1 . Leah Brown aged 36 fell several hundred feet from Oregon’s highest mountain right before the eyes of a group of volunteer rescue workers who rushed to her aid and helped save her life.
The woman was coming down a popular path (小路) on Mt. Hood, about 70 miles east of Portland, on Saturday morning, according to the local police. Mt. Hood is the highest in Oregon, standing at around11.240 feet.
The fall was seen by members of Portland Mountain Rescue (PMR), a volunteer organization focused on helping people in mountainous areas. The group called 911 and rushed to the woman, providing medical care. They helped keep the woman warm for seven hours as the police worked to get her off the mountain safely. Finally, the woman was evacuated (转移) to a parking lot at 9:30 pm and taken to a hospital.
The climber, Leah Brown, said she didn’t know what caused her fall. “I can only guess it was either an ice tool or a crampon (冰爪) that didn’t land and stick like it should have, so I became detached from the mountain,” Brown said. “The thing I’d like to most stress is my appreciation for the members of PMR who evacuated me and took good care of me the whole time,” Brown added. “They saved my life. ”
In a statement after the rescue, PMR warned of the dangerous winter conditions at the mountain. “The short days and lower temperatures mean that the snow tends to be very hard and icy, and the conditions tend to be much steeper. Climbing the mountain in icy conditions is much more difficult,” the group said.
1. What happened to Brown on Saturday morning?| A．She lost her way in a forest. | B．She hurt her eye unexpectedly. |
| C．She failed to call her family. | D．She fell down on a downhill path. |
| A．Different. | B．Hidden. | C．Separated. | D．Tired. |
| A．Thankful. | B．Regretful. | C．Surprised. | D．Concerned. |
| A．Climbing requires teamwork. | B．Climbing in winter is too risky. |
| C．We must remain positive in hard times. | D．We can admire the view on sunny days. |
2 . Walking in the city is very different from walking in the park. A small psychology study suggests urban(城市的) environments can slow your step and possibly increase your mental load. A walk through nature, on the other hand, appears to ease your mind and quicken your pace. The findings show that natural settings may potentially reduce cognitive (认知的)tiredness and improve reaction times straight away. The study, which includes two experiments with two different approaches, was conducted among 65 university students in the lab.
The first of the two experiments in the new study focused on people’s way of walking and cognitive load. During this trial, participants were fitted with sensors and a dozen motion control cameras were set up to watch them repeatedly walk down a 15-metre room at their natural speed. The wall opposite them showed an image of either a nature scene or a city scene. After each walk, participants were asked to rate their feelings of discomfort in the visual environment. On the whole, when walking in city settings, people reported more discomfort and they walked at a slower pace, indicating a higher cognitive load.
The second experiment dug into some of the higher-level cognitive processes that might be at play. In the trial, participants were asked to distinguish between basic visual shapes on the computer while also in the presence of a natural or urban image(the same ones from the first experiment). Measuring reaction times in both natural and urban settings, the team found results to support their idea. In urban environments, participants were slower in distinguishing between simple shapes. The authors think this is because urban environments are more distracting(令人分心的) for our brains and take longer to process, but more research is needed to prove that idea.
1. How were the experiments conducted mainly?| A．By comparing. | B．By giving data. |
| C．By giving examples. | D．By explaining facts. |
| A．It can make us feel relaxed and react quickly. | B．It can activate our thinking and speed up our step. |
| C．It can make us less tired and improve our memory. | D．It can make us become more focused and creative. |
| A．They had a lower cognitive load. | B．They had to slow down their pace. |
| C．They couldn’t concentrate properly. | D．They felt uncomfortable after walking. |
| A．Urban environment makes us more concentrated. | B．People’s feelings are decided by their pace of walking. |
| C．The result of the experiments is widely appreciated. | D．People tend to get tired more easily walking in the city. |
3 . Are you a moviegoer? If so, then there’s no better place to watch something than on the big screen at the cinema. You enter the dark hall and take your seat, ready to be entertained.
Over the last few years, cinemas have seen a resurgence (复兴). Customers have been attracted by comfortable seats, and lots of choice of things to watch. Multiplexes (多放映厅影院) can screen up to twenty films at the same time, catering for all different tastes.
One answer to that question is convenience. Rather than going out, it’s so much easier to stay in and watch a movie on a high-definition TV screen via a streaming service.
| A．This isn’t great news for cinemas. |
| B．There’s plenty of choice, and it’s relatively cheap. |
| C．This has put the future of cinemas under the spotlight. |
| D．The idea of waiting to make your movies more profitable doesn’t make sense. |
| E．But recently, so new cinemas have had to close because of reduced ticket sales. |
| F．In addition, 3D and even 4D movies can give the audience an extra immersive experience. |
| G．But while you engage yourself in some movie magic, many others are now getting their film fix at home. |
4 . One of the most curious features of the modern world is the manner in which design has been widely transformed into something meaningless. But I want to argue design should be the crucial block on which the human environment is shaped and constructed for the betterment and delight of all.
Not surprisingly, in the absence of widespread agreement about its significance and value, much confusion surrounds design practice. In some subject areas, authors can assume common ground with readers. Other subject areas can be so difficult that no such mutual understanding exists.
Design sits uncomfortably between these two extremes. As a word it is common enough, but it is full of disharmony, has innumerable manifestations (表现), and lacks boundaries that give clarity and definition. As a practice, design generates vast quantities of material, much of it ephemeral, only a small proportion of which has sustained quality.
So how can design be understood in a meaningful sense? Design is one of the basic characteristics of what it is to be human, and an essential determinant of the quality of human life. If things are a necessary part of our existence, why are they often done so badly? There is no simple answer. Cost factors are sometimes advanced, but the remove between doing something well or badly can be exceedingly small, and cost factors can in fact be reduced by appropriate design inputs.
This book is based on a belief that design matters profoundly to us all in innumerable ways and represents an area of huge, underutilized potential in life. It sets out to explore some reasons why this is so and to suggest some possibilities of change. The intention is to extend the range of what is understood by the term, and examine the depth of design practice as it affects everyday life in a diversity of cultures.
1. What is paragraph 2 of the text mainly about?| A．The causes of confusion. | B．The significance of design. |
| C．The differences in subjects. | D．The common ground in people. |
| A．Meaningful. | B．Enormous. |
| C．Short-lived. | D．Hard-wearing. |
| A．Reducing design inputs. |
| B．Persisting in meaningful design practices. |
| C．Denying previous conception of design. |
| D．Clarifying the confusion surrounding design. |
5 . As some cities start driving beggars from their major streets, some of the smarter ones have found a safer, more comfortable place to carry on — the Internet.
These “web beggars” go online with sad stories, and send out emails asking for money, according to a recent Beijing News report.
The paper published one example from a reader who had received it.
It said, “I’m from Chengdu. Dad died when I was a kid and Mum is seriously ill. My girlfriend has just dumped (丢下) me. I am so depressed that I cannot leave home. Would you please help me with 10 yuan for a meal?” The sender left the name Li Dan and a bank account number.
A reporter later contacted Li Dan through QQ, a Chinese Internet chat service. He said that he was 21 and had recently dropped out of college.
“I started begging by the Internet last December, just for fun,” he said. “But when I got the first 10 yuan in January, I decided to become a full-time web beggar.”
Li said he knew about 10 other web beggars in Chengdu. They all stayed at home to write emails and could probably send over 1,000 per day. They would exchange experience and thoughts over QQ or beggar websites.
The story got some reaction from the public. Some saw it as a fresh idea but others suspected (怀疑) that it was just another form of cheating.
In related news, Nanjing, the capital of Jiangsu Province, began to ban begging in eight of its major districts on Monday, according to the local media.
That caused a heated discussion about whether it violated (侵犯) beggars’ rights.
Most people supported the policy, repeating the old line that most beggars were not real beggars and that they annoyed people constantly, according to a newspaper poll (计票).
1. What do “web beggars” mean?| A．The beggars who have a net. |
| B．The beggars that ask for money by the Internet. |
| C．The beggars that like the Internet. |
| D．It’s a website which is controlled by some beggars. |
| A．Because the places where the beggars are allowed to beg are becoming fewer and fewer. |
| B．Because the Internet is safer and faster. |
| C．Because the Internet is so developed. |
| D．Because the beggars are not allowed to leave home. |
| A．Beggars can get some money from banks. | B．Li Dan quit college. |
| C．Li Dan is a specialized beggar. | D．Beggars have their own websites. |
| A．It was another kind of cheating. | B．It was a different idea. |
| C．It made people angry. | D．A, B and C. |
6 . New research finds a link between poverty and poor decision making. The findings may explain why poor people sometimes make bad choices that continue their hardship.
Earlier studies have found the poor less likely to escape poverty. But there has been little research on why the poor make decisions that make their lives harder. Until recently, Eldar Shafir, a psychologist and his team did two experiments. One took place at a shopping center in New Jersey. The other was carried out among sugar cane (甘蔗) farmers in rural India.
The New Jersey experiment involved individuals with low paying jobs and others belonged to the middle class. All the volunteers were asked what they would do if their cars needed repairing.
The volunteers were given two imaginary situations. In the first, the car repair cost $150. In the second, $1,500.
“In the first, the poor and the rich performed equally well.”
“And when the repair cost $1,500, the poor performed significantly worse.” The poor lost about 13 IQ points on average. This is about the loss experienced when a person has not slept for one night.
The scientists then wondered if the same person reacted differently when he was rich and when he was poor. Once a year when the harvest comes in, the India sugar cane farmers earn most of their money, which often does not last through the year.
“So they find themselves basically rich after the harvest when the income comes in and poor just before the harvest.”
The researchers gave them tests similar to the ones taken by the people in New Jersey. They tested the Indian farmers before the harvest and after.
And the results were much the same as with the mall shoppers.
“They performed much more slowly and made many more mistakes when they were poor than when they were rich.”
Mr. Shafir says the results support 50 years of research that shows all humans have limited mental power to deal with things in life.
“And so the insight here is that, having not enough of something in a way makes it harder to make good decisions for everything else.”
1. What is true about earlier studies?| A．They were done by economists and psychologists. |
| B．They found it hard for the poor to become rich. |
| C．They explained why the poor make poor decisions. |
| D．They showed the poor care little about their wealth. |
| A．they had not slept for one night |
| B．it was just an imaginary situation |
| C．the increased price affected their decision |
| D．they didn’t take the second situation seriously |
| A．are smarter when they are poor |
| B．earn money all through the year |
| C．earn a lot of money so they think they are rich |
| D．feel rich after the harvest and poor before the harvest |
| A．It is hard for the poor to rid their poverty. |
| B．The poor will become much poorer. |
| C．Poverty weakens brain power. |
| D．Different experiments and their findings. |
7 . I suddenly heard an elephant crying as though frightened. Looking down, I immediately recognized that something was wrong, and ran down to the edge of the near bank. There I saw Ma Shwe with her three-month-old calf struggling in the fast-rising water, and it was a life-and-death struggle. Her calf was floating and screaming with fear. Ma Shwe was as near to the far bank as she could get, holding her whole body against the rushing water, and keeping the calf pressed against her huge body. Every now and then the rushing water would sweep the calf away. There was a sudden rise in the water and the calf was washed clean over the mother’s body and was gone. Ma Shwe turned quickly to reach it and pressed the calf with her head and trunk(象鼻) against the rocky bank. Then with a huge effort, she picked it up in her trunk and tried until she was able to place it on a narrow shelf of rock.
Just at this moment, she went back into the river. If she were carried down, it would be certain death. I knew, as well as she did, that there was one spot(地点) where she could get to the bank, but it was on the other side from where she had put her calf. While I was wondering what I could do next, I heard the sound of a mother’s love. Ma Shwe had crossed the river and got to the bank and was making her way back as fast as she could, roaring(吼叫) all the time, but to her calf it was music.
1. The moment the author got down to the river bank he saw ________．| A．the calf was about to fall into the river |
| B．Ma Shwe was placing the calf on the rock |
| C．the calf was washed away by the rising water |
| D．Ma Shwe was holding the calf against the rushing water |
| A．By putting it on a safe spot. | B．By pressing it against her body. |
| C．By taking it away with her. | D．By carrying it on her back. |
| A．It was a musical note. | B．It was a sign of danger. |
| C．It was a call for help. | D．It was a great comfort. |
1.支持方的观点；
2.反对方的观点；
3.你的观点。
注意：1.词数100左右；
2.开头和结尾已给出。
Dear Mr. Brown,
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Yours,
Li Hua
9 . The city of Rotterdam is planning to take apart a famous old bridge so that the world’s largest sailboat can be brought through the city once it’s completed. However, not everyone is happy about the plan.
Rotterdam’s Koningshaven Bridge, which local people call “De Hef”, is no longer in use. It’s an old bridge that was damaged by bombing during World War II. But it’s still important to many people in Rotterdam. When the city planned to take the bridge down in the 1990s, many people complained. Instead, the city fixed the bridge up and left it in place as a monument.
That’s a problem for the boat building company Oceanco. The company is building a huge sailboat, and the boat is too big to fit under the bridge. When the boat is finished, it’s expected to cost more than $500 million. It will be the world’s largest sailboat. Large sailboats are often called yachts but this is a super yacht. It will be 417 feet (127 meters.) long. When it’s finished , it will also be taller than the bridge. So Oceanco has asked the city to take the central part of the bridge down to allow the boat to pass through. The city has agreed and the government plans to rebuild the bridge afterward. Oceanco will have to pay for all the work done for the bridge. The work is expected to take a few weeks some time this summer.
The locals are upset about the plan of taking a historic monument apart. Despite the public’s protest against the plan, the city appeared to agree to the arrangement. Last week, a person speaking for the mayor said that the Koningshaven River is the only path the sailboat can take to the sea. The mayor’s office also pointed out the arrangement has economic efficiency, including providing a lot of jobs for the well-being of local people.
1. What happened to Rotterdam’s Koningshaven Bridge?| A．It was taken down in the 1990s. |
| B．It was damaged in World War II. |
| C．It was destroyed and then deserted. |
| D．It was fixed and returned to normal. |
| A．To pay for the work done to the bridge |
| B．To complete the sailboat in a few weeks. |
| C．To get the bridge pulled down for the boat. |
| D．To make the sailboat long and tall month. |
| A．Supportive. | B．Excited | C．Opposed. | D．Optimistic |
| A．National pride. | B．Economic benefits |
| C．Tourism development. | D．Local industries. |
10 . One thing we always remember from our childhood is our favourite teddy bear. This soft ragged toy was our comfort and companion. As we grow up, we normally give up our childish ways, and our furry friend often ends up in storage or at a yard sale. But that’s not the case for everyone.
It seems that some grown-ups continue to need their cuddly (让人想抱的) toy by their sides. And for some adults, soft toys remain an essential presence—they take them wherever they go.
A cuddly toy can come in many forms —animals, strange shapes or just a piece of stuffed material. But it’s the teddy bear in particular that seems to have a lasting appeal —it gives us a nostalgic(怀旧的) feeling and a reminder of our younger days. David Cannadine, a historian, says, “Perhaps it’s that bears represent the happy security of a childhood friend who never changes or lets you down. For whatever reason, teddies appeal to both children and adults of all ages.”
The teddy bear is much celebrated these days, and they’ve become something that we don’t just grow up with —people buy them as adults too. There are shops which sell only teddy bears, there are teddy bear museums in many countries, and teddy bear festivals regularly take place around the world.
While our soft toys offer us a kind of comfort blanket, some experts say it’s nothing to be ashamed of. It’s sometimes good to let go of the restrictions of adult life and be a big kid again. Many adults purchase playthings they enjoyed as children because they bring back happy memories. Colouring books, cuddly toys and board games were top of the list. So, if you’re still keeping your teddy a secret, don’t worry —you’re not alone!
1. What are teddy bears usually used for?| A．Keeping people company. |
| B．Making adults stay young. |
| C．Being sold for pocket money. |
| D．Being collected for appreciation. |
| A．They come in various shapes and colors. |
| B．They are made of strange furry materials. |
| C．They help to ensure children’s safety. |
| D．They carry with them true friendship. |
| A．Take less notice of shame. | B．Try to act like a child. |
| C．Follow social rules strictly. | D．Buy toys if necessary. |
| A．No More Teddy Bears | B．A Teddy Bear for Life |
| C．Childish Teddy Bears | D．Adults in Need of Toys |
