I'd like to talk about the school system in Australia today. The school system in Australia does depend on 1.________ you go to a private school or a public school. In the state I’m from, there are a lot of private schools, and generally they are single-sex high schools. The public high schools are generally 2._______ (mix). All of the private high schools insist that you should wear their school uniforms, 3.____that might mean4. (wear) a school tie and a school jacket. However, the public high schools often give you a 5. ______(choose) of whether you want to wear a uniform or not. The school classes generally start anywhere6. ____ 8:30 and 9 o’clock in the morning and run 7. _____ 3:30 in the afternoon, and they’re followed by after-school 8._____ (active) like sports and music theater. The school year generally starts in the9. ____ (begin) on February, after our summer vacation, which lasts about six weeks around the Christmas period.
The only thing I don't like about our school system is the idea of the difference in quality of education between the private and the public schools. It remains10. ___(see) whether you can get a better education, even if you are in a private high school. Most of our public high schools are quite good.
完形填空
A certain good woman one day said something that hurt her best friend of many years. She regretted it immediately and would have done anything to have taken the words back. So she went to an older, wiser woman in the village and __________ advice.
Listening to her, the older woman__________ the younger woman’s distress and knew she must help her. She also knew she could___________ ease her pain, but she could teach.
Then, she said. “There are__________ things you need to do. The first is extremely difficult. Tonight, Take your best __________ pillows and open a small hole in each one. Then, ___________ the sun rises, you must put a single feather on the doorstep of each house in town. When you are through, ___________ to me. If you’ve done the first thing _________, I’ll tell you the second.”
The young woman hurried home to prepare for her chore, ___________ the pillows were very___________ to her and very expensive.
All night long, she went from doorstep to doorstep. Her fingers were ___________. The wind was so sharp that it caused her eyes to water, but she ran on through the__________ streets, ___________ that there was something she could do to put things __________ the way they once were. Finally she placed the last feather on the steps of the last house. Just as the sun rose, she returned to the older woman.
She was exhausted but __________,thinking that her efforts would be rewarded.
“Now,” said the wise woman, “Go back and ___________ your pillows. Then everything will be as it was before.”
The young woman was stunned, “You know that’s impossible! The wind__________ each feather as fast as I placed them on the doorsteps! You didn’t say I had to get them back! If this is the second __________, then things will never be the same.”
“That’s true,” said the older woman. “Never forget. Each of your words is like a feather in the wind. Once __________, no amount of effort, regardless how heartfelt or sincere, can ever return them to your mouth. __________your words well and guard them most of all in the presence of those you love.”
1.A. asked B. asked for C. asked to D. ask around
2.A. witnessed B. touched C. guessed D. sensed
3.A. ever B. almost C. never D. seldom
4.A. one B. two C. three D. four
5.A. feather B. leather C. woolen D. cotton
6.A. when B. after C. as D. before
7.A. come back B. go back C. put back D. draw back
8.A. promptly B. suddenly C. completely D. unfortunately
9.A. so as to B. even though C. now that D. in spite of
10.A. hard B. awful C. nice D. dear
11.A. freezed B. freezingly C. froze D. frozen
12.A. brightened B. widened C. darkened D. broadened
13.A. amazing B. lucky C. thankful D. surprising
14.A. on B. up C. off D. back
15.A. tired B. relieved C. regretful D. nervous
16.A. refill B. get C. purchase D. seek
17.A. blew up B. blew on C. blew away D. blew over
18.A. requirement B. situation C. consequence D. circumstance
19.A. speak B. spoken C. speaking D. being spoken
20.A.Talk B. Guide C. Keep D. Choose
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，并在答题卡上将该项涂黑。选项中有两项为多余选项。
（请将答案涂在答题卡上E=AB F=AC G=AD）
Attraction of the Minions
When it comes to film, people usually favor good over evil, focus on the hero and ignore the supporting characters. _1. __
Originally comedic background characters in the film Despicable Me（卑鄙的我）, these yellow pill-shaped nuts, have totally stolen the show and turned into a popular figure. This summer the characters debuted（首演） in their own self-titled movie in theaters abroad, having the second biggest opening weekend of all time for a cartoon film according to USA Today.
Recently, McDonald’s has been including Minion toys with kids’ meals in some areas, causing loyal fans to flock to the restaurant to collect them all. __2.__ The movie’s huge popularity even surprised its writers. “We never knew the Minions were going to be so popular. It just became a force of nature,” the film’s co-writer Cinco Paul told the Los Angeles Times.
_3. __For many, the appeal is obviously their cuteness. Their simple nature can easily surpass cultures and age groups. Even children can draw them. Thousands of examples of fan-made Minion art from fingernails to Halloween clothes are visible on global social media platforms.
But there’s more to the phenomenon than just cuteness. US entertainment website Hit Fix explains that their way of communicating makes the creatures influential as well. __4. __ But it seems everyone can understand them through their exaggerated（夸张的） movements and expressions. More importantly, their childlike mannerisms is a brand of humor that wins hearts. “Clumsy, foolish Minions are recognized as the ultimate β personalities,” wrote Peter Debruge of US entertainment magazine Variety. They desire nothing more than to serve their most despicable master. __5.__ "Perhaps we love Minions because they remind us of ourselves," Huffington Post associate Web editor Sara Boboltz wrote, "or an evil version of ourselves."
A. So what makes the banana-loving Minions a big hit?
B. Besides, their childlike manner entertains fans more.
C. And this evil characteristic arouses sympathy among humans.
D. Related video games, toys and other goods are sweeping the world.
E. Minions is a 2015 American 3D computer-animated family comedy film.
F. But when it comes to the Minions, these conventions go right out the window.
G. The largely speak in nonsense words with the occasional recognizable terms like “potato”.
New crime prediction software should reduce not only the murder rate, but the rate of other crimes. Developed by Richard Berk, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania, the software has already used in Baltimore and Philadelphia to predict which individuals on probation(缓刑) or parole(假释) are most likely to murder and to be murdered.
“When a person goes on probation or parole he is supervised(监督) by an officer. The question is ‘what level of supervision is appropriate?’” said Berk. It used to be that parole officers used the person’s criminal record, and their judgment to make decisions.
“This research replaces those seat-of-the –pants calculations,” he said.
Technology helps determine level of supervision. On average there is one murder for every 100,000 people. Even among high-risk groups the murder rate is one in 100. Predicting such a rare event is very difficult, but advances in computer technology works.
Years ago, the researchers made a dataset of more than 60,000 various crimes. Using the software they developed, they found some much more likely to commit murder when paroled or probated. They could identify eight future murderers out of 100.
Berk’s software examines roughly two dozen variables(可变因素), from criminal record to geographic location. The type of crimes, and more importantly, the age at which that crime was committed, were two of the most predictive variables.
“People assume that if someone murdered then they will murder in the future,” said Berk. “What really matters is what that person did as a young individual. Predicting future crimes sounds well. But we aren’t anywhere near being able to do that.”
“Berk’s scientific answer leaves policymakers with difficult questions. By labeling one group of people as high risk, and supervise them closely, there should be fewer murders, which the potential victims should be happy about. It also means that those high-risk individuals will be supervised more aggressively. For human rights advocates, that means punishing people who, most likely, will not commit a crime in the future,” said Bushway. “It comes down to a question of whether you would rather make these errors or those errors.”
1.The underlined words in Para.3 probably mean___.
A. calculations based on subjective opinions
B. calculations based on widespread voting
C. calculations made by advanced technology
D. calculations based on serious considering
2.From Para 7, we can infer that______.
A. the technology developed by Richard Berk will soon be widely used in the US
B. the technology would not be widely accepted in the short term
C. whether a person murders or not largely decided by his upbringing while young
D. if a person murdered when he was fifty, he is sure to murder again while on probation
3.Bushway’s attitude to the technology put forward by Richard Berk is ____.
A. positive B. negative
C. objective D. Indifferent
Greenspace facilities (设施) are contributing to an important degree to the quality of the city environment. Fortunately it is no longer necessary that every lecture or every book about this subject has to start with the proof of this idea. At present it is generally accepted, although more as a self-proved statement than on the base of a closely reasoned scientific proof. Recognizing the importance of greenspaces in the city environment is a first step on the right way, this does not mean, however, that enough details are known about the functions of greenspace in towns and about the way in which people are using these spaces. As to this subject I shall within the scope (范围) of this lecture, enter into one aspect only, namely the recreative function of greenspace facilities.
The theoretical separation of living, working, traffic and recreation (娱乐) which for many years has been used in town and country planning, has in my opinion resulted in more attention for forms of recreation far from home, while there was relatively little attention for improvement of recreative possibilities in the direct neighborhood of the home. We have come to the conclusion that this is not right, because an important part of the time which we do not pass in sleeping or working, is used for activities at and around home. So it is obvious that recreation in the open air has to begin at the street door of the house. The city environment has to offer as many recreation activities as possible, and the design of these has to be such that more required activities can also have recreative aspect.
The very best standard of living is nothing if it is not possible to take a pleasant walk in the district, if the children cannot be allowed to play in the streets because the risks of traffic are too great, if during shopping you can nowhere find a spot for enjoying for a moment the nice weather, in short, if you only feel yourself at home after the street door of your house is closed after you.
1.The importance of greenspaces in the city environment _____.
A. is still unknown
B. is paid little attention to
C. is accepted on the base of scientific proof
D. has been recognized
2.For many years town and country planning has _____.
A. brought living areas and places of entertainment close together
B. separated recreation facilities far from home
C. improved recreative possibilities in the neighborhood
D. enabled people to reach the best standard of living
3.According to the author, greenspaces should be designed _____.
A. to reduce the number of recreative activities
B. to attract more and more people
C. for people to use more conveniently
D. for people to do recreative activities at the street door of the house
4.The main idea of this passage is that _____.
A. attention must be paid to the improvement of recreation
B. greenspace facilities should be used better to improve the quality of life
C. the city environment is providing more recreative activities
D. we should try our best to raise our living standard
Change is everything in the case of mobile phones. Recent research indicates that the mobile phone is changing not only our culture, but our very bodies as well.
First, let’s talk about culture. The difference between the mobile phone and the fixed-line phone, is that a mobile number corresponds to a person, while a fixed-line phone goes to a place. If you call my mobile, you get me. If you call my fixed-line phone, you get whoever answers it.
This has several implications（含义）. The most common one, however, and perhaps the thing that has changed our culture forever, is the “meeting” influence. People no longer need to make firm plans about when and where to meet. Twenty years ago, a Friday night would need to be arranged in advance. You needed enough time to allow everyone to get from their place of work to the first meeting place. Now, however, a night out can be arranged on the run. It is no longer “see you there at 8”, but “text me around 8 and we’ll see where we all are.”
Texting changes people as well. In their paper, “Insights into the Social and Psychological Effects of SMS (Short Message Service) Text Messaging”, two British researchers distinguished between two types of mobile phone users: the “talkers” and the “texters”－those who prefer voice to text messages and those who prefer text to voice.
They found that the mobile phone’s individuality and privacy gave texters the ability to express a whole new outer personality. Texters were likely to report that their family would be surprised if they were to read their texts. This suggests that texting allowed texters to present a self-image that differed from the one familiar to those who knew them well.
Another scientist wrote of the changes that mobiles have brought to body language. There are two kinds that people use while speaking on the phone. There is the “speakeasy”: the head is held high, in a self-confident way, chatting away. And there is the “spacemaker”: these people focus on themselves and keep out other people.
Who can blame them? Phone meetings get cancelled or reformed and camera-phones intrude（侵入）on people’s privacy. So, it is understandable if your mobile makes you nervous. But perhaps you needn’t worry so much. After all, it is good to talk.
1.The “meeting” influence of a mobile phone refers to the fact that ________.
A. people are able to meet someone at any place and any time
B. people have to make a firm plan about when and where to meet
C. people can arrange their meeting place and time more flexibly
D. people have to attend more phone meetings than ever before
2.We can infer from Paragraph 5 that the texts sent by texters probably are ________.
A. showing popular images to others
B. showing new images to others
C. showing the same images to others
D. showing familiar images to others
3.According to the passage, who is afraid of being heard while talking on the mobile?
A. talkers B. the “spacemaker”
C. the “speakeasy” D. texters
4.Which of the following can be the best title of the passage?
A. The Influence of Short Message Service B. Changes in the Use of the Mobile
C. Changes Caused by Mobile Phone Use D. Body Language and the Mobile Phone
