1 . Birth order plays a vital role in deciding the characteristics of a child. And when it comes to the middle child, it certainly plays a huge role. The middle children go through some things only they can understand.     1    

Mostly, middle children have to share a room.     2     They need to share a room with an elder one because they're too young to sleep alone. And just when they think they'll finally have a room of their own, a voice is heard saying, “Dear, please share the room with your younger one, as he's too small to sleep alone.”

Middle children tend to share clothes with their siblings (兄弟姐妹). Their cupboard is full of hand­me­downs from their older sibling, and they need to wear his clothes.     3     They can always show off their elder sibling's clothes and things at school. Also, they get to pass their own clothes to their younger sibling.

    4     They're liked by both, because they can relate well to both generations. On one hand they can recall how much fun it was watching Garfield and Friends, and on the other hand they can talk about the latest video game released in the market.

Siblings' talking is one interesting thing about a middle child. They are not as boring as they appear.    5     Also, thanks to the divided attention at home, middle children are independent and need not rely on anyone.

A．Instead, they are very artistic and creative.

B．But this comes with its own advantage too.

C．Here are some things a middle child can relate to.

D．They rarely enjoy the experience of having their own room.

E．And the dream of having their own room is completely destroyed.

F．They're the problem solvers between their older and younger siblings.

G．As a middle kid, they are the bridge between their younger and older siblings.

2 . 阅读下面材料，在空白处填入适当的内容（1个单词）或括号内单词的正确形式。

According to a recent survey, violence did exist in schools. Students showed their fear and parents and teachers also     1    （express）their great concern about it. Experts hope     2     whole society pays more attention to the mental health of adolescents.

Nowadays, school violence is a hot issue. I think this is a phenomenon, which     3     (call) for our great concern. We should make every effort     4     (prevent) school violence happening at school, for more and more students would drop out of school if their personal     5     (safe) could not be guaranteed. In fact, violence can be learned.     6     (actual), children learn violence behavior from adults or from     7     they see on television or on the Internet.

If I meet with school violence, I will not answer violence with violence, for it will result in     8     (much) fighting. I will tell my teachers or parents about it. I think they will help me deal with it well and they will protect me from the bad guys.

All in all, we students should behave     9     (we) and keep away     10     violence.

3 . When I was little, Friday’s night was our family game night. After supper, we would play card games of all sort in the sitting room. As the kid, I loved to watch cartoons, but no matter how many times I asked to watching them, my parents would not to let me. They would say to us that playing card games would help my brain. Still I unwilling to play the games for them sometimes. I didn’t realize how right my parents are until I entered high school. The games my parents taught me where I was a child turned out to be very useful later in my life.

4 . 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 have compromised conversational intelligence. It’s more likely that none of us start a conversation because it’s awkward 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 an invaluable social practice that results in big benefits.

Dismissing small talk as unimportant is easy, but we can’t forget that deep relationships wouldn’t

even exist if it weren’t for casual conversation. 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 key to successful small talk is learning how to connect with others, not just communicate with them.＂

In a 2014 study, Elizabeth Dunn, associate professor of psychology at UBC, invited people on their way into a coffee shop. One group was asked to seek out an interaction(互动) with its waiter; the other, to speak only when necessary. The results showed that those who chatted with their server reported significantly 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 matter for our well-being also.＂

Dunn believes that people who reach out to strangers feel a significantly greater sense of belonging, a bond 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 phenomenon is described in the first paragraph?

A．Addiction to smartphones.

B．Inappropriate behaviours in public places.

C．Absence of communication between strangers.

D．Impatience with slow service.

2. What is important for successful small talk according to Carducci?

A．Showing good manners.	B．Relating to other people.
C．Focusing on a topic.	D．Making business deals.

3. What does the coffee-shop study suggest about small talk?

A．It improves family relationships.	B．It raises people’s confidence.
C．It matters as much as a formal talk.	D．It makes people feel good.

4. What is the best title for the text?

A．Conversation Counts	B．Ways of Making Small Talk
C．Benefits of Small Talk	D．Uncomfortable Silence

5 . Nowadays, social media like Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat and Twitter are becoming more and more popular. People have completely made social media part of their daily lives. As a result, many people have developed an Internet personality.

The Internet personality I am talking about is the one we shape on our social media sites. We are always posting information about ourselves for other people to know even when it can be completely untrue. Some people even go so far as to spend money in buying flowers or “likes” or buying a very expensive camera for their friends to take photos of them. I find it unbelievable. The time and energy spent on these silly things can only make us want to be accepted by more people.

Social media are also a modern cause of depression: People see the perfect lives of others and consider their own imperfect lives as bad. Even kids deal with this. They don’t realize that the reason why they struggle to love themselves is that they spend all day receiving untrue information.

I find that many people spend more time and energy in making sure that their online personality is worth accepting rather than caring for their real presence. So many times I have seen confident and beautiful girls on social media. But in the real world, they are extremely shy. They hardly talk to anyone and spend all their time using the phone.

Social media have gone so far as to even negatively affect marriages. This is because of the fact that there are now “Instagram husbands”—people whose use is to take perfect photos of their partners throughout the day. They spend a lot of time doing that whether they like it or not. Needless to say, social media likely influence relationships in a negative way.

I think everyone should stop using social media at least for a few months to experience the difference it makes to them. They may find life is very different and much better.

1. What does “the Internet personality” in the passage refer to?

A．The hope to develop a better personality.

B．The personality developed through social media.

C．The true personality shown by us on social media.

D．The information we get about others on social media.

2. Why are social media a modern cause of depression?

A．We may read some upsetting news.

B．We have to try very hard to be accepted.

C．We can’t really find much useful information.

D．We feel sad about ourselves through comparing.

3. What does the example given in Paragraph 4 show?

A．Shy people can also become confident.

B．Social media make people become more energetic.

C．Social media make people ignore their true presence.

D．People today don’t consider their presence important.

4. What’s most probably the author’s attitude towards people’s using social media?

A．Uninterested.	B．Negative.
C．Uncertain.	D．Supportive.

6 . Norman Garmezy, a development psychologist at the University of Minnesota, met thousands of children in his four decades of research. A nine-year-old boy in particular stuck with him. He has an alcoholic mother and an absent father. But each day he would walk in to school with a smile on his face. He wanted to make sure that "no one would feel pity for him and no one would know his mother’s incompetence.” The boy exhibited a quality Garmezy identified as “resilience”.

Resilience presents a challenge for psychologists. People who are lucky enough to never experience any sort of adversity (逆境) won't know how resilient they are. It's only when they're faced with obstacles, stress, and other environmental threats that resilience, or the lack of it, comes out. Some give in and some conquer.

Garmezy 's work opened the door to the study of the elements that could enable an individual’s success despite the challenges they faced. His research indicated that some elements had to do with luck, but quite large set of elements was psychological, and had to do with how the children responded to the environment. The resilient children had what psychologists call an “internal lens of control(内控点)”. They believed that they, and not their circumstances, affected their achievements. The resilient children saw themselves as the arrangers of their own fates.

Ceorge Bonanno has been studying resilience for years al Columbia University 's Teachers College. He found that some people are far better than others at dealing with adversity. This difference might come from perception(认知) whether they think of an event as traumatic(创伤), or as an opportunity to learn and grow. “Stressful” or “traumatic” events themselves don't have much predictive power when it comes to life outcomes. "Exposure to potentially traumatic events does not predict later functioning,” Bonanno said. "It's only predictive if there's a negative response.” In other words, living through adversity doesn't guarantee that you'll suffer going forward.

The good news is that positive perception can be taught. "We can make ourselves more or less easily hurt by how we think about things," Bonanno said. In research at Columbia, the neuroscientist Kevin Ochsner has shown that teaching people to think of adversity in different ways--to reframe it in positive terms when the initial response is negative, or in a less emotional way when the initial response is emotionally “hot”---changes how they experience and react to the adversity.

1. According to the passage, resilience is an individual's ability________.

A．to think critically	B．to decide one’s own fate
C．to live a better life	D．to recover from adversity

2. What does the underlined word “they” in Paragraph 3 refer to?

A．The psychologists	B．The resilient children
C．Positive elements	D．Internal locus of control

3. According to Paragraph 4, we can learn that____________.

A．your positive perception may turn adversity around

B．stressful events are more predictive than delightful events

C．experiencing adversity predicts that you will go on suffering

D．a negative response doesn't guarantee you will suffer all the time

4. What is the author's purpose of writing this passage?

A．To teach people how to be resilient

B．To encourage people to live through adversity

C．To indicate people’s perception varies from each other

D．To compare different research findings about resilience

7 . About three decades ago, China was known as the "Bicycle Kingdom". But later on, bikes were replaced by their fuel-powered competitors.

But recent months have seen a recovery of the humble bike across China, with an increasing number of people choosing cycling instead of driving to schools, to workplaces or to do sightseeing. The introduction of bike-sharing schemes, pioneered by start-ups like Ofo and Mobike, has brought the trend to a new level.

People can unlock the shared bikes by simply using their smartphone. The bikes are equipped with GPS and can be left anywhere in public for the next user. They're popular among many Chinese people as they provide an effective solution to the "last mile" problem,which refers to the final leg of a person's journey.

" In places where the subway doesn't extend, where it's difficult to change from one kind of transport to another, it's so easy to get where you want to go with Mobike," Hu Hong,29,told AFP. She pedals(骑车)to her Shanghai real-estate job.

However, the schemes have also led to problems such as illegal parking, vandalism(故意毁坏) and theft. Last month，two nurses in Beijing were placed under administrative punishment for five days for putting locks on two shared bikes. And in December, a man who stole a shared bike was sentenced to a 3-month detention(拘留)，and fined 1 ,000 yuan by the Shanghai Minhang People's Court.

" Bike-sharing is a greener method of transportation and provides a user-friendly experience，"said Liu Xiaoming，vice-minister of transport.

" But it's a combination of online and offline business. Operators are usually strong in online services, but lack offline business experience, which causes problems."

Now, Chinese service operators are trying to solve the problems. For example, a bike- sharing company called Mobike sets a 100-point credit score for each user, with points taken in the case of bad behavior. Once a score drops below 80，bike rental is increased to 100 yuan per 30 minutes, up from 0.5 - 1 yuan.

1. Which of the following belongs to the "last mile" problem?

A．Missing the business plane for the traffic jam.

B．To get to somewhere the subway can reach.

C．Having troubles in changing from bus to taxi.

D．To remove the last rock in the way.

2. What reason causes many problems in bike-sharing?

A．Some people make damage to the bikes on purpose.

B．Operators lack offline business experience.

C．The bike-sharing business is too complicated to run.

D．There are no relative laws on this business.

3. Why are the bike-sharing systems popular?

A．They are very effective.	B．They can be picked up anywhere.
C．They are equipped with GPS.	D．They help solve the last mile problem.

4. What's the best title for this passage?

A．Bickes Pedaling Back Into Styles

B．A New Way of Transportations

C．Riding a Mobicycle for Free

D．Bicycle Kingdom Became Famous Again

8 . I was wandering around to look for a cafe where I could sit and have something to drink on a cold day. When I saw one, I walked in, sat at a round table and asked for a coffee.

While I was waiting for my _______, I realized that there were other people in the place, _______ I sensed loneliness. I saw their _______, but I couldn’t feel their souls. That was because their souls _______ to the “Net”, instead of them.

I stood up and walked _______ the tables. I asked a man a couple of times what his name was. “I’m Steve,” he _______ answered. “I can’t talk with you I’m _______,” he said.

I was amazed to find he was _______ online with somebody and, at the same time, he was _______ a computer game—Winner winner chicken dinner. I tried again to________ with him, but not a ________ came out of his mouth. I ________ his shoulder, but there was no reaction. I was getting ________. I put my hand in front of the monitor, and he started to ________, “Leave me alone!”

I was ________. I wanted to look and see if all those people in the cafe were looking at me, so I ________ head, but there was nobody interested in what was happening. ________ was using the computers.

At the moment, I ________ all of the people there were more interested in having the relationship with the computer, ________ Steve. I wouldn’t want to imagine the future of the human beings if they ________ sharing their lives with machines instead of with people.

1.

A．tea

B．friend

C．beer

D．coffee

2.

A．but

B．or

C．and

D．so

3.

A．thoughts

B．spirits

C．bodies

D．minds

4.

A．belonged

B．attended

C．devoted

D．opened

5.

A．under

B．on

C．across

D．between

6.

A．quietly

B．finally

C．patiently

D．instantly

7.

A．free

B．silent

C．busy

D．careful

8.

A．typing

B．chatting

C．working

D．drinking

9.

A．playing

B．joining

C．making

D．buying

10.

A．communicate

B．argue

C．quarrel

D．cooperate

11.

A．voice

B．notice

C．message

D．word

12.

A．caught

B．touched

C．reached

D．pushed

13.

A．proud

B．excited

C．upset

D．lost

14.

A．explain

B．whisper

C．laugh

D．shout

15.

A．disappointed

B．ashamed

C．puzzled

D．frightened

16.

A．rose

B．lowered

C．raised

D．shook

17.

A．Everybody

B．Nobody

C．Somebody

D．Anybody

18.

A．imagined

B．expected

C．guessed

D．realized

19.

A．usually

B．generally

C．particularly

D．without

20.

A．stopped

B．preferred

C．wasted

D．hated

9 . The UN has recognized the contributions of volunteers on Dec. 5, International Volunteer Day. Here, the four things are offered to consider before taking the leap into overseas volunteering.

Choose your organization carefully

    1     volunteering may be a fundraising mechanism(筹资机制) for a development project. For others, volunteering is fundamental to their programs, and those serving take on professional roles in longer-term development.

    2    

Volunteers want to help and make a difference, but most know this isn’t a purely selfless act. You will learn new skills, broaden your horizons and come to better understand yourself and the world.     3     Reflect on your motivations. You want to help reduce global poverty or protect the natural world, but what else? Have you always wanted to travel, but not as a tourist? Work with kids? When you understand your motivations, you’ll be in a better position to choose the option that is right for you.

Work alongside the local community

Often times, travelers volunteer in isolation(隔离) from the local community in which they are working in.     4     This enables you to ensure you are committing to a project that promotes long term and sustainable change.

A volunteer trip is just the beginning

    5     Further ignite(点燃) the global change maker in you by taking your experience one step further when you return home. Spread the message of your transformative experience to others, helping to spark the change within them.

A．And that’s all OK.

B．Know why you’re going.

C．Don’t assume you know it all.

D．Communities always welcome volunteers.

E．Volunteer travel is a life-changing experience.

F．Some organizations require you to pay your own way, and often include a fee.

G．Make sure to travel with organizations that have strong partnerships with local communities.

10 . In today’s Internet age, the demand for online games continues to grow. Online computer game centers exist in many cities and towns throughout Asia. Facing the pressures of school and life, people turn to the virtual world, expecting a diversion from these problems. Too often, however, they can lead to problems and unhealthy addictions.

This is most clearly seen in the example of South Korea. The country has the world’s highest percentage of high-speed Internet services. It also has a high number of online game players and related problems. In 2013, a young man collapsed and died while playing online games. He had been playing almost nonstop for 86 hours at an Internet cafe. Another young man killed his sister after becoming confused between the online world and real life. A 12-year-old boy stole US $ 16,000 from his father and ran away from home. He did this to continue his obsession with an online game. Such problems, however, don’t just happen in South Korea. They are spreading to other parts of Asia, as well.

What kinds of people develop online game addiction? What does the problem look like? Dr. SueHuei Chen, a clinical psychologist, researches Internet addiction. She discovered some signs of at-risk individuals such as lack friendships and good social skills. Those problem individuals feel it so compulsive to play online games that they could sacrifice things such as school or family. They feel the need to spend more and more time online. And they become upset if anyone tries to limit their online game playing.

How many problem game players are there? In mainland China, the potential number of problem online gamers is alarming. In 2014, the China Daily reported that China had 13.8 million online game players. Furthermore, it stated that 80 percent of these were under 25 and had signs of addiction. Such numbers point toward a growing problem among Chinese youth.

Make sure to keep control over your online game playing. If you don’t control it, it can get control of you.

1. What is mainly discussed in the passage?

A．The disadvantages of the Internet.

B．The online game problems in Asia.

C．The popularity of online games worldwide.

D．The cause of online game addiction.

2. The underlined word “diversion” in the first paragraph is closest in meaning to ______.

A．career	B．comfort
C．escape	D．support

3. According to Paragraph 2, which of the following statements is NOT true?

A．Online violence is blamed for the young killer’s wrong action.

B．Online game playing is responsible for the young man's death.

C．People in South Korea have access to the Internet most easily.

D．The teenage boy stole money due to his playing a game online.

4. What can we learn from the passage?

A．Most people in Asia have developed an addiction to online games.

B．Online game addictions cause many life-and-death problems in South Korea.

C．Lonely and unsocial people seem to more easily develop Internet addictions.

D．In the year 2014 there were a total of 13.8 million Chinese visiting the Internet.