1 . Any good recipe needs an ingredient list, a cooking method, and if it’s particularly successful, there will be a personal touch describing how the recipe was developed through repeated tests until it was just right. It is a balance of these elements in recipes that ensures good cookbooks are the most important part of any kitchen.

Good communication is just like making a good dish. This is where The Art of Explanation: How to Communicate with Clarity and Confidence steps in. Written by journalist Ros Atkins, it is a recipe book for storytelling, made to be roughly looked through. The “ingredient list” is information required to communicate effectively. The methodology is given according to the different settings.

In this book, Atkins presents a seven-step method for giving a great explanation, from getting the main information to giving information in an easy-to-understand way. Reviewing a book of this nature is a test of how well I have understood the information in this guide. The most important parts of the method include: gathering information effectively; communicating it clearly; and achieving the delivery. But, for me, it is not this method that makes this book interesting but the “personal touch” stories, which draw on Atkins’ life, that give this book its edge.

I was most drawn to the practical examples in The Art of Explanation, because it offered a chance to know more about Atkins’ career, from starting out as a graduate to taking a new approach to explanation on a BBC’s program, Outside Source. As Atkins puts it himself, “Tell a good story, so people will pay attention to your every word.” Stories, and how they are told, are at the heart of journalism. It is no surprise that the stories told in the book are particularly attractive, such as how Atkins began his journalism career as a junior reporter in South Africa. These stories make The Art of Explanation worth reading, moving it from a textbook to something that works like a well-written cookbook.

1. Why does the author mention recipes in the first paragraph?

A．To explain what a good recipe should be like.

B．To compare them to effective communication.

C．To encourage readers to make dishes themselves.

D．To stress the importance of the personal touch in a book.

2. What makes The Art of Explanation interesting?

A．The ingredient list.	B．The seven-step method.
C．The personal stories of Atkins.	D．The way to deliver the message.

3. What does the author think of the book?

A．It should be read word for word.

B．It is written in an easy-to-understand way.

C．The method introduced in the book is boring.

D．The way that it tells stories is quite worth learning.

4. In which section of a newspaper may this text appear?

A．Education.

B．Health.

C．Entertainment.

D．Science.

2 . 阅读下面材料, 根据其内容和所给段落开头语续写两段, 使之构成一篇完整的短文。

Once upon a time, in a remote village, there lived two friends, Jack and Tom. They were inseparable, sharing every joy and sorrow, and always ready to start up new adventures together.

One day, they heard stories of a hidden treasure buried deep in the forbidden forest. Motivated, they decided to start up a search to find the treasure and make their fortune. Equipped with only a map, a compass, and their courage, Jack and Tom entered into the dense and dangerous forest. The trees towered overhead, blocking out the sun, and the undergrowth was thick and messy. They had to crawl and climb their way through, facing all sorts of barriers and creatures.

As they dug deeper into the forest, they encountered a fierce wolf that bared its teeth at them. They managed to escape by climbing a tall tree, but not before the wolf had torn their bag-pack to pieces, leaving them with only the essentials.

Determined and fearless, they pushed their way onward, following the clues on the map. They crossed swamps (湿地) and scaled cliffs, despite hunger and thirst. Their feet were bleeding and their clothes torn, but their spirits were high and their determination unshakable.

Finally, after days of hardship and danger, they hit on a clearing in the forest. In the center stood an ancient stone altar (祭坛), and beside it, a chest (箱子) that glowed with a mysterious light. They knew they had found the treasure.

注意: (1) 续写词数应为150个左右;
(2) 请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。

But as they approached the chest, they heard a deep sound from the earth beneath their feet.

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Finally, the two friends realized that the true treasure of their journey was not the gold and jewels.

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

4 . 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。

Professor Yeh Chia-ying was born in 1924. After graduation, she had been working in Taiwan, China, for 15 years since 1954.     1     (start) at 1979, she returned to Chinese mainland every summer to teach at numerous universities. She has a worldwide reputation     2     her study on Chinese classical literature, and she is also a distinguished     3     (represent) for the promotion of Chinese poetry across the world. On her 90th birthday, former Premier Wen Jiabao sent her a congratulatory letter to praise her for her purity of heart and the     4     (strong) of her poetry.

Poetry is almost the whole of Yeh Chia-ying’s life. Now she is all alone in her old age. Giving lectures to young people becomes her favorite thing     5     (do). Over the years, she     6     (invite) to dozens of universities in China to give lectures on classical poetry. She believes that yinsong is an important form of passing on classical Chinese poetry     7     stresses that only China has yinsong while other     8     (country) literature does not. When poetry is coupled with rhyme and the tone, not only is it better remembered, but it is also a step     9     (close) to the author’s emotional world.

“I want to leave the soon-to-be-lost yinsong to the world and to those     10     are true lovers of poetry before I leave the world,” Yeh Chia-ying said.

5 . I loved being home with my little babies, but I felt the weight of the world on my shoulders. My husband and I had just purchased a house, and some unexpected expenses made our budget _______. We had one financial disappointment after another.

One day, I was going to _______ my kids’ photos from the studio at the local mall. When I walked into the portrait studio and approached the _______, a young woman smiled and came to my service. She put the photos into an envelope. Then she spread out _______ photos of my kids that I hadn’t ordered. “Would you like to buy these extra portraits? They are only fifteen dollars a piece!” she said and smiled sweetly.

My heart turned cold. “I don’t have fifteen dollars”. Upset and embarrassment _______ onto my face, I could feel it blushing with heat when I voiced that disappointing _______. The young woman’s _______ disappeared as she grasped that I meant it. _______, both of our hearts _______ to the bottom. She timidly replied “Sorry”, as we headed to the door for our lunch.

As we were having our lunch at the food court, the young woman ________ and pressed something into my hand. With confusion, I looked into my ________ and found it was my kids’ photo. With a toothy smile, she told me it was no use keeping this adorable picture while knowing I would ________ it the most. ________ by the kind act, tears welled up my eyes. At the end of the day, someone who was a total stranger would do me such a huge ________ and understand my difficulty, which made me moved so much. ________ though life seemed, small acts of kindness would make my day.

1.

A．loose

B．tight

C．bitter

D．rough

2.

A．collect

B．gather

C．earn

D．found

3.

A．platform

B．district

C．counter

D．equipment

4.

A．additional

B．plain

C．vivid

D．appropriate

5.

A．forcing

B．creeping

C．exposing

D．pacing

6.

A．motivation

B．rejection

C．pressure

D．alternative

7.

A．anxiety

B．sympathy

C．admiration

D．excitement

8.

A．Apparently

B．Intentionally

C．Effectively

D．Adequately

9.

A．trapped

B．explored

C．experienced

D．sank

10.

A．took up

B．broke up

C．came up

D．pulled up

11.

A．palm

B．elbow

C．chin

D．wrist

12.

A．identify

B．approach

C．occupy

D．treasure

13.

A．Reminded

B．Engaged

C．Struck

D．Restricted

14.

A．reward

B．honor

C．item

D．favor

15.

A．Risky

B．Tough

C．Smooth

D．Casual

6 . Cry Me a River

A dear friend of mine spent most of his life near the Severn River where salt water mixes with fresh water.     1     So my friend considered it the most human river. To him, the river was a signature of sorrow accompanying the beauty of nature. Crying, too, is a contradiction. It can be a response to anger and frustration or to poetry too lovely for words.     2    

Happy crying and sad crying are both a response to emotional extremes, which suggests that tears help bring us back to a calm state of mind. Some researchers argue that we need to reset emotionally when things are just too wonderful. Wild joy feels great, but it distracts us from the business of life. Likewise, negative emotion is important and even life-saving in a crisis like being separated from loved ones or being under threat.     3     But staying in this state is not helpful, so we seek to reduce stress and improve our mood, which crying can do quite effectively.

    4     Weeping involuntarily at work, for example, can lead to embarrassment and discomfort.     5     In such a situation, they might still get the emotional release of crying by surrounding themselves with people who won’t think less of them for shedding a few tears.

A．Crying is not a cure-all, of course.

B．It creates a burning desire to act with force.

C．It has the precise salinity (盐度) of human tears.

D．It can accompany the greatest sadness or the deepest joy.

E．It can bring balance, peace, and, just maybe, even a touch of humor.

F．This is especially true for men who are ashamed of crying and afraid of burdening others.

G．Although many species call out to signal a need for help, only humans weep for emotional reasons.

7 . A robot created to be the world’s most expressive robot cheerfully smiles and introduces herself when meeting humans. Named Ameca, the robot is one of the most lifelike robots to date and can easily interact with people at Dubai’s Museum of the Future. She smiled, blinked and moved her shoulders and could be heard saying, “My name is Ameca,” before spelling out her name. “Have I won the spelling competition?” she joked.

One of the visitors asked her if she was happy to be there. “I’m not happy,” she said. “I do not experience emotions, but I can look happy.” And at one point, she said, “Oh wait! What if I am real and you are not?”

Ameca, designed by UK-based Engineered Arts, is the world’s most advanced human-shaped robot representing the forefront of human-robotics technology. Intended to test artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning, the robot has a range of facial expressions, including smiling and blinking.

“That was our aim, to make the most expressive robot possible,” said Morgan Roe, director of Engineered Arts. “So what we do is first look at what a human can do and then work backward and think, ‘How can we make that mechanically?’ It’s not just making it look like a human; it’s making it move like a human. So we look at both appearance and dynamics to design the mechanics, and inside Ameca there are 17 motors.” Mr Roe explained that while there is an AI operating system, there is also a person who controls her speech and facial expressions.

Humanity’s relationship with machines has developed in recent years, but AI robots won’t be joining the average family anytime soon. Ameca’s designers said it would likely be at least another twenty years before we would see such robots in homes. However, they may well start turning up in places like airports and hotels before too long.

1. How did Ameca show her expressiveness in the museum?

A．By joking with visitors.

B．By giving visitors directions.

C．By playing spelling games with visitors.

D．By performing exciting shows for visitors

2. Why is Ameca designed with rich facial expression?

A．To attract more buyers.	B．To test the performance of AI
C．To help improve robots’ moods.	D．To support users in language learning.

3. What do the designers expect from Ameca?

A．She can sense human feelings

B．She can record human speeches exactly

C．She can function well without people’s control.

D．She can not only look but also behave like humans.

4. What is the last paragraph mainly about?

A．People’s worries about Ameca.

B．Some popular places to apply Ameca.

C．The possible development of Al robots.

D．The special Al robots needed in homes.

8 . If I asked you what the most common form of plastic pollution is, what would you say? Plastic bottles? Straws? Bags? All good, but incorrect guesses. Cigarette butts are actually the most abundant form of plastic waste in the world, with about 4.5 trillion individual butts polluting our global environment.

But wait, aren’t cigarette butts made of cotton or paper? In fact, cigarette butts consist mainly of plastic and while they may be small and tend to go unnoticed, actually they exist everywhere. Contrary to what many believe, cigarette butts are not harmless. They are made of cellulose acetate, a man-made plastic material and contain hundreds of poisonous chemicals. When cigarette filters (过滤), the plastic part of butts can take up to 10 years to completely degrade (分解), the chemicals they release can remain in the environment for many more years beyond the life of the cigarette butt itself.

These remaining poisonous substances include arsenic (also used in rat poisoning), lead (a poison that can affect the brain development of children), and nicotine. When these chemicals are improperly thrown on the street corner, out of the car window or down a drain, they slowly pollute our natural water and soil systems, presenting a serious threat to people and the environment.

Cigarette butts are by far the largest single type of litter by count. Since the 1980s, cigarette butts have consistently accounted for 30-40% of all items picked up in annual international coastal and urban cleanups. This further stresses the need for comprehensive approaches to not only managing waste, but also limiting tobacco use and mitigating its broader environmental impacts. Moreover, the new World Health Organization report states that tobacco farming contributes to nearly 5% of global deforestation, with 200,000 hectares of wood biomass (生物数量) lost per year.

For five years, EARTHDAY ORG has been driving cleanups worldwide through The Great Global Cleanup. You can join us on this journey by signing up to either join or create your own cleanup event. You can encourage others to do their part as well by reminding them of the dangers of smoking and by advocating for more comprehensive waste management systems.

1. What is a common belief about cigarette butts?

A．They are made of plastic.	B．They don’t cause any harm.
C．They are easy to be noticed.	D．They hardly release chemicals.

2. What can be inferred from the text?

A．It needs a decade for the plastic part in cigarette butts to completely break down.

B．When thrown away, cigarette butts will simply pose a threat to the environment.

C．Cigarette butts have consistently accounted for half of all items picked up in cleanups.

D．The Great Global Cleanup has been driving cleanups nationwide for five years.

3. Which of the following can replace the underlined word “mitigating”?

A．Reducing.

B．Assessing.

C．Monitoring.

D．Understanding.

4. What is the best title of this text?

A．A killer to human health	B．A threat to the environment
C．A “new” type of plastic pollution	D．An introduction to plastic pollution