Robert Ballard is probably the most famous deep-sea explorer in the past 100 years. While he is best known for his historic discovery of the wreckage(残骸) of the R.M.S. Titanic which sank to the bottom of the sea in 1912, he also discovered the wreckage of the Bismarck and the Yorktown. Over his career, Dr. Ballard has completed over 120 deep-sea journeys and continues to push exploration to new depths with new technologies and strategies. His new high-tech Inner Space Center at the University of Rhode Island links scientists all over the world and makes it possible to identify new discoveries in realtime.
Reporter: What were you like as a kid?
Ballard: I was a very “active” kid with lots of interests including sports (football, basketball, and tennis), fishing, and studies.
Reporter: Do you have a hero?
Ballard: My hero is Captain Nemo from the book, Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne and his submarine the Nautilus.
Reporter: What do you daydream about?
Ballard: I dream about undersea exploration.
Reporter: How did you get into your field of work?
Ballard: It started with a scholarship to the Scripps Institute of Oceanography in La Jolla, California, in the summer of 1959 when I was a junior in high school. That summer, I went to sea on two separate expeditions in Baja California with various oceanographers(海洋学家). During one of those expeditions, I met Dr. Robert Norris, a Scripps graduate with a Ph. D. in marine geology, who invited me to come to the University of California, Santa Barbara where I ended up getting my undergraduate degree in Geology and Chemistry with minors in Math and Physics.
Reporter: What’s the best piece of advice that anyone has ever given you that you can share with us?
Ballard: Follow your dreams and don’t let anyone talk you out of them.
Reporter: Do you have any good jokes?
Ballard: I prefer sayings to jokes. My favorite is, “Never get into the thick of thin things.”
1.It can be inferred from the first paragraph that Robert Ballard ________.
A. is president of a university and travels a lot
B. is the most famous deep-sea explorer in history
C. is still contributing to the development of deep-sea exploration
D. is best famous for the discovery of the wreckages of three ships
2.From the passage we know Nemo ________.
A. is Jules Verne’s nickname B. is the name of a ship
C. is a sailor on a submarine D. is a character in a book
3.What can we know about Ballard?
A. He was lucky to meet Dr. Robert Norris.
B. He once wrote a book about the sea.
C. He loves jokes more than proverbs.
D. He used to be tired of studying.
4.What’s the passage mainly about?
A. The great achievements of Robert Ballard.
B. An interview with a famous deep-sea explorer.
C. A brief introduction to famous Robert Ballard.
D. What a famous deep-sea explorer is like.
假如你是李华，你的美国笔友Tom最近正在学习汉语，对中国文化很感兴趣。他给你发来了一封邮件，询同你农历鸡(the Year of the Rooster)的文化涵义，请你根据以下要点，给他写一封回信。
1、代表守时：可以报时。
2、代表勇敢：斗鸡游戏(cockfighting)
3、代表吉祥：鸡与“吉”同音。
注意：
1．可适当增加细节，以使行文连贯；
2．词数100左右；
3．文章开头已给出，不计入总词数。
Dear Tom，
I’ m glad to know that you are so curious about Chinese culture．____________________
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Yours，
Li Hua
假定英语课上老师要求同桌之间交换修改作文，请你修改你同桌写的以下作文。文中共有10处错误，每句中最多有两处。每处错误仅涉及一个单词的增加、删除或修改。
增加：在缺词处加一个漏字符号(∧)，并在其下面写出该加的词。
删除：把多余的词用斜线(＼)划掉。
修改：在错的词下画一横线，并在该词下面写出修改后的词。
注意：1．每处错误及其修改均仅限一词；
2．只允许修改10处，多者(从第11处起)不计分。
I felt delighted to be informed the news that I would be our Student Union’s next minister of health．Therefore，when I calmed down，I began to realize what challenging the job would be．I can still remember the first time I hold a meeting with all the members，that was a real challenge for me．With so many eyes fixing on me，I struggled to speak as my face and ears turned complete red．I had never felt so nervous ago．
Although I went through a series of difficulty，I gained a lot as well—a plenty of new friends，the ability to communicate and an improvement in my organizational skills．
The first-ever direct China-to-Britain freight train (货运列车) arrived in London last week. It was the 1. (late) evidence of China’s efforts to redevelop the “Silk Road” trade routes that once stretched from Asia to Europe.
2. (travel) from China through Kazakhstan, Russia, Belarus, Poland, Germany, Belgium and France for 18 days, the train finally arrived in London. Inside the 68 containers 3.(be) household goods, clothing, cloth, bags and suitcases. “This is 4.(two) as quick as sea and it’s much, much cleaner and cheaper than air freight,” said Philippa Edmunds, 5.works at the British Campaign for Better Transport.
But the train itself may be more important than the goods 6. was carrying. Observers say the trip had a political message: that China is developing new trade routes and new markets. China needs to find more places 7. (sell) the goods it makes. That is the 8.(believe) of Jie Yu from the London School of Economics. “The domestic market in China now seems not to be very promising, so the Chinese are 9.
(desperate) looking for the new markets. And obviously that freight train serves 10. a very good vehicle for the Chinese manufacturers and may help restore the business confidence inside China. ”
One morning Maila woke up with a start．She had had a vivid _______ of a lonely child with huge big tired eyes praying for love and crying out “Find me!”
Maila was one of those people who used all her free time to help others and did it all in quiet，_______ bragging(自夸) about it．But it’s hard to keep an angel a secret _______ she would have wanted to do her helping _______ raising attention to herself．Soon word _______，bringing even more people in need of help to her attention．
Although she was _______ to people in distress(困苦)，she was shaken by the dream. She _______ to find the lonely child of her dream.
And so she started _______．She drove to every local hospital and institution where there were children．Maila felt _______ because she had no idea what the child would look like．All she could do was to ________ her feelings．She did this for weeks．She was not going to ________ her search．
Then one day she decided to visit an institution for ________ handicapped(残疾的) children．This institution ________ children that were so badly handicapped they could not be taken care of at home．Many of the children had been ________ as babies．There were stories of ________ who never told their new husbands they had had a handicapped child．
She walked into one room after another．And then she saw the tired ________ she had been looking for．They belonged to a girl who could not ________ ．She looked at Mafia with such longing in her eyes Mails ________ her immediately．
“There you are!” she said，“I finally found you!”
And the girl’s eyes were so full of ________ no one dared to doubt they were ________ to find each other．All the love she could not express with her words，was written in her eyes.
1.A. story B. dream C. report D. account
2.A. sometimes B. often C. always D. never
3.A. now that B. in case C. even though D. as if
4.A. by B. for C. without D. despite
5.A. ended B. failed C. helped D. spread
6.A. addicted B. used C. devoted D. opposed
7.A. decided B. agreed C. forgot D. pretended
8.A. complaining B. searching C. volunteering D. changing
9.A. confident B. terrified C. excited D. awkward
10.A. express B. trust C. ignore D. control
11.A. give up B. carry on C. focus on D. depend on
12.A. slightly B. rarely C. severely D. mainly
13.A. interested B. housed C. cured D. recorded
14.A. educated B. starved C. abused D. abandoned
15.A. mothers B. friends C. parents D. nurses
16.A. children B. patients C. eyes D. 1egs
17.A. speak B. hear C. see D. walk
18.A. believed B. forgave C. suspected D. recognized
19.A. surprise B. joy C. scare D. stress
20.A. allowed B. forced C. determined D. meant
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选项。
Palm oil(棕榈油) is the most widely used vegetable oil worldwide．It’s found in a wide variety of products from of vitamins to chocolate and bread．1. The former makes it easy to spread，while the latter makes it good for our body．
But the oil’s popularity comes at a high price．2. As a result，thousands of acres of rainforests in Indonesia，the world’s biggest palm oil producers，are being destroyed to make room for them．
With half of the world’s palm oil coming from Indonesia，orangutans(猩猩) have suffered a lot．3. What’s worse，in 2015，wildfires endangered one-third of the remaining orangutans．Palm oil farms have also threatened tigers and elephants and caused water and air pollution．
4. However，it’s not easy given that no other natural vegetable oil has both of its qualities．Now，scientists are creating a new oil to replace it by using food waste and M．pulcherrima，a yeast(酵母) that grows on leaves，fruits and flowers．5. Besides, the yeast can be widely produced in any weather．The scientists say their biggest challenge was to find a cheap way to change the sugars in the food waste to a form that the yeast can take in easily．The team is now trying to test if they can produce the oil at a lower cost．
A．Palm trees need lots of land to grow．
B．The easiest solution is to stop using palm oil so widely．
C．The palm oil is so expensive that many families can’t afford it．
D．In the last 20 years，over 80% of their habitat has been destroyed．
E．There are many things we can do to protect the endangered wild animals．
F．The oil is popular because it has a high melting point and contains healthy fats．
G．It eats the sugars from the waste and turns it into thick oil that has similar qualities to palm oil．
