1 . "Did you hear what happened to Adam last Friday?" Lindsey whispers to Tori.

With her eyes shining, Tori brags, "You bet I did, Sean told me two days ago."

Who are Lindsey and Tori talking about? It just happened to be yours truly, Adam Freedman, I can tell you that what they are saying is （a） not nice and （b） not even true. Still, Lindsey and Tori aren't very different from most students here at Linton High School, including me. Many of our conversations are gossip （闲话）.I have noticed three effects of gossip: it can hurt people, it can give gossipers a strange kind of satisfaction, and it can cause social pressures in a group.

An important negative effect of gossip is that it can hurt the person being talked about. Usually, gossip spreads information about a topic—breakups, trouble at home, even dropping out—that a person would rather keep secret. The more embarrassing or shameful the secret is, the juicier the gossip it makes. Probably the worst type of gossip is the absolute lie. People often think of gossipers as harmless, but cruel lies can cause pain.

If we know that gossip can be harmful, then why do so many of us do it? The answer lies in another effect of gossip: the satisfaction it gives us. Sharing the latest rumor （传言）can make a person feel important because he or she knows something that others don't. Similarly, hearing the latest rumor can make a person feel like part of the "in group". In other words, gossip is satisfying because it gives people a sense of belonging or even superiority （优越感）.

Gossip also can have a third effect: it strengthens unwritten, unspoken rules about how people should act. Professor David Wilson explains that gossip is important in policing behaviors in a group. Translated into high school terms, this means that if everybody you hang around with is laughing at what John wore or what Jane said, then you can bet that wearing or saying something similar will get you the same kind of negative attention. The do's and don'ts conveyed through gossip will never show up in any student handbook.

The effects of gossip vary depending on the situation. The next time you feel the urge to spread the latest news, think about why you want to gossip and what effects your "juicy story" might have.

1. The author uses a conversation at the beginning of the passage to _________.

A．introduce a topic	B．present an argument
C．describe the characters	D．clarify his writing purpose

2. An important negative effect of gossip is that it ___________.

A．breaks up relationships	B．embarrasses the listener
C．spreads information around	D．causes unpleasant experiences

3. Professor David Wilson thinks that gossip can ____________.

A．provide students with written rules

B．help people watch their own behaviors

C．force school to improve student handbooks

D．attract the police's attention to group behaviors

4. What advice does the author give in the passage?

A．Never become a gossiper	B．Stay away from gossipers
C．Don't let gossip turn into lies	D．Think twice before you gossip

2 . 听下面一段较长对话，回答以下小题。
1. What's Jenny's problem?

A．She dislikes history class.	B．She does poorly in her tests.
C．She does badly in assignments.

2. What's the probable relationship between the speakers?

A．Classmates.

B．Teacher and student.

C．Husband and wife.

3 . Recently a new network word “ghost” is popular on line, which refers to a sort of Internet social behavior that your net friends or loved ones don't answer your online messages or phones on purpose as if leaving the earth. Thus you often wonder whether those chatters are ghosts or pretending to be dead. This behavior is called ghosting in the English world, which means “playing with disappearance ”

"Ghost” is better known as a noun referring to spirits of the dead, but "ghost” used as a verb which means "to disappear suddenly like a ghost", or "play with disappearance^w is relatively unknown. Finally, owing to its high using frequency on line , this usage has been added to the Oxford Dictionary of Contemporary English.

Playing with disappearance or ghosting also has different grades. Wendy Walsh, a professor of psychology from Boston University told us, There are different grades of ghosting: If you just read on social software but never answer, you are only a lightweight ghosting player ； if you meet a person several times but try to avoid him , you are an ordinary ghosting player； if you let your partner fall in love with you, but you suddenly disappear , which will give the other a heavy blow, you are a heavyweight ghosting player. ”

Why are some people accustomed to this kind of escapist social behavior? The Times reports that ghosting has a lot to do with how comfortable people feel and how they deal with their emotions. When they are in a complex interpersonal relationship, or it is too heavy for their weak mind to carry, they will have to choose to escape.

When you find yourself being ghosted, you may lose your self-respect, question yourself, or even hesitate to start the next friendship or love. How to get out of this emotional trouble? It's important to remember that when you're ghosted, it's the other's fault rather than yours. In addition, it^‘s good to risk telling others how you really feel, even if it's not what they want to hear. Have you ever been ghosted? What do you think of this way of dealing with a relationship?

1. Which sort of the following Internet social behavior can be described as ghosting?

A．Leaving your friend after a quarrel.

B．Love breaking up after a fight.

C．Not replying to net friends on purpose.

D．Missing after getting friends' money.

2. According to professor Walsh, if you just read but never reply online, you are a( n)      player.

A．heavyweight ghosting	B．non-ghosting
C．ordinary ghosting	D．lightweight ghosting

3. Which paragraph tells us the reasons why people are used to ghosting?

A．Paragraph 2.

B．Paragraph 3.

C．Paragraph 4.

D．Paragraph 5.

4. How should you deal with it when you are ghosted according to the writer?

A．Never blame yourself and pour out your trouble to others bravely .

B．Search out their identification on the Internet and ruin their reputation.

C．Keep the trouble in mind and never tell others about it.

D．Turn to police for help and put them in prison.

4 . 听下面一段独白，回答以下小题。
1. According to the speaker, what can people learn from shoes?

A．They can learn how a person walked.

B．They can tell how the climate changed through history.

C．They can learn how technology developed through history.

2. When did the Museum open?

A．On May 6th, 1959.

B．On May 6th, 1995.

C．On May 16th, 1995.

3. How many old shoes has the Museum collected?

A．More than 4,500.

B．More than 12,500.

C．More than 125,000.

4. What other things does the Museum collect besides shoes?

A．Shoe making materials.

B．20th - century machines.

C．Shoe - shaped things.

5 . In modern society there is a great deal of argument about competition. Some value it highly, believing that it is responsible for social progress and prosperity. Others say that competition is bad; that it sets one person against another; that it leads to unfriendly relationship between people.

I have taught many children who held the belief that their self­worth relied on how well they performed at tennis and other skills. For them, playing well and winning are often life­and­death affairs. In their single­minded pursuit of success, the development of many other human qualities is sadly forgotten.

However, while some seem to be lost in the desire to succeed, others take an opposite attitude. In a culture which values only the winner and pays no attention to the ordinary players, they strongly blame competition. Among the most vocal are youngsters who have suffered under competitive pressures from their parents or society. Teaching these young people, I often observe in them a desire to fail. They seem to seek failure by not trying to win or achieve success. By not trying, they always have an excuse: “I may have lost, but it doesn't matter because I really didn't try.” What is not usually admitted by themselves is the belief that if they had really tried and lost, that would mean a lot. Such a loss would be a measure of their worth. Clearly, this belief is the same as that of the true competitors who try to prove themselves. Both are based on the mistaken belief that one's self­respect relies on how well one performs in comparison with others. Both are afraid of not being valued. Only as this basic and often troublesome fear begins to dissolve can we discover a new meaning in competition.

1. What does this passage mainly talk about?

A．Competition helps to set up self­respect.

B．Opinions about competition are different among people.

C．Competition is harmful to personal quality development.

D．Failures are necessary experiences in competition.

2. The underlined phrase “the most vocal” in Paragraph 3 means ________.

A．those who try their best to win

B．those who value competition most highly

C．those who are against competition most strongly

D．those who rely on others most for success

3. What is the similar belief of the true competitors and those with a “desire to fail”？

A．One's worth lies in his performance compared with others'.

B．One's success in competition needs great efforts.

C．One's achievement is determined by his particular skills.

D．One's success is based on how hard he has tried.

4. Which point of view may the author agree to?

A．Every effort should be paid back.

B．Fear of failure should be removed in competition.

C．Winning should be a life­and­death matter.

D．Competition should be encouraged.

6 . We love letters. Just as John Donne, a poet, _________ it, “Letters, to me and my friends mean _________ greetings; they get souls together. Thanks to letters, friends who are _________ speak.” He wrote these words nearly 400 years ago. Today, in the age of instant text message, social media, and email, they _________ ring truer than ever, because writing or receiving a letter has become such a _________ event.

A UK-wide survey undertaken by Sunday Times suggests that one in four of us has not _________ a letter for at least 10 years. That’s ten years without the bitter-sweet _________ of pacing the floor waiting for the _________; ten years without recognizing the handwriting on the envelope and eagerly _________ the letter to read its content.

We ____________ not get them any more, but we still love handwritten letters. In the same survey, one third of ____________ people interviewed say that they ____________ the content of sentimental (充满情感的) letters. Shouldn’t we make ____________ to give our friends and families what they will treasure forever? Ann Bickley went online in 2013 and offered to handwrite a letter to anyone who ____________ her. Her website received 50,000 ____________ in its first three months. Five years later, she is still the main ____________ behind one-million-lovely-letter.com and has personally written 4,000 letters offering hope and ____________ to strangers.

The thought behind a letter ____________ as much as its contents. “I never tell anyone that ____________ is going to be OK,” Ann Bickley says, “I am letting someone know that there is someone in the world who ____________ them.”

Who wouldn’t love to receive a letter like that? Let’s get writing!

1.

A．made

B．put

C．helped

D．managed

2.

A．rather than

B．less than

C．more than

D．other than

3.

A．absent

B．active

C．amused

D．admirable

4.

A．also

B．yet

C．already

D．still

5.

A．popular

B．common

C．rare

D．simple

6.

A．received

B．sent

C．written

D．rejected

7.

A．success

B．pleasure

C．concern

D．calmness

8.

A．engineer

B．doctor

C．police

D．postman

9.

A．seizing

B．tearing

C．hiding

D．carrying

10.

A．can

B．must

C．may

D．shall

11.

A．American

B．Chinese

C．Australian

D．British

12.

A．forget

B．change

C．remember

D．notice

13.

A．money

B．room

C．history

D．time

14.

A．contacted

B．interviewed

C．consulted

D．admired

15.

A．guests

B．visitors

C．friends

D．partners

16.

A．force

B．strength

C．source

D．energy

17.

A．effort

B．comfort

C．surprise

D．experience

18.

A．educates

B．guides

C．matters

D．rewards

19.

A．nothing

B．anything

C．something

D．everything

20.

A．looks after

B．cares about

C．struggles for

D．agrees with

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。

Every year around Valentine’s Day, men begin to worry about what     1     (present) to buy and women     2     (fill) with hope and expectation. Or the other way around. In China, more couples get married on that very day,     3     (add) romance to their promises. But for many, love is neither the matter-of-course choice     4     the preferred one. More young, working urban residents are delaying or even choosing not to     5     (active) seek their partners despite the social pressure from the older generations to do so.

Over the years, China’s divorce rate has exceeded (超过) that of marriage. According to the statistics from the Ministry of Civil Affairs, 10 million couples registered for marriage in 2017 fell by 7%     6     (compare) with the same period last year, while 43.7 million couples divorced, 5.2% more than the same period last year.

There is also a growing trend towards people marrying later: since 2013, the number of couples aged 25 to 29 has been greater than     7     of younger couples. In the     8     (late) survey on professional attitudes towards love and marriage, more than half of the investigated in Yangzhou,     9     second-level city on the East coast, were satisfied     10     their marriage after 35.

8 . When a driver slams on the brakes to avoid hitting a pedestrian crossing the road illegally, she is making a moral decision that shifts risk from the pedestrian to the people in the car. Self-driving cars might soon have to make such ethical (道德的)judgments on their own — but settling on a universal moral code for the vehicles could be a tough task, suggests a survey.

The largest ever survey of machine ethics, called the Moral Machine, laid out 13 possible situations in which someone’s death was unavoidable. Respondents were asked to choose who to spare in situations that involved a mix of variables: young or old, rich or poor, more people or fewer. Within 18 months, the online quiz had recorded 40 million decisions made by people from 233 countries and territories.

When the researchers analysed these answers, they found that the nations could be divided into three groups. One contains North America and several European nations where Christianity has been the dominant (占支配地位的)religion; another includes countries such as Japan, Indonesia and Pakistan, with strong Confucian or Islamic traditions. A third group consists of countries in Central and South America, such as Colombia and Brazil. The first group showed a stronger preference for sacrificing older lives to save younger ones than did the second group, for example.

The researchers also identified relationships between social and economic factors in a country. They found that people from relatively wealthy countries with strong institutions, such as Finland and Japan, more often chose to hit people who stepped into traffic illegally than did respondents in nations with weaker institutions, such as Nigeria or Pakistan.

People rarely face such moral dilemmas, and some cities question whether the possible situations posed in the online quiz are relevant to the ethical and practical questions surrounding driverless cars. But the researchers argue that the findings reveal cultural differences that governments and makers of self-driving cars must take into account if they want the vehicles to gain public acceptance.

At least Barbara Wege, who heads a group working on autonomous-vehicle ethics at Audi in Ingolstadt, Germany, says such studies are valuable. Wege argues that self-driving cars would cause fewer accidents, proportionally, than human drivers do each year—but that people might focus more on events involving robots.

Surveys such as the Moral Machine can help to begin public discussions about these unavoidable accidents that might develop trust. “We need to come up with a social consensus,” she says, “about which risks we are willing to take.”

1. Why is it difficult to set universal moral rules for programming self-driving cars?

A．Social values always change with the times.

B．Moral choices vary between different cultures.

C．Drivers have a preference for sacrificing the weak.

D．Car makers are faced with decisions of life or death.

2. The researchers conducted the study by_____.

A．using a massive online quiz worldwide

B．comparing different cultures and customs

C．dividing the respondents into three groups

D．performing a series of controlled experiments

3. According to the study, in which country are drivers more likely to hit a pedestrian crossing the road illegally?

A．Nigeria	B．Colombia
C．Finland	D．Indonesia

4. Barbara Wege would probably agree that _____.

A．Self-driving cars will greatly improve the traffic environment

B．Accidents caused by self-driving cars might receive more attention

C．Problems involving self-driving cars might shake the public trust in society

D．Car makers needn’t take the risk of solving self-driving car ethical dilemmas

9 . The job of raising children is a tough one. Children don't come with an instruction manual(说明书).And each child is _______ .So parents sometimes pull their hair out in frustration，not _______ what to do. But in raising children，what we do is_______ by our culture.   Naturally then，Amer ican parents teach their children basic American _______.

To Americans, the goal of parents is to help children _______ on their own feet. From _______，each child may get his or her own room. As children grow, they get more _______ to make their own choices. _______ choose their own forms of entertainment，as well as the friends to _______ them with. When they _______ young adulthood，they choose their own jobs and marriage _______.Of course，many young adults still _______ their parents’ advice and approval for the choices they make. But once they “leave the _______” at around 18 to 21 years old，they want to be on their own，not _______ to their mothers' apron strings(围裙带).

The relationship between parents and children in America is very informal.   American parents _______ their children   as   individuals—not   as   extensions   of   themselves.They _______ them   to   achieve   their   own   dreams.

Americans praise , encourage and give their children the _______ to succeed. When children become adults，their parents becomes more like _______. But _______ to popular belief，most adult Americans don't make their parents pay for room and board when their parents come to _______ them. Even as adults，they respect and honor their parents.

1.

A．strange

B．new

C．different

D．unlike

2.

A．noticing

B．knowing

C．remembering

D．deciding

3.

A．changed

B．made

C．controlled

D．influenced

4.

A．values

B．standards

C．laws

D．services

5.

A．sit

B．get

C．stand

D．rise

6.

A．childhood

B．girlhood

C．boyhood

D．adulthood

7.

A．money

B．space

C．time

D．freedom

8.

A．Adults

B．Americans

C．Teenagers

D．Parents

9.

A．help

B．share

C．join

D．provide

10.

A．gain

B．pass

C．become

D．reach

11.

A．partners

B．wives

C．husbands

D．couples

12.

A．invite

B．seek

C．try

D．choose

13.

A．nest

B．house

C．room

D．place

14.

A．connected

B．tied

C．stuck

D．held

15.

A．look

B．recognize

C．think

D．view

16.

A．hope

B．suggest

C．command

D．allow

17.

A．power

B．trust

C．confidence

D．energy

18.

A．friends

B．companions

C．members

D．companies

19.

A．known

B．contrary

C．similar

D．due

20.

A．notice

B．watch

C．visit

D．observe

10 . 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。

Did you grow up in one culture, your parents came from another, and you are now living in a     1     (total) different country? If so, then you are a third-culture kid.

The term “third—culture kid”     2     (use) in the 1960s for the first time by Dr. Ruth. She first came across this phenomenon while     3     (research) North American children living in India. In general, third-culture kids benefit from    4     (they) intercultural experience and they often reach excellent academic results.

Yet many       5     (difficulty) may arise from this phenomenon. Third-culture kids may not be able to adapt themselves completely     6     their new surroundings. Also, they often find it hard     7     (develop) new friendship. Additionally, for a third-culture kid, it is often easier to move to a new country     8     to return to his homeland. For example, after living in Australia for many years, Louis finally returned to the country     9     she was born. She didn’t know anything about current TV shows     10     fashion trends. And she didn’t share the same values as other teens of her age.