3 . It's   been a decade since the launch of Airbnb and Uber, now considered a part of life for many people booking trips and journeys. In that time, several boat sharing apps have been working hard to regulate how people rent boats or book activities on the water.

Many of them have a similar business model to Airbnb, where customers rent boats directly from owners. GetMyBoat is the market leader with over 130,000 boats. The founders had the idea when they were sailing in the Atlantic and noticed that large numbers of boats were unused.

The company has grown from having a presence primarily in the lop boating cities in the US to having boats available in 9 ,300 destinations across 184 countries. Since it first started, GetMyBoat has sent over 120,000 people out boating. This year, it is projecting to send 65 ,000 people out on the water, a dramatic increase from the 53 people who booked a boat in its first year back in 2013.

US competitors include Boatsetter, which has 25 ,000 boats available across the world. Parisian- based Click&Boal has 30,000 boats globally and in the Mediterranean, Samboat is a major player with 25 ,000 boats.

It's an obvious win for boat owners who are looking for ways to minimize （使最小化）the cost of owning a boat by renting it out. And modern technology means that the boat can find nearby customers without being registered to a specific boating agency as in the past.

Safety issues are very important. Boatbound failed after a customer lost a leg in an accident because the company didn't require that people hire captains with the boats, something that its competitors do.

The market is changing in that fewer people are seeking to buy their own boats, while the number of people who want to experience boating is growing. This new market is allowing people to search for and book water experiences that offer something new.

1. What impressed the founders of GetMyBoat during their sailing in the Atlantic?

A．The wide use of Airbnb.

B．The popularity of water activities.

C．The large quantity of unused boats.

D．The large number of boats in the world.

2. How does the author explain GetMyBoat's business development?

A．By listing numbers.

B．By making comparison.

C．By following the time order.

D．By referring to its founders' words.

3. Why did Boatbound go downhill?

A．Because the company couldn't find ways to minimize the cost of owning a boat.

B．Because the competitors lay too much pressure on Boatbound.

C．Because the company was in lack of modern technology.

D．Because of a safely accident resulting from the company's carelessness.

4. What contributes to the boat sharing trend?

A．Few people can afford their own boats.

B．More people want to experience boating.

C．Few boat owners refuse cost-cutting offers.

D．More people have free time to try new things.

4 . 阅读下面材料，在空白处填入 1 个适当的单词或括号内单词的正确形式。

A group of students from England, who are interested in archaeology, have come to the Zhoukoudian caves for a visit. An archaeologist     1     (warm) gives them a brief introduction     2     the life and habits of the earliest people there.

Early people lived in caves and they made fires in the centre of caves     3     (keep) themselves warm, cook the food and scare their enemies away, such as tigers and bears. They might have kept the fire burning all winter because layers of ash almost six metres thick have been excavated.

Early people did wear clothes made from animal skins. They used sharpened stone     4     (tool) to cut up animals and remove their skins. Smaller scrapers     5     (use) to remove the fat and meat from the skin. Finally using needles     6     (make) of animal bones, they would sew the pieces together.

Early people also paid attention to their     7     (appear) and wore necklaces. Some of the necklace beads were made of animal bones but some were made of shells,     8     told us that all the fields around Zhoukoudian caves used to be part of     9     large shallow lake. They moved around, following the herds of animals. They didn’t grow their own crops, but picked fruit when it     10     (ripen) and hunted animals.

5 . Tourism probably started in Roman times, Rich Romans visited friends and family who were working in another part of the Roman Empire. But when the Empire broke down, this kind of tourism stopped.

In the early 17th century, the idea of the “Grand Tour” was born. Rich young English people sailed across the English Channel. They visited the most beautiful and important European cities of the time, including Paris in France, and Rome and Venice in Italy. Their tours lasted for two to four years, and the tourists stayed a few weeks or months in each city. The “Grand Tour” was an important part of young people’s education—but only for the rich.

In the 18th century, tourism began to change. For example, people in the UK started to visit some towns, such as Bath to “take the waters”. They believed that the water there was good for their health. So large and expensive hotels were built in these towns.

In the 19th century, travel became much more popular and faster. When the first railways were built in the 1820s, it was easier for people to travel between towns, so they started to go for holidays by the sea. And some started to have holidays in the countryside as cities became larger, noisier and dirtier.

Traveling by sea also became faster and safer when the first steamships were built. People began to travel more to far-away countries.

The 20th century saw cars become more and more popular among ordinary people. Planes were made larger, so ticket prices dropped and more people used them. Thus tourism grew. In 1949, Russian journalist Vladimir Raitz started a company called Horizon Holidays. The company organizes everything—plane tickets, hotel rooms, even food—and tourists pay for it all before they leave home. The package tour and modern tourist industry was born.

The first travel agency in China was set up as early as 1949. But tourism did not take off until 1978. In 2002, the industry was worth 500 billion yuan and became an important part of China’s social development.

1. Which of the following is true?

A．The young men learned little from Grand Tour.

B．Tourism became faster and safer when the first railways were built in the 18th century.

C．More people chose ships for its cheap price.

D．In 2002, tourism became a significant part of China’s social development.

2. We can infer from the passage that ________ played the most important role in the tourism development.

A．transportation	B．education
C．money	D．people’s ideas

3. Modern tourism was born ________.

A．in 1978	B．in Roman times
C．in the early 17th century	D．in 1949

4. The underlined phrase “take off”(in the last paragraph) means ________.

A．plane rising into the air	B．bring down the prices
C．remove hats and clothes	D．develop very fast

6 . The University of Sheffield

Back to its origin

The University of Sheffield is a research university in the city of Sheffield in South Yorkshire, England. It is one of the original “red brick” universities, which are a group of top and famous old universities. The University of Sheffield was originally formed by the combination of three colleges. The Sheffield School of Medicine was founded in 1828, followed in 1879 by the opening of Firth College by Mark Firth, a steel manufacturer (制造商), to teach arts and science subjects. Firth College then helped to provide money for the opening of the Sheffield Technical School in 1884 to teach applied science. In 1897 the three institutions were joined together to form the University College of Sheffield, which in turn became the University of Sheffield by Royal Charter (特许) in 1905. This university is famous for its good education and boasts a number of Nobel Prize winners among its former students.

More information

System:   The University has five departments: Arts and Humanities; Engineering; Pure Science; Social Sciences;   Medicine,   Dentistry   and   Health.   Sheffield   also   has   many   research   programs   in   fields   including aerospace, environmental science, psychology, and biology.

City show: Sheffield is a lively city in the north of England. Sheffield is known as the greenest city in Europe because of its 2 million trees. As a result, there are many parks and woods throughout the city and beyond. Sheffield is the greenest city in England with 150 woodlands and 50 public parks within the city. Once, in Sheffield, the folk hero—Robin Hood lived in Sherwood Forest with 150 of his loyal friends. And Charlotte Bronte, the English writer noted for her novel Jane Eyre was born in Sheffield.

1. Sheffield is in the of England.

A．east	B．west
C．south	D．north

2. Which statement about the University of Sheffield is not TRUE?

A．It has a good fame for many great graduates.

B．It has a long history of more than 180 years.

C．It is one member of “red brick” universities.

D．It owns different departments and research programs.

3. What can we infer from the text?

A．Sheffield has very beautiful scenery.

B．Charlotte Bronte is an English writer.

C．Sheffield is the biggest city of England.

D．Robin Hood is a character in Jane Eyre.

7 . C
Napoleon, as a character in Tolstoy’sWar and Peace, is more than once described as having “fat little hands.’’ Nor does he “sit well or firmly on the horse.’’ He is said to be “undersized.’’ with“short legs’’ and a “round stomach”. The issue here is not the accuracy of Tolstoy’s description--it seems not that far off from historical accounts but his choice of facts：other things that could be said of the man are not said. We are meant to understand the difference of a warring commander in the body of a fat little Frenchman. Tolstoy’s Napoleon could be any man wandering in the streets and putting a little of powdered tobacco up his nose—and that is the point.
It is a way the novelist uses to show the moral nature of a character. And it turns out that, as Tolstoy has it, Napoleon is a crazy man. In a scene in Book Three ofWar and Peace, the wars having reached the critical year of 1812,Napoleon receives a representative from the Tsar(沙皇), who has come with peace terms. Napoleon is very angry：doesn’t he have more army? He, not the Tsar, is the one to make the terms. He will destroy all of Europe if his army is stopped. “That is what you will have gained by engaging me in the war!” he shouts. And then, Tolstoy writes, Napoleon “walked silently several times up and down the room, his fat shoulders moving quickly.’’
Still later, after reviewing his army amid cheering crowds, Napoleon invites the shaken Russian to dinner. “He raised his hand to the Russian’s…face,” Tolstoy writes, and “taking him by the ear pulled it gently….” To have one’s ear pulled by the Emperor was considered the greatest honor and mark of favor at the French court. “Well, well, why don’t you say anything?’’ said he, as if it was ridiculous in his presence to respect any one but himself, Napoleon.
Tolstoy did his research, but the composition is his own.
1. Tolstoy’s description of Napoleon in War and Peaceis _________.

A．far from the historical facts	B．based on the Russian history
C．based on his selection of facts	D．not related to historical details

2. Napoleon was angry when receiving the Russian representative because _________.

A．he thought he should be the one to make the peace terms

B．the Tsar's peace terms were hard to accept

C．the Russians stopped his military movement

D．he didn’t have any more army to fight with

3. What did Napoleon expect the Russian representative to do?

A．To walk out of the room in anger.	B．To show agreement with him.
C．To say something about the Tsar.	D．To express his admiration.

4. Tolstoy intended to present Napoleon as a man who is _________.

A．ill-mannered in dealing with foreign guests	B．fond of showing off his iron will
C．determined in destroying all of Europe	D．crazy for power and respect

5. What does the last sentence of the passage imply?

A．A writer doesn’t have to be faithful to his findings.

B．A writer may write about a hero in his own way.

C．A writer may not be responsible for what he writes.

D．A writer has hardly any freedom to show his feelings.