of car sales in Germany in order to_________.

A．show that friendliness is better received than aggressiveness

B．highlight that a symbol looking like a smile appeals more to people

C．explain why so many companies use mascots to promote their brands

D．illustrate that people will judge something according to its appearance

4. What can be inferred from the last paragraph?

A．Consumers should know more about a product before it is on the market.

B．Products with a mascot are more likely to win consumers' hearts.

C．Increases in a produces price may be accepted with a good ad.

D．The personification of a product may not always work.