1 . 语法填空

The poem Dream     1     Langston Hughes is very short with only 8 lines. When I read the poem aloud I can hear that the ends of the second and fourth sentences rhyme—“die” and “fly”. The last word from the sixth and     2    (eight) sentences also rhyme—“go” and “snow”. These     3    (rhyme) words sound nice and make the poem pleasing to read.

When I close my eyes, I can see different     4    (image) from the poem. For example, I can see two hands being held. I can see a bird flying in the sky. I can see a field and I can imagine     5     it looks like with lots of snow. I start to feel cold when I read these lines!

I learnt     6     new phrase, “hold fast”, which     7    (mean) to hold onto something. “Barren” is also a new word to me, which means empty.

I think the poet is giving us     8    (advise). He wants us to keep dreaming, because life is much     9    (good) when we dream and have something     10    (look) forward to.

2 . The Four Best Astronomy Books

This list has been updated 24 times since it was first published in 2015. Our selection includes editions specifically written to attract youngsters, some of which are for more advanced students. Each of them contains breathtaking, full-color images.

●The Backyard Astronomer’s Guide

The Backyard Astronomer’s Guide (about $30) is a great resource suitable for beginners and experts. It offers in-depth guidance on everything from picking the perfect telescope to avoiding light pollution, with tips on how best to explore the deep sky.

Features:

Over 500 bright photographs

Detailed maps of the Milky Way

●Far out: A Space-Time Chronicle

Far out: A Space-Time Chronicle (about $25) takes you on a journey through time using the concept of light speed to introduce the vastness of the universe. It’s a real page-turner, with one impressive photo after another, and will let your imagination run wild.

Features:

Making connections to human history

Written in a poetic style

Informative and thoughtful

●NightWatch: A Practical Guide to Viewing the Universe

This book (about $18) has sold upwards of 600,000 copies of its three previous editions. It comes with a variety of charts showing various events, such as when to expect a solar and lunar eclipse (日蚀和月蚀).

Features:

Great for those using telescopes

Helpful telescope shopping tips

●Astronomy: A Self-Teaching Guide

Perfect for ordinary people or those wanting to get a taste of the subject before devoting themselves to a formal class, this book (about $11) makes it easy for them to learn the main topics and basic rules of a college-level course on their own.

Features:

No math required

Self-tests to check progress

Explaining professional terms

1. What can we say about the book Far Out: A Space-Time Chronicle?

A．It is funny and strange.	B．It is exciting and imaginative.
C．It is breathtaking and popular.	D．It is instructive and challenging.

2. Which book is suitable for college astronomy beginners?

A．Far Out: A Space-Time Chronicle	B．The Backyard Astronomer’s Guide
C．Astronomy: A Self-Teaching Guide	D．NightWatch: A Practical Guide to Viewing the Universe

3. What do the four books have in common?

A．They all have colorful pictures.	B．They are all updated regularly.
C．They are all aimed at young kids.	D．They all focus on the solar system.

3 . “The Road Not Taken” appears as a preface to Frost’s Mountain Interval, which was published in 1916 when Europe was engulfed in World War I; the United States would enter the war a year later. Frost wrote this poem at a time when many men doubted they would ever go back to what they had left.

Actually, Robert Frost wrote “The Road Not Taken” as a joke for a friend, the poet Edward Thomas. When they went walking together. Thomas was habitually indecisive about which road they ought to take and when looking back often regretted that they should, in fact, have taken the other one. Soon after writing the poem in 1915. Frost complained to Thomas that he had read the poem to an audience of college students and that it had been “taken pretty seriously... despite doing my best to make it obvious by my manner that I was fooling. ... It is my fault.” However, Frost liked to make jokes, “I’m never more serious than when joking.”

Indeed, shortly after receiving this poem in a letter, Edward Thomas’s Army was sent to Arras, France, where he was killed two months later. When Frost sent the poem to Thomas, Thomas initially failed to realize that the poem was about him. Instead, he believed it was a serious reflection on the need for decisive action.

Frost was disappointed that the joke fell flat and wrote back insisting that the sigh at the end of the poem was “a mock sigh, hypo-critical for the fun of the thing.” The joke made Thomas angry; Thomas was hurt by this characterization of what he saw as a personal weakness — his indecisiveness, which partly sprang from his paralyzing depression. Thomas warned Frost that most readers would not understand the poem’s playfulness and wrote, “I doubt if you can get anybody to see the fun of the thing without showing them and advising them which kind of laugh they are to turn on.” Edward Thomas was right, and the critic David Orr has referred to “The Road Not Taken” as a poem that “at least in its first few decades came close to being reader-proof.”

1. What did the college students think of the poem?

A．It fooled them.	B．It deserved high praise.
C．It confused them in a manner.	D．It concerned something serious.

2. How did Edward Thomas react to the poem when receiving it?

A．He felt so hurt by it as to go to Arras.	B．He wrote back to criticize its mock sigh.
C．He doubted if anybody could see its fun.	D．He thought it relevant to the situation then.

3. What does the critic David Orr mean by saying “The Road Not Taken ... came close to being reader-proof”?

A．Readers were forbidden from reading the poem.

B．Readers didn’t know who to laugh at in the poem.

C．Readers might fail to appreciate the teasing in the poem.

D．Readers couldn’t appreciate the beauty described in the poem.

4. What can be the best title for the text?

A．A Poem Over-interpreted	B．Friendship revealed by a Poem
C．Fun of Rereading a Classic Poem	D．The Secret to Understanding a Poem

4 . How might you drag a good writer’s work down to a bad one? Try the spell-check button. A study at the University of Pittsburgh indicates spell-check software may shorten the gap between people with different levels of language skills, hampering (妨碍) the work of writers and editors who place too much trust in the software.

In the study, 33 undergraduate students were asked to correct a one-page business letter, half of them using Microsoft Word with red and green lines underlining potential errors. The other half did it the old-fashioned way, using only their heads. Without grammar or spelling software, students with higher SAT verbal scores made, on average, five errors, compared with 12.3 errors for students with lower scores. Using the software, students with higher verbal scores reading the same page made, on average, 16 errors, compared with 17 errors for students with lower scores.

Dennis Galletta, a professor of information systems at the Katz Business School, said spell-checking software is so sophisticated that some have come to trust it too thoroughly. “It’s not a software problem, it’s a person behavior problem,” he said. Microsoft technical specialist Tim Pash said grammar and spelling technology is meant to help writers and editors, not to solve all their problems. The study found the software helped students find and correct errors in the letter, but in some cases they also changed phrases or sentences underlined by the software as grammatically suspicious, even though they were correct.

1. On whom might spell-check software have a bad influence?

A．Authors who have age gaps.	B．People with lower language levels.
C．Writers having too much faith in it.	D．Editors seldom taking advantage of it.

2. What can we learn from Paragraph 2?

A．Using spell-check software helps reduce the mistakes.

B．Spell-check software causes students to make more mistakes.

C．There is no obvious difference after using spell-check software.

D．Spell-check software has advantages over the old-fashioned way.

3. What does the underlined word “sophisticated” in paragraph 3 mean?

A．Advanced.

B．Complicated.

C．Difficult.

D．Cheap.

4. What does the passage mainly talk about?

A．Spell-check restricts writers’ creativity.

B．Spell-check software can make writing worse.

C．The advantages and disadvantages of softwares.

D．The reasons for people’s abandoning spell-check software.

5 . Saint Maybe by Anne Tyler

Saint Maybe is an example of how one small mistake can result in tragedy (悲剧) for a family with lives changed forever. The true strength of the novel lies in the author’s ability to write with sincerity and understanding. I’ve read this book many times over and always find it inspirational when it comes to writing my own novels about the complexities of family life.

— Eric James

Silly Verse For Kids by Spike Milligan

This book is so tiny and thin, but I loved all these funny poems inside-and it made me want to write rhymes. After reading this, I started writing my own poetry. I like including silly poems and lyrics in my books, which is definitely down to the influence of this book. It’s a book that you would read as a kid and it would really stimulate your imagination.

— Liz Pichon

Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll

A book read at my father’s knee and one that inspired my imagination and shaped my writing life. My desire to fall down a rabbit hole that might take me to Wonderland surpassed (胜过) my other childhood wishes. Wonderland with its Cheshire Cat and never-ending tea parties, which were reflected in a life-long love of cats and cakes, suited me best.

— Menna van Praag

Bambi by Felix Salten

My mum read this to me before I could read, and later I read it to myself again and again. In the Suffolk countryside where I grew up, I would often spot deer in the fields. This book made me stop and study the animal tracks on the ground and made me think about the world around me in a different way, setting me on the path to being a writer.

— Polly Crosby

1. What is the advantage of Saint Maybe?

A．The content of the book.	B．The example in this novel.
C．The complexities of life.	D．The author’s writing abilities.

2. Which book would you choose if you want to read poems?

A．Saint Maybe

B．Silly Verse For Kids

C．Alice in Wonderland

D．Bambi

3. What do the four books have in common?

A．They influence the four readers greatly.	B．They are mainly recommended for kids.
C．They can stimulate readers’ imagination.	D．They allow readers to see the world differently.

6 . I never saw daffodils (水仙花) in Gaza.     1     When I was walking in the gardens, a line from Wordsworth’s poem came to mind: And then my heart with pleasure fills,/And dances with the daffodils.

My father used to say, “English is a window looking over the world.” He specialised in English Language and Literature. At home lively debates would erupt about literature or philosophy.     2     I was born into a refugee (难民) family as my father and grandmother had to leave their motherland for Kuwait because of war decades ago. When I was 13, my family travelled to Gaza but we had to stay there as a war broke out in Kuwait. I became a refugee for the second time. However, my parents were determined that my education was of the greatest importance.     3    

In the following years, I studied hard and finally worked as a research fellow to investigate the impact of conflict on health in the Middle East and North Africa. During this time, I attended an artistic workshop, which offered the skills to share my research findings through artistic media like poetry.     4     I didn’t find it difficult to write — I’d be walking along, and the lines just seemed to flow out of me.

Recently, a poem inspired by my research will be featured in the Creative Encounters exhibition, which forms part of the Cambridge Festival.     5     They bring a lightness and beauty, and within this lightness and beauty lies hope.

A．In this way, I rediscovered my love of poetry.

B．I specifically focused on the health of people in Gaza.

C．So they enrolled at the English Department of a top University in Gaza.

D．Despite the happy atmosphere in our home, a shadow lay across our lives.

E．They knew from experience that even if everything was lost education remained.

F．It was only when I came to University of Cambridge that I saw them for the first time.

G．While my research can’t express Gazans’ sufferings, my words can be a voice for them.

7 . 阅读下面材料, 在空白处填入适当的内容 (一个单词)或括号内单词的正确形式.

A Journey to the Center of the Earth is an 1864 science fiction novel by rules verge. The scientific knowledge in the book is old, but this has nothing to do with the     1     (popular) of the book.

There are three main     2     (character) in the book: axes, the narrator of the story; his uncle, Professor Lidenbrock, the scientist of geology, and Hans, their     3     (faith) Iceland guide.

The Professor was     4     impatient person, but he insisted on continuing the journey, and finally     5     (manage) it. Hans was silent and incredibly calm. As long as the Professor was hiring him and paid his wage     6     (regular), he could do anything for him, despite the seemingly hopeless situation. His faith, courage and excellent skills saved the other two companions for several times.

One day, the Professor found a book,     7     described the way down to the center of the Earth. He and his companions got equipped immediately,     8     (start) their adventurous journey. What was waiting for them? Well, we can only figure this out by reading the book.

The book is a short one. Some words in it may be difficult     9     (understand). But don't worry! Not knowing these words will not stop us understanding the plot. And the rest are easy. Therefore, it should be a suitable book     10     high school students and the fans of science fiction.

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

A. potential              B. accesses              C. touching              D. promotes              E. easily              F. means G. presents              H. responsible        I. standing              J. exposure              K. given

Why is Art so Powerful?

Perhaps the simplest answer to this question is that art touches us emotionally.

Art is powerful because it can potentially influence our culture, politics, and even the economy. When we see a powerful work of art, you feel it     1    deep within your core, giving us the power to make real-life changes.

It has the power to educate people about almost anything. It creates awareness and     2    information in a way that could be absorbed by many     3    . In a world where there are those who don’t even have access to good education; art makes education an even greater equalizer of society.

It breaks cultural, social, and economic barriers. While art hardly really solves poverty or     4    social justice on its own, it can be used as a leveled playing field for discourse and expression. The reason why everyone can relate to art is that everyone has emotions and personal experiences. Therefore, anyone can learn to appreciate art regardless of their social background, economic     5    , or political affiliation.

It     6    higher orders of thinking. Art doesn’t just make you absorb information. Rather, it makes you think about current ideas and inspire you to make your own. This is why creativity is a form of intelligence — it is a special ability that unlocks the     7    of the human mind. In fact, studies have shown that     8    to art can make you better in other fields of knowledge.

The truth is that people have recognized how powerful art can be. Many times in history have we heard of people being criticized, threatened, censored, and even killed because of their artwork. Those     9    for these reactions, may it be an aggressive government or a dissident group, take these measures against artists knowing how much their works can affect the politics in a     10    area. In the hands of good people, however, art can be used to give back hope or instill courage in a society that’s undergoing a lot of hardships.

9 . Directions: Read the following passage. Summarize the main idea and the main point(s) of the passage in no more than 60 words. Use your own words as far as possible.

Working Out Worries by Writing

After his father was driven to the hospital for emergent treatment, 43-year-old Yanatha Desouvre began to panic. So, he did one thing that he knew would calm himself: He wrote. Over the next few weeks, Desouvre filled several notebooks, writing about his worry as well as his happy memories with his dad. “Writing allowed me to face my fear and process my pain,” he says. Psychologists refer to that kind of writing as “expressive writing”. People do it by recording their deepest thoughts and feelings. However, different from writing in a journal, expressive writing is to reflect honestly and thoughtfully on a particular frustration or challenge.

A well-known psychology professor says that hundreds of studies have looked at the potential benefits of expressive writing and found it can help reduce pain and improve mood, sleep and memory. It may even help reduce symptoms of various illnesses, and prevent colds and flu.

Expressive writing takes effect because translating a painful experience into language allows people to make meaning out of it, some experts say. The process forces them to organize their thoughts and offers a sense of control, thus completing the pursuit of value from such an experience. Another research suggested that during expressive writing, the act of labeling a feeling can lessen the activity relating to nerves in the threat area of the brain. With these nerves relaxed, people can lower the symptoms of their diseases, enhance their appreciation for life, and increase the acceptance of various experiences in their lives.

What can’t be ignored is that it shouldn’t be used as a replacement for other medical treatments. And people coping with a severe depression may not find it useful to do on their own, without therapy. Yet, it can be a powerful coping tool for many, in large part because it helps battle against their reluctance to face negative emotions.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

10 . Some literary characters capture the imagination of readers. Their adventures, experiences, talents and personalities make them _______. Detective Sherlock Holmes is one of these. Author Arthur Conan Doyle created Holmes in 1887 in his works. He was brilliant. Critically, his ability to notice _______, assemble them and draw conclusions amazed everyone. He first appeared in the story “A Study in Scarlet”The story also introduced Dr. John Watson and how he came to live with Holmes and be part of his life. Watson observes that many interesting people visit Holmes at various times during the day. Holmes informs Watson he is a “_______detective”. These people are clients, including _______ from Scotland Yard, who seek his help to solve difficult cases.

Watson narrates this first case which involves the murders of two men. The story has two parts. In the first part, Holmes solves the crime and captures the killer. The second part gives the backstory as to why the killer murdered his _______. It was a revenge (报复) killing for their part in the death of the murderer’s fiancee.

The Red-headed League is on many people’s lists of their favorite stories _______ Sherlock Holmes. In this story, red-headed businessman Jabez Wilson wants Holmes’ help. Several weeks before, Wilson’s young assistant, Vincent Spaulding, had _______ him to reply to a newspaper ad. The ad offered _______ paid work to a red-headed man. Wilson gets the job and is paid 4 pounds a week for short periods of afternoon work. _______ suddenly without notice the job stops. Wilson wants Holmes’s assistance to discover what happened. Holmes ________ a description of Spaulding and goes to see him at Wilson’s shop. He notices that the knees of Spaulding’s trousers are ________. Then Holmes taps on the pavement ________Wilson’s shop. Next he calls a police inspector and the director of the bank that is behind Wilson’s shop. The four men hide in the dark bank vault (金库) and wait. Soon two men, one of whom is Spaulding, ________ from a tunnel cut into the vault’s floor and are captured. The two men had ________ the Red-headed League to keep Wilson away while they dug the ________ to the bank vault.

1.

A．imaginable

B．intelligible

C．powerful

D．unforgettable

2.

A．criminals

B．processes

C．details

D．expressions

3.

A．consulting

B．investing

C．conducting

D．enquiring

4.

A．natives

B．detectives

C．officials

D．rivals

5.

A．colleges

B．partners

C．relatives

D．victims

6.

A．including

B．representing

C．involving

D．praising

7.

A．urged

B．helped

C．warned

D．forced

8.

A．dearly

B．fully

C．highly

D．earnestly

9.

A．Therefore

B．Furthermore

C．Meanwhile

D．Then

10.

A．turns to

B．asks for

C．takes down

D．works out

11.

A．dirty

B．ordinary

C．special

D．wet

12.

A．on top of

B．at the back of

C．in front of

D．in the middle of

13.

A．escape

B．emerge

C．run

D．keep

14.

A．invented

B．organized

C．supervised

D．commanded

15.

A．yard

B．wall

C．hole

D．tunnel