阅读下面短文,在空白处填入1个适当的单词或括号内单词的正确形式。
When Spain hosted the FIBA Basketball World Cup in 2014, the country, 1. ten men who had played in the NBA, had the best lineup (阵容) in its basketball history. However, Spain 2.(defeat) by France in the quarterfinal.
Five years 3. (late) with some aging stan and just six players with NBA experience, Spain had nothing close to the expectations of 2014. Maybe that helped. The Spanish team won the gold medal.
This success, as Bleacher Reporter put 4. , would serve to inspire yet another generation of hardwood hopefuls in a country that already ranks among the most sports-crazed in all of Europe, 5., in tum, help Spain to challenge US Supremacy (权威) in basketball.”
The US is always among the 6. (favour) in international basketball events, thanks to the high level of 7. (compete) in its professional league. 8.the US side lost the 2019 World Cup quarterfinal to France, 9. (mark) the country's first international basketball match without a gold medal since 2006.
This is a blow to the US. Many blamed the lack of star players for the loss. But this may be a sign 10. the basketball universe is changing. If there's one lesson to be learned from the US's failure, it's that the other countries had invested more this time.
As the night drew near, gunshots came into a pause at last, and the sun was selling on a country _______ of farm buildings, a main road and a big farm. A fierce battle had lasted a whole day _______ our soldiers made a breakthrough. _______ our army _______ to occupy the enemy's front line, _______ a mile and a half.
Now, we had taken _______ the trench that the enemy had dug as a last line of defense. We could _______ that the enemy were digging a _______ trench from where they could fight against us in the morning. They dug in the stony soil all night, and by the morning we could see only the tips of their caps and their spades (铲子) as they threw the soil out.
Our soldiers, after _______, were trying to find ____________ and games, since the enemy showed no sign of launching an attack. Some chose to drink ____________ a moment of peace and rest. ____________ soldiers decided to shoot at the enemy's caps and spades to see if they could hit any of them. Beyond our ____________, one of the enemy soldiers, who seemed to be a(n) ____________, joined us in our game. He ____________ suddenly put his spade up, ____________ it there for a few seconds to see if one us could hit it, and then pull it down quickly again. A good many of our soldiers fired at it whenever it came up, but ____________ seemed to succeed in hitting it.
However, a time came when die spade ____________ down much longer than usual. The soldier, we thought, might have left for a meal or ____________ else. We were feeling quite disappointed when the spade came out ____________ once again, for the last time, with a bandage around it.
1.A.view B.scenery C.scene D.sight
2.A.until B.before C.when D.till
3.A.Eventually B.Nearly C.Absolutely D.Quickly
4.A.got B.tried C.succeeded D.managed
5.A.improving B.advancing C.fleeing D.developing
6.A.over B.up C.away D.back
7.A.see B.guess C.sense D.hear
8.A.deep B.new C.big D.strong
9.A.dawn B.dusk C.midnight D.argument
10.A.imagination B.work C.fun D.emotion
11.A.by B.for C.to D.with
12.A.Another B.The other C.More D.Other
13.A.expectation B.curiosity C.question D.order
14.A.officer B.actor C.soldier D.sportsman
15.A.did B.would C.had D.could
16.A.kept B.remained C.left D.pushed
17.A.nobody B.all C.none D.any
18.A.remained B.hid C.kept D.fell
19.A.anything B.someone C.something D.nothing
20.A.suddenly B.frequently C.quickly D.slowly
Smart devices are sometimes powerful. They put a world of information at our fingertips. ―1.That is a huge blessing for parents seeking flexible work hours. Smart phones and tablets can also promote efficiency by allowing people to get things done in spare moments that would otherwise be wasted, such as while queuing for coffee. They can even help lazybones create the false impression that they are working around the clock, by programming their e-mail to be sent at 1 am.
But for most people, the servant has become the master. Not long ago only doctors were on call all the lime. Now everybody is. Bosses think nothing of invading their employees' free time. 2. Even people with strong mind check their smart devices with heavy addiction, even during pre-dinner drinks, and send e-mails first thing in the morning and last thing at night.
3. How can we harvest the benefits of connectivity without becoming its slaves? One solution is digital dieting. Just as the abundance of junk food means that people have to be more disciplined about their eating habits, 4. Maybe the only way to break the 24/7 habit is to act together rather than individually. The firms should introduce rules about when people are expected to be offline, and encourage them to work together to make this possible.
We must be aware that the faster smart devices become and the more addictive the apps that are designed for them, the stronger the addiction will grow. 5.
A. This is partly because smart devices are addictive.
B. Work invades the home far more than domestic chores invade the office.
C. Now it's time to outsmart the smart devices by insisting that everyone turn them off from time to lime.
D. the abundance of junk information means we have to be more disciplined about our browsing habits.
E. Banning texting at weekends can really show the iPhone who is boss.
F. They enable people to work at home instead of crowding into the subway with smelly strangers.
G. What can be done to keep smart devices in their place?
What's that one thing you really should do, but keep putting off? We all have them: time-consuming, or difficult chores we're afraid of and drag out until the last minute — if we complete them at all.
But what if we could drive ourselves into those boring tasks by pairing them with something we really enjoy? Research suggests that combining the things we want to do, with the thing we should do, could be a nice trick to reach our goals. The method is known as "temptation bundling" and it allows you to combine two differing, but complementary activities at the same time.
"I only let myself get a footbath when I'm doing some work," says Katherine Milkman, a professor of behavioral economics at the University of Pennsylvania. Another example? Going to your favorite restaurant but with a difficult colleague, or someone you're supposed to spend time with, such as a relative.
In short, it's pairing something you like with something you don't like, offering you incentive to do something you might be putting off.
Exercise is one activity routinely treated as a boring task — so Milkman used it in an experiment to know how temptation bundling works in reality.
In her experiment. Milkman encouraged students to exercise while listening to addictive, page-turning audiobooks. One group, which could only access the audiobooks while at the gym, were 51% more likely to exercise than the control group, which were able to listen when they liked. Another group, whose access to the audiobooks was not restricted but who were merely encouraged to bundle the activities, were 29% more likely to exercise than the control group.
The benefit of "temptation bundling" comes from doing two things at once that go well together, says Milkman. "The secret is to bundle tasks that require different effort. For instance, if one task requires focus or concentration, you want the other not to be too distracting — reading while listening to a podcast is very difficult, for example, while cooking and listening is more realistic." Milkman adds.
1.Temptation bundling can help us to______.
A.avoid delaying what should be done in time.
B.solve two problems at a time.
C.put what we have learned into practice.
D.improve our ability to face a chore.
2.The two percentages 51% and 29% in paragraph 6 show that_____.
A.many people treat exercise as a boring task.
B.most people consider listening to audiobooks a boring thing.
C.combining two activities at the same time can contribute to each other.
D.the control group do the worst in dealing with physical exercise.
3.Which of the following is true according to this passage?
A.Cooking and listening can be combined because neither needs focus.
B.Combining two differing, but complementary tasks is popular among us.
C.Milkman's experiment shows that temptation bundling is effective.
D.Temptation bundling is suitable for reading and listening to a podcast.
4.This passage is intended to tell us_____.
A.what benefits pairing two tasks will bring us.
B.how to get a boring task completed.
C.what tasks can be paired with each other.
D.how to identify the bad habit of putting off.
Since App Store was set up, it has been selling consumers one simple thing — choice. Whether you wanted to play games, read the news, or do a thousand other things, there was something for whatever you desired.
Then something funny happened. Logging into the App Store today is like going into a shopping mall with only a coupon (优惠券) for one thing: There's so much choice; it might be easier to give up than to choose.
It isn't consumers who are burdened, though. Too much content of all kinds also has economic effects. When countless choices are available, it causes pressure, pushing prices down and driving us a bit crazy.
So what is the way forward? It may well be to tum less choice itself to the marketing strategy. There are already signs that this is happening. Firstly content companies are looking to prevent their offerings from getting lost in the tons of stuff. Most obvious is Disney, which is planning to open its own streaming service next year. The point is to narrow the focus so that those seeking Disney cartoons will have one place to go, rather than being around various services.
Yet if that represents a careful first step, there are more extreme options too. Consider the idea of a wine club: from tens of thousands of bottles each year, subscribers (用户) pay someone to select the most interesting ones. Perhaps what comes next for digital content is similar — carefully selected offerings from trusted sources that put choices in the hands of someone else in order to get rid of the anxiety of choosing.
Up to now, too much choice in digital media has only one solution: the algorithm (运算法则). But we've seen the trouble with algorithms on You Tube. They feed you only what you've already said you like, not things you may not know you're into. Worse, they have a tendency to serve up disturbing content. The way forward can't simply be more or better algorithms.
Instead, it's time for digital companies to start thinking about how to put limits on things: on how much we can use a device, or what we are available to choose from.
As we move further into the digital revolution, what people ask for is clear: Less.
1.What will too much choice of content on the market result in?
A.The shutdown of companies. B.Anxiety of consumers.
C.Poor quality of products. D.Negative influence on economy.
2.Why is Disney planning to open its own streaming service?
A.To improve its marketing strategy.
B.To help people focus on less choice.
C.To encourage more people to visit Disney.
D.To provide consumers with various services
3.In what way may a wine club and digital content in the near future be similar?
A.Someone else will be employed to make a choice for consumers.
B.Both of them will offer only a few options.
C.Consumers will refuse to choose from too many options.
D.Both of them will make a change about their products.
4.What do we know about the algorithm?
A.It manages to offer what consumers will possibly like.
B.It helps to remove disturbing content from digital media.
C.it offers consumers things based on what they've said they like.
D.It'll solve the problem of having too much choice.
If you're a book lover, you have a pile of books on your bedside, or a bookshelf in your library with a “to read” sign on it. Yet you can't stop yourself from adding to the pile. This can lead to feelings of guilt over your new purchases. But I'm here to tell you to stop worrying.
What you have is an antilibrary, and it's a very good thing. The term comes from writer Umberto Eco. He is the owner of a large personal library. He separates visitors into two groups: those who react with “Wow! What a library you have! How many of these books have you read?” and the others who get the point that a private library is not something to show off but a research tool. Read books are far less valuable than unread ones. Indeed, the more you know, the larger the rows of unread books. Let us call this collection an antilibrary.
If you think you already know everything about a subject, you're cutting yourself off from a stream of information at an artificial point. So a growing library of books you haven't read means you're consistently curious about the unknown. And that attitude is a great foundation for a lifelong love of learning.
So don't feel guilt over your unread books. Those books will be there for you when you do want them, and as you build your library of read and unread books, you can start using it as you would use a bigger library. Certain books may become references more than read-throughs. Or you may find that a book you bought five years ago has special relevance today. Letting the role of books evolve in your life is a healthy sign of curiosity. That's good for you and good tor the world around you.
1.What does the underlined word "antilibrary in Paragraph 2 refer to?
A.Feelings of guilt over new books. B.A pile of books on the bookshelf.
C.The collection of unread books. D.A large personal library.
2.Which of the following will the writer agree with?
A.The unread books you bought years ago are of no use.
B.You don't have to read every book from cover to cover.
C.Read books are of more use than unread books.
D.You shouldn’t purchase new books until the unread ones are covered.
3.What does the writer think of someone having lots of unread books?
A.Approving. B.Doubtful.
C.Critical. D.Indifferent.
