1 . NANNING - Every Monday morning in Mentun village, locals gather in their rural library to share books and they are often ______ by book lovers from nearby villages. The tennis court-sized library is now the place many locals ______ in the village.

The village's library was previously a small office, where about 3,000 books were ______, according to village official Tao Hanshan.

"There wasn't enough room in the library for visitors to read or ______ books, and villagers didn't want to come," says Tao.

The village was once stuck in ______, and most villagers were trying to make a living back then. They ______ had any interest in reading, according to Tao.

"The village had no extra ______ for the library project," he recalls, adding that, at the time, some of the library's books were also outdated.

As Chinese authorities urged efforts to provide better services and facilities in ______ libraries, these improved libraries have seen ______ numbers of visitors in recent years.

In April last year, a local bookstore donated 30,000 new books and supporting facilities to the library in Mentun village, which allowed the library to be significantly ______.

Ruan Wencheng, a villager in his 50s, has since become a regular library visitor.

"Last year, my family tried to raise silkworms, but we ______ due to a lack of silkworm knowledge," says Ruan. "Experts are not always in the village, so I now often come to the library to read and borrow books related to silkworm ______. I have learned a lot."

Tao says that the library now continuously adjusts its books according to the needs of villagers, and it is gaining ______. More and more people are coming.

To make libraries in the countryside more attractive, authorities have taken various measures in villages across the country. Take the library of the Nanzhan residential community in the Sanjiang Dong autonomous county of Guangxi as ______. All residents were relocated from poor and remote areas of the county, so more books for younger readers have been included in the library's collection.

The past few years have also witnessed the ______ of digitized rural libraries. Provincial and regional authorities across the country have been promoting digital reading in rural areas, using TV sets, mobile applications and online libraries.

"Many books are now available in digital libraries and I can read them on my TV," says Ruan. "My life has been enriched."

1.

A．joined

B．interviewed

C．bothered

D．criticised

2.

A．donate

B．repair

C．frequent

D．follow

3.

A．used

B．available

C．borrowed

D．deserted

4.

A．share

B．produce

C．remove

D．purchase

5.

A．poverty

B．construction

C．travel

D．quarrel

6.

A．carefully

B．freely

C．barely

D．thoughtfully

7.

A．freedom

B．money

C．peace

D．protection

8.

A．rural

B．private

C．metropolitan

D．primary

9.

A．unknown

B．increasing

C．possible

D．imaginary

10.

A．upgraded

B．overloaded

C．absorbed

D．transferred

11.

A．fought

B．fled

C．failed

D．emptied

12.

A．breeding

B．cycle

C．secrets

D．exchange

13.

A．popularity

B．profit

C．balance

D．choices

14.

A．the model

B．the evolution

C．before

D．an example

15.

A．break

B．ban

C．symbol

D．boom

2 . Academic learning is usually in the spotlight at school, but teaching elementary-age students “soft” skills like self-control and how to get along with others might help to keep at-risk kids out of criminal trouble in the future, a study finds.

Duke University researchers looked at a program called Fast Track, which was started in the 1990s for children who were identified by their teachers and parents to be at high risk for developing aggressive behavioral problems.

The students were randomized into two groups; half took part in the intervention (干预), which included a teacher-led curriculum, parent training groups, academic tutoring and lessons in self-control and social skills. The program, which lasted from first grade through tenth grade, reduced arrests and use of health and mental health services as the students aged through adolescence and young adulthood, as researchers explained in a separate study.

In the latest study, researchers looked at the “why” behind those previous findings. In looking at the data from nearly 900 students, the researchers found that about a third of the impact on future crime outcomes was due to the social and self-regulation skills the students learned from ages 6 to 11.

The academic skills that were taught as part of Fast Track turned out to have less of an impact on crime than did the soft skills, which are associated with emotional intelligence.

“The conclusion that we would make is that these soft skills should be emphasized even more in our education system and in our system of socializing children,” says Kenneth Dodge, a professor at Duke who was a principal investigator in this study as well as in the original Fast Track project.

Parents should do all they can to promote these skills with their children, Dodge says, as should education policymakers.

To Neil Bernstein, a psychologist in Washington, D.C., who specializes in child and adolescent behavior disorders, the researchers’ findings seem to match what he’s seen among the general public in working with children for more than 30 years. And while he says he agrees with the importance of teaching self-control and social skills, he would add empathy to the list, too.

“Empathy is what makes us aware of the feelings of others, and when you’re empathic, you’re much less likely to hurt someone else’s feelings,” says Bernstein, who serves on the advisory board for the Partnership for Drug-Free Kids. “Being in tune with how someone else feels might also make adolescents avoid bullying and other behaviors of concern,” Bernstein says.

While Bernstein thinks the study’s findings are meaningful and could potentially serve as a model for schools, he says that collectively getting a school system, teachers, parents and students all motivated enough to take part in an intervention like Fast Track is challenging.

1. Fast Track is aimed to ________.

A．improve children’s academic skills	B．help the children with behavior disorders
C．identify the problematic children	D．classify children into different groups

2. Neil Bernstein thinks that ________.

A．empathic children are more likely to have higher emotional intelligence

B．the findings of the studies disagree with what he has found in his work

C．empathy is equally essential in educating and socializing children

D．self-control and social skills are not as important as empathy

3. What can be learned from the passage?

A．It’s hard to involve everyone concerned in applying the findings.

B．Soft skills were not part of the education system in the past.

C．The findings are meaningless unless guided by Fast Track.

D．Adolescence is the most critical stage in a person’s life.

4. What does the passage mainly tell us?

A．Academic skills are paid too much attention at schools.

B．Academic skills have no influence on children’s behaviors.

C．Soft skills are much harder to develop than academic skills.

D．Soft skills play a significant role in preventing future crimes.

3 . Handwriting has existed for about 6,000 years. It’s one of our most important inventions. Without it, we wouldn’t be able to record knowledge or pass ideas from one generation to the next.

Most of us know, but often forget, that handwriting is not natural. It’s not like seeing or talking, which are what we are born with. In early America, only wealthy men and businessmen learned to write. A “good hand” became a sign of class and intelligence as well as morality. Most, meanwhile, signed legal documents with a mere “X” and the presence of a witness. Writing only spread to the masses in the 19th century, after schools began teaching handwriting.

________— left-handed students often had their arm tied tightly to their bodies, so they’d learn to write with the “correct” hand. In more modern times, you may remember spending hours learning the correct stroke (笔画), formation and spacing of upper- and lower-case letters.

But today, schools are shifting the focus to coursework in STEM — short for science, technology, engineering and mathematics. With limited hours and an increased pressure to meet higher standards, teachers are emphasizing technology and tablets and less of the written word.

Technology has threatened writing long before every man, woman and child carried a phone. It came with the invention of the typewriter, which standardized written communication, and that same argument will reappear as technology advances.

I don’t know if handwriting will ever die. But today, the growing emphasis on typing is having far-reaching effects. To get a glimpse of the future, just look at the youth. Instead of curly Qs or crazy Ls, kids are using emoticons such as ☺ or  to give a personal touch.

Typing is more democratic, too — it isn’t a complicated skill to master. Keyboards are changing the physical connection between writers and text, and people who can’t write by hand, like the blind, can now use tools to communicate only by touch.

I suppose it’s easy to grieve over the passing of one era (年代) into another. Sure, I’ll miss the writing of letters, and the beautiful and well-practiced signature written with a pen. And while some pathways in our brains will weaken with the decline of handwriting, we’ll develop new ones as we swipe (滑动) and double-click our way into the future.

1. Before the 19th century in America, ________.

A．only intelligent people could learn handwriting in schools

B．legal documents were signed with the presence of a witness

C．most of the people didn’t even know how to write their names

D．people would spend hours learning how to write every day

2. Which of the following sentences can best fit in the blank in the third paragraph?

A．Writing was a means of human communication

B．Writing has always been serious business

C．Schools tried different ways to force students to write

D．Young people worked hard to improve handwriting

3. We can learn from the passage that ________.

A．the invention of cellphones started the decline of handwriting

B．handwriting will disappear because young people write poorly

C．typing makes it possible for blind people to communicate

D．typing is comparatively easy to learn, even for the disabled

4. What does the writer imply in the last paragraph?

A．The era of handwriting is leaving and that of typing is coming.

B．Letters and signatures are gradually disappearing for sure.

C．The decline of writing has drawn much attention from the public.

D．Our brains will weaken with the decline of handwriting.

4 . Directions: Complete the following passage by using the words in the box. Each word can only be used once. Note that there is one word more than you need.

A. remained     B. cast     C. violent     D. familiar     E. classified     F. creativity G. overcoming     H. maintained     I. domestic     J. justice     K. originating

For as long as we have been able to stand upright and speak, we have told stories. They explained the mysteries of the world: birth, death, the seasons, day and night.

As humanity progressed, other types of stories developed. These were not concerned with the mysteries of the meaning of life but with everyday       1     matters. While they were more mundane (平淡的) in the issues they explored, such tales were no less impressive in their     2     of the supernatural.

These smaller, everyday stories, combining the world of humans with fantastical creatures and seemingly impossible plots are now     3     as fairy tales or folk tales. Such tales,     4    in pre-literate societies and told by the folk, capture the hopes and dreams of humanity. They convey messages of     5    difficulties, rising from rags to riches, and the benefits of courage.

Fairy tales are also extremely moral in their distinction between god and evil, right and wrong. Their     6     reflects the ancient tradition of an eye for an eye, and their punishments are ruthless and complete. Originally for adults, fairy tales can be     7    and filled with taboos. When the earliest recorded versions were made by collectors such as the Brothers Grimm, the adult content was     8    . But as Christian morality intervened (介入), the tales became child-friendly.

Despite these changes, it is apparent that fairy tales are still needed today, even for grown-ups. We consciously and unconsciously continue to tell them, despite advances in logic, science and technology.

The 20th anniversary of the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, for example, has been     9    like her life — as a fairy tale. Throughout the year, she has been commemorated (纪念) in articles with headings such as “a troubled fairy tale”, “beyond a fairy tale”, and “just another fairy tale.” While these articles have tried hard to deconstruct the     10     narrative, they have not been entirely successful.

7 . Directions: Complete the following passage by using the words in the box. Each word can only be used once.

A. physical   B. practical   C. popular   D. capable   AB. range   AC. blame AD. return   BC. concerns   BD. dropped   CD. shared   ABC. improvements

Born and raised in a digital age, today’s young people are generally tech savvy （技术娴熟的). But when it comes to basic life skills, they are less     1     than the older generation.

According to a recent study by YouGov, a UK-based market research firm, 69 percent of 18-24-olds in the UK have no idea how to bleed a radiator (暖气片换水). About 35 percent of them don’t know how to sew on a button, while about 11 percent don’t understand how to change a light bulb or iron clothes.

In fact, the problem is     2    by young people in the United States. According to a report by Forbes in 2014, most millennial (千禧一代) drivers don’t know how to check their tire pressure. Cooking is another basic life skill that has been     3     as millennials are much more likely to order food deliveries than previous generations.

Technology may be to     4     for this generational gap. “Skills at using phones and computers are the ones valued these days, and the     5     hands-on skills of yesteryear are now seen as functions that can be easily outsourced (外包),” Sandi Mann, senior lecturer in psychology at the University of Central Lancashire, UK, told the Mirror.

Indeed,     6     in technology have made young people unfamiliar with many basic life skills. For example, with GPS always at hand, young people have had no need to learn how to read     7     maps,

However, this change has raised     8     among many people. “If you have your master’s degree and you can’t live within your means or go home from your job and feed yourself a nutritious meal, you’re not a complete graduate,” Chris Moore, a professor from Brigham Young University, US, told HuffPost.

That’s why there’s an increasing call for the     9     of “home ec” in the US, short for home economics, which teaches basic life skills like cooking and how to do laundry. It was very     10    in the early 20^th century, but was later taken out of schools and universities because of budget cuts. But recently, home ec was reintroduced in a small number of schools and universities.