1 . When I first moved to China in 1998, I thought I would impress my class by using some Chinese in my speech about American weddings (婚礼). I told them everyone brings a gift to the wedding for the couple. As soon as I said this, all of the students looked surprised. I knew I had said something wrong. I realized that instead of telling them that everybody brings gifts to the hun li for the couple, I had said people bring gifts for them at the li hun!
I get laughs from some of my students because I often make mistakes and my Chinese sounds strange at times. But I tell them that sometimes their English is really strange too.
One asks, “What are you like to do in your free time?” And the other answers, “I very like basketball.” I find that even good English speakers make such mistakes. The second is by far the most common mistake I have heard among Chinese English speakers. It is a result of first thinking in Chinese and then translating each word in the sentence into English. This, of course, makes some Chinese people’s English sound strange.
“We should get off the car here,” a student told me. My school had asked two students to show me around the city by taxi. In English countries, we “get off” a bike, bus, or train. However, when we leave a car, we say “get out of the car”. Perhaps the student had learned “get off” means xia in Chinese and he thought the phrase (短语) could be followed by any means of transportation. To avoid such mistakes, you should take collocations (搭配) seriously. Only learning vocabulary and grammar is not enough.
Some of my students sound more like a book or machine than a human. Perhaps they have gotten used to depending on books. You can also read English books out loud or use a CD, but you need the real thing. If you have a chance to hear a native speaker from an Englishspeaking country, practice repeating what you hear. They can teach you how to have a conversation.
1. Why did the students feel surprised?| A．American weddings are difficult to organize. |
| B．The author’s Chinese was as fluent as Chinese. |
| C．The author used a completely wrong Chinese word. |
| D．Everyone must bring a gift to an American wedding. |
| A．Spelling mistakes. | B．Direct translation. |
| C．Cultural difference. | D．Wrong pronunciations. |
| A．He might be poor at vocabulary. |
| B．He might mistake “car” for “taxi”． |
| C．He might know very little about the city. |
| D．He might pay little attention to collocations. |
| A．Common mistakes made by Chinese English learners. |
| B．Differences between Chinese and American culture. |
| C．Suggestions on improving conversational skills. |
| D．His experience of learning English. |
2 . We’ve all been there: in a lift, in line at the bank or on an airplane, surrounded by people who are, like us, deeply focused on their smartphones or, worse, struggling with the uncomfortable silence.
What’s the problem? It’s possible that we all don’t have enough conversational ability. It’s more likely that none of us start a conversation because it’s embarrassing and challenging, or we think it’s annoying and unnecessary. But the next time you find yourself among strangers, consider that small talk is worth the trouble. Experts say it’s a valuable social practice that leads to big benefits.
It is easy to consider small talk as unimportant, but we can’t forget that deep relationships wouldn’t even exist (存在) if there weren’t casual conversations. Small talk is the grease (润滑剂) for social communication, says Bernardo Carducci, director of the Shyness Research Institute at Indiana University Southeast. “Almost every great love story and each big business deal begins with small talk,” he explains. “The secret to successful small talk is learning how to connect with others, not just communicate with them.”
In a 2014 study, Elizabeth Dunn, professor of psychology at UBC, invited people to a coffee shop. One group was asked to interact with its waiter, the other, to speak only when necessary. The results showed that those who chatted with their server reported obviously higher positive feelings and a better coffee shop experience. “It’s not that talking to the waiter is better than talking to your husband,” says Dunn. “But interactions with peripheral (边缘的) members of our social network is important for our happiness and health.”
Dunn believes that people who reach out to strangers feel a greater sense of belonging, a link with others. Carducci believes developing such a sense of belonging starts with small talk. “Small talk is the basis of good manners,” he says.
1. What does the underline word “casual” in paragraph 3mean?| A．Addictive | B．Public | C．Personal | D．Informal |
| A．Showing good manners. | B．Making business deals. |
| C．Focusing on a topic. | D．Keeping in contact with other people. |
| A．It raises people’s confidence. | B．It makes people feel good. |
| C．It improves family relationships. | D．It matters as much as a formal talk. |
| A．Conversation Counts | B．Ways of Making Small Talk |
| C．Importance of Small Talk | D．Uncomfortable Silence |
1. What does the man do?
| A．An animal keeper. | B．A zoo manager. | C．A park cleaner. |
| A．A lion escaped into the zoo. |
| B．A lion escaped from the zoo. |
| C．A hurricane blew a lion away. |
| A．In the zoo. | B．In the police station. | C．In a lady’s garden. |
| A．Eating in the bushes. | B．Sleeping in the garden. | C．Playing in the park. |
1. How many people spend their holiday at home now?
| A．40%. | B．50%. | C．90%. |
| A．In big cities. | B．On the beach. | C．In a foreign country. |
| A．Great pleasure of travel. |
| B．Changes in spending vacation. |
| C．Costs of different travels. |
When you are surfing the Internet, you can be anyone or anything. Avatars are a key part while people use the Internet to communicate. and express themselves. The first simple 2D avatars
6 . Keeping animals safe on the road
Roadkill is not a rare sight when driving down most highways and sometimes also on roadways in cities.
They chose Nanjing as the study subject, where there are more than 9,700 kilometers of paved roads. A total of nine roads were chosen for the research, including three national highways.
| A．You may not feel good about seeing roadkill |
| B．The object is to educate people about road safety |
| C．The length of the roads combined was over 224.27 kilometers |
| D．It refers to animals being hit by cars or other vehicles by accident. |
| E．Cats, dogs and blackbirds were the three commonly killed animals |
| F．In the past, research in China focused on roadkill in nature reserves |
| G．Roadkill incidents are more likely to happen in November and January |
7 . For those of us who grew up watching Star Trek, exploring space has been about discovering strange new worlds. And there are plenty of worlds to explore in time, but we still need major technological advancements to reach planets that are light years away.
What we are doing in space today is providing unbelievable benefits right now, right here on Earth. From space, we can monitor, manage and care for our planet. Satellite-based sensors show us the short- and long-term effects of human activity on our environment. Many companies are using their interest in space to help solve problems here, from using hyperspectral imaging(高光谱成像), which enable us to map vegetation(植被) and rain forests, to microsatellites that provide global connectivity for the network of things.
My company, OneWeb, is focusing on what I believe is one of the world’s most important issues: the need for equal access to the Internet. The Internet has become our economic lifeblood. And yet, nearly half of the world’s population doesn’t have Internet access. Space is playing a key role in bridging this digital divide. OneWeb is launching 1,980 satellites to help bring Internet access to people everywhere, and our first production satellites are already flying in space and have shown very high download speeds.
Fiber and cable Internet access technologies already cover most financially viable(可行的) major cities. Similarly, these regions will also be the first to be served with 5G. Poor communities are the last to get connected, and without connectivity, those communities have no chance to lift themselves from poverty. OneWeb’s satellites will reach every community in the world and enable equal access to the Internet for the world’s less developed places.
Fifty years from the day when man first walked on the moon, we are still only approaching the possible. There will be tens of thousands of new satellites, space stations and factories in the coming years to bring advancements in communications, scientific research, monitoring the earth, exploring space and more. This is exciting, but we must take action carefully.
1. What is the second paragraph mainly about?| A．Benefits space exploration can bring to us. |
| B．Problems space exploration leads to. |
| C．Steps of space exploration requires. |
| D．Equipment space exploration needs. |
| A．Increase download speeds. |
| B．Narrow the gap in Internet learning. |
| C．Help people set up and maintain a website. |
| D．Enable people to make use of the Internet equally. |
| A．More than six decades ago, man first walked on the moon. |
| B．More than half of the world’s people have no access to the Internet. |
| C．OneWeb’s satellites will make it possible for most people to be served with 5G. |
| D．Without the Internet, poor communities can hardly help themselves out of poverty. |
| A．The risks of furthering space exploration. |
| B．The value of setting up space stations. |
| C．The way we could monitor our earth. |
| D．The features of microsatellites. |
| A．He made a video illegally. |
| B．He broke the traffic rules. |
| C．He damaged the traffic lights. |
9 . In January, Rio Verde Foothills, an Arizona desert community, found itself in a bad situation: The water supply was cut off.
The community is made up of about 2,000 homes. For years, many in the community have depended on water trucked in from the nearby city of Scottsdale. which gets its water from the Colorado River. But the river is drying up Scottsdale says it has to save water for its own. Now people in Rio Verde Foothills must find a solution.
Some experts say the solution is to bring water from outside of the state. One idea is to build a desalination (海水淡化) plant on Mexico’s Sea of Cortez. The plant would take away salt from the water and supply that water to Arizona through a 200-mile pipeline (管道). Supporters say this could provide fresh water for about ten years.
Environmentalists say the desalination project would harm the planet in several ways. Some of the salt taken out of the Sea of Cortez might end up back in the ocean, harming wildlife. The pipeline would be harmful to land where people and animals live. And the desalination process uses lots of power. This would create greenhouse gases, which are causing the conditions that have led to Arizona’s water problems.
Margaret Wilder, a professor at the. University of Arizona, says the government should focus on cutting water demand (需求) rather than increasing supply. That would mean taking water-saving measures and controlling how many homes are built in the desert. “We need to start asking questions when people present us with unproblematic and carefree solutions to the water problem,’ says Wilder.
People in Tucson, Arizona, have found a solution to the city’s water shortage: rainwater Thousands of households are collecting it and using it for cooking, for drinking, and in their gardens.
1. Why did Scottsdale cut off the water supply to Rio Verde Foothills?| A．The locals wasted plenty of fresh water | B．Mexico’s, Sea of Cortez has been, polluted |
| C．The water level in Colorado River has fallen. | D．More and more people move to the community. |
| A．It could improve people’s well-being. | B．It won’t solve the water shortage. |
| C．It can’t meet the community’s needs. | D．It might be bad for the environment |
| A．Increasing the water supply. | B．Taking action to save water. |
| C．Making the most of rainwater. | D．Planting trees, on the river bank |
| A．A newspaper. | B．A guidebook. | C．A diary. | D．A novel. |
10 . Have you heard of the term “tweenager”? It’s a slang (俚语) word used in the UK to describe children between about ten and twelve years old. They are between being a junior and a teenager. Why do the press and media refer to kids in this way?
Well, more and more companies now create products and services for tweenagers. They seem to tell us that tweenagers must have more money, freedom and influence upon their parents than they’ve ever had before.
Most children in the UK today get more pocket money than kids did a decade ago. Despite problems happening fairly often and regularly in the economy, parents generally have more money to give than before, since they are having fewer children on average than in the past. In addition, a higher divorce (离婚) rate in the UK makes parents try to compensate by buying presents for their children. It’s a bad habit for both parents and children to get into, but parents are under constant pressure from commercial marketing and the requests of their children.
You may wonder how tweenagers have more freedom than previous generations. Well, UK children today are very media- and computer-literate. They have access to much more information about life and the world. They may have experienced a lot in life as well. With such sophistication (老于世故) at such a young age, it’s no wonder tweenagers are able to influence their parents.
Now UK tweenagers are also very fashion-conscious and concerned about their images. In a world of television programs that promise immediate success and fame at a young age, some people think it’s extremely important to look fashionable.
So what does tweenage fashion look like? It’s lots of brightly colored materials, particularly pink, and usually plain, not patterned. There are plenty of bows, necklaces and bracelets, too.
But can it really be healthy for us to encourage kids to be like adults at a young age? Are we stealing childhoods in return for a bit of profit? Well, the UK government is certainly concerned, and for that reason has strict laws preventing companies from clearly and openly marketing their products and services to children.
1. What is the use of the first paragraph?| A．To explain a concept and bring up the topic. |
| B．To tell the difference between a junior and a teenager. |
| C．To show why people in the UK prefer to use the slang. |
| D．To state how the slang came into being and make a summary. |
| A．Because children education is becoming more important. |
| B．Because they are more affordable to tweenagers. |
| C．Because it is better to study music from an early age. |
| D．Because more companies are creating products and services. |
| A．Keep company. | B．Reward. | C．Make up. | D．Motivate. |
| A．They are afraid of being laughed at by others. |
| B．They have less freedom than previous generations. |
| C．They wish to become successful and famous quickly. |
| D．They are encouraged to be like adults at a young age. |
