| 1. 难度：中等 | |
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Michelle Kwan is a champion ice skater who has won five World Championships, nine U. S. Championships and two Olympic medals, in addition to countless other skating competitions. While audiences have seen her glide effortlessly across the ice, long hours of practice and devotion contribute each jump and spin. Kwan began ice skating when she was five years old, and her skill quickly became evident. At the age of eight, she skated several hours a day, every day of the week. Before school, after school and on weekends, she was at the ice rink. The cost of ice time and coaches quickly grew, but her parents were committed to her success. Her family sold their home and purchased a much smaller one to free up money to pay for her ice skating. When Kwan was 13, she performed at her first U. S. National Championships. After a disappointing performance, she swore to work even harder and improve. She did. The next year, she finished second. From there she went on to win a silver medal at the 1998 Olympics and the first of her World Championships. She followed up with a bronze medal at the 2002 Olympic Games. Kwan is the most decorated figure skater in American history. She was the sole member to the U. S. Figure Skating Hall of Fame and the World Figure Skating Hall of Fame classes of 2012, and in 2014, she was appointed to the Hall of Fame at the U. S. National Competition. Even after retiring from skating. Kwan has not given up her devotion to learning, service and hard work. She received her college degree in 2009 from the University of Denver and is pursuing graduate studies in international relations at Tufts University. Meanwhile, she has held several diplomatic and ambassador positions representing the United States globally. Ultimately，whether on the ice, in the classroom or representing her nation, Kwan presents one consistent quality—devotion. 1.What do we know about Kwan according to the text? A. She performed badly in her first national competition. B. She has won five U. S. Championships. C. She failed to graduate from Tufts University. D. She hasn’t won the second place in Olympic Games. 2.Which of the following can best describe Kwan? A. Warm-hearted. B. Energetic. C. Easygoing. D. Devoted. 3.What may be the best title for the text? A. The Way to Success B. A Great Skater C. How to Be a Good Player? D. Why Is Devotion Important?
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| 2. 难度：中等 | |
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About 150 million years ago, in Montana, a young dinosaur roamed through a land. Not yet five years old, the long-necked creature somehow ended up buried in a violent and muddy flood, forever freezing it in adolescence. Now, researchers have found this potentially record-setting dinosaur. After uncovering the remains, the scientists argue that the skull (烦骨) is the smallest yet found from a group of long-necked dinosaurs called Diplodocus (梁龙). The little fellow even has a nickname ： Andrew, after Andrew Carnegie, who funded the research, and there is a Diplodocus species named after him. With its skull just 10 inches across , researchers’ best guess is that Andrew was a juvenile Diplodocus—an especially rare find. While more than a hundred Diplodocus samples have been discovered, their skulls are much rarer. Fewer than a dozen have been dug up to date. If the researchers’ reconstruction is correct, Andrew’s skull could be the smallest and least mature Diplodocus skull ever found, potentially providing insights into the dinosaur’s development. Kristi Curry Rogers, a paleontologist at Macalester College in Minnesota doesn’t fully agree with the findings because of the poor preservation of the fossil (化石). Andrew’s skull is missing parts of the cheek, palate and lower jaw, plus the fossils are slightly pressed. These problems make it hard to reconstruct the skull, let alone infer the dinosaur’s behavior from it. “The researchers don’t address the damage of the skull or the missing components of the face in any great detail, which could easily change the explanations,” she said in an email. For now, Diplodocus is the best guess for Andrew’s identity, but it could also be an unknown species. To help settle the debate, Andrew’s skull is currently being 3-D scanned for future research. 1.What did the researchers discover? A. The youngest Diplodocus. B. The biggest dinosaur skull. C. A rare dinosaur fossil. D. A species of Diplodocuses. 2.The underlined word “juvenile” in paragraph 3 is closest in meaning to “_________”. A. young B. strong C. ancient D. dead 3.Why does Rogers disagree with the researchers’ guess? A. The researchers have lost some parts of the fossil. B. The guess of the fossil lacks enough evidence. C. She couldn’t understand the researchers’ explanations. D. She has his own opinions about the dinosaur’s development.
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| 3. 难度：中等 | |
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The results from the world’s largest sleep study have shown that people who sleep on average between 7 to 8 hours per night perform better cognitively (认知地) than those who sleep less or more than this amount. The world’s largest sleep study was launched in June 2018 and within days more than 40,000 people from the world participated in the online scientific investigation, which included an in-depth questionnaire and a series of cognitive performance activities. “We really wanted to capture the sleeping habits of people around the entire globe. Obviously, there have been many smaller sleep studies of people in laboratories but we wanted to find out what sleep is like in the real world,” says Adrian Owen, western’s researcher in Cognitive Neuroscience and Imaging. “People who logged in gave us a lot of information about themselves. We had a fairly extensive questionnaire and they told us things like which medications they were on, where they were in the world and what kind of education they’d received because these are all factors that might have contributed to some of the results.” More than half of all participants reported typically sleeping less than 6.3 hours per night, about an hour less than the study’s recommended amount. One shocking truth was that most participants who slept four hours or less performed as if they were almost nine years older. Another surprising discovery was that sleep affected all adults equally. The amount of sleep associated with highly functional cognitive behavior was the same for everyone, regardless of age. Also, the harm associated with too little, or too much sleep did not depend on the age of the participants. “We found that the best amount of sleep to keep your brain performing its best is 7 to 8 hours every night. We also found that people that slept more than that amount were equally harmed as those who slept too little,” says Conor Wild, Owen Lab Research Associate and the study’s lead author. 1.Where did the study take place? A. In a lab. B. In the street. C. On TV. D. On the Internet. 2.What may affect the result of the study according to Owen? A. Career. B. Diet. C. Education. D. Exercise. 3.What’s Wild’s view? A. Sleeping too much is as bad as sleeping too little. B. People must sleep for eight hours every night. C. Sleeping too little can make people look older. D. People needn’t pay attention to the amount of sleep. 4.What can we learn from the text? A. Owen and Wild are the first to study sleep. B. Lack of enough sleep is a common problem. C. All the people in the world show interest in the study. D. There is no effective way to solve the sleep problem.
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| 4. 难度：中等 | |
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Self-esteem (自尊) is all about how much we feel valued, loved, accepted and thought well of by others and how much we value, love and accept ourselves. 1. They tend to have better relationships with others, feel happier, find it easier to deal with mistakes and failures, and more likely to stick to something until they succeed. People with low self-esteem often feel as if no one will like them or accept them or that they don’t do well in anything. The following ways may help you improve your self-esteem. 2. If you’re used to focusing on your shortcomings, start thinking about positive aspects of yourself that overweigh them. It is good to aim high, but your goals for yourself should be within reach. 3. Mistakes are part of learning, so view mistakes as learning opportunities. Accept that you make mistakes because everyone does. 4. If you realize that you’re unhappy with something about yourself that you can change, start today. If it’s something you can’t change (like your height), start to work toward loving yourself the way you are. Feeling like you’re making a difference and that your help is valued can do wonders to improve your self-esteem.5. You can lend a hand to a classmate who’s having trouble, help clean up your neighborhood or volunteer to do some other things. A. So don’t hesitate to make a contribution. B. It plays a role in almost everything you do. C. That’s why you should never expect impossible things. D. It takes some work, but it’s a skill you’ll have for life. E. Try to stop thinking negative thoughts about yourself. F. People with healthy self-esteem are able to do better at school. G. Also, you should recognize what you can change and what you can’t.
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| 5. 难度：中等 | |
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Afraid to have a start, I was walking slowly into my first school in America. I had ______ a long distance from India in order to join parents, who had been here for three years, hoping America would help my future. My father decided that I would go to school here, so I ______ a local high school in my new town. With ______ on one hand and fear on the other, I arrived at the classroom. Everyone’s eyes were on me as I entered the classroom. Without paying attention to them, I went straight to the ______ and asked if it was the right class. With a ______ voice, he answered, “Yes.” His voice comforted me a little. He gave me a(n) ______ called “course requirements”, which I would never get in India. Then he asked me to ______ where I would sit. I chose the ______ closest to the door instead of the corner where all of the boys were sitting. I didn’t ______ want to pick a seat. In India, we had ______ seats, so I never needed to worry about that. I spent the rest of the class taking notes from the ______ produced by the overhead projector (投影仪). ____ it was my first day, I was confused which hallway to use, but I ______ to get to my classes without asking anyone. I was very confused about when I would have ______. It was nooa I went to my next class and the bell rang as I entered. I went through the ______ process of asking the teacher if I was in the right class. Feeling surprised, she said, “That is the lunch bell.” I felt a little ______. Without another word, I headed for the ______. At the end of the day, I was on my way to the bus stop. I realized that all the ______ corned like the obstacle I had to ______ to reach my goal. I ______ my bus and sat down inside happily. I said to myself: Today isn’t so bad. 1.A. traveled B. increased C. measured D. evaluated 2.A. explored B. found C. entered D. constructed 3.A. anger B. anxiety C. sympathy D. sadness 4.A. employer B. colleague C. teacher D. companion 5.A. deep B. familiar C. strict D. soft 6.A. advertisement B. sheet C. notice D. container 7.A. choose B. judge C. inform D. discuss 8.A. seat B. direction C. destination D. scene 9.A. generally B. suddenly C. honestly D. actually 10.A. empty B. single C. assigned D. decorated 11.A. movie B. picture C. voice D. series 12.A. Though B. If only C. Since D. As long as 13.A. pretended B. refused C. allowed D. managed 14.A. gifts B. lunch C. fun D. chances 15.A. regular B. unexpected C. complex D. effective 16.A. shocked B. excited C. annoyed D. embarrassed 17.A. classroom B. dormitory C. library D. cafeteria 18.A. failure B. sorrow C. confusion D. amazement 19.A. put away B. get through C. build up D. show off 20.A. spotted B. missed C. drove D. reserved
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| 6. 难度：中等 | |
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阅读下面短文，在空白处填入1个适当的单词或括号内单词的正确形式。 Have you ever asked 1. (you) why children go to school? You will probably say that they go to learn languages, arithmetic, history, science and some other 2. (subject). That is quite accurate. But why do they learn these things? We send our children to school 3. (prepare) them for the time when they will be big and will have to work for themselves. Nearly everything they study at school has some 4. (practice) use in their life. But is that the only reason for 5. they go to school? There is more in education than just 6. (learn) factors. We go to school to learn how to learn, so that when we have left school, we can continue to learn. A man who really 7. (know) how to learn will always be successful, because when he has to do something new, he will not only be able to do it well himself, 8. be able to teach others how to do it in the best way. The uneducated person, on the other hand, is either unable to do something new, or just does it 9. (bad). The purpose of schools, therefore, is not to teach languages, arithmetic, history science, etc., but to teach pupils 10. way to learn.
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| 7. 难度：中等 | |
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假定你是李华。上周你阅读了一篇关于机器人的文章，收获颇丰。请你用英语给美国朋友Mendez写封邮件，和他谈谈此事。内容包括： 1. 机器人的作用； 2. 你对机器人的看法。 注意：1. 总词数80左右； 2. 可适当增加细节，以使行文连贯。 _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
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| 8. 难度：中等 | |
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阅读下面短文，根据所给情节进行续写，使之构成一个完整的故事。 There were two men who occupied the same hospital room. One man was allowed to sit up in his bed for an hour a day to drain (排除)the liquids from his lungs. His bed was next to the room’s only window. The other man had to spend all his time flat on his back. The men talked for hours every day. They spoke about their wives and families and their jobs. And every afternoon when the man by the window could sit up, he would pass the time by describing to his roommate all the things he could see outside the window. The man in the other bed would live for those one-hour periods where his world would be broadened by all the activity and color of the outside world. The window overlooked a park with a lovely lake, the man had said Ducks and swans played on the water while children sailed their model boats. Lovers walked arm in arm, and a fine view of the city could be seen in the distance. As the man by the window described all this in detail, the man on the other side of the room closed his eyes and imagined the beautiful scene. One warm afternoon, the man by the window described a parade passing by. Although the other man could not hear the band, he could see it in his mind’s eye as the gentleman by the window described it. Unexpectedly, a strange thought entered his head: Why could he look out of the window? Why should he have all the pleasure of seeing everything while I never get to see anything? It didn’t seem fair. As the thought developed, the man felt ashamed at first. But as the days passed and he missed seeing more sights, his envy turned into hate and soon turned him sour. He began to find himself unable to sleep. He should be by that window and that thought now controlled his life. 注意： 1. 所续写短文的词数应为150左右； 2. 应使用5个以上短文中标有下划线的关键词语； 3. 续写部分分为两段，每段的开头语已为你写好； 4. 续写完成后，请用下划线标出你所使用的关键词语。 paragraph 1: Late one night, as he lay staring at the ceiling, another man began to cough. __________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ paragraph 2: As soon as it seemed reasonable, the man asked the nurse if he could move next to the window. ___________ _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
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