Lesson 37 NCE Book 3
… When I 1. , I could not help noticing that a great many local people got on as well. At the time, this did not 2. . I reflected that there must be a great many people besides myself who wished to 3. this excellent service. … But when the train dawdled at station after station, I began to wonder. It suddenly 4. that this express was not roaring down the line at ninety miles an hour, but barely chugging along at thirty. One hour and seventeen minutes passed and we had not even covered half the distance. I asked a passenger if this was the Westhaven Express, but he had not even heard of it. I determined to 5. as soon as we arrived.
默写：按照背书的内容填空，每空可填不止一个单词。
Lesson 36 NCE Book 3
We are 1. than we used to be. In the nineteenth century, a novelist would bring his story to a conclusion by presenting his readers with 2.—most of them wildly improbable. Readers happily 3. that an obscure maidservant was really the hero’s mother. A long-lost brother, who 4. , was really alive all the time and wickedly plotting to bring about the hero’s downfall. And so on. Modern readers would find 5. totally unacceptable. …
语篇填空，阅读下面短文，按照句子结构的语法性和上下文连贯的要求，在空格处填入一个适当的词或使用括号中词语的正确形式填空，并将答案填写在答卷标号为1－10的相应位置上。
Creating good habits can be as tough as breaking bad habits. From my experience, one of the most important factors 1. make forming a new habit hard is that a lot of willpower 2. (require), at least in the beginning, and that alone can prevent many people correctly developing their desired habits.
Now instead of just using willpower and reminding 3. (you) to start the new habit each day, why don’t you just link it to an existing one? I have done 4. experience. It started with just 20 pushups (俯卧撑), something easy. So before I showered each day, I would do the pushups. 5. a couple of days, I increased the amount just to make it a bit more challenging.
Gradually, over the course of about 3 months, I’m now doing 100 pushups. And as the habit grew stronger, it got easier to do so 6. (natural). Now I know the habit is pretty much ingrained (根深蒂固), for I feel like something is missing 7. I don’t do this before showering. I found it pretty easy 8. (create) this habit and not much willpower was involved.
I think the key, apart from using an 9. (exist) habit, is to start out with something really easy. Once that starts becoming part of your 10. (day) routine, add on to it.
完形填空
I quit my office job in 2012. At that time, a strong sense of ________bothered me. I didn’t have a clue what I wanted to do with my life. So I committed myself to ________ . I took acting classes, traveled, volunteered on farms, and so forth. After a period of time, I realized my problem had ________ changed. My idea bank was full of ________ . I had countless ideas for what I could perform to ________ a meaningful life. However, the number of the choices I had made me ________ . Being passionate about so many things, I didn’t know what I should ________ to find a way forward.
By chance, I read a book written by Stephen Covey, in which he ________ that people “begin with the end in mind” when they need to make choices. The idea means knowing your final goal ________ , and then you can more________ make the choices and take the steps ________ to reach your goal. Thanks to Covey, I knew what I should ________ . I showed an interest in________ at an early age, and hoped to make a difference some day. So my interest ________ my final goal. And fortunately, after about two years of effort, now I have devoted myself to this ________work---a professional dancer.
In daily life, a large number of people may have the same ________ — not knowing which to choose when they have lots of ________ for many things. According to my own experience, I have realized that in order to ________ the uncertainty about choosing, knowing the final goal first really matters. Not only did it help me know ________ what I should pursue, but it also functioned as a firm belief that ________me to take action to make it.
1.A. selfishnessB. aimlessnessC. weaknessD. madness
2.A. waitingB. complainingC. exploringD. escaping
3.A. slightlyB. completelyC. randomlyD. frequently
4.A. pressureB. conclusionsC. disappointmentD. choices
5.A. createB. understandC. preserveD. control
6.A. satisfiedB. shockedC. excitedD. confused
7.A. agree withB. take inC. focus onD. get through
8.A. advisesB. refusesC. observesD. predicts
9.A. in detailB. on purposeC. in advanceD. by accident
10.A. easilyB. casuallyC. strangelyD. normally
11.A. convenientB. necessaryC. amazingD. obvious
12.A. acceptB. observeC. reflectD. pick
13.A. travelingB. speakingC. teachingD. dancing
14.A. changedB. separatedC. determinedD. replaced
15.A. difficultB. idealC. worthlessD. popular
16.A. discussionB. assignmentC. opportunityD. challenge
17.A. passionsB. regretsC. excusesD. requirements
18.A. considerB. removeC. believeD. criticize
19.A. graduallyB. rarelyC. clearlyD. probably
20.A. expectedB. forbadeC. inspiredD. commanded
根据短文内容，从短文后的选项中选出能填入空白处的最佳选项，选项中有两项为多余项。（说明：E请填涂AB；F填涂CD；G填涂ABC）
Before going outside in the morning, many of us check a window thermometer (温度计) for the temperature. This helps us decide what to wear.
1. . We want our food to be a certain coldness in the refrigerator. We want it a certain hotness in the oven. If we don’t feel well, we use a thermometer to see if we have a fever. We keep our rooms a certain warmth in the winter and a certain coolness in the summer.
Not all the thermometers use the same system to measure temperature. We use a system called the Fahrenheit scale. But most other countries use the Centigrade scale. Both systems use the freezing and boiling points of water as their guide. 2. .
The most common kind of thermometer is made with mercury inside a clear glass tube. As mercury (or any other liquid) becomes hot, it expands. As it gets colder, it contracts. That is why on hot days the mercury line is high in the glass tube. 3. .
First, take a clear glass juice bottle that has a cap; fill the bottle with colored water. Tap a hole in the center of the cap using a hammer and thick nail. Put the cap on the jar. Then stick a plastic straw through the nail hole.
4. .
Finally, place a white card on the outside of the bottle and behind the straw. Now you can see the water lever easily.
5. . As the temperature goes down, the water will contract, and the lever in the straw will come down. Perhaps you will want to keep a record of the water lever in the straw each morning for a week.
A. Now that you know this rule you can make a thermometer of your own that will work.
B. People use thermometers which are made by themselves when travelling around the world.
C. We use and depend on thermometers to measure the temperature of many other things in our daily lives.
D. The water will rise in the straw. As the temperature of the air goes up, the water will expand and rise even higher.
E. Thermometers measure temperature, by using materials that change in the same way when they are heated or cooled.
F. Take wax (you may use an old candle if you have one) and melt some of it right where the straw is struck into the cap to seal them together.
G. They label these in different ways. On the Fahrenheit scale water freezes at 32 degrees and boils at 212 degrees. On the Celsius scale water freezes at 0 degree and boils at 100 degrees.
While it may be unlikely for a computer to write a best seller, a technology expert has created a computer program that writes its own fiction stories with minimal user input. The program, called MEXICA, is the first to generate original stories based on computerized representations of emotions and tensions between characters.
An Internet survey was carried out to see the popularity of the computer-generated stories, other computerized stories and stories written solely by a human. The result was that readers ranked MEXICA stories highest for flow and coherence, structure, content, suspense and overall quality. Rafael Pérezy Pérez, the creator of MEXICA, explained that a story might begin with something as basic as, “The enemy wounded the knight. The princess cured the knight. The knight killed the enemy. The knight rewarded the princess. The end.”
The program reads characters as variables (变量) and assigns a numerical value, between a continuum (连续体) from -3 to +3, to emotional connections that are defined as either amorous or non-amorous. The numerical value is equivalent to the degree of emotion, with -3 being intense hate and +3 being intense love. The program also understands story tension, such as linking the word “wounded” with tension. This too is assigned a numerical value.
Once these clusters of emotional links and tensions are established, the program begins what is called an “engagement reflection cycle”. Basically this involves searching a database of story actions and other happenings, which are called “atoms”, and determines the best match for the characters and contexts for that moment.
The process repeats itself again and again until the system can no longer make any matches. At this point, the computer analyzes the story for coherence and “interestingness”. The program views a story as interesting when tension levels increase and fall throughout the piece. If the program finds that the story is boring or incoherent in places, it will replace or insert atoms until a version is thought to be satisfactory.
1.What can we know about MEXICA from the passage?
A. It is a computer program that can write fiction stories on its own.
B. It is a computer program created by Rafael Pérezy Pérez.
C. It is blamed for low quality among many other descriptors.
D. The stories it has written is not very popular among readers.
2.What is basically needed for MEXICA to start to write a story?
A. The beginning and the end of the story should be provided.
B. The background of the story needs to be keyed in.
C. The human operator should come up with a simple storyline.
D. Emotions and tensions between characters should be determined.
3.How does the computer system describe the characters in its story?
A. Characters in the story are given different numerical values.
B. Characters are developed according to the tension preset.
C. Characters are designed by using the language MEXICA can understand.
D. Each character is valued for its value in the construction of the story.
4.What are “atoms” understood by the computer system?
A. The tensions preset for the story.
B. The characters designed for the story.
C. Episodes of action of the story.
D. Events becoming of the characters.
