1 . For many people, going a few hours without your smartphone can feel like a lifetime. Now, one expert claims that humans are becoming so dependent on technology, that we’re actually merging (融合) into it.

Speaking at the Fast Company European Innovation Festival, Professor Yuval Noah Harari, a historian at the Hebrew University claimed that it’s becoming more and more difficult to tell where humans end and machines begin. He said: “It’s increasingly hard to tell where I end and where the computer begins. In the future, it is likely that the smartphone will not be separated from you at all. It may be embedded in your body or brain, constantly scanning your biometric data and your emotions.”

During his speech, Professor Harari highlighted how humans have affected our environment over time, and suggested that now may be the time to affect ourselves. He said: “Humanity has always remained constant. If we told our ancestors in the Stone Age about our lives today, they would think we are already Gods. But the truth is that even though we have developed more wonderful tools, we are the same animals. We have the same emotions, the same minds. The coming revolution will change that. It will change not just our tools, it will change the human being itself.”

If we do manage to merge with machines, Professor Harari suggests it could open the door to setting up civilizations beyond Earth. He added: “Life will be able to break out of planet Earth and no longer be confined to this flying rock.”

While Professor Harari’s claims may sound farfetched (牵强的), he isn’t alone in his vision of a machine-human world. Back in 2017, Elon Musk claimed that humans should merge with machines, or risk becoming irrelevant. He said: “Over time I think we will probably see a closer merger of biological intelligence and digital intelligence.”

1. Why does the author mention smartphone in Paragraph 1?

A．To collect data for his speech.	B．To catch up with the development of science.
C．To say it is harmful to the environment.	D．To have a good lead-in of the topic.

2. What do we know about Professor Harari?

A．His opinions gained much support.

B．He is the first expert to put forward the idea.

C．He thinks technology will change ourselves as well.

D．His suggestion of us staying on planet Earth is considerate.

3. What’s probably Elon Musk’s attitude to Professor Harari’s speech?

A．Neutral.	B．Favourable.
C．Indifferent.	D．Disapproving.

4. What is the best title for the text?

A．Humans are Near to Combining with Machines

B．Call on People to Develop Advanced Machines

C．A Speech Caused People’s Concerns on Machines

D．Finding New Ways to Break away From Apps is Vital

2 . It’s normal to long for the taste of potato chips or a cheese-covered pizza. Even though they’re full of calories, eating them occasionally won’t do much harm. However, according to the new numbers, young people are becoming more gluttonous. The BBC’s Good Food Nation Survey showed that on average, 16 to 20-year-olds ate fast food at least twice a day in the UK. So what’s behind this fast food binge (狂热)?

WebMD, an online publisher of news and information of human health and well-being, surveyed nearly 600 teenagers and adults in the United States. They found that the most common reason was our busy lifestyle. More than 92.3 percent of respondents said they were too busy to cook. Many find it challenging to balance work and life, and the convenience of fast food meets their needs. Fast food is readily available in corner stores and vending machines (自动售货机). Remember those instant noodle cups from the supermarket? They’re ready in minutes, and you can store them at home for a long time.

But many people think this trend does no good. Sarah Toule, head of health information at World Cancer Research Fund, told the BBC: “It’s frightening that people, especially younger generations, are eating so much fast food loaded with fat, sugar and salt, but offers little nutritional value.”

She added, “Especially high in calories, fast food leads to unhealthy weight gain-which in turn increases the risk of 11 cancers later in life.”

So what is the right thing to do? Toule suggested that young people should prepare meals in advance and learn to include the different food groups in their diets.

1. What does the underlined phrase “more gluttonous” in Paragraph 1 mean?

A．Smarter.

B．Healthier.

C．Greedier.

D．Lazier.

2. What is the main idea of paragraph 2?

A．People should make a change to their busy lifestyle.

B．Fast food helps people balance their work and life.

C．Fast food is becoming popular with teenagers and adults.

D．Nowadays people have more challenges both in work and life.

3. According to Sarah Toule, fast food ______.

A．can’t provide enough nutrition for eaters	B．will lead to 11 cancers
C．can help lose weight	D．is easy to prepare ahead of time

4. In which part of a newspaper can you read the text?

A．Culture.

B．Education.

C．History.

D．Health.

3 . The widespread application of Internet technology has made our lives easier but poses a big challenge to senior citizens, who are not always comfortable with smart phones and so many new apps.

In China, only a few senior citizens are able to enjoy the benefits that new technologies offer. According to the National Bureau of Statistics, the number of people aged 60 and above was 254 million in2019, which is 18 percent of China’s population. But only 23 percent of the senior citizens were able to access the Internet. That means more than three-fourths of the elderly are deprived of the digital convenience.

Failure to access the Internet or use smart phones has increased difficulties for them. They cannot even take a taxi easily in this era of app cabs. There have been reports of many shops turning away elders who don’t know how to pay using smart phones, instead of letting them pay in cash. Many elders who can’t use smart phones are facing difficulties during this pandemic, as they cannot access the Internet-based health code required for entry into many public places as part of the epidemic prevention and control measures.

New technologies become popular because they are often of great use in our daily lives. But many senior citizens, especially those living in rural areas or those whose grownup children don’t live with them, cannot access the Internet or smart phones, either because of financial restrictions or because they cannot learn new things beyond a certain point. The digital gap between the elderly and the young is becoming more pronounced.

However, the senior citizens should not become a silent group deprived of digital benefits. It is society’s responsibility to help them bridge the digital gap, and be patient with them when they face difficulties keeping pace with times.

1. What do we learn from the text?

A．Not all the elderly are able to enjoy the smart life services.

B．Internet technology has made everyone’s life easier.

C．About one-fourth people have easy access to the Internet.

D．Smart phones and apps are not designed for the elderly.

2. What fact do the examples in Paragraph 3 present?

A．Many elders don’t know how to hire a taxi.

B．Many elders always go shopping without their smart phones.

C．Many elders have trouble in using the health code.

D．Many elders are not allowed to enter public places.

3. Which is the closest in meaning to the underlined word “pronounced” in Paragraph 4?

A．Predictable.	B．Obvious.
C．Unimportant.	D．Narrow.

4. What can we infer from the last paragraph?

A．Digital gap makes everything harder.

B．Grownup children should live with the elderly with digital problems.

C．The Internet technology provides easy lives for seniors in all respects.

D．The society should be responsible for the elderly’s digital problems.

4 . Sometimes you just want to get away. Your older brother and his friends are constantly amped in front of the TV, your baby sister won’t stay out of your room, and you want some time for yourself.

But when you get it-maybe at a friend’s house for an all-weekend DVD marathon or on spring break at Disney World-you’re surprised to find yourself missing the chaos at home a bit.

What’s that all about?    1    

When you’re homesick, you might feel nostalgic (怀念的) for familiar things like your family, friends, pets, house, or neighborhood. Homesickness isn’t only for kids.    2     Teens might get homesick when they leave home for the first extended period of time, like during a vacation with a friend’s family.

Familiar surroundings, people, and routines provide people with a sense of security and comfort.    3     Those homesick feelings are completely normal.

    4     Others may feel physical symptoms, like stomachache or headache, or even become truly depressed. Most of the time, once the new surroundings and people become more familiar, feelings of homesickness go away. If you have additional stress in your life - like a divorce or a death in the family - homesickness can be more intense.

Almost everyone has felt homesick at some time.    5     It means you have family and friends worth missing and a place you want to return to when your adventure away from home is over.

A．Practically everyone feels homesick from time to time, even adults.

B．In a new place, you may find yourself missing the comforts of home and loved ones.

C．Believe it or not, you’re feeling homesick.

D．Remember that there’s a good side to homesickness, too.

E．Luckily, homesickness is usually mild and doesn’t last long.

F．Some people may only feel a little loneliness, sadness, or anxiety.

G．And you can do some things to make sure it doesn’t spoil your fun.

5 . British programmer Joshua Browder is helping people save much money on legal fees with his latest project-the world’s first robot lawyer. The 19-year-old first started the project last summer as a free website to help people appeal unfair parking tickets. He came up with the idea after getting a series of tickets himself for unimportant reasons. Having wasted hours writing appeals to these tickets, he realized that many people have no time or legal knowledge to appeal So he decided to create a robot lawyer, which he named DoNotPay.

DoNotPay was a success, and the tech genius has gone a step further with the website. converting(转变)it into a robot lawyer equipped to help with various legal issues. “The robot can handle parking ticket appeals and delayed flights/ trains. It can also answer some general legal questions like ‘ I can’t afford my ticket. What do I do?’” said Browder.

To use the service, users need to go to the website DoNotPay.co.uk and sign up for free. Once signed in, the robot will ask the user questions about their situation. When it has collected enough information, and if the person has legal grounds for an appeal, the robot will create a letter for the person to use.

Browder said he received good advice from his professors at Stanford University. “Initially, I thought the best way to go about it was to create many individual rules for it to follow,” he explained. “However, I quickly failed with this approach because there are thousands of ways to say the same thing and it would be impossible to catch everyone. The breakthrough came when I learned how to create a way for the robot to learn and compare phrases itself, so that it doesn’t matter how the user phrases his or her requests.”

So he programmed the robot to use text comparison that includes keywords, word order and pronouns. And the more people use the robot,the better the algorithm(演算法)gets. But here’re situations where the robot can’t help.” If the robot can’t answer, it provides helpful massage offering the user some sample phrases or the choice of contacting me directly,”

Browder said. “On the backend, whenever the robot can’t answer, I get noticed and work as quickly as possible to add functions for any future requests of a similar nature.”

“I think it does a reasonable job of replacing parking lawyers,” Browder told Tech Insider. “I know there are thousands of programmers with more experience than me working on similar issues. If it is one day possible for any citizen to get the same standard of legal representation as a billionaire, how can that not be a good thing?”

1. What made Joshua Browder decide to develop the robot lawyer?

A．His interest in law and robot.

B．Being often fined for serious reasons.

C．Realizing people’s need to write appeals.

D．A waste of much money in appealing.

2. What can the robot lawyer do at present?

A．Deal with some common legal issues.

B．Create a computer program to serve its users.

C．Recommend some useful legal websites to users.

D．Teach the users to write a letter of appeal.

3. What did Browder’s professors advise him to do about his robot?

A．Store enough legal knowledge in it.

B．Teach it to communicate with its users.

C．Create enough individual rules for it to follow.

D．Enable it to learn and compare phrases on its own.

4. What is Browder’s attitude to the world’s first robot lawyer?

A．Unclear.	B．Cautious.
C．Proud.	D．Negative.

6 . Rocky Lyons was five years old when his mother, Kelly, was driving along the country road with him. He was asleep on the front seat of their truck, with his feet resting on her lap. As his mom drove carefully down the winding country road, she turned onto a narrow bridge. The truck hit a rock and slid off the road. She attempted to bring it back up onto the road by pressing hard on the gas pedal(踏板)and turning the steering wheel to the left. But Rocky's foot got caught between her leg and the steering wheel and she lost control of the truck.

The truck fell into a 20-foot ravine(峡谷). When it hit the bottom,Rocky woke up. “What happened, Mom?”   he asked. “Our wheels are pointing toward the sky.”

Kelly was seriously wounded and blinded by blood. “I’ll get you out, Mom, ” announced Rocky, who had surprisingly escaped injury. He climbed out from under Kelly, slid through the open window and tried to yank his mother out. But she didn’t move.

“Just let me sleep,” begged Kelly,who was out of consciousness(意识). Rocky insisted,“Mom, you can’t go to sleep.”

Rocky managed to push Kelly out of the truck and told her he’d climb up to the road and stop a car to get help. Fearing that no one would be able to see her little boy in the dark, Kelly refused to let him go alone. Instead they slowly moved up to the road. The pain was so great that Kelly wanted to give up, but Rocky wouldn’t let her.

Rocky kept repeating the inspirational phrase, “I know you can. I know you can.” When they finally reached the road, Rocky broke into tears seeing his mother’s torn face clearly for the first time. Waving his arms and shouting, “Please stop!” the boy stopped a truck. His mother was sent to hospital.

It took eight hours to rebuild Kelly’s face. She looks quite different today-she has a few scars but has recovered from her injuries.

Rocky’s heroics were big news. Everyone was surprised at this little boy’s power. “It’s not like I wanted it to happen,” the boy explained. “I just did what anyone would have done.” “If it weren’t for Rocky, I’d have died,” said his mother.

1. What do we know about Rocky and Kelly?

A．They were lost on a country road.

B．They were involved in a truck accident.

C．They had limited time to find their way.

D．They knew little of what happened to them.

2. What had happened when Rocky woke up?

A．The truck had turned over.

B．He couldn’t find his mother.

C．He had been stuck in the truck.

D．His mother had passed out.

3. What does the underlined word “yank” in paragraph 3 most probably mean?

A．Pull.	B．Drive.
C．Follow.	D．Carry.

4. Which of the following words can best describe Rocky?

A．Enthusiastic and kind.

B．Courageous and calm.

C．Cooperative and generous

D．Adventurous and energetic.

7 . 阅读下面短文，在空白处填入1个适当的单词或括号内单词的正确形式。

With the rapid development of third-party mobile payment tools,     1     increasing number of consumers across China are using cashless payment methods.

Transactions (交易)     2     (involve) third-party mobile payments rose by 39.1 percent in the first quarter of 2021 compared with the previous quarter to 74 trillion yuan. Although China has the most third-party payment accounts in the world, it is not the     3     (one) country to seek a cashless society. Developed states like Sweden, Denmark and Singapore are also witnessing that increase.

    4    , the rapid development of cashless payments does not mean there are no challenges and criticisms. Alibaba’s Hema Fresh Store,     5     people can shop, dine and order goods for delivery from their mobile phones via Alipay,     6     (come) into the spotlight recently. Media reports say that consumers can’t purchase goods with cash there, which would be considered     7     (legal).

Alipay and WeChat Pay, the nation’s two major third-party mobile payment tools, have also launched campaigns to encourage more merchants and customers     8     (use) cashless payment methods, which has caused concerns over whether cash will soon disappear.

However, experts believe that a cashless society does not mean that cash will     9     (complete) disappear. As the economy grows, the circulation of cash is still very huge. In the long term, various payment     10     (method) will be used by consumers, and merchants should respect consumers’ payment habits.

8 . Across the globe, we've developed a coffee addiction, and we've become addicted to single-use cups: 600 billion disposable cups are produced and sold annually. But there's a growing push to cut this down.

Here's the problem with disposable coffee cups: The thin, waxy, plastic coating inside makes it tricky to recycle or compost them. So, they most go into a landfill （垃圾填埋场）. More than that, it takes a lot of energy and resources to make them. Starbucks and McDonald's are trying to develop a disposable coffee cup that can be both recyclable and compostable. But that's easier said than done. The coffee giants have been dangling a million dollars to anybody who can crack the code.

The Rolling Stones are also thinking about the sustainable cups. If you see the Stones in concert this summer and go to get a drink, there may be no single-use plastic cup for you. The bands approached Michael Martin, who has produced a bunch of big Earth Day concerts, asking for help to eliminate plastic waste. He came up with a simple solution.

"When you come up to get your first beverage（饮料）, you put down a $3 deposit, you get a really high-quality Rolling Stones-branded cup," says Martin. "You use it throughout the night, and at the end of the event you can turn your cup in and get your $3 back or you can keep your cup." If you return the heavier plastic cup at the end of the show, it gets washed and used again. Or recycled.

But this idea — returning and reusing a cup — this is not that complicated. So why is this just being tried now? "That's a really good question," says Martin. "In America, we're a throwaway society, and so we're hoping we'll be able to wake people up and change things." He's starting with rock concerts because artists have a pretty powerful platform. I mean, if Mick Jagger tells his fans to stop abusing the planet, who's going to say no to that?

1. Why is there a growing push to cut single-use cups down?

A．Because too many people are coffee addicts.

B．Because disposable cups are hard to recycle and compost.

C．Because it takes a lot of energy and resources to recycle them.

D．Because Starbucks and McDonald's are dangling a million dollars.

2. What does the underlined phrase "crack the code" in Paragraph 2 mean?

A．develop a cup.	B．set up a recycling company.
C．find the password.	D．tackle the problem.

3. What can we infer from Martin's solution?

A．People will wash the cups at the end of the show.

B．People hand in the cup and get 3-dollar reward.

C．People can own the cup by paying 3 dollars.

D．People must pay 3 dollars and return the cup.

4. What can we learn from the last paragraph?

A．Artists have a great impact.

B．Martin is giving a rock concert.

C．Mick Jagger' fans are abusing the planet.

D．Mick Jagger' fans never disagree with him.

9 . Modeste Traore has lived his whole life near Lake Wegnia, in the Sahel area of Mali. The lake’s fish have provided him with a way to earn money to support his extended family. How-ever, because he can’t catch enough fish to feed his family, he now raises farm animals. But as temperatures rise, evaporation increases, making the body of water shrinks. Studies have linked rising temperatures on Earth’s surface to climate change.

The lake is shrinking, so are the chances of his children becoming fishermen. “If things go on like this, I don’t think our children can become fishermen like us. They will have to choose other jobs,” the 56-year-old Traore said. “During the rainy season, there is a lot of water but as soon as it’s over, there is no water left in the lake. We are fishermen. I don’t think our children will be,” he said.

Lake Wegnia is in the Sahel region of Koulikoro, around 120 kilometers north of Mali’s capital, Bamako. Some 12,000 people, including fishermen and farmers, depend on it for food, water and employment. But the lake has shrunk by 20 percent since 2017.

The UN expects temperatures there to increase 1.5 times higher than the average increase worldwide. UN officials note that the flooding and a severe lack of rainfall can cause problems in the Sahel: Food insecurity, the fight over farmland and the fast population growth can lead to conflict.

Aid group is leading the Eco-Lac Wegnia project. The group is working to improve water management and fight the effects of global warming. Moussa Savagodo is Eco-Lac Wegnia’s local representative. He says that failing to make changes quickly can mean the lake will disappear completely in less than 5 years.

People in the rural areas Wegnia and Kononi-Sirakoro have planted 56,000 trees in the past two years. And they are better controlling their water by building stone barriers to help the soil keep the rain that does fall. The progress and international official support are not enough for them, however. More and more people are turning to other agriculture.

1. How did Traore work to support his family in the past?

A．By fishing.	B．By raising farm animals.
C．By taking charge of the lake.	D．By working as an environmentalist.

2. What effect will the current trend of the lake have according to Traore?

A．A lot of farmland will form.

B．The rainy season will end early.

C．Many fishermen will flee their homes.

D．The later generation will change their careers.

3. Which statement do the UN and Aid group agree with?

A．Drought and flood will directly cause conflict.

B．Reducing population is a way to protect the lake.

C．Water management makes no difference to the lake.

D．The rise in temperature will cause water resource problems.

4. What does the underlined word “they” in the last paragraph refer to?

A．The local officials.	B．The Aid group members.
C．The villagers.	D．The representatives.

10 . A 2015 survey found that two out of three U.S. teens owned an iPhone. For this reason, I call them iGen, and as I explain in my new book “iGen: Why Today’s Super-Connected Kids are Growing up Less Rebellious(反叛的), More Tolerant, Less Happy-and Completely Unprepared for Adulthood,”    1    .

What makes iGen different?     2    . They spend so much time on the internet, texting friends and on social media—in the large surveys I analyzed for the book, an average of about six hours per day—that they have less leisure time for everything else.

That includes what was once the favorite activity of most teens:    3    . Whether it’s going to parties, shopping at the mall, watching movies or aimlessly driving around, iGen teens are participating in these social activities at a significantly lower rate than previous generations.

    4    : In the annual Monitoring the Future survey, the percentage of high school seniors who read a nonrequired book or magazine nearly every day dropped from 60 percent in 1980 to only 16 percent in 2015.

This isn’t to say that iGen teens don’t have a lot going for them.     5     . They also seem to have a stronger work ethic and more realistic expectations than millennials(千禧一代) did at the same age.

To be clear, moderate smartphone and social media use—up to an hour a day—is not linked to mental health issues. However, most teens (and adults) are on their phones much more than that.

A．spending most of their free time on screens

B．hanging out with their friends

C．They would rather see their friends in person than communicate with them using their phones

D．Growing up with a smartphone has affected nearly every aspect of their lives

E．They are physically safer and more tolerant than previous generations were

F．They’re the first generation to spend their adolescence with a smartphone

G．In addition, iGen reads books, magazines and newspapers much less than previous generations did as teens