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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.

How Do Our Phones Affect Our Parenting?

As a pediatrician (儿科医生), I have researched how mobile phone use affects family dynamics. The parent-child relationship is central to children’s social and emotional health and life success — yet I also see how more and more family interactions interrupted by mobile devices … including my own.

My interest in the topic began in 2010. I worked for a year as a pediatrician in the suburbs outside of Seattle. Many of the parents bringing in their sick kids worked at tech companies and were early adopters of mobile devices. During my training, I had gotten used to children playing with handheld gaming devices, but this was different: parents texted during health-related conversations (were they really processing what I was saying?); looked up medical information online to check my accuracy (was this a sign of parent anxiety?); and used videos to stop children from crying (this was pretty helpful during ear exams, but is it OK other times, I wondered?).

I was fascinated by the cultural change America was experiencing with the rapid adoption of mobile devices. But as a pediatrician, I had no idea what to do about it. So when I moved to Boston for training in Developmental Behavioral Pediatrics, I decided to explore the topic in more depth.

I started my research by observing families in fast food restaurants and the results were pretty eye-opening: when parents’ attention was highly absorbed in their smartphones, parents talked less to children; responded slower (or not at all) to child bids for attention; and sometimes overreacted to child behavior.

Our more recent studies show that in the long-run, parent technology use during parent-child activities leads to more difficult child behavior — which in turn leads to more parent technology usage. It’s a vicious cycle: when kids stress us out, we often go to our phones for escape or to avoid interaction, and this interrupts time with kids or makes them annoyed, and they might react with difficult behavior, and so on.

As a working mom of two young boys, I knew how this child-phone multitasking felt to me, but I wanted to hear what others thought. So I interviewed 35 parents from diverse backgrounds in Boston to understand their experiences. They told me they have never felt their brains split in so many directions — like all the matters of the world could intrude upon home time and “land in their lap”. They expressed both relief and despair when their phones were broken or lost, because while this made it easier to “single-task” on their kids again, they also felt cut off from friends and information.

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Directions: Read the following passage. Fill in each blank with a proper sentence given in the box. Each sentence can be used only once. Note that there are two more sentences than you need.

New sense discovered in dog noses: the ability to detect heat

Dogs’ noses are amazing. Not only are they up to 100 million times more sensitive than ours, they can sense weak thermal radiation- the body heat of mammalian (哺乳动物的) prey, a new study reveals. The find helps explain how dogs with damaged sight, hearing, or smell can still hunt successfully.

“It’s a fascinating discovery,” says Marc Bekoff, an expert on dog sniffing (嗅探). “It provides yet another window into the sensory worlds of dogs’ highly evolved cold noses.” The ability to sense weak, radiating heat is known in only some animals: black fire beetles, certain snakes, and one species of mammal, the common vampire bat, all of which use it to hunt prey.1. But the tips of dogs’ noses are moist, colder than the surrounding temperature, and richly endowed with nerves-all of which suggests an ability to detect not just smell, but heat.

To test the idea, researchers at Lund University trained three pet dogs to choose between a warm (31°C) and a surrounding-temperature object, each placed 1.6 meters away.2. (Scientists could   only detect the difference by touching the surfaces.) After training, the dogs were tested on their skill in double-blind experiments; all three successfully detected the objects emitting weak thermal radiation.

Next, the researchers scanned the brains of 13 pet dogs of various breeds while presenting the dogs with objects emitting neutral or weak thermal radiation. The left somatosensory cortex in dogs’ brains, was more responsive to the warm thermal stimulus than to the neutral one. The scientists identified a group of 14 voxels (体素) in this region of the dogs’ left brains , but didn’t find any in the right, and none in any part of the dogs’ brains in response to the neutral stimulus.

3. Also, a specific region of their brains is activated by this infrared (relating to a type of light) radiation, the scientists say. They suspect dogs inherited the ability from their ancestor, the gray wolf, who may use it to sniff out warm bodies during a hunt.

“The study is consistent with other research that describes the combined dog nose and brain as a highly complicated platform for processing a broad range of signals,” says Gary Settles, a professor of mechanical engineering at Pennsylvania State University. “The dog nose can distinguish patterns of hot and cold objects at a distance,” he said. “4. That needs further study.”

A.If nothing else, the work suggests the extraordinary skills of the dog.

B.The dogs weren’t able to see or smell the difference between these objects.

C.But dogs’ thermal detection skills may not be useful for long distance hunting.

D.Most mammals have naked, smooth skin on the tips of their noses around the nostrils (鼻孔).

E.Dogs track prey “not by sight or sound or smell, but by some other and subtler sense”.

F.Together, the two experiments show that dogs, like vampire bats, can sense weak hot spots.

    The story of chocolate begins with the discovery of America in 1492. Columbus was the first European to come into contact with cacao. Columbus was struck by how much value the Indians placed on them as he did not know the beans were used by currency. It is unlikely that Columbus brought any of these beans back to Spain and it was not until about 25 years later that Cortez grasped the commercial possibilities when he found the Aztecs using the beans to make the royal drink “chocolate”.

The Spanish, in general, were not fond of the bitter drink so Cortez and his followers made it more palatable by adding cane sugar and later cinnamon and vanilla were added. Spanish monks let the secret out back home and, although the Spanish hid it from their neighbors for a hundred years, finally chocolate’s popularity grew until it was their fashionable drink at the French court and the wise choice of customers at London meeting houses.

The cacao tree is strictly a tropical plant only in hot, rainy climates. Thus, its cultivation is limited to countries not more than 20 degrees north or south of the equator (赤道). The cacao tree is very delicate and sensitive. It needs protection from the wind and requires a fair amount of shade under most conditions. This is true especially in its first two or three years of growth. A newly planted young cacao tree is often sheltered by a different type of trees. It is normal to plant food crops for shade such as bananas, plantain, coconuts or cocoyams. Rubber trees and forest trees are also used for shade. Once established, however, cacao trees can grow in full sunlight, provided there are fertile soil conditions and intensive farming. With cutting and careful cultivation, the trees of strains will begin bearing fruit in the fifth year. With extreme care, some strains can be stimulated to produce good crops in the third and fourth year.

The process of turning cacao into chocolate hasn’t changed much since the Swiss made the major breakthroughs in the process in the late 1800s. First the beans go through a process of fermentation ( 发酵 ) and drying. They are then sorted by hand before cleaning and then roasting. Winnowing ( 风 扬 ) follows which removes the hard outer layers and leaves what is as the “grains”. A crushing and heating process known as Hunte’s Process is then used to remove nearly half of the cocoa butter from the nibs. This makes unsweetened chocolate. Basic eating chocolate is made from a mixture of the unsweetened chocolate with some of the cocoa butter along with other ingredients such as sugar and vanilla. The resulting product is then “purified” and this purifying gives chocolate the silky texture that we know so well. The finished result is then shaped, cooled, packaged by machine, distributed, sold and of course, eaten!

1.Why didn’t Columbus bring beans back to Spain at once when he found cacao?

A.Because he couldn’t afford to buy the cacao bean.

B.Because he didn’t know how to turn cacao bean into chocolate.

C.Because he was not aware of the monetary value of cacao bean then.

D.Because Spaniards then didn’t favour the chocolate that the Aztecs originally drank.

2.The underlined word “palatable” in paragraph 2 probably means  .

A.affordable B.agreeable C.patent D.portable

3.Which of the following is correct about cacao tree?

A.Cacao trees need a lot of looking after to be used commercially.

B.Cacao trees require hot, rainy climates and adequate sunlight.

C.Cacao trees won’t produce fruit until the fifth year.

D.Cacao trees can grow well in all continents.

4.Which is the correct order of turning cocoa into chocolate?

① The chocolate is reheated to melt it, put into patterns and then cooled to make its final shapes.

② The beans are harvested on the farm.

③ Some cocoa butter is then obtained using Hunte’s Process to make cooking chocolate.

④ The cooking chocolate is then mixed with other ingredients to make the various types of eating chocolate available today.

⑤ The beans are winnowed after fermentation and drying and these two processes produce the grains.

⑥ The finished product is wrapped, sent to shops and then sold.

A.②①③④⑤⑥ B.②③①⑤④⑥ C.②④⑤①③⑥ D.②⑤③④①⑥

The Apollo Missions

“That's one small step for a man. One giant leap for mankind.”

— Neil Armstrong

Apollo’s Goals

The national effort that enabled Astronaut Neil Armstrong to speak those words as he stepped onto the lunar surface fulfilled a dream as old as humanity. Project Apollo’s goals went beyond landing Americans on the moon and returning them safely to Earth.

Apollo 13

Apollo 13 has been called a “successful failure,” because the crew never landed on the Moon, but they made it home safely after an explosion crippled their ship. When the associated heater was turned on during flight, the tank exploded depleting almost all of the power from the command module and forcing the crew to use the lunar module as a lifeboat. Jim Lovell, Fred Haise and Jack Swigert came home safely thanks to the mission control team’s improvised procedures and their own ability to implement them.(Launch: April 11, 1970; splashdown: April 17)

Apollo 14

Notable for the return of America’s first astronaut, Alan Shepard, to space, Apollo 14 also was probably the smoothest lunar landing to that point. The crew spent more than nine hours outside the lunar module and set up a number of experiments. Shepard set a new distance record by walking more than 9,000 feet on the lunar surface, pulling a hand cart to carry their tools and samples.(Launch: Jan. 31, 1971: lunar landing: Feb. 5: splashdown, Feb. 9)

Apollo 15

For the first time, humans drove a car on the Moon. The first of the Apollo “J” Missions-designed for longer stays on the Moon - the mission carried a lunar rover, which Commander David Scott and Lunar Module Pilot James Irwin used while they were on the surface for more than I8 hours. They traveled more than 17 miles in the rover, setting up experiments and collecting 170 pounds of samples. Before leaving the lunar surface, Scott conducted an experiment to test Galileo’s theory that objects in vacuum, without air resistance, would fall at the same rate. He dropped a geological hammer and a feather, which hit the ground at the same time, proving Galileo right.(Launch: July 26, 1971, lunar landing: July 30: splashdown: Aug. 7)

1.Why has Apollo 13 been called a “successful failure”?

A.Apollo 13 finally exploded as planned in space.

B.All the crew succeeded in landing on the Moon.

C.The crew managed to escape from a severe accident and returned to Earth.

D.The crew finished the experiment although they failed to land on the Moon.

2.Which of the following is True according to the passage?

A.It took five days for Apollo 14 to reach the Moon.

B.The lunar rover was used as a lifeboat for space travel.

C.Shepard tested Galileo’s theory successfully on the Moon.

D.Apollo 15 remained in space for the shortest period of time.

3.Which of the following column is this article most likely to be found?

A.Booming Science B.Exploring the Unknown

C.Mechanical World D.Transforming Moon

　Suddenly Uncle Henry stood up. “There’s a cyclone coming, Em,” he called to his wife. “I’ll go look after the stock.” Then he ran toward the sheds where the cows and horses were kept.

Aunt Em dropped her work and came to the door. One glance told her of the danger close at hand. “Quick, Dorothy!” she screamed. “Run for the cellar!” Toto jumped out of Dorothy’s arms and hid under the bed, and the girl started to get him. Aunt Em, badly frightened, threw open the trap door in the floor and climbed down the ladder into the small, dark hole. Dorothy caught Toto at last and started to follow her aunt. When she was halfway across the room there came a great roar from the wind, and the house shook so hard that she lost her footing and sat down suddenly upon the floor.

Then a strange thing happened. The house circled around two or three times and rose slowly through the air. Dorothy felt as if she were going up in a balloon. It was very dark, and the wind blew horribly around her, but Dorothy found she was riding quite easily. After the first few twists and turns, and one other time when the house tipped badly, she felt as if she were being rocked gently, like a baby in a cradle (摇篮). Toto did not like it. He ran about the room, now here, now there, barking loudly; but Dorothy sat quite still on the floor and waited to see what would happen.

At last she crawled over the swinging floor to her bed, and lay down upon it; and Toto followed and lay down beside her. In spite of the swinging of the house and the crying of the wind, Dorothy soon closed her eyes and fell fast asleep.

1.What does the underlined word “cyclone” in paragraph 1 probably mean?

A.deadline B.flood C.monster D.tornado

2.Why did Aunt Em go into the hole in the floor when the cyclone approached?

A.To find the puppy Toto. B.To find shelter from the cyclone.

C.To protect their fortune. D.To get tools to help Henry.

3.Which of the following is True about Dorothy?

A.She managed to control the house. B.She found herself flying in a balloon.

C.She turned baby crying loudly. D.She remained undisturbed with Toto.

4.Which words can be used to describe Dorothy in the emergency?

A.Afraid and brave. B.Curious and tired.

C.Flexible and calm. D.Excited and thrilled.