Attention from strangers is nothing new to me. Questions about my height is the center of almost every public interaction. My friends say my height !s just a physical quality and not a personality aspect. However, when I reflect on my life, I realize that, my height has shaped my character in many ways and has helped to make me who I am.
I learned how to be kind. When I was younger, some parents in my neighborhood regarded me kind of dangerous because I was so much larger than other children my age. I had to be extra welcoming and gentle simply to play with other children. Of course. now my coaches wish I weren’t quite so kind on the basketball court.
I learned the quality of not being too proud about myself. At 7 feet tall, everyone expects me to be an amazing basketball player. They come expecting to see Dirk Nowitzki, and instead they might see a performance more like Will Ferrell(successfully starred a professional basketball player). I have learned to be modest and to work even harder than my fellows to meet their (and my) expectations.
I developed a sense of lightheartedness. When people playfully make fun of my height, 1laugh at myself too. On my first day of high school, a girl dropped her books in a busy hallway. I got down to her level and gathered some of her notebooks. As we both stood up, her eyes widened as I kept rising over her. Astonished, she dropped her books again. Embarrassed, we both laughed and picked up the books a second time.
All of these lessons have defined me. Looking back, I realize that through years of such experiences, I have become a confident, expressive person. Being a 7-footer is both a blessing and a curse, but in the end, accepting who you are is the first step to happiness.
1.Why does the author often draw attention from strangers?
A.He is interested in public interaction.
B.He has a unique personality.
C.He is physically strong.
D.He is extremely tall.
2.When he was young, the author intended to be more friendly just to .
A.gain extra favor
B.play with other children
C.prove his kindness
D.please his coach
3.It can be inferred from Para. 3 that .
A.Dirk Nowitzki was an awful basketball player
B.the author seldom disappointed his basketball fans
C.the author expected to make something better of himself
D.Will Ferrell was better at playing basketball than Dirk Nowitzki
4.What does the text mainly talk about?
A.The height has shaped the author’s personality and life.
B.The height has brought the author a lot of trouble.
C.Some funny experiences the author ever had
D.Being tall benefits the author in many ways
阅读下面文字，并按照要求用英语写一篇150词左右的文章。
As many as one in seven recent graduates in Britain may have cheated by using essay mils (论文工坊) during the last four years, according to a recent study. Essay mills, also known as “constrict cheating”, refers to companies offering essay-writing services for a fee which is hard to-spot since the essays are written by humans or even tailored. Some British universities have seen' decline in transitional plagiarism (剿窃) but this is now being replaced by constrict cheating, figures show.
Experts have warned that essay mills have become more common, not only in Britain, but also across the world in recent years, with labor being outsourced to unemployed university graduates in counties like Kenya, India and Pakistan. Dr. Irene, academician manager at Coventry University and vice president European Network for Academic Integrity, said these figures are just the tip of the iceberg since so many instances go unnoticed. She added that students are being “bombarded (轰炸)” with advertisements for essay mills on social media as well as on campus.
The number of students using essay mills at different British universities
[写作内容]
1.以大约30词概括所给文字和图表的内容；
2.简述“论文工坊”可能造成的影响(至少两点)；
3.就如何应对“论文工坊”，提出你的建议(至少两点)。
[写作要求]
1.写作过程中不能直接引用原文语句；
2.作文中不能出现真实姓名和学校名称；
3.不必写标题。
[评分标准]
内容完整，语言规范，语篇连贯，词数适当。
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请认真阅读下列短文，并根据所读内容在文章后表格中的空格里填入一个最恰当的单词。注意：每个空格只填1个单词，请将答案写在答题卷上相应题号的横线上。
Could a Doodle （涂鸦）Replace Your Password?
Nearly 80 percent of Americans own a smartphone, and a growing proportion of them use smartphones to surf the Internet, not just when they’re on the go. This leads to people storing considerable amounts of personal and private data on their mobile devices.
Often, there is just one layer of security protecting all that data--emails and text messages, social media profiles, bank accounts and credit cards, even other passwords to online services. It’s the password that unlocks the smartphone’s screen. Usually this involves entering a number, or just laying a fingertip a sensor.
Over the past couple of years, my research group, my colleagues and I have designed, created and tested a better way. We call it “user-generated free-form gestures,” which means smartphone owners can draw their own security pattern on the screen. It’s a very simple idea that is surprisingly secure.
1. IMPROVING TODAY'S WEAK SECURITY
It might seem that biometric (生物识别的) authentication (认证), like a fingerprint, could be stronger. But it’s not, because most systems that let a user allow fingerprint access also require a PIN (Personal Identification Number) or a password as a backup method. A user or thief could skip the biometric method and instead just enter (or guess) a PIN or a password. Compared to other methods, our approach dramatically increases the potential length and complexity of a password. Users simply draw a pattern across an entire touchscreen, using any number of locations on the screen.
2. MEASURING DRAWINGS
As users draw a shape or pattern on the screen, we track their fingers, recording the directions and speed. We compare that track to one recorded when they set up the gesture-based login. This protection can be added just by software changes; it needs no specific hardware or other modifications to existing touchscreen devices. As touchscreens become more common on laptop computers, this method could be used to protect them too.
Our system also allows people to use more than one finger — though some participants wrongly assumed that making simple gestures with multiple fingers would be more secure than the same gesture with just one finger. The key to improving security using one or more fingers is to make a design that is not easy to guess.
3. EASY TO DO AND REMEMBER, HARD TO BREAK
Some people who participated in our studies created gestures that could be articulated as symbols, such as digits, geometric shapes (like a cylinder) and musical notations which are easy for them to remember. Even a relatively simple symbol, like an eighth note, can be drawn in so many different ways that calculating the possible variations is computationally intensive and consumes plenty of time. This is unlike text passwords, for which variations are simple to try out.
4. REPLACING MORE THAN ONE PASSWORD
Our research has extended beyond just using a gesture to unlock a smartphone. We have explored the potential for people to use doodles instead of passwords on several websites. Unappeared to be easier to remember multiple gestures than it is to recall different passwords for each site.
In fact, it was faster. Logging in with a gesture took two to six seconds less time than doing so with a text password. It’s faster to generate a gesture than a password, too. People spent 42 percent less time generating gesture credentials than people we studied who had to make up new passwords. We also found that people could successfully enter gestures without spending as much attention on them as they had to with text passwords.
Gesture-based interactions are popular and prevalent on mobile platforms, and are increasingly making their way to touchscreen-equipped laptops and desktops. The owners of those types of devices could benefit from a quick,easy and more secure authentication methods like ours.
Could a Doodle Replace Your Password? | ||
Passage outline | Detailed information | |
Introduction | •An increasing number of people use smartphones for Internet1.The free-form gesture drawn with a doodle is a very simple but surprisingly secure idea. | |
Characteristics | Improving today’s weak security. | •A user or thief could skip fingerprint authentication by employing an2.like just guessing a PIN or a password. •In3. to other methods, the passwords our approach is dramatically longer and complex than that of other methods. |
Measuring drawings | •A shape or pattern drawn on the screen, where the user's fingers go and 4.quickly they move. •To make a design with one or more fingers that is difficult to guess is of great 5.to the improvement of security. | |
Easy to do and remember, hard to break | •Even a relatively simple symbol can be drawn in diverse ways so that the6. of the possible variations is intensive and time-consuming. | |
7. the place of more than one password | • It is more8.to recall different password for each site than to remember multiple gestures. •Having new passwords9.takes 42 percent more time than generating gesture credentials with a doodle. | |
Conclusion | •Gesture-based interactions are gaining10.and are widely applied to touchscreen-equipped laptops and desktops. |
I’d done it before, and so I had no reason to believe that this time would be any different. I was sure that when I returned home from my mission trip. As always, I’d bring back nothing more some mud on my boots. A hole or two in my jeans and, of course, a lot of great memories.
The summer before my high school graduation, I went to West Virginia with others as volunteers to repair the homes of those in need. Arriving at our destination, my group was assigned the task of rebuilding sections of a home that had been damaged by fire. No sooner had we parked on the home’s dirt driveway than we saw an excited little girl, no more than six years old, standing in the doorway of the family’s temporary home. Shoeless and wearing dirty clothes and the biggest smile I’d ever seen, she yelled, “Ma, Ma, they really came!” I didn’t know it then, but her name was Dakota, and four more days would pass before she’d say another word near me.
Behind Dakota was a woman in a wheelchair — her grandmother, we’d soon learn. I also discovered that my job that week would be to help change a fire-damaged dining room into a bedroom for this little girl. Grabbing our tools, we went to work. Over the following days, I noticed Dakota peeking at us every now and then as we worked. A few times, I tried talking with her, but she remained shy and distant, always flying around us like a tiny butterfly but keeping to herself.
By our fifth and final day, however, this was about to change.
Before I went to work on her home on that last morning, I spoke for a moment or two with the grandmother. I was especially pleased when she told me how much Dakota loved her new room — so much, in fact, that she’d begged to sleep in it the previous night, even though it wasn’t quite ready. As we talked, I noticed something I hadn’t seen before — Dakota was hiding behind her grandmother.
Cautiously, she stepped into view, and I could see that just like her clothes, her face was still dirty. But no amount of soil could hide those bright blue eyes and big smile. She was simply adorable. I wanted so much to hug her, but respecting her shyness, I kept my distance.
Slowly, she began walking toward me. It wasn’t until she was just inches away that I noticed the folded piece of paper in her tiny hand. Silently, she reached up and handed it to me. Once unfolded, I looked at the drawing she’d made with her broken crayons on the back of an old coloring book cover. It was of two girls — one much taller than the other — and they were holding hands. She told me it was supposed to be me and her, and on the bottom of the paper were three little words that instantly broke my heart. Now almost in tears, I couldn’t control myself anymore — I bent down and hugged her. She hugged me, too. And for the longest time, neither of us could let go.
By early afternoon, we finished Dakota’s bedroom, and so I gladly used the rare free time to get to know my newest friend. Sitting under a tree away from the others, we shared a few apples while she told me about her life. As I listened to her stories about the struggles she and her family went through daily, I began to realize how boring various aspects of my own life were.
I left for home early the next morning. I was returning with muddy boots and holes in my Jeans. But because of Dakota, I brought back something else, too—a greater appreciation for all or the blessings of my life. I’ll never forget that barefoot little butterfly with the big smile and dirty face. I pray that she’ll never forget me either.
1.What did the author expect before taking this mission trip?
A.A routine result.
B.An exciting experience.
C.A special memory.
D.A surprising change.
2.The underlined part means that the little girl ________.
A.desired to approach me
B.feared to talk with me
C.resisted accepting me
D.enjoyed meeting me
3.From the appearance description of the little girl, we know ________.
A.she formed a bad living habit
B.she hoped for a better education
C.she was an innocent and lovely child
D.she was strong and calm in the inner world
4.What were probably written on the bottom of the paper?
A.Enjoy your help.
B.Please don’t leave.
C.Help me, please.
D.Hug me close.
5.How did the author feel after unfolding the piece of paper?
A.She worried about the little girl’s future.
B.She decided to keep helping the little girl.
C.She felt a greater affection for the little girl.
D.She got surprised at the little girl’s worthless gift.
6.What does the passage mainly tell us?
A.One must learn to share life experiences.
B.One often wants to lead a meaningful life.
C.One occasionally benefits from the poverty.
D.One should be more grateful for the gift of life.
The newspaper must provide for the reader the facts, pure, unprejudiced, objectively selected facts. But in these days of complex news it must provide more: it must supply interpretation, the meaning of the facts. This is a very important assignment facing American journalists - to make clear to the reader the problems of the day, to make international news understandable as community news, to recognize that there is no longer any such thing as "local" news, because any event in the international area has a local reaction in the financial market, political circles, in terms, indeed, of our very way of life. There is in journalism a widespread view that when you start an interpretation, you are entering dangerous waters, the rushing tides of opinion. This is nonsense.
The opponents of interpretation insist that the writer and the editor shall limit themselves to the "facts". This insistence raises two questions: What are the facts? Are the bare facts enough?
As for the first question, consider how a so-called "factual" story comes about. The reporter collects, say, fifty facts; out of these fifty, his space being necessarily restricted, he selects the ten which he considers most important. This is Judgment Number One. Then he or his editor decides which of these ten facts shall make up the beginning of the article, which is an important decision because many readers do not proceed beyond the first paragraph. This is Judgment Number Two. Then the night editor determines whether the article shall be presented on page one, where it has a large influence, or on page twenty four, where it has little. Judgment Number Three.
Thus in the presentation of a so-called "factual" or"objective" story, at least three judgments are involved. And they are judgments not at all unlike those involved in interpretation, in which reporters and editors, calling upon their research resources, their general background, and heir "news neutralism", arrive at a conclusion as to the significance of the news.
The two areas of judgment, presentation of the news and its interpretation, are both objective and subjective processes. If an editor is determined to give a prejudiced view of the news, he can do it in other ways and more effectively than by interpretation. He can do it by the selection of those facts that support his particular viewpoint. Or he can do it by the place he gives a story - promoting it to page one or dragging it to page thirty.
1.According to the first paragraph, which of the following statements is TRUE?
A.If a reporter makes clear the facts he writes, he will no doubt get into trouble.
B.Journalists must select facts objectively to make current events clear to the readers.
C.The most important task of reporters is to provide unprejudiced facts for the readers.
D.For reporters, interpretation of facts is no less important than presentation of the facts.
2.The beginning of the article should present the most important fact because________.
A.it will influence the reader to continue
B.many readers read only the first paragraph
C.it details the general attitude of the writer
D.it's the best way to write according to the schools of journalism
3.Where a story is presented in a newspaper shows________.
A.the editor's prejudice
B.the reporter's background
C.the story's factual matter
D.the story's effect on the readers
4.Which of the following can best express the author's attitude toward objectiveness?
A.Objectiveness is controlled by editors rather than writers.
B.Properly choosing facts prepares a solid ground for objectiveness.
C.He doesn't think there exists complete objectiveness in news writing.
D.To make clear the news is a way to be objective and responsible for the readers.
When a laptop or smartphone battery starts losing its power, the only options are to buy an expensive replacement, or just keep it plugged in all the time. But a woman Mya Le Thai may have found the answer to this problem.
Thai was frustrated that the batteries for her wireless devices degraded over time, until they failed to charge fully. She did not like having to keep her laptop connected to an electrical outlet to keep it powered on. So, she decided to do something about that problem. At first, she and her team at UC Irvine thought about inventing a new battery. But as they experimented, Thai discovered something that might permit lithium-ion(锂离子) batteries to last forever.
Lithium-ion batteries power most wireless devices. Over time, the batteries lose the ability to hold a charge. Most of these batteries have a life span of about 7,000 charging cycles before they die. One of the reasons lithium-ion batteries degrade is their use of nanowires to carry electricity. Nanowires are extremely thin. A human hair is thousands of times thicker, for example. Nanowires are extremely efficient carriers of electricity, which makes them useful in batteries.
But, Thai had a theory-the nanowires might last longer if covered with a gel(凝胶). She and her team tested this theory. “It was a long process and a lot of work,” Thai said. The team tried many coverings for the wires. PMMA, a type of plastic, was one of them. The nanowires were coated with PMMA and cycled through charges 200,000 times. The PMMA-coated nanowires showed no evidence of damage. The results suggest that batteries could last forever, without losing charging ability.
Thai hopes to continue her research to understand why this gel works so well and to see if any other gel could create better results and she is enjoying the publicity about her discovery. She said she never expected her research to get media coverage. “It’s kind of cool,” she said. “I’m really glad people are showing interest in my work and not just in the work itself, but also in technology and energy.”
1.What can we infer about nanowires?
A.They last only 7,000 charging cycles. B.They are too weak to carry electricity.
C.They are not suitable to use in batteries. D.Their thinness is a cause of batteries degrade.
2.What might be Thai and her team’s breakthrough?
A.Coating nanowires in gel. B.A new kind of battery.
C.New materials for batteries. D.A new way of charging batteries.
3.What may be the best title for the passage?
A.The options of batteries for wireless devices B.A woman invents a life-long battery.
C.Mya Le Thai discovered Nanowires D.The reasons for batteries degrading
