书面表达,请阅读下面短文，并按照要求用英语写一篇150词左右的文章。
The rise of selfie(自拍)photography in some of the world’s most beautiful and dangerous places is causing a range of interventions(干预措施)aimed at fighting risk-taking that has resulted in a string of shocking deaths worldwide.
The act of taking a picture of oneself with a mobile phone, placing the subject centre-stage, has exploded in popularity in recent years, with everyone from Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II to U.S. President Barack Obama joining in.
But the selfie has also inspired a lot of risk-taking and offensive public behavior, pushing the boundaries of safety and behavior, whether by hanging from a skyscraper or posing with live explosives.
Several governments and regulatory bodies have now begun treating the selfie as a serious threat to public safety, leading them to launch public education campaigns reminding people of those against smoking and excessive drinking.
【写作内容】
1.用约30个单词写出上文概要；
2.你对此现象所持的观点；
3.用2—3个理由或论据支撑你的观点。
【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。
任务型阅读
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：请将答案写在答题卡上相应题号的横线上。每个空格只填1个单词。
Have you ever been so absorbed in a conversation at a party that you failed to notice that someone new is standing only six inches away from you, trying to get your attention? It’s possible that you were so distracted that you didn’t notice someone approaching you. But it’s also entirely likely that you were experiencing change blindness.
Change blindness is a phenomenon that occurs when a person is unable to notice visual changes in their environment, despite the fact that they are often rather obvious. In cases of change blindness, the person isn’t failing to notice small or insignificant changes, but will probably miss big changes, like someone standing next to them waving their hand.
Early experiments with change blindness focused largely on memory and perception when viewing pictures. For example, a person might be shown a photograph of a street scene in Egypt and told to memorize the image. Following that, they would be shown the same picture with certain elements added or taken away and asked to identify what’s different. Very often the individual could recall the larger aspects of the picture but couldn’t recognize the smaller changes.
In the 1990s, researcher Daniel Simons conducted a fascinating study into change blindness that many people find unbelievable. In Simons’ study, he asked participants to watch a video of a basketball being passed around between several people, with a particular focus on the basketball itself. When the experiment was over, Simons found that a large number of participants were so focused on watching the basketball being passed around that they failed to notice a man in a gorilla suit jumping around in front of the camera.
It’s important to note that the change in Simons’ video wasn’t subtle; the gorilla is very obviously taking up much of the frame. Simons concluded that participants were experiencing inattentional blindness, which is when a person fails to notice a major change because they are so focused on another task. In this case, because participants were asked to focus on the movement of the basketball, their brains prioritized that task in order to do it properly, thereby missing the other things happening in the video.
In the case of Simons’ study, participants engaged what’s referred to as attentional selection, which is when a person selects certain things to focus on in order to achieve a task and filters out anything that is unrelated to the objective.
There are a number of theories about what causes a person’s inability to recognize obvious changes in their environment, but most agree that the phenomenon is related to sensory processing. Broadly speaking, our brains have a limited capacity to detect and process everything in our environment. Instead, what the brain does is to choose certain things to process, evaluate, and store, which allows other things to be missed or filtered out.
In simple terms, change blindness has a great deal to do with where a person directs their attention. In the case of the gorilla and the basketball, people focused their attention almost exclusively on one thing, which caused them to miss other elements or changes. Given that attention is often at the root of change blindness, a person’s age or mental and physical health can influence how well they will notice changes in stimuli.
Change Blindness | |
1. of change blindness | Change blindness is a surprising perceptual phenomenon that occurs when a person recognizes minor changes in scenes while large changes go 2. . |
Experiments with change blindness | ●The main 3. of early experiments was memory and perception. ●Individuals were found to be4. at recalling the smaller details in the same picture previously shown to them. |
Research in the 1990s | ●In Simons’ study, participants were asked to pay special attention to the 5. basketball, during which time a man wearing a gorilla suit unexpectedly walked through the scene. ●Contrary to popular belief, with their attention fixed on the basketball, many participants reported that the “gorilla” 6. their notice. ●It is concluded that participants fail to recognize something big but unrelated to the objective when their brains are programmed to consider some task as a top 7. . |
8. of change blindness | ●The brain makes 9. about what to be dealt with because of its limited capacity. ●Although attention is closely10. to change blindness, age and health are other factors that play a role. |
请认真阅读下列短文，从短文后各题所给的A、B、C、D四个选项中，选出最佳选项，并在答题卡上将该项涂黑。
Oliver Twist was born in a workhouse, and when he arrived in this hard world, it was very doubtful whether he would live beyond the first three minutes. He lay on a hard little bed and struggled to start breathing.
Oliver fought his first battle without much assistance from the two people present at his birth. One was an old woman, who was nearly always drunk, and the other was a busy local doctor, who was not paid enough to be very interested in Oliver’s survival. _______________
However, Oliver managed to draw his first breath, and then announced his arrival to the rest of the workhouse by crying loudly. His mother raised her pale young face from the pillow and whispered, “Let me see the child, and die.”
The doctor turned away from the fire, where he had been warming his hands. “You must not talk about dying yet,” he said to her kindly. He gave her the child to hold. Lovingly, she kissed the baby on its forehead with her cold white lips, then stared wildly around the room, fell back—and died. “Poor dear!” said the nurse, hurriedly putting a green glass bottle back in the pocket of her long skirt.
The doctor began to put on his coat. “The baby is weak and will probably have difficulties,” he said. “If so, give it a little milk to keep it quiet.” Then he looked at the dead woman. “The mother was a good-looking girl. Where did she come from?”
“She was brought here last night,” replied the old woman. “She was found lying in the street. She’d walked some distance, judging by her shoes, which were worn to pieces. Where she came from, where she was going to, or what her name was, nobody knows.”
The doctor lifted the girl’s left hand. “The old story,” he said sadly, shaking his head. “No wedding ring, I see. Ah! Good night.”
And so Oliver was left with only the drunken nurse. Without clothes, under his first blanket, he could have been the child of a king or a beggar. But when the woman dressed him later in rough cotton clothes, yellow with age, he looked exactly what he was—an orphan in a workhouse, ready for a life of misery, hunger, and neglect.
Oliver cried loudly. If he could have known that he was a workhouse orphan, perhaps he would have cried even more loudly.
There was no one to look after the baby in the workhouse, so Oliver was sent to a special “baby farm” nearby. There, he and thirty other children rolled around the floor all day, without the inconvenience of too much food or too much clothing. Mrs Mann, the old woman who “looked after” them, was very experienced. She knew what was good for children, and a full stomach was very dangerous to their health. She also knew what was good for herself, so she kept for her own use the money that she was given for the children’s food. The board responsible for the orphans sometimes checked on the health of the children, but they always sent the beadle, a kind of local policeman, to announce their visit the day before. So whenever the board arrived, of course, the children were always neat and clean.
This was the way Oliver was brought up. Consequently, at the age of nine he was a pale, thin child and short for his age. But despite frequent beatings by Mrs Mann, his spirit was strong, which was probably the reason why he managed to reach the age of nine at all.
On Oliver’s ninth birthday, Mr Bumble, the beadle, came to the house to see Mrs Mann. Through the front window Mrs Mann saw him at the gate, and turned quickly to the girl who worked with her.
“Quick! Take Oliver and those others upstairs to be washed!” she said. Then she ran out to unlock the gate which was always kept locked.
1.According to the passage, a workhouse was where ________.
A. many women died unexpectedly
B. workers helped each other
C. the poor and homeless lived
D. people were only interested in money
2.Which of the following is true according to the passage?
A. Oliver was born into the world on a cold day.
B. Many people, especially women, drank heavily at that time.
C. The children in the baby farm were taken good care of.
D. Doctors were usually paid too little for the work they did.
3.Which sentence is most suitable for the blank in Paragraph 2?
A. Therefore, he felt very lonely in the world.
B. Frightened at the sight of the two, he started to cry.
C. After all, death was a common event in the workhouse.
D. In fact, the world was privileged to have him in it.
4.It can be inferred that the gate of the baby farm was always kept locked in order to ________.
A. protect the children inside from dangers outside
B. prevent official visitors walking in unexpectedly
C. keep the children inside working all the time
D. ensure the children were always neat and clean
5.According to the passage, Mrs. Mann ________.
A. was mad keen on looking after children
B. provided children with little food and few comforts
C. beat children frequently to make them mentally strong
D. cared little about Mr Bumble’s abrupt appearance
6.What is the passage mainly about?
A. Oliver’s early life. B. Oliver’s personality.
C. Mother’s death. D. People’s selfishness.
请认真阅读下列短文，从短文后各题所给的A、B、C、D四个选项中，选出最佳选项，并在答题卡上将该项涂黑。
Wind turbines are efficient sources of cheap energy but also a source of concern as their huge spinning blades (叶片) frequently kill birds and bats. A new type of wind generator developed in Spain offers a creative solution to that problem.
In 2002, Spanish inventor David Yanez saw a short film about the Tacoma Narrows Bridge in the U.S., collapsing in strong wind. It was a vivid example of the powerful vibrations wind can create when it blows past a long pole, such as a car antenna or even a stick of bamboo. It gave him the idea for a new type of wind-energy generator.
“The initial philosophy or spirit was to create a generator of dreams that had all the qualities one would want: It should be as cheap as possible, need as little maintenance as possible, the setup as simple as possible,” he said.
Yanez and his friend Raoul Martin took the idea to an engineering firm, where they were told it would never work. Undiscouraged, they started experimenting on their own in a small wind tunnel they built.
Good initial results were repeated by a larger working model called Vortex (涡旋) installed in a nearby field. “What we have is a mast (桅杆), which is the top piece and acts as a blade,” Yanez said. “It’s constructed from the same material as a conventional generator, and what it does is it oscillates (振荡), transmitting the oscillation to a conventional alternator, which by its own oscillation converts the wind’s energy into electric energy.”
Yanez said the output of the 6-meter-tall generator, and even that of smaller models, was better than expected. The Vortex creates about 30 percent less energy than a comparable bladed wind turbine, but it is lighter and cheaper to build and maintain. It is made mostly of reinforced plastic and has very few moving parts. Also, it does not create noise and—even more important for many environmentalists—it does not present a threat to passing birds.
The current prototype works at wind speeds ranging from 1.5 to 7 meters per second. The inventors say the next step is building a 12.5-meter tall bladeless generator with a 4-kilowatt capacity that could power small businesses or individual homes, or provide supplemental power to a main grid. The commercial version of the Vortex Bladeless generator should be ready for the market by 2017.
1.The author mentions a short film about the Tacoma Narrows Bridge to show ________.
A. what the initial philosophy or spirit was
B. what inspired Yanez to create the generator
C. how the bridge was destroyed in strong wind
D. how wind creates powerful vibrations
2.What do we know from the passage?
A. The original idea was considered as practical in an engineering firm.
B. Yanez and Martin’s initial tests by themselves proved to be successful.
C. The material for constructing the mast is different from that of the past.
D. The new generator is better at creating energy than a comparable bladed one.
3. What would be the best title for the passage?
A. Bladeless wind-power generator is friendly to birds.
B. Wind turbines are efficient sources of cheap energy.
C. A new generator will come onto the market by 2017.
D. Yanez has made a generator for the benefit of people.
请认真阅读下列短文，从短文后各题所给的A、B、C、D四个选项中，选出最佳选项，并在答题卡上将该项涂黑。
My mother has always instilled in me the importance of education. Education is essential. It will help me get accepted to college if I perform well academically and advance my opportunities for success in the future. Most jobs now require at least a high school diploma, and for many jobs, a college degree is preferred. It is important that all students have excellent educators in their life to help them achieve and have the opportunity to go to college, get a job, support themselves and their family, and impact the community.
As we celebrate and honor all teachers during Teacher Appreciation Week, I’ve reflected on the impact my teachers have had, and will continue to have, in my life. From Mr. Bowker, who challenged me in math, to Mr. Bernsteen, my health teacher who taught me the value of hard work, my teachers have helped shape the student I am today. But one of the teachers who left a lasting impression on me was my summer school teacher, Mr. Davis, who impacted me beyond the classroom. He found time to connect with me on a personal level and talk to me after class. I felt like Mr. Davis cared about my academic success and was committed to setting an example of what’s possible.
Mr. Davis could relate to what it was like to be a rising ninth-grade black male in today’s society. He taught me how to speak up confidently and share my ideas with others. He told me that I was brilliant and that when I spoke, the world should listen. And when I would put my hand down because I was unsure of my answer, Mr. Davis would immediately say, “No guts, no glory.” He never made me feel inadequate; he encouraged me to always pursue knowledge because he, too, was learning every day. Mr. Davis helped me navigate the challenges and take advantage of the opportunities.
I think having more black male teachers like Mr. Davis in the classroom could increase student success. They would share the background and experiences of many of their students and help build long-lasting teacher/student relationships. But, unfortunately, the likelihood that students of color in Nevada will have a teacher that looks like them is one of the lowest in the country.
As the student population becomes more ethnically diverse, teachers in Nevada still are predominantly white. According to a 2012 Education Week report, in the Clark County School District, nearly 70 percent of students identified as students of color, but 76 percent of teachers were white. The numbers for black male teachers are more discouraging. Just 2 percent of teachers nationwide are black men.
But you can help change the numbers. Whether you decide to study education in college or graduate school, or apply to programs in Las Vegas such as Teach For America, I hope more black males will consider teaching as a career.
My peers and I need more examples of excellence and success in classrooms—examples who look like us. You can be the model to impact our life and push us to achieve. You can ensure that, when we look to the front of the room, we can see a little bit of ourselves reflected back.
1.Mr. Davis left the author with a very deep impression mainly because he ________.
A. was extremely knowledgeable and hard-working
B. was a role model to teach hearts and change minds
C. spent much time helping the author with his homework
D. kept in close touch with the author even after graduation
2.The underlined word “guts” in Paragraph 3 is closest in meaning to ________.
A. bravery B. connection
C. opportunity D. qualification
3. By writing the passage, the author intends to ________.
A. show students’ love for their teachers
B. appeal to more black males to be teachers
C. express sympathy for students of color
D. advertise for black male teachers
请认真阅读下列短文，从短文后各题所给的A、B、C、D四个选项中，选出最佳选项，并在答题卡上将该项涂黑。
Heading to Seattle? What’s New in Washington’s Seaside City?
Advice to visit Seattle’s Pike Place Market may border on cliché—but for a good reason.
“Whether you’re visiting Washington’s seaside city for vacation or just stopping by en route to and from the coming Sasquatch music festival, Pike Place is an easy catch-all destination for shopping, eating and just plain walking around,” said Kirk Johnson, The New York Times’s Seattle bureau chief for the past three years.
The Seattle Great Wheel is one of many stops to consider in Washington’s seaside city.
“Almost any day of the week, especially on the weekend, it’s a crazy fun scene of people shopping,” Mr. Johnson said. “There’s also pretty good food.” He recommends wandering into whatever place—especially a hole in the wall—catches your eye.
There is one specific restaurant Mr. Johnson likes: the Pink Door, which has no signage and can be found only by its rosy entrance. “It’s creative, interesting Italian,” he said. “In the summer they get a lot of great fresh vegetables and probably have the best tomato bruschetta I’ve had.”
He also recommends the nearby Pioneer Square, the oldest neighborhood in Seattle. Its historic architecture has charm, and the area isn’t bad for a lunch break, he said. The clear favorite here is Salumi—which, as the name suggests, is known for its cured meats. Mr. Johnson did warn, however, that it’s necessary to plan for the fact that the restaurant has a long line as soon as it opens.
Pioneer Square is also a portal to Seattle’s maritime world that remains alive and well. Ferry rides are a short walk away. Mr. Johnson said the ferry ride to Bainbridge Island provides “a great view of the city,” and it’s not a long ride back to the mainland.
At some point, you may see sculptures emerging on the horizon—that would be the Olympic Sculpture Park, which is operated by the Seattle Art Museum, Mr. Johnson said, and that’s worth a visit itself.
People who want to experience Seattle’s nearby charms can easily do so with a bicycle, Mr. Johnson said, if they want to get away from depending on a car. He takes a ride to Chateau Ste. Michelle, a famous winery outside the city. Starting in June, he said, Chateau Ste. Michelle hosts a summer concert series on its lawn.
1.If you are a music lover, you are advised to go to ________.
A. the Seattle Art Museum
B. the Seattle Great Wheel
C. the Olympic Sculpture Park
D. Chateau Ste. Michelle
2. According to Kirk Johnson, we know that ________.
A. people often have a good time shopping happily in Bainbridge Island
B. it is a great challenge to find the busy and popular restaurant Salumi
C. Pioneer Square is famous for its fascinating historic architecture
D. cycling is far from a good way to experience Seattle’s nearby charms
3. What are you encouraged to do if you are going to visit Seattle?
A. Try the tomato bruschetta in the Pink Door.
B. Go there in groups during the winter holidays.
C. Depend on cars for the sake of convenience.
D. Enjoy the sculptures in Pike Place Market.
