My color television has given me nothing but a headache. I was able to buy it a little over a year ago because I had my relatives give me money for my birthday instead of a lot of clothes that wouldn’t fit. I let a salesclerk fool me into buying a discontinued model. I realized this a day later, when I saw newspaper advertisements for the set at seventy-five dollars less than I had paid. The set worked so beautifully when I first got it home that I would keep it on until stations signed off for the night. Fortunately, I didn’t got any channels showing all-night movies or I would never have gotten to bed.
Then I started developing a problem with the set that involved static (静电) noise. For some reason, when certain shows switched into a commercial, a loud noise would sound for a few seconds. Gradually, this noise began to appear during a show, and to get rid of it. I had to change to another channel and then change it back. Sometimes this technique would not work, and I had to pick up the set and shake it to remove the sound. I actually began to build up my arm muscles (肌肉) shaking my set.
When neither of these methods removed the static noise, I would sit helplessly and wait for the noise to go away. At last I ended up hitting the set with my fist, and it stopped working altogether. My trip to the repair shop cost me $62, and the set is working well now, but I keep expecting more trouble.
1.Why did the author say he was fooled into buying the TV set?
A.He got an older model than he had expected.
B.He couldn’t return it when it was broken.
C.He could have bought it at a lower price.
D.He failed to find any movie shows on it.
2.Which of the following can best replace the phrase “signed off” in Paragraph 1?
A.ended all their programs B.provided fewer channels
C.changed to commercials D.showed all-night movies
3.How did the author finally get his TV set working again?
A.By shaking and hitting it. B.By turning it on and off.
C.By switching channels. D.By having it repaired.
4.How does the author sound when telling the story?
A.Curious B.Anxious
C.Cautious D.Humorous
Directions: Write an English composition in no less than 150 words according to the instructions given below in Chinese.
你在暑假夏令营活动中结识了一位外国朋友，分别时你想送一份有特色的礼物给他，作为他中国之行的纪念。你会选择什么礼物，谈谈你的原因。
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Directions: Translate the following sentences into English, using the words given in the brackets.
1.他排了好几个小时才买到这个新出的iPhone。（release）
2.一件雕塑赠予了城市博物馆，以纪念两个城市间的珍贵友谊。（present）
3.他一进饭店，就被告知这家饭店可以手机扫二维码点餐。（Hardly）
4.虽说忠言逆耳利于行，这个年纪的孩子很叛逆，你越劝，他可能越不会听。（advice）
Directions: Read the following passage. Summarize the main idea and the main point(s) of the passage in no more than 60 words. Use your own words as far as possible.
The benefits of having a higher education are manifold (多样的) and range from financial to cultural and from common benefits to some unexpected surprises, below you will find a number of reasons which will help to serve as justification for a higher education.
For many high school students, it is hard to imagine what the long-term benefits of a college education might be. College is demanding; the work seems challenging, and meeting all new people seems overwhelming. However, what most young people do not realize is that there is a high likelihood at college that you will find new friends with similar interests and values. You may find yourself developing new interests by getting along with those who have completely different life experiences. An opportunity to get to know your professors can also be counted one of the benefits of having a college education. These intellectuals can be counted on to welcome questions and discussion from students. Therefore, one of the key benefits of a college education is the social bonds created and developed during this unique time in a person’s life.
Besides, the fact that you’ll be building a career for the rest of your life is reason enough to make time for a college education. Indeed, a clear benefit of a college education is that not only will it give you time to better know your likes and dislikes before entering the labor force, it will also enhance the likelihood of a more successful career for you. Many young people are uncertain about a career path at the start of college. This is a time of exploration, and taking the time to explore a variety of college majors is time well spent.
One more justification for higher education could be that it is the best way to enhance yourself in an all-round way. Getting a good education may be the most important price you can pay for your personal advancement, because perhaps more than anything else, what you do with that huge gray material between your ears will determine your future. You never know where your talent could reach. So higher education can provide you with the chance to realize your personal value.
Therefore, never undervalue the benefits of entering a higher education, which surely will bring you something beyond expectation.
Directions: Complete the following passage by using the sentences given below. Each sentence can be used only once. Note that there are two more sentences than you need.
We Americans ingest an average of 25 pounds of rice a year-and a portion of that comes from drinking beer. Yes, rice is a sample in our diet. But is it a safe one? Consumer Reports recently found "troubling" levels of inorganic arsenic, a known human carcinogen (a substance which can cause cancer), in almost every rice-containing food it tested. 1. But rice takes up arsenic from soil and water more readily than other grains do.
Health-conscious consumers rely on brown rice, which has even more arsenic. In the Consumer Reports test, a quarter cup of uncooked white rice had from roughly 1 to 7 micrograms of inorganic arsenic, while brown rice had from 4 to 10 micrograms. Why the difference? 2..
What about rice cakes? They contained from 2 to 8 micrograms per serving, while hot and ready-to-eat rice cereals had 2 to 7 micrograms. These levels are at least five times higher than those found in other cereals, such as oatmeal.
Studies show that people exposed to large amounts of arsenic for many years are more likely to die of cancer. In Bangladesh, people who drank tap water that contained 50 to 149 micrograms of arsenic per liter for 20 or 30 years, for example, were 44 percent more likely to die of cancer. 3. (The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency limits the total amount of arsenic in drinking water to 10 micrograms per liter.) But our total risk is unclear. There isn’t enough data to set a limit on inorganic arsenic in food, says the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences.
The Bottom Line: 4. Consumer Reports recommends that adults eat no more than 11 /2 to 2 cups of cooked (brown or white) rice a week. And here is a way to lessen risk: Rinse your rice, cook it in six parts water to one part rice until it reaches eating texture, and then pour off the extra water. This can remove about half the arsenic.
A.You might wonder what one conscious portion of rice could do for your whole body.
B.Americans are lucky to be exposed to lower levels of arsenic.
C.This poisonous element is in a wide range of food-including fruits, vegetables and grains.
D.Until more studies are done, curb your consumption of arsenic.
E.Brown rice appears to be the most effective whole grain for the healthy growth of human beings, but its darker color can easily absorb too much arsenic.
F.Brown rice tends to have more arsenic because the metal concentrates in the outer layers, which are burnished off in white rice.
The power and ambition of the giants of the digital economy is astonishing — Amazon has just announced the purchase of the upmarket grocery chain Whole Foods for $13.5bn, but two years ago Facebook paid even more than that to acquire the WhatsApp messaging service, which doesn’t have any physical product at all. What WhatsApp offered Facebook was an intricate and finely detailed web of its users’ friendships and social lives.
Facebook promised the European commission then that it would not link phone numbers to Facebook identities, but it broke the promise almost as soon as the deal went through. Even without knowing what was in the messages, the knowledge of who sent them and to whom was enormously revealing and still could be. What political journalist, what party whip, would not want to know the makeup of the WhatsApp groups in which Theresa May’s enemies are currently plotting? It may be that the value of Whole Foods to Amazon is not so much the 460 shops of owns, but the records of which customers have purchased what.
Competition law appears to be the only way to address these imbalances of power. But it is clumsy. For one thing, it is very slow compared to the pace of change within the digital economy. By the time a problem has been addressed and remedied it may have vanished in the marketplace, to be replaced by new abuses of power. But there is a deeper conceptual problem, too. Competition law as presently interpreted deals with financial disadvantage to consumers and this is not obvious when the users of these services don’t pay for them. The users of their services are not their customers. That would be the people who buy advertising from them — and Facebook and Google, the two virtual giants, dominate digital advertising to the disadvantage of all other media and entertainment companies.
The product they’re selling is data, and we, the users, convert our lives to data for the benefit of the digital giants. Just as some ants farm the bugs called aphids for the honeydew they produce when they feed, so Google farms us for the data that our digital lives yield. Ants keep enemy insects away from where their aphids (蚜虫) feed; Gmail keeps the spammers out of our inboxes. It doesn't feel like a human or democratic relationship, even if both sides benefit.
1.According to Paragraph1, Facebook acquired WhatsApp for its________.
A.digital products B.user information
C.physical assets D.quality service
2.Linking phone numbers to Facebook identities may________.
A.worsen political disputes B.mess up customer records
C.pose a risk to Facebook users D.mislead the European commission
3.Competition law as presently interpreted can hardly protect Facebook users because________.
A.they are no defined as customers B.they are not financially reliable
C.these services are generally digital D.the services are paid for by advertisers
4.The ants analogy is used to illustrate_________.
A.a win-win business model between digital giants
B.a typical competition pattern among digital giants
C.the benefits provided for digital giants' customers
D.the relationship between digital giants and their users
