1 . Directions: After reading the passage below, fill in the blanks to make the passage coherent and grammatically correct. For the blanks with a given word, fill in each with the proper form of the given word: for the other blanks, use one word that best fits each blank.
       Accidents happen almost everywhere every day. Some accidents are not serious and some really are. We read about such accidents nearly every day in the newspapers. And people usually think that accidents take place only on the roads or highways    1     they themselves come across accidents in their homes or even at work places. As a matter of fact, home accidents are just as common as those we see and hear on the roads, some of    2    cause even much more serious consequences. Because very few home accidents are reported, people come to think that there are few accidents that happen in homes.
       There    3    (be) many serious cases where people fall to their deaths from high-rise flats so far. In most cases, children and women often fall over while     4    (step) down the stairs. Old people may slip on wet floors, getting badly hurt or even killed, if they are not careful.

Nowadays there are a lot of modern electrical appliances at home    5    rice cookers, micro waves and washing machines, which make life easy for the modern housewives. These appliances can kill people    6    they are used in the proper way. Gas stoves used for cooking are also dangerous if they are not properly used. They may cause burns or, in more serious cases, even fires.

       But all such accidents    7    be stopped if we are careful and follow simple rules of safety. For example, it is unwise for people to try repairing their own electrical appliances if they do not know how to repair them. Therefore, it is safer and more reliable    8    people get them repaired by an electrician.

2 . Directions: Fill in each blank with a proper word chosen from the box. Each word can only be used once. Note that there is one word more than you need.

A. wound     B. fundamentally   C. argues     D. virtue     E. mirrors   F. universally G. judged       H. simply        I. adopted       J. fascination       K. similarly

Jenny Carter an NHS coordinator is an “extreme night owl,” one of an estimated 8.2% of the population whose natural inclination(倾向)is to fall asleep well after midnight. Left to her own devices, she’d prefer to go to bed around 3 a.m. and wake up about noon.

Why do night owls exist? There is no single     1     accepted theory, but evolutionary biologists think that communities with more variation in chronotypes(睡眠类型)may have been more likely to survive.

Another theory is that variation is     2     how genetics works. Right from birth, our personal biological clocks are already     3    . Genetics establishes a person’s chronotype. Colin Espie, professor of sleep medicine at the University of Oxford, says this     4     differences in hair eye and skin color or height.

Natural night owls are     5     different from insomniacs or people who stay up until the early hours because of family or work circumstances. Being a night owl isn’t a problem.

But this isn’t always well understood. Jessica Batchelor is a medical writer who feels most productive at 11 p.m. “I can’t tell anyone when I went to sleep, woke up, showered or ate a meal without being     6    ,” she says “I struggle with feelings of guilt and shame.”

This mentality is rooted in our agrarian(耕地的)past when farm work had to begin at dawn.

Our culture mistakenly associates sleeping little and rising early with     7    . It is often extolled(颂扬)as a habit of successful people: for instance in the     8     with Margaret Thatcher’s four-hour rest, or articles about “sleepless-elite” CEOs who start their days with a 4 a.m. jog.

Actually, there is nothing wrong with staying up late as long as you’re getting a good amount of sleep every night;     9    , early risers have no special biological advantage. What research has not disproved, however, is that morning people tend to get more done.

The productivity expert Laura Vanderkam     10     that people should consider switching their schedule not because it’s necessarily better but because it’s practical.

Waking up earlier to work out, make headway on a creative project or enjoy a stress-free cup of coffee can help make it easier to accomplish more without sacrificing time for yourself.

4 . Guns have a special place in American culture, and though not everyone agrees on whether or not they are a good thing, there is no mistaking that they will be part of the cultural landscape for some time. To answer the question, no, not everyone has a gun.     1    

Americans use guns for one of two uses: either for sport, where they can use them on firing ranges or for hunting in approved areas, or for self-protection. The latter is where most people begin to take sides, either arguing for the removal of guns from society or allowing more people to have them. There are organizations and community groups for both sides and both sides have strong feelings.

Legally, there are restrictions on gun owners.     2     Only certain kinds of weapons can be purchased by the public, and that excludes automatic weapon and military grade weaponry. Gun owners must transport their weapon in a safe way, unloaded and in most cases, out of sight. Special—concealed carry permits from the police station must be obtained for people who want to wear weapon, and most people are rejected for this kind of permit.     3     Criminals steal guns or buy them illegally to commit crimes, and the news is full of terrible stories of what happened next. Occasionally a child will get a hold of legal weapon and accidentally hurt themselves or others.

It is important to remember, however, that the news stories that make the United States seem like a dangerous place are deceiving; guns are not everywhere or constant.     4     After all, America is a safe place to live.

A．You are only allowed to purchase a firearm if you have had a background check and meet certain legal requirements.

B．There have been many enlightening articles on gun control in America.

C．If you were to visit the United States for two months the only gun you might see is in a museum or on a police officer.

D．Less than fifty percent of homes in the United States own weapons, and many of those homes are in rural areas where guns may have a greater use.

E．More people are deciding to legalize their gun transactions instead of buying them on the black market.

F．What alarms people the most about American gun culture are the illegal guns and shooting, which make some places feel unsafe.

5 . Who is a genius? This question has greatly interested humankind for centuries.

Let’s state clearly: Einstein was a genius. His face is almost the international symbol for genius. But we want to go beyond one man and explore the nature of genius itself. Why is it that some people are so much more intelligent or creative than the rest of us? And who are they?

In the sciences and arts, those praised as geniuses were most often white men, of European origin. Perhaps this is not a surprise. It’s said that history is written by the victors, and those victors set the standards for admission to the genius club. When contributions were made by geniuses outside the club—women, or people of a different color or belief—they were unacknowledged and rejected by others.

A study recently published by Science found that as young as age six, girls are less likely than boys to say that members of their gender(性别)are “really, really smart.” Even worse, the study found that girls act on that belief: Around age six they start to avoid activities said to be for children who are “really, really smart.” Can our planet afford to have any great thinkers become discouraged and give up? It doesn’t take a genius to know the answer: absolutely not.

Here’s the good news. In a wired world with constant global communication, we’re all positioned to see flashes of genius wherever they appear. And the more we look, the more we will see that social factors(因素)like gender, race, and class do not determine the appearance of genius. As a writer says, future geniuses come from those with “intelligence, creativity, perseverance(毅力), and simple good fortune, who are able to change the world.”

1. What does the author think of victors’ standards for joining the genius club?

A．They’re unfair.	B．They’re conservative.
C．They’re objective.	D．They’re strict.

2. What can we infer about girls from the study in Science?

A．They think themselves smart.

B．They look up to great thinkers.

C．They see gender differences earlier than boys.

D．They are likely to be influenced by social beliefs

3. Why are more geniuses known to the public?

A．Improved global communication.

B．Less discrimination against women.

C．Acceptance of victors’ concepts.

D．Changes in people’s social positions.

4. What is the best title for the text?

A．Geniuses Think Alike	B．Genius Takes Many Forms
C．Genius and Intelligence	D．Genius and Luck

6 . Maeve Higgins once set herself a task. The Irish-born comedian wanted to see what life would be like if she stopped laughing at things that weren’t funny. Turns out it wasn’t as easy as she thought. “It was so hard,” she says. “ Laughter is a lubricant (润滑油) and is expected, and it’s really hard not to do it.”

Higgins suggests there’s something particularly special about being part of the shared experience that is live comedy — that curious magic that occurs when people come together specifically to laugh.

Comedy is more than just a pleasant way to pass an evening, humour more than something to amuse. They’re interwoven into our everyday existence. Whether you’re sharing an amusing story at a party or telling a dark joke at a funeral, humour is everywhere. But what is it for? And can humour, as comedy, change how we feel, what we think or even what we do?

As an essential part of human interaction, humour has been on the minds of thinkers for centuries. One of the most enduring theories of humour was put forward by the philosopher Thomas Hobbes. It asserts that humour appears to make fun of the weak and exert superiority. While this is clearly the function of some comedy, it’s far from a complete explanation for the overall purpose of humour.

For some comedians, it’s not just about getting laughs — it’s about changing what we think and maybe even what we do. If there’s one comic who is really typical of this, it’s Josie Long. A social justice activist and a comedian, Long has a reputation for delightful, optimistic humour and storytelling.

As her career has evolved, she has consciously put social and political topics at the heart of her act. She believes that comedians have a role to play in challenging some of the most pressing issues of the day.

British comic Stephen K Amos sells out venues seating thousands, year in, year out. Amos firmly believes that when comics consciously deal with pressing or controversial （有争议的）social issues like racism, they can reach people on a much more meaningful level than that achieved by briefly lifting someone’s mood. And while it may be difficult to quantify, he says, the social and psychological impact of comedy deserves much greater recognition.

The research backs this up. Although the role of comedy is to be entertaining first and foremost, Sharon Lockyer, a sociologist who studies humour, has identified a number of possible other functions. These include challenging stereotypes (刻板印象).

Amos’s work frequently settles the issues of race by challenging stereotypes.”I don’t do things for shock value,” he says. “ I do stuff that matters to me. In the old days it was just about doing jokes. We’ve moved on — people are talking about things that matter. ”

1. What do the first two paragraphs mainly talk about?

A．The benefits of laughing.

B．What a comedian’s daily work is about.

C．Why Maeve Higgins chose to be a comedian.

D．Maeve Higgins’ understanding of the appeal of comedy.

2. What does the underlined phrase in Paragraph 4 most probably mean?

A．Protect the weak from the evil.

B．Encourage people to be stronger.

C．Be determined to improve oneself.

D．Show you are better than other people.

3. According to the article, how does comedy have an effect on social issues?

A．By gradually influencing people’s attitudes.

B．By urging politicians to try and solve the issues.

C．By quickly yet thoroughly changing people’s thinking.

D．By calling on the whole society to pay attention to the issues.

4. According to the article, comedy includes the following roles except ________ .

A．getting people to laugh

B．promoting social progress

C．influencing people’s ideas

D．making people more productive