2 . The book turns out to be one that has appealed to the world for more than 350 years. That former prisoner was Cervantes, and the book was Don Quixote (《堂吉诃德》). And the story poses an interesting question: why do some people discover new vitality and creativity to the end of their days, while others go to seed long before?

We’ve all known people who run out of steam before they reach life’s halfway mark. I’m not talking about those who fail to get to the top. We can’t all get there. I’m talking about people who have stopped learning on growing because they have adopted the fixed attitudes and opinions that all too often come with passing years.

What does the underlined part in Paragraph 3 probably mean?

A．End one’s struggle for liberty.

B．Waste one’s energy taking risks.

C．Miss the opportunity to succeed.

D．Lose the interest to continue learning.

5 . During the rosy years of elementary school(小学), I enjoyed sharing my dolls and jokes, which allowed me to keep my high social status. I was the queen of the playground. Then came my tweens and teens, and mean girls and cool kids. They rose in the ranks not by being friendly but by smoking cigarettes, breaking rules and playing jokes on others,among whom I soon found myself.

Popularity is a well-explored subject in social psychology. Mitch Prinstein, a professor of clinical psychology sorts the popular into two categories: the likable and the status seekers. The likables’ plays-well-with-others qualities strengthen schoolyard friendships, jump-start interpersonal skills and, when tapped early, are employed ever after in life and work. Then there’s the kind of popularity that appears in adolescence: status born of power and even dishonorable behavior.

Enviableas the cool kids may have seemed, Dr. Prinstein’s studies show unpleasant consequences. Those who were highest in status in high school, as well as those least liked in elementary school, are “most likely to engage(从事) in dangerous and risky behavior.”

In one study, Dr. Prinstein examined the two types of popularity in 235 adolescents, scoring the least liked, the most liked and the highest in status based on student surveys(调查研究). “We found that the least well-liked teens had become more aggressive over time toward their classmates. But so had those who were high in status. It clearly showed that while likability can lead to healthy adjustment,high status has just the opposite effect on us."

1. What sort of girl was the author in her early years of elementary school?

A．Unkind.	B．Lonely.
C．Generous.	D．Cool.

2. What did Dr. Prinstein’s study find about the most liked kids?

A．They appeared to be aggressive.

B．They tended to be more adaptable.

C．They enjoyed the highest status.

D．They performed well academically.

7 . With the young unable to afford to leave home and the old at risk of isolation(孤独), more families are choosing to live together.

The doorway to peace and quiet, for Nick Bright at least, leads straight to his mother-in-law: she lives on the ground floor, while he lives upstairs with his wife and their two daughters.

Four years ago they all moved into a three-storey Victorian house in Bristol — one of a growing number of multigenerational families in the UK living together under the same roof. They share a front door and a washing machine, but Rita Whitehead has her own kitchen, bathroom, bedroom and living room on the ground floor.

“We floated the idea to my mum of sharing a house,” says Kathryn Whitehead. Rita cuts in: “We spoke more with Nick because I think it’s a big thing for Nick to live with his mother-in-law.”

And what does Nick think? “From my standpoint, it all seems to work very well. Would I recommend it? Yes, I think I would.”

1. Who mainly uses the ground floor in the Victorian house in Bristol?

A．Nick.	B．Rita.
C．Kathryn	D．The daughters.

2. What is Nick’s attitude towards sharing the house with his mother-in -law?

A．Positive.	B．Carefree.
C．Tolerant.	D．Unwilling.

8 . For many white-collar workers around the world, the recent pandemic has meant having to work from home. Their usual office location has been out of bounds . This means different working practices, which have advantages and disadvantages for employees. But the big question is, “Will they ever see their offices again?”

Home working has made people realize what tasks they can perform at home, rather than enduring a commute to the office to do the same thing. It has given them more time with the family; they’ve been sleeping better and have saved money by not travelling or buying lunches on the go . And recent research suggests the majority of people working from home are just as productive.

For some people, this could be a permanent arrangement. In the UK, fifty of the biggest employers questioned by BBC, have said they have no plans to return all staff to the office full-time in the near future. Of course, one main reason is that firms couldn’t see a way of accommodating large numbers of staff while social distancing regulations were still in place. But BBC also heard from some smaller businesses who are deciding to abandon their offices altogether. Other bigger companies are also looking at shutting offices to save money as many jobs can be performed remotely. Peter Cheese, head of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, told BBC: “We’re at a moment of real change in the world of work, driven by big existential crises. ”

But this isn’t great news for everyone. Some employees can feel isolated at home, and there’s less opportunity to network or learn from other people, especially if they’re a new recruit . Also, city centers may suffer most from a change in working habits. Shops and cafes rely on the footfall of office workers, and without them, they face closure. The future is still uncertain, which is why it may be too early to say where our desks will be permanently located. But the office of the future may be your home.

What could be the best title for this text?

A．Does Working From Home Benefit a Lot?

B．Will Offices Disappear in the Future?

C．The Usual Office Location Has Been out of Bounds

D．Different Working Practices Have Advantages and Disadvantages

9 . Cities usually have a good reason for being where they are, like a nearby port or river. People settle in these places because they are easy to get to and naturally suited to communications and trade. New York City, for example, is near a large harbour at the mouth of the Hudson River. Over 300 years its population grew gradually from 800 people to 8 million. But not all cities develop slowly over a long period of time. Boom towns grow from nothing almost overnight. In 1896, Dawson, Canada, was unmapped wilderness(荒野). But gold was discovered there in 1897, and two years later, it was one of the largest cities in the West, with a population of 30,000.

Dawson did not have any of the natural conveniences of cities like London or Paris. People went there for gold. They travelled over snow-covered mountains and sailed hundreds of miles up icy rivers. The path to Dawson was covered with thirty feet of wet snow that could fall without warming. An avalanche(雪崩) once closed the path, killing 63 people. For many who made it to Dawson, however, the rewards were worth the difficult trip. Of the first 20,000 people who dug for gold, 4,000 got rich. About 100 of these stayed rich men for the rest of their lives.

But no matter how rich they were, Dawson was never comfortable. Necessities like food and wood were very expensive. But soon, the gold that Dawson depended on had all been found. The city was crowded with disappointed people with no interest in settling down, and when they heard there were new gold discoveries in Alaska, they left Dawson City as quickly as they had come. Today, people still come and go — to see where the Canadian gold rush happened. Tourism is now the chief industry of Dawson City — its present population is 762.

What is the text mainly about?

A．The rise and fall of a city.

B．The gold rush in Canada.

C．Journeys into the wilderness.

D．Tourism in Dawson.

10 . The problem of robocalls has gotten so bad that many people now refuse to pick up calls from numbers they don’t know. By next year, half of the calls we receive will be scams（欺诈）. We are finally waking up to the severity of the problem by supporting and developing a group of tools, apps and approaches intended to prevent scammers from getting through. Unfortunately, it’s too little, too late. By the time these ＂solutions"（解决方案）become widely available, scammers will have moved onto cleverer means. In the near future, it’s not just going to be the number you see on your screen that will be in doubt. Soon you will also question whether the voice you’re hearing is actually real.

That’s because there are a number of powerful voice manipulation ( 处理 ) and automation technologies that are about to become widely available for anyone to use. At this year’s I/O Conference, a company showed a new voice technology able to produce such a convincing human-sounding voice that it was able to speak to a receptionist and book a reservation without detection.

These developments are likely to make our current problems with robocalls much worse. The reason that robocalls are a headache has less to do with amount than precision. A decade of data breaches（数据侵入）of personal information has led to a situation where scammers can easily learn your mother’s name, and far more. Armed with this knowledge, they’re able to carry out individually targeted campaigns to cheat people. This means, for example, that a scammer could call you from what looks to be a familiar number and talk to you using a voice that sounds exactly like your bank teller’s, tricking you into "confirming" your address, mother’s name, and card number. Scammers follow money, so companies will be the worst hit. A lot of business is still done over the phone, and much of it is based on trust and existing relationships. Voice manipulation technologies may weaken that gradually.

We need to deal with the insecure nature of our telecom networks. Phone carriers and consumers need to work together to find ways of determining and communicating what is real. That might mean either developing a uniform way to mark videos and images, showing when and who they were made by, or abandoning phone calls altogether and moving towards data-based communications — using apps like FaceTime or WhatsApp, which can be tied to your identity.

Credibility is hard to earn but easy to lose, and the problem is only going to get harder from here on out.

Which of the following would be the best title for the passage?

A．Where the Problem of Robocalls Is Rooted

B．Who Is to Blame for the Problem of Robocalls

C．Why Robocalls Are About to Get More Dangerous

D．How Robocalls Are Affecting the World of Technology