Although his 1-year-old smart-phone still works perfectly, Li Jijia already feels the need to replace it.
“There are many better ones available now. It's time to upgrade(更新）my phone.”
Li’s impatience is shared by many. Shortly after the season when new products are released（发布，发售）, many consumers feel the urge to upgrade their electronic equipment, even though the ones they have still work just fine.
As consumers’ minds are occupied by Apple’s newly released products and debate whether the Google tablet is better than the new Amazon Kindle, it might be time to take a step back and ask: “Do we really need the latest upgrades?”
According to Donald Norman, an American author, “planned obsolescence (淘汰）” is the trick behind the upgrading culture of today’s consumer electronics industry.
Electronics producers strategically release new upgrades periodically, both for hardware and software, so that customers on every level feel the need to buy the newest version.
“This is an old-time trick---they’re not inventing anything new,” Norman said. “This is a wasteful system through which companies--many of them producing personal electronics-- release poor-quality products simply because they know that, in six months or a year, they’ll put out a new one.”
But the new psychology of consumers is part of this system, as Norman admitted, “We now want something new, something pretty, the next shiny thing.” In its most recent year, Apple's profit margin(利润) was more than 21 percent. At Hewlett-Packard, the world’s biggest PC maker, it was only 7 percent.
Apple’s annual upgrades of its products create sales of millions of units as owners of one year’s MacBook or iPhone line up to buy the newest version, even when the changes are slight.
As to Li Jijia, the need for upgrading his smart-phone comes mainly from friends and classmates. When they are switching to the latest equipment, he worries about feeling left out.
“Some games require better hardware to run,” said Li. “If you don't join in, you lose part of the connection to your friends.”
1.What’s the author’s attitude towards people’s greed for new products?
A. Supportive. B. Optimistic.
C. Critical. D. Unclear.
2.How do the electronics companies successfully promote their latest products?
A. They make full use of the “planned obsolescence” strategy.
B. They make a fool of customers by recycling their old products.
C. They control the customers’ way of thinking while shopping.
D. They invent new products to attract the youth like Li Jijia.
3.Why is Apple Company interested in producing latest version of its product?
A. To provide customers with better service.
B. To defeat other competitors like Hewlett-Packard.
C. To establish a favorable image of itself among its customers.
D. To make huge profits out of its business.
4.It can be inferred from the last paragraph that Li Jijia feels the need to replace his smart-phone as a result of____.
A. new psychology B. peer pressure
C. life style D. friends' expectation
Astronauts in the space stations for long missions often work very long days. Tasks are scheduled(安排) so tightly that break times are often used to finish the day’s work. It’s especially hard for long missions on the International Space Station (ISS). ISS crew members usually live in space for at least a quarter of a year. They work five days on and two days off to mimic the normal way they do things on Earth as much as possible. Weekends give the crew valuable time to rest and do a few hours of housework. They can communicate with family and friends by email, Internet phone and through private video meetings.
While astronauts cannot go to a baseball game or a movie in space, there are many familiar activities that they can still enjoy. Before a mission, the family and friends of each ISS crew member put together a collection of family photos, messages, videos and reading materials for the astronauts to look at when they will be floating 370 kilometers above the Earth. During their mission, the crew also receives care packages with CDs, books, magazines, photos and letters. Today, the Internet can be used on the ISS, giving astronauts the chance to do some “web surfing” in their personal time. Besides relaxing with these more common entertainments, astronauts can simply enjoy the experience of living in space.
Many astronauts say that one of the most relaxing things to do in space is to look out of the window and stare at the universe and the Earth’s vast land mass and oceans.
1.What does the word “mimic” in Paragraph 1 probably mean?
A. Find B. Copy
C. Change D. Lose
2.In the last paragraph, the author shows that astronauts ____________.
A. get more pleasure in space than on the Earth
B. find living in space a bit boring and tiring
C. regard space life as common
D. love to see the Earth from space
3.The passage mainly discusses how astronauts ____________.
A. work for longer missions in space B. connect with people on the Earth
C. observe the Earth from space D. spend their free time in space
假定你是高一（1）班班长李华，你班决定本周末去遂溪县“孔圣山”（Mountain of Confucius）春游。请你根据以下信息写一份电子邮件邀请外教Peter参加。
内容：1.集合时间与地点；2.活动安排；3.准备物品：太阳镜、运动鞋。
注意：1.词数100左右；
2.可以适当增加细节，以使行文连贯；
Dear Peter,
____________________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________________
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处语言错误，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（
删除：把多余的词用斜线（
）划掉。
修改：在错的词下划一横线，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。
Last Friday evening, I talked about my grandpa. He told me that he real wanted to visit Chengdu. He would like to see the various change in his hometown. Heard this, I began to book the air ticket for him on the Internet. I checked weather condition in Chengdu as well. After that, I helped my grandpa prepare him clothes and something he might need on his first time visit before he left the city. The next day, I go to the airport to see my grandpa off. Although it was a busy weekend, but I felt proud because I could do everything for my grandpa.
阅读下面材料，在空白处填入适当的内容（1个单词）或括号内单词的正确形式。
The Agricultural Feast 1.(take) place after the Independence Day. It is not a worldwide celebration. Only Christians in Mexico look forward to its arrival for its 2.(religion) origin.
Long ago, man’s ancestors were bad. They fooled and played tricks on each other and never kept 3.word. So God turned up and drowned all their crops. 4.(human) starved day and night, weeping. In order to gain God’s forgiveness, a woman poet set off to see God. She admired God and madeapologies, God 5.(move). With God’s permission, human beings finally had good harvests again. Thus to wipe sadness and remind themselves of the belief 6. God, people began the festival. On the festival, people gather in 7.open air, such as playgrounds and parking lots, and have fun with each other 8.(energetic) all night long, as though they were never tired. When a beauty 9.(dress) up in lovely clothing reads poems in memory of the poet, everyone holds their breath. Then, it is the custom 10.the bone of a rooster head is given to her as an award. Obviously, the story may not be true, but the festival is interesting.
One day, I was teaching my daughter how to paint. I saw that a lot of her energy went into ______ her brush into the paint, and then into a bowl of water. But then most of the paint that was on the ______would just disappear in the water. As an ______ mother, I was thinking, “I am trying to teach you how to paint on paper and what are you doing? This is not what you are ______ to do. You have to do this way.”
But she is three years old so she is probably not going to ______ doing it the right way. She had so much ______dipping the brush in the paint and in the water bowl. Pretty much within an hour, most of the paint was all over the room and I just sat there with my hands ______my head thinking, “Oh my god, this girl is hopeless.” Soon after, however, she shouted, “Mama, when I ________pink and blue, it turns purple!”
I was surprised. ______I was thinking that she was wasting perfectly good paint and paper, she ______learned something. What would have been a very theoretical (理论的) experiment turned into a very ______experiment.
I am a designer and work with software like Photoshop and Illustrator. When my daughter sees me work on the ______, she is always very curious and she wants to work with me on the same thing that I do. She starts to ______with buttons, and in that process sometimes ends up ________me things! There will be many times when she will find______ new. I will ask her ______, and she will tell me, “I pressed this, and I pressed this, and then this happened.”
One of the things I realized from this is that everyone has a(n) ______way of learning things. When I was growing up, I ______to literature very well, so everything that was turned into a story became my way of learning and ______different concepts. Some kids understand through art, some understand through math and games, and it’s the job of a parent or a teacher to watch and ________how children learn and try their best to make these experiences educational.
1.A. dipping B. throwing C. breaking D. sweeping
2.A. plate B. brush C. paper D. bowl
3.A. optimistic B. impatient C. energetic D. independent
4.A. supposed B. allowed C. intended D. tricked
5.A. keep B. consider C. bother D. remember
6.A. regret B. fun C. disappointment D. trouble
7.A. beside B. over C. below D. on
8.A. add B. combine C. mix D. take
9.A. While B. Because C. If D. Before
10.A. accidentally B. immediately C. fortunately D. actually
11.A. interesting B. practical C. beneficial D. new
12.A. phone B. desk C. computer D. calculator
13.A. mess B. cooperate C. go D. live
14.A. telling B. awarding C. teaching D. giving
15.A. nothing B. something C. everything D. anything
16.A. when B. why C. where D. how
17.A. different B. effective C. quick D. strange
18.A. came B. referred C. related D. turned
19.A. accepting B. using C. appreciating D. understanding
20.A. disturb B. teach C. respect D. discover
