1 . The way of recording things has never ceased to develop. In the 1980s, as sales of video recorders went up, old 8mm home movies were gradually replaced by VHS (video home system)tapes. Later, video tapes of family holidays lost their appeal and the use of DVDs ______. Those, too, have had their day. Even those holding their childhood memories in digital files on their laptops now know these files face the risk of ______.

Digitising historical documents brings huge benefits—files can be ______ and distributed, reducing the risk of their entire loss through physical damage caused by fire or flooding. And developing digital versions reduces ______ on the original items. The International Dunhuang Project, ______, has digitised items like manuscripts (手稿) from the Mogao caves in China, enabling scholars from around the world to access records easily without touching the real items.

But the news that the Ministry of Justice of the UK is proposing to scan the 110 million people’s wills it holds and then destroy a handful of ______ after 25 years has shocked historians. The ministry cites this as a way of providing easier access for researchers. But that only justifies digitisation, not the ______ of the paper copies. The officials note the change will be economically efficient (saving around £4.5m a year) while keeping all the essential information.

Scholars ______. Most significantly, physical records can themselves carry important information — the kind of ink or paper used may be part of the history that historians are ______. and error s are often made in scanning. Besides, digital copies are arguably more ______ than the material items, just in different ways. The attack from the Internet on the British Library last October has prevented scholars from ______ digitised materials it holds: imagine if researchers could not return to the originals. Some even think digitised information can easily be lost within decades no matter what ______ are put in place.

The government says that it will save the original wills of “famous people for historic record”, such as that of Princess Diana’s. However, assuming that we know who will ______ to future generations is extraordinarily proud. Mary Seacole, a pioneering nurse who now appears on the national school course in the UK, was largely ______ for almost a century.

The digitisation of old documents is a valuable, even essential measure. But to destroy the originals once they have been scanned, is not a matter of great ______, but of huge damage.

1.

A．paused

B．boomed

C．recovered

D．disappeared

2.

A．getting outdated

B．coming into style

C．being fined

D．making an error

3.

A．deleted

B．named

C．copied

D．altered

4.

A．fight or flight

B．life or death

C．wear and tear

D．awe and wonder

5.

A．unfortunately

B．additionally

C．in summary

D．for example

6.

A．the originals

B．the essentials

C．the visualised

D．the digitised

7.

A．preservation

B．classification

C．publication

D．destruction

8.

A．applaud

B．disagree

C．discriminate

D．withdraw

9.

A．revising

B．abandoning

C．uncovering

D．enduring

10.

A．meaningful

B．favourable

C．resistant

D．delicate

11.

A．inventing

B．adjusting

C．accessing

D．damaging

12.

A．outcomes

B．safeguards

C．deadlines

D．byproducts

13.

A．matter

B．respond

C．lose

D．live

14.

A．spared

B．discussed

C．forgotten

D．protected

15.

A．sacrifice

B．courage

C．efficiency

D．admiration

2 . Alipay, the digital payment arm of Chinese financial technology company Ant Group, is allocating more resources to roll out translation services in 16 languages, to ensure foreigners in China can use mobile payments without any hurdles.

Alipay’s move comes amid China’s intensified efforts to further improve foreigners’ payment _________ in the country.

Alipay has allowed foreigners in China to link their _________ bank cards, including Visa and Mastercard, to its mobile payment tool, greatly streamlining (精简) the payment processes, said Zhu Xugang, director of the cross-border business at Ant Group.

Users of 10 overseas e-wallets are also able to use their familiar home e-wallets on their own phones by _________Alipay QR codes, to enjoy seamless mobile payment experiences across Alipay’s vast merchant network.

According to Alipay, foreigners can use the app to complete payments at restaurants, hotels, scenic spots, convenience stores and supermarkets, as well as for ride-hailing, shared bikes, buses and other public _________services in China. The newly _________ multilingual app includes English, French, Spanish, German, Italian, Portuguese, Russian and Japanese.

The mobile payment app has also _________ the single transaction (交易) limit for overseas travelers using mobile payments from $1,000 to $5,000 and lifted the annual cumulative transaction limit from $10,000 to $50,000.

The State Council, China’s Cabinet, published a guideline on improving payment services and _________ payment convenience in early March, a move to better meet the _________payment needs of the elderly and foreign visitors.

Last week, the People’s Bank of China, the country’s central bank, _________a payment guide that provides foreigners with text and graphic __________ on using bank cards, cash, mobile payments and e-CNY in China, the latest step in the country’s push to optimize the payment experience for foreigners.

Wang Pengbo, a senior analyst at market consultancy Botong Analysys, said the intensified efforts to provide convenient payment services will not only __________ improve the living and consumption experience of foreigners in China and attract more of them to the country, but also promote the healthy and sustainable development of the payment __________.

Wang said the move demonstrates the country’s resolve to expand high-standard opening-up, __________ the online payment scenarios of Alipay are wide enough, with high usage frequency. So, what it should do now is to expand the scope of foreign bank card binding and improve and simplify authentication of new users, to provide more convenient payment services to foreigners.

Meanwhile, Chinese banks are taking measures to expand the __________ of overseas bank cards and facilitate their use of cash in the country.

Dong said more efforts are needed to expand the scenarios of various types of payment methods at tourist attractions, sporting events, transportation hubs, healthcare and beauty centers and other daily __________ sites.

1.

A．expectations

B．memorizations

C．experiences

D．durations

2.

A．international

B．domestic

C．interior

D．commercial

3.

A．copying

B．photographing

C．sharing

D．scanning

4.

A．transportation

B．security

C．education

D．maintenance

5.

A．evolved

B．launched

C．specialized

D．simplified

6.

A．decreased

B．restricted

C．suspended

D．raised

7.

A．implementing

B．enhancing

C．administrating

D．subscribing

8.

A．diversified

B．facilitated

C．digitalized

D．conflicted

9.

A．purchased

B．authorized

C．released

D．commercialized

10.

A．designs

B．illustrations

C．instructions

D．imagery

11.

A．significantly

B．artificially

C．individually

D．frequently

12.

A．gateway

B．industry

C．deadline

D．term

13.

A．developing

B．monitoring

C．securing

D．adding

14.

A．recognition

B．acceptance

C．regulation

D．policy

15.

A．construction

B．application

C．production

D．consumption

3 . 听下面一段独白，回答以下小题。1.

A．A social trend.

B．A writer.

C．A shoe company.

D．A book

2.

A．New styles of shoes were developed.

B．Designers started wearing the shoes.

C．The company made efforts to advertise its shoes.

D．Manhattan clubs promoted the shoes to the customer.

3.

A．They will spread much faster.	B．Advertising campaigns stopped.
C．Only a few people will notice them.	D．Word-of-mouth marketing began to work.

4 . 听下面一段独白，回答以下小题。1.

A．Colleagues have face-to-face conversation with him.

B．Colleagues in the same office email him at work.

C．He has to use LinkedIn for work and jobs.

D．He feel isolated from his family.

2.

A．Time travel.

B．3D printers.

C．Internet of things.

D．Fitness

3.

A．Curious.

B．Doubtful.

C．Uninterested.

D．Confident

5 . 听下面一段较长对话，回答以下小题。1.

A．The advantages of reality TV shows.	B．The disadvantages of reality TV shows
C．Their experiences in reality TV shows.	D．Their different views on reality TV shows.

2.

A．Ordinary people.	B．Famous people.
C．Stupid people.	D．Popular people.

3.

A．Most of the situations are not real.	B．Some of them are too touching.
C．They are full of tension and drama.	D．She will never get into such situations.

4.

A．They are amusing but sometimes harmful.

B．They are a form of “gossip entertainment”

C．They can entertain and sometimes educate people.

D．They can make people know more about nature.

6 . 听下面一段独白，回答以下小题。1.

A．The U.S. is not one of the happiest countries in the world

B．The U.S. experienced a decline in happiness only from 2005 to 2007 .

C．The U.S. is not included in the top 10 happiest countries

D．The U.S. is among the 47 countries experiencing a decline in happiness

2.

A．Greece .

B．Burundi.

C．Denmark .

D．Australia.

3.

A．Quality education.

B．Safety from crime

C．Good health.

D．Wealth.

7 . 听下面一段独白，回答以下小题。1.

A．Endurance.	B．Exhausted.
C．Survivor.	D．That’ll Teach’em.

2.

A．It aims at making money.	B．It gets adults involved.
C．It is unpleasant.	D．It is educational.

3.

A．They are extremely dangerous.	B．They are over commercial.
C．They are entirely fictional.	D．They are quite popular.

8 . 听下面一段独白，回答以下小题。1.

A．They used to be unable to listen to public debates.

B．They were more patient and sociable then people now.

C．They learned from political speeches.

D．They used to think in terms of a printed text.

2.

A．It makes people get ideas from images, not from written words.

B．It has made the public less interested in politics.

C．The quality of television programming has declined.

D．Political programs on TV are too complex.

3.

A．The environmental effects of consumerism.

B．How consumer culture has made people unreasonable.

C．How television has affected people's thinking ability.

D．Television's damage to the environment

9 . In Favour of Simple Writing

Do you edit text messages carefully before sending them? If so, you may be the kind of person who takes pride in _______ even the simplest message. If you do not, you may see yourself as a go-getter, one who values excitement and speed over _______: get it done decently now rather than perfectly later.

People are constantly receiving messages, from the mailbox to the inbox to the text-message alert. What to read, what to skim (略读) and what to ignore are decisions that nearly everyone has to make dozens of times a day. A new book titled All Readers are Busy Nowadays makes the argument for being the careful kind of _______, even in informal lines. The authors also present well-established _______ that have long been prized in guides to writing.

Take “less is more”. Most books on writing well advocate the advice to _______ needless words. The authors, however, have _______ the idea. In an email to thousands of school-board members asking them to take a survey, cutting the count from127 to 49 words almost _______ the response rate.

Keeping messages to a _______ idea—or as few as absolutely needed—helps ensure that they will be read, remembered and acted on. _______ the number of the available options has the same effect, too. A link in an email, ________, attracted 50% more clicks when presented alone than when it was sent alongside a second additional link.

Syntax (句法) and ________ matter, too. It is more ________ to adopt short and active sentences, with common words familiar to everyone. From Facebook posts to online-travel reviews, even brief, informal pieces of writing that follow these rules get more likes and shares.

If everyone is a busy reader, everyone is a busy writer, too. That may make it tempting to sent as many messages as ________ as possible and hope for the best. But from essays to text messages organizing dinner plans, devoting time to the needs of readers has provable ________. If you are so busy that you write an undisciplined message which readers scan, ignore and delete, then you might as well have not ________ it at all.

1.

A．conveying

B．understanding

C．crafting

D．sending

2.

A．care

B．quantity

C．simplicity

D．technology

3.

A．reader

B．poster

C．learner

D．writer

4.

A．structures

B．principles

C．aims

D．alternatives

5.

A．remove

B．ignore

C．reconsider

D．interpret

6.

A．conveyed

B．translated

C．tested

D．shaped

7.

A．lowered

B．affected

C．doubled

D．maintained

8.

A．basic

B．positive

C．definite

D．single

9.

A．Recording

B．Reducing

C．Counting

D．Estimating

10.

A．in comparison

B．after all

C．for instance

D．in particular

11.

A．word-choice

B．pattern-design

C．target-setting

D．platform-selection

12.

A．difficult

B．suitable

C．challenging

D．common

13.

A．carefully

B．often

C．politely

D．quickly

14.

A．outcomes

B．points

C．figures

D．benefits

15.

A．received

B．written

C．read

D．answered

10 . Those who had the pleasure of watching Benny Goodman at work saw a rather ordinary-looking man in rimless glasses and a conservative business suit; but they also saw a human being who could play the clarinet(单簧管) like no one before or since. This made Benny Goodman a unique individual.

Other Americans who have stood out from the flock include Joe DiMaggio, Beverly Sill, Ernest Hemingway and Jonas Salk. They, like Benny Goodman, were recognized and honored for no other reason than excellence.

It is doing something better than other people that makes us unique. Yet a surprising number of people still see individuality as a surface thing. They wear garish clothes, dye their hair strange colors and decorate their skin with tattoos to make some kind of social statement. But an ordinary guy who has dyed his hair purple or orange is nothing more than the same person with a funny-looking head.

The whole purpose of individuality is excellence. Those who invent, who improvise(即兴发挥), who know more about a subject than other people do, and who take something that doesn’t work and make it work––these people are the very soul of capitalism.

Charles Kettering didn’t like the idea of cranking a car to make it start, so he invented the electric starter. Henry Ford figured out the assembly-line technique and made it possible to mass-produce automobiles, and Elisha Otis, inventor of the elevator, indirectly created the city sky-line. These people understood that individualism means working at the top of one’s capacity.

The ones with the purple hair and the funky jewelry are just along for the ride, trying to be “different” and not knowing how to go about it.

The student who earns straight A’s on his report card has grasped the idea and has found the real meaning of individuality. So has the youngster who has designed his own spaceship, who gives piano recitals, who paints pictures of the world around him.

Benny Goodman understood it too. This is why he was at his best, blowing his clarinet, in a blue suit and black shoes.

1. The author mentions the appearance of Benny Goodman to _________.

A．show what a talented musician should look like

B．introduce an important figure in the musical world

C．contrast with his talent in music performance

D．indicate that he can’t stand out from the flock

2. The author would most probably agree that _________.

A．an individualist tends to seek difference both in character and appearance

B．the essence of individualism lies in pursuing excellence to the full

C．being different in appearance is the very first step to being individual

D．those who strive to win the recognition of others are real individualists

3. According to the passage, which individual’s actions may not truly embody the essence of individualism?

A．A scientist who conducts research solely advancing knowledge for the greater good rather than for personal recognition.

B．A social media influencer who conforms to popular opinions to maintain a large following.

C．An artist who creates unique works but fail to gain fame and recognition from others.

D．An entrepreneur who prioritizes ethical considerations over profit in his business practices.

4. For the main thread, the article is organized by way of __________.

A．specific to general	B．cause and effect
C．examples and conclusion	D．comparison and contrast