1 . MOOC, an open online course, aims at providing interactive discussion and open access via the web. In addition to _________ course materials such as videos, readings, and problem sets, MOOC provide interactive user forums that help build a _________ for the students, professors, and teaching assistants.

MOOCs _________ made waves in the fall of 2011, when Professor Sebastian Thrun from Stanford University opened his graduate-level artificial intelligence course up to any student anywhere, and 160,000 students in more than 190 countries _________. This new kind of online classes is _________ the higher education world in many ways. Since the courses can be taken by hundreds of thousands of students at the same time, the number of universities might _________ greatly. Professor Thrun has even _________ a future in which there will only need to be 10 universities in the world. Perhaps the most _________ thing about MOOCs, many of which are being taught by professors at prestigious (声誉高的) universities, is that they’re free. This is certainly good news for _________ students.

There is a lot of __________ and fear about MOOCs. While some say free online courses are a great way to increase the __________ of minority students, others have said they will leave many students __________. Some critics have said that MOOCs encourage an unrealistic universal __________ of higher education and that there is no replacement for true dialogues between __________and their students. __________, a brain is not a computer. We are not __________ hard drives waiting to be filled with data. People learn from people they __________ and remember the things that arouse emotion. Some __________ worry that online students will miss out on the social aspects of college. In other words, MOOCs __________social interaction among students and professors even if they are offered by professors from __________ universities.

2 . In the days before the Internet, critical thinking was the most important skill of informed citizens. But in the digital age, according to Anastasia Kozyreva, a psychologist at the Max Planck Institute of Human Development, and her colleagues, an even more important skill is critical ignoring.

As the researchers point out, we live in an attention economy where content producers on the Internet compete for our attention. They attract us with a lot of emotional and eye-catching stories while providing little useful information, so they can expose us to profit-generating advertisements. Therefore,we are no longer customers but products, and each link we click is a sale of our time and attention. Toprotect ourselves from this, Kozyreva advocates for learning the skill of critical ignoring, in which readers intentionally control their information environment to reduce exposure to false and low-quality information.

According to Kozyreva, critical ignoring comprises three strategies. The first is to design ourenvironments, which involves the removal of low-quality yet hard-to-resist information from around. Successful dieters need to keep unhealthy food out of their homes. Likewise, we need to set up a digital environment where attention-grabbing items are kept out of sight. As with dieting, if one tries to bank onwillpower not to click eye-catching “news”, he’ll surely fail. So, it’s better to just keep them out of sightto begin with.

The next is to evaluate the reliability of information, whose purpose is to protect you from false and misleading information. It can be realized by checking the source in the mainstream news agencies which have their reputations for being trustworthy.

The last goes by the phrase “do not feed the trolls.” Trolls are actors who internationally spread false and hurtful information online to cause harm. It may be appealing to respond to them to set the facts straight, but trolls just care about annoying others rather than facts. So, it’s best not to reward their bad behaviour with our attention.

By sharpening our critical ignoring skills in these ways, we can make the most of the Internet while avoiding falling victim to those who try to control our attention, time, and minds.

It was a very cold morning as it had been raining very heavily the previous night. As my mother was feeling a little uncomfortable, my sister volunteered to drive me to school. I overslept and as a result, was a bit late for school. We got into the car hurriedly. The roads were already jammed with traffic. It appeared that everyone was late as well.

My sister was a careful driver and despite the fact that I was late, she refused to drive fast on the slippery road. I was lucky she was such a determined and careful person because a few hundred meters away from the school, we witnessed an accident.

It all happened in an instant, as most accidents do. A car took a left turning without signaling and a school bus crashed into it heavily. A few cars behind the school bus hit the bus as they could not stop in time and soon it became a pile-up. The car was damaged badly while the school bus also had some damage. And the already crowded road became more jammed with vehicles, which came to a mess. We wanted to help the victims. My sister drove to a stop at the roadside not too far from the accident spot.

The scene that greeted us was terrible. I first rushed to the car. The driver, a lady, lay trapped behind the wheel, unable to move. Three schoolchildren were in the back seat, their faces white with fear. Two of them were seriously hurt and bleeding from the head and hands. They were conscious although too weak and frightened to realize what had happened. We called an ambulance and while waiting, we tried as much as possible to help the victims. As a result of our joint efforts, the driver and the children were moved to safety and taken care of.

Then, I rushed to the bus filled with children’s cries.

After the ambulance had left, two policemen asked me about the accident.

7 . Suppose that we lined up about 14 million United States businesses in order of size, starting with the smallest, along an imaginary road from San Francisco to New York. There will be 4,500 businesses to the mile or a little less than one per foot.

Suppose further that we planted a flag for each business. The height of the flagpole represents the yearly volume (额) of sales — each $10000 in sales is shown by one foot of pole.

The line of flagpoles is a very interesting sight. From San Francisco to about Reno, it is almost unnoticeable, a row of poles about a foot high. From Reno eastward, the poles increase in height until, near Columbus, Ohio — about 4/5 of the way across the nation-flags fly about 10 feet in the air.

But as we approach the eastern terminus (终点), the poles suddenly begin to rise. There are about 300,000 firms in the country with sales over $500,000. These firms take up the last 75 miles of the 3,000-mile road. There are 200,000 firms with sales over $1 million. They take up the last 50 miles. Then there are 1,000 firms with sales of $50 million or more. They take up the last quarter of a mile before the city limits, flags flying at cloud height, 5,000 feet up.

At the very gate of New York, on the last 100 feet of the last mile, we find the100 largest industrial firms. They have sales of at least $1.5 billion, so that their flags are already miles high. Along the last 10 feet of the road, there are 10 largest companies. Their sales are about $10 billion and up: their flags fly 190 miles in the air.

A．	B．
C．	D．

10 . Some fifteen years ago, when smartphone apps were new and few truly understood their potentials, retailers (零售商) _________knew that consumers could browse in stores while comparing prices and_________from other item providers through certain apps before_________making the purchase online. Ten years ago, brick-and-mortar (实体店) retailers had to acknowledge that showrooming existed and appeared to be a _________. That’s the year when retailers were up in arms as online giant Amazon released an “evil” promotion that encouraged consumers to visit_________stores and use Amazon’s Price Check App at the same time. Any purchase completed through the app was given_________ discounts, which significantly stimulated sales and_________many shop owners to the edge of bankruptcy (破产).

From the point on, retailers began launching strategies to combat showrooming including releasing exclusive items for sale so that no_________prices from other sources are available for comparison.

“Media have reported showrooming as a big threat to physical stores.” says Casey Carl, a retailer. “However, less _________is the fact that it is also the greatest opportunity for us.” Retailers need to accept that the act of showrooming is not_________and any sensible buyer tends to compare prices. As there’s nothing you can do about it, you might as well offer conveniences like in-store internet access to_________these consumers. With caring services combined with good prices, the store might actually improve the likelihood for consumers to close the deal_________.

And a showrooming study indicates that it’s wise for retailers to limit the item price to at most 5 dollars_________than what online stores charge. After all, for the majority of consumers, getting the absolute lowest price is not their_________. Many of them, instead, are willing to pay _________in exchange for favourable shopping experiences, such as the pleasant store atmosphere, agreeable staff attitudes or even the merry music played, with a reasonable price_________, of course.

_________, adopting a strategy of_________channels is also essential. With many sale channels under control, retailers are sure to have access to the lowest price possible for an item. Therefore, when a customer_________a mobile device in store, retailers can be spared the_________that was unavoidable for them some ten years ago.