1 . Imagine ordering something online. Then, imagine that item being delivered in just a few minutes by a drone. Believe it or not, this may be probable in the near future. Drones have been used by militaries since the 1970s. They refer to them as unmanned aerial vehicles, or UAVs. However, over the last two decades, drone technology has advanced rapidly and is increasingly available to the public. In fact, drones have already started doing work in many different industries. But is this going to be a good thing or a bad thing?
On the plus side, drones can do many things faster and more efficiently than people. For example, during an emergency, drones can quickly locate injured people by using special cameras. They can also distribute food, water, and medical supplies to people in hard-to-reach or dangerous places.
Drones are not just flying vehicles. Some travel on land and sea, and some even work on farms! Selfdriving tractors are being developed to help out farmers, and flying drones may soon be used to spread seeds. As for the sea, an autonomous sailboat was recently launched to collect data about the ocean and atmosphere.
Drones can truly help people in many ways. They are starting to be used in a wide variety of applications, from healthcare to mining. Even though drones can be very useful, some people believe drones also have some major problems that should be taken into consideration.
One of the biggest concerns about drones is privacy. What if a drone enters your house and takes a look around? Depending on local regulations, there may not be laws preventing drones from doing this. Drone technology is changing so quickly that it’s hard for governments to keep up!
Drones are often used to fly around and collect data. This data is then uploaded to the cloud. Unfortunately, hackers are sometimes able to steal the data when it is being uploaded. Flying drones can also pose a danger to aircraft. Many airports have reported close calls with drones.
Drones are not perfect. In the wrong hands, they can be used for criminal purposes, and even as weapons! However, most people think the positives of drone technology outweigh the negatives. Thus, it is likely that you will be seeing more and more drones in the near future. What is your opinion on drones? Do you think they are worth having around?
1. According to the passage, drones can be applied in many areas EXCEPT that______.| A．drones can quickly deliver the items you order online to your home. |
| B．drones, equipped with special cameras, can detect the location of the injured. |
| C．flying drones can be developed to help farmers spread seeds on a farm. |
| D．drones can unlock the keys to doors and enter the house in case of emergency. |
| A．They may help hackers collect confidential data and upload the information to them. |
| B．Airplanes on course may narrowly escaped being crashed into flying drones. |
| C．They may destroy the food supplies before sending them to people in inaccessible areas. |
| D．Drones can be granted permission from the local government to access private homes. |
| A．Drones to the rescue | B．Drones in fashion |
| C．Drones: the flying delivery | D．Drones on the road to ruin |
2 . My past students are starting to organize a scientific conference for my 60th birthday to be held about a year from now. Their gesture reminded me of Rabbi Hanina’s words: “I have learned much from my teachers, more from my colleagues and the most from my students.”
We all started as students. Just as kids bump into things as they’re learning to
For example, the first advice I received from my postdoctoral mentor was to develop specialized skills and focus them on a
Keeping this in mind, I encourage my students to think broadly and
It is customary to consider a student’s raw potential as a stand-alone commodity whose value can be
As chair of the Harvard astronomy department for almost a decade, I witnessed many examples of students who were initially very slow to make progress but blossomed academically as soon as they selected a different advisor and a new topic for their Ph. D. A good mentor
On the one hand, mentors get a kick from Oscar Wilde’s insight: “Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery...” But on the other hand, they should allow students to break free from the
| A．process | B．explore | C．reform | D．include |
| A．Conflicts | B．Negotiations | C．Approvals | D．Mysteries |
| A．play | B．deny | C．access | D．change |
| A．commercial | B．strange | C．narrow | D．broad |
| A．Therefore | B．Additionally | C．However | D．Consequently |
| A．failure | B．obligation | C．ignorance | D．breakthrough |
| A．independently | B．mutually | C．temporarily | D．undoubtedly |
| A．embraced | B．evaluated | C．contained | D．imposed |
| A．if | B．lest | C．while | D．unless |
| A．crucial | B．elaborate | C．unpredictable | D．inaccessible |
| A．Within | B．Given | C．Without | D．Due to |
| A．spots | B．hides | C．applies | D．recalls |
| A．argument | B．interaction | C．criticism | D．interview |
| A．beaten | B．broken | C．chaotic | D．fresh |
| A．mentors | B．imitations | C．fortune | D．mistakes |
根据以上现象，思考自己认同哪一方？以“Getting a Pet：From Breeders or Shelters？”为题，写一篇120-150字的文章。
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4 . Recently, as the British doctor Lord Robert Winston took a train from London to Manchester, he found himself becoming steadily enraged. A woman had picked up her phone and begun a loud conversation, which would last an unbelievable hour. Furious, Winston began to tweet about the woman. He took her picture and sent it to his more than 40,000 followers.
When the train arrived at its destination, Winston bolted. He’d had enough of the woman’s rudeness. But the press were now waiting for her on the platform.
Winston’s tale is something of a microcosm of our age of increasing rudeness, fueled by social media. What can we do to fix this?
Studies have shown that rudeness spreads quickly and virally, almost like the common cold. Just witnessing rudeness makes it far more likely that we, in turn, will be rude later on. Once infected, we are more aggressive, less creative and worse at our jobs.
We must have the guts to call it out, face to face. We must say, “Just stop.” For Winston, that would have meant approaching the woman, telling her that her conversation was frustrating other passengers and politely asking her to speak more quietly or make the call at another time.
We must instead combat rudeness head on. When we see it occur in a store, we must step up and say something. If it happens to a colleague, we must point it out. We must defend strangers in the same way we’d defend our best friends. But we can do it with grace, by handling it without a trace of aggression and without being rude ourselves.
| A．Think twice before using mobile phones in elevators, museums, churches or other indoor public places — especially enclosed spaces. |
| B．Because once rude people can see their actions through the eyes of others, they are far more likely to end that strain themselves. |
| C．The embarrassment caused by the tweets made the woman improve her behavior. |
| D．The rage and injustice we feel at the rude behavior of a stranger can drive us to do odd things. |
| E．The only way to end a strain is to make a conscious decision to do so. |
| F．When they gleefully showed her Lord’s messages, she used just one word to describe Winston’s actions: rude. |
5 . University students have wasted nearly £1bn on empty rooms in flat shares and halls of residence that they have been unable to use because of coronavirus restrictions this
The average student has so far paid £1, 621 in rent for empty rooms for which they have not received a
Two in five (43%) respondents said they had spent under three months on campus, while nearly half (46%) would have made
Hillary Gyebi-Ababio, the National Union of Students’ vice-president for higher education, said: “Students have been consistently
Students’ anger with high rents, which Save the Student estimates take up three-quarters of their maintenance loans at an average of £146 per week,
There has been a patchy response from universities, private halls of residence and landlords, with some
On 14 February, 92 students at the School of Oriental and African Studies became the first to
The government has so far responded to students’ financial concerns with £70m in additional hardship funding, a figure that falls short of more
Most students have been asked to remain at the address where they spent Christmas-in many cases their family homes-during lockdown. Plans for their
| A．unpredictable | B．educational | C．academic | D．sentimental |
| A．refund | B．deposit | C．pension | D．commission |
| A．cautious | B．inexpensive | C．mindful | D．different |
| A．accountability | B．flexibility | C．stability | D．availability |
| A．exploited | B．dismissed | C．mistreated | D．unfavoured |
| A．sufferers | B．stuck | C．potentials | D．engaged |
| A．held up | B．boiled over | C．consumed up | D．crossed over |
| A．legitimizing | B．skinning | C．proposing | D．refusing |
| A．accumulated | B．relevant | C．incomparable | D．extended |
| A．trick | B．incline | C．withhold | D．proclaim |
| A．joined | B．established | C．cornered | D．characterized |
| A．humane | B．authoritative | C．generous | D．distinctive |
| A．return | B．accommodation | C．revision | D．curriculum |
| A．considering | B．given | C．though | D．supposing |
| A．sake | B．settlement | C．approaching | D．remainder |
6 . Unhappy people glue themselves to the television 30 percent more than happy people. The finding, announced on Thursday, comes from a survey of nearly 30,000 American adults as part of the General Social Survey.
While happy people reported watching an average of 19 hours of television per week, unhappy people reported 25 hours a week. The results hardly change after taking into account education, income, age and marital status.
In addition, happy individuals were more socially active, attended more religious services, voted more and read a newspaper more often that their less-chipper ones.
The researchers are not sure, though, whether unhappiness leads to more television-watching or more viewing leads to unhappiness. In fact, people say they like watching television. The research has shown that when people watch television they enjoy it. In these studies, 9 in 10 participants reported that on a scale from 0(dislike) to 10 (greatly enjoy), TV-watching was nearly an 8.
But perhaps the high from watching television doesn’t last.
“These conflicting data suggest that TV may provide viewers with short-run pleasure, but at the expense of long-term malaise (不舒服),” said researcher John Robinson, a sociologist at the University of Maryland, College Park.
In this scenario, even the happiest campers could have a bad mood if they continue to stare at the TV. The researchers suggest that over time, television-viewing could push out other activities that do have more lasting benefits. Exercise and reading come to mind, as do parties and other forms of socialization known to have psychological benefits.
Or, maybe television is simply an escape for people who are already unhappy.
“TV is not judgmental nor difficult, so people with few social skills or resources for other activities can engage in it,” Robinson write in the December issue of the journal Social Indicators Research.
They add, “Furthermore, short-run unhappiness can be socially and personally debilitated by many positive social and personal activities. However, even the unhappiest people can click a remote and be passively entertained by a TV.”
The researchers say follow-up studies are needed to find out more facts about the issue.
1. The passage is mainly about_________.| A．the relationship between watching TV and unhappiness |
| B．the benefits and weakness of watching TV |
| C．the suitable way to watch TV |
| D．the reasons of an unhappy life |
| A．threatened | B．developed | C．weakened | D．explained |
| A．watching TV doesn’t require intelligence and is passive activity |
| B．watching TV keeps people from doing other meaningful things |
| C．people may see many sad scenes on TV which make them unhappy |
| D．watching TV is a personal activity which makes people lonely |
| A．The time spent on TV watching is affected by education and income. |
| B．Scientist has made it clear that unhappiness results in too much TV watching. |
| C．Most happy people in the study stated that they didn’t enjoy watching TV. |
| D．Watching TV can give temporary happiness but no lasting pleasure. |
7 . 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 |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| 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. |
8 . Just imagine you are browsing through your emails when you suddenly start daydreaming about where you can go for summer vacation. You are thus reminded to compare the cost of several fast food restaurants. Then you suddenly change your mind and decide to seek for some places to hold your birthday party.
It may occur to you that you are actually surfing the Internet in a bit absent-minded manner. There is one word, in fact, “wilfing”, which can explain the phenomenon. According to a survey for an economic column, almost eight in ten Internet users confessed that they had the newly-named habit. The survey of 2800 people implemented by OurGov indicates that over a quarter of online users wilf ---- a rough acronym of What Was I Looking For? ---- for Four days every month.
Kete Cohenmen, CMTV’s resident life trainer and motivator, commented, “Preventing yourself from wilfing takes a blend of delicate planning and strong willpower.” Recently, all manners of websites aiming to attracting our attention emerge. It’s time for online users to set themselves a clear goal and a correspondent time limit to change the current situation.
Shopping online, for example, is most likely to make users wilf amid all the online activities. It is more likely that men admit being wilfers than women. A third of the men surveyed said the habit of wilfing had damaged their relationships. But there is one piece of good news that wilfing is a habit people tend to break out of. Internet users aged 65 or over were four times less likely to wilf than those aged under 23.
Mison Lioyed, from money by money.com, said, “The Internet was intended to make it easier for people to have access to the information they need as quickly and conveniently as possible.” Despite the fact that people log on purposefully, they are now being provided so many choices and are distracted to such a degree that many forget why they are there, and instead, spend hours aimlessly wilfing. It’s critical that people realize the importance of reducing or even eliminating unnecessary online distractions to be on the right track when surfing online, as it can have an effect on people's productivity both at work and at home.
So, are you a wilfer who always found yourself engulfed by the Internet?
1. The underlined word “acronym” in Para. 2 most probably means ______.| A．a summary of the book “What Was I Looking For?” |
| B．a word composed of the first letters of the words in a phrase. |
| C．an expression meaning drawing people’s attention away. |
| D．a clue that leads to the answer of what people daydream of. |
| A．Trying to focus on different tasks at the same time. |
| B．Playing on the Internet all the time. |
| C．Trying to set a surfing goal and a time limit. |
| D．Stopping taking a blend of planning and willpower. |
| A．one third of Internet users will be wilfers lost on the Internet. |
| B．men are less likely to be wilfing than women. |
| C．as you age, you’ll become more and more wilfing. |
| D．the relationship will be damaged by wilfing between the partners. |
| A．You suddenly decide to look up some information about clothes. |
| B．You spend hours aimlessly surfing the Internet every day. |
| C．You are accessing the information you need quickly and conveniently. |
| D．You are browsing some of your emails which haven’t been checked for months. |
9 . Neighbors used to wave to Timothy Masters whenever he stood outside his barn (谷仓). Across his soybean fields in this small town about ten miles north of Niagara Falls, they trade hellos every morning. That ended about a year ago, when a field of solar panels was set up on 18 acres of Masters’ land.
Masters is among a growing number of landowners trying to cash in on New York State’s push toward renewable energy. The solar company now using his land, he said, pays him 20 times more than the soybean farmer who had previously rented it. However, by replacing soybean plants with rows of silicon and metal solar panels, Masters has found himself the target of a growing backlash against the spread of solar farms in rural areas.
The tension over solar plants often resembles not-in-my-backyard, or NIMBY, disputes. “You’ll have people that get up and say, ‘I am green,’ ‘I’m for the environment,’ and ‘I’m pro this whole-green agenda.’ But then, all of a sudden, whenever one comes in, it changes.” Masters said. “What I notice is that people have ideals and values that they will put forth—until it comes around their own house.”
Opponents in New York cite a wide range of reasons. There are practical ones, like the danger of glare (刺眼的光) for drivers passing by. Some are about aesthetics (美学), such as the impact of solar panels on the rural landscape. There is even concern for endangered short-eared owls that may struggle to find field mice to eat amongst the panels. Small farmers who rent land from bigger farmers or landowners, meanwhile, have resisted for economic reasons. They fear they will be squeezed out by energy companies willing to pay more to use farmland for their solar panels.
Across western New York, anti-solar sentiment has surfaced on lawn signs and in Change. org petitions (请愿书). The movement has had some effect. At least a dozen towns in New York State have suspended new solar projects. Several others are weighing temporary bans. Local officials have said they need time to study the potential impact of solar farms.
The pushback is not unique to New York. In Virginia, anti-solar campaigners successfully blocked the plan of an 80-megawatt solar farm last year. This has inspired the launch of a nonprofit with a mission to help communities across the country to stop solar farms. The grass-roots backlash against solar farms has become so widespread that the U. S. Solar Energy Industries Association last year developed a manual that included coping with community sensitivities, in a move to fight increasing negativity.
1. According to the article, what has Timothy Masters noticed?| A．Few people genuinely support the development of green energy technologies. |
| B．Many people believe solar farms should be set up in cities rather than in rural areas. |
| C．People support green energy only when the equipment is located away from their houses. |
| D．The past few years saw a drop in the number of people supporting green energy. |
| A．they think the farms have ruined the rural landscape |
| B．they consider it dangerous to drive by these farms at night |
| C．the farms may endanger many rare species, such as short-eared owls |
| D．they can’t rent farmland as they can’t pay as much as energy companies |
| A．launched | B．stopped |
| C．promoted | D．permitted |
| A．Solar Farms Face Resistance | B．Solar Energy Industries Encounter Backlash |
| C．Farmers Dispute Renewable Energy | D．Solar Energy Industries Fight Pushback |
10 . Artists often mock (嘲笑) business people as money-obsessed bores. Or worse, many business people, for their part, assume that artists are a bunch of ambitious wasters. Bosses may stick a few modernist paintings on their boardroom walls. But they seldom take the arts seriously as a source of inspiration.
The bias starts at business school, where “hard” things such as numbers matter a lot. It is strengthened by everyday experience. Bosses constantly remind their employees that if you can’t count it, it doesn’t count. Few read about art. Sun Tzu’s The Art of War《孙子兵法》does not count while some low-quality business books are pleasing to them: consider Wess Roberts’ Leadership Secrets of Attila the Hun.
But lately there are welcome signs of a change on the business side of the great cultural gap. Business presses are publishing a series of books such as The Fine Art of Success, by Jamie Anderson. Business schools are trying to learn from the arts.
Mr. Anderson points out that many artists have also been superb entrepreneurs. Damien Hirst was even more enterprising. He not only realized that overnight millionaire collectors would pay extraordinary sums for dead cows and jewel-decorated skulls, but also altered the image of the art world by selling his artworks directly through Sotheby’s, an auction (拍卖) house. Whatever they think of his work, business people cannot help admiring a man who attracted art lovers to pay £75.5 million for his works.
Studying the arts can help business people communicate better. Most bosses spend a huge amount of time “messaging”, yet few are much good at it. Half an hour with George Orwell’s Why I Write would work wonders.
Studying the arts can also help companies learn how to manage bright people. Rob Goffee of the London Business School points out that today’s most productive companies are dominated by what they call “clevers” who are the headaches to manage. They hate being told what to do by managers whom they regard as foolish. They refuse to yield to (屈服于) performance reviews. In short, they are prima donnas.
Studying the art world might even hold out the biggest prize of helping business become more innovative. Companies are searching the world for new ideas. To foster creativity, they surely have something to learn from the creative industries. Look at how modern artists adapted to the arrival of photography, a technology that could have made them unneeded, or how J.K. Rowling kept trying even when publishers rejected her novel.
1. Which book might be considered by the author as having the least value?| A．The Art of War | B．Leadership Secrets of Attila the Hun |
| C．The Fine Art of success | D．Why I Write |
| A．arrogant | B．innovative | C．intelligent | D．boring |
| A．In business schools, students are taught to overlook things that can be counted. |
| B．The best way for bosses to manage clever employees is to show them art works. |
| C．By reading George Orwell’s Why I Write, bosses can type messages more quickly. |
| D．Damien Hirst had a business mind and sold his art works at an incredibly high price. |
| A．Artists’ Bias against Business | B．The Combination of Business and Art |
| C．The Effect of Innovation on Companies | D．A Booming Art Market |
