—I am sorry I can’t help you.

—    .

A. My pleasure    B. All right

C. Thank you all the same    D. I am sorry to hear that

—I will go to the amusement park next weekend.

—    .

A. Excuse me    B. Have a good time

C. I’m afraid I can’t    D. It’s up to you

—Would you please help me to take the clothes downstairs,Tom?

—    .

A. Never mind    B. That’s right

C. No problem    D. Let’s go

—Do you mind if I turn on the TV?

—    .Let’s watch the sports news now.

A. No way    B. Go ahead

C. You’d better not    D. I think so

—It’s very kind of you to see me off.

—    .

A. No problem    B. I hope to see you soon

C. It’s my pleasure    D. I don’t want you to leave

阅读下面短文，根据所给情节进行续写，使之构成一个完整的故事。

On a cold windy day, a poor boy tried to pay his way through school by selling goods door to door. Wandering on the street, he was not a successful seller. What’s worse, he found that he only had one dime（一角硬币） left. His empty stomach reminded him constantly that for days he hadn’t eaten anything. He had no choice but to beg for a meal at the next house. Hesitantly he knocked at door, thinking about what to say when it opened. However, he lost his nerve when a lovely young woman opened the door. “What can I do for you?” asked the young woman. The boy paused for a while “Would you please give me some … a drink of water?” the boy dare not to look directly into her eyes. She looked at the bony boy and thought he might need something to give him energy so she brought him a glass of milk. His head rising and small hands taking the cup, he drank it up slowly, and then asked, “How much do I owe you?”“You don’t owe me anything,” she replied with a warm smile on her face. “My mother has taught me never to accept pay for a kindness.” Deeply moved, he said sincerely, “Then I shall thank you from the bottom of my heart.”As Howard Kelly left that house, he not only felt stronger physically, but it also increased his faith in God and the whole human race. As a matter of fact, he was about to give up and quit before that point.

Years later the young woman became critically ill. However, the local doctors were unable to give the effective medical treatment. Finally they sent her to a hospital in the big city, where specialists can be called in to cure her rare disease. Among those famous specialists, Dr. Howard Kelly was called in for the consultation. When he heard the name of the town she came from, a strange light filled his eyes. Immediately, he rose and went down through the hospital hall into her room.

注意：

1.所续写短文的词数应为150左右；

2.应使用5个以上短文中标有下划线的关键词语；

3.续写部分分为两段，每段的开头语已为你写好；

4.续写完成后，请用下划线标出你所使用的关键词语。

Paragraph 1:

Dressed in his doctor’s gown, he went in to see her._______________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________

Paragraph 2:

The bill was sent to her room._________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________

语篇语法填空

A film, 1.(release) in Chinese cinemas next month, tells the story of a former British secret agent named Johnny English, who has now retired to be a middle school history teacher. However, after a series of cyber attacks on the UK government, all the active secret agents 2.(expose), which leaves the mission of catching the bad guys 3. Johnny English.

But 4. films such as Mission Impossible and Kingsman (《王牌特工》), in which agents are all masters of high-tech tools, Johnny English is an old-fashioned hero, 5.(suspect) of modern technology and not even willing to use a smartphone. That puts him in various dangerous situations.

This wouldn’t come as a surprise if you know that Johnny English 6.(play) by Rowan Atkinson, who is best known 7. playing his character Mr. Bean.

Johnny English and Mr. Bean do have a lot 8. common. As Atkinson once told the Guardian in an interview, “The essence of Mr. Bean is 9. he’s self-centered and doesn’t actually acknowledge the outside world. He’s a child in a man’s body.”

And this is 10.(probable) why people all around the world can relate to Atkinson’s humor. They want to be just as self-centered as his characters. And they don’t want to care what the outside world thinks of them. They want to be different.

When I entered Berkeley, I hoped to earn a scholarship. Having been a Straight-A student, I believed I could ____ tough subjects and really learn something. One such course was World Literature given by Professor Jayne. I was extremely interested in the ideas he ______ in class.

When I took the first exam, I was ______ to find a 77, C-plus, on my test paper,  ______ English was my best subject. I went to Professor Jayne, who listened to my arguments but remained ______.

I decided to try harder, although I didn’t know what that _____ because school had always been easy for me. I read the books more carefully, but got another 77. Again, I ______ with Professor Jayne. Again, he listened patiently but wouldn’t change his ______.

One more test before the final exam. One more ______ to improve my grade. So I redoubled my efforts and, for the first time，_____ the meaning of the word “thorough”. But my _____  did no good and everything ______as before.

The last hurdle(障碍) was the final. No matter what_____I got, it wouldn’t cancel three C-pluses. I might as well kiss the ______ goodbye.

I stopped working hard. I felt I knew the course material as well as I ever would. The night before the final, I even ______ myself to a movie. The next day I decided for once I’d have _____with a test.

A week later, I was surprised to find I got an A. I hurried into professor Jayne’s office. He _____ to be expecting me. “If I gave you the As you ______, you wouldn’t continue to work as hard.”

I stared at him _____ that his analysis and strategy were correct. I had worked my head _____, as I had never done before.

I was speechless when my course grade arrived: A-plus. It was the only A-plus given. The next year I received my scholarship. I’ve always remembered Professor Jayne’s lesson: you alone must set your own standard of excellence.

1.A. take    B. discuss    C. cover    D. get

2.A. sought    B. presented    C. exchanged    D. obtained

3.A. shocked    B. worried    C. scared    D. anxious

4.A. but    B. so    C. for    D. or

5.A. unchanged    B. unpleasant    C. unfriendly    D. unmoved

6.A. reflected    B. meant    C. improved    D. affected

7.A. quarreled    B. reasoned    C. bargained    D. chatted

8.A. attitude    B. mind    C. plan    D. view

9.A. choice    B. step    C. chance    D. measure

10.A. memorized    B. considered    C. accepted    D. learned

11.A. ambition    B. confidence    C. effort    D. method

12.A. stayed    B. went    C. worked    D. changed

13.A. grade    B. answer    C. lesson    D. comment

14.A. scholarship    B. course    C. degree    D. subject

15.A. helped    B. favored    C. treated    D. relaxed

16.A. fun    B. luck    C. problems    D. tricks.

17.A. happened    B. proved    C. pretended    D. seemed

18.A. valued    B. imagined    C. expected    D. welcomed

19.A. remembering    B. guessing    C. supposing    D. realizing

20.A. out    B. over    C. on    D. off

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项。

The wife-carrying World Championship has been celebrated in a small town in central Finland since 1992. In 1992, the people of the town decided to restart some long-forgotten traditions. 1.. He was said to only accept men as members of his gang who proved their worth in challenges. At that time, it was also a common practice to steal women from neighboring villages.

2.. A large number of competitors, people, and journalists from Finland to Canada attend the Wife-carrying World Championship every year.

3.. The Wife-carrying World Championship is held on a 253.3 meters long official track. The track has two dry obstacles and a water obstacle, about a meter deep. The wife to be carried may be your own, or your neighbor’s. The minimum weight of the wife to be carried is 49 kg. If she is less than 49kg, the wife will be given a heavy bag to carry. Each time a competitor drops his wife, that couple will be fined 15 seconds.4..

Alongside with the Wife-carrying World Championship, there is also a team competition. The distance is the same but three men in the team carry the wife in turns. At the exchange point the carrier has to drink official “wife-carrying drink.” Then he may continue the race.

5..

While the Wife-carrying World Championship is being held, there are bands playing music, a wife carrying dance and other forms of entertainment.”

A.There are a few basic rules.

B.People everywhere hold the event.

C.A special prize is awarded to the team.

D.Do you know how these traditions restarted?

E.This event is becoming increasingly popular.

F.The winner is the couple who complete the course in the shortest time.

G.Back in the late 1800s, there was a robber called Rosvo-Ronkainen in that area.

The days of the hunter are almost over in India. This is partly because there is practically nothing left to kill, and partly because some steps have been taken, mainly by banning tiger-shooting, to protect those animals which still survive.

Some people say that Man is naturally a hunter. I disagree with this view. Surely our earliest forefathers, who at first possessed no weapons, spent their time digging for roots, and were no doubt themselves often hunted by meat-eating animals.

I believe the main reason why the modern hunter kills is that he thinks people will admire his courage in overpowering dangerous animals. Of course, there are some who truly believe that the killing is not really the important thing, and that the chief pleasure lies in the joy of the hunt and the beauties of the wild countryside. There are also those for whom hunting in fact offers a chance to prove themselves and risk death by design; these men go out after dangerous animals like tigers, even if they say they only do it to rid the countryside of a threat. I can respect reasons like these, but they are clearly different from the need to strengthen your high opinion of yourself.

The greatest big-game hunters expressed in their writings something of these finer motives. One of them wrote.

“You must properly respect what you are after and shoot it cleanly and on the animal’s own territory(领地)。You must fix forever in your mind all the wonders of that particular day. This is better than letting him grow a few years older to be attacked and wounded by his own son and eventually eaten, half alive, by other animals, Hunting is not a cruel and senseless killing - not if you respect the thing you kill, not if you kill to enrich your memories, not if you kill to feed your people.”

I can understand such beliefs, and can compare these hunters with those who hunted lions with spears(矛) and bravely caught them by the tail. But this is very different from many tiger-shoots I have seen, in which modern weapons were used. The so-called hunters fired from tall trees or from the backs of trained elephants. Such methods made tigers seem no more dangerous than rabbits.

1.There is no more hunting in India now partly because___.

A. it is dangerous to hunt there

B. hunting is already out of date

C. hunters want to protect animals

D. there are few animals left to hunt

2.The author thinks modern hunters kill mainly____.

A. to make the countryside safe

B. to earn people’s admiration

C. to gain power and influence

D. to improve their health

3.What do we learn about the big-game hunters?

A. They hunt old animals

B. They mistreat animals

C. They hunt for food

D. They hunt for money

4.What is the author’s view on the tiger-shoots he has seen?

A. Modern hunters lack the courage to hunt face-to-face

B. Modern hunters should use more advanced weapons

C. Modern hunters like to hunt rabbits instead of tigers

D. Modern hunters should put their safety first

The evidence for harmony may not be obvious in some families. But it seems that four out of five young people now get on with their parents, which is the opposite of the popularly held image of unhappy teenagers locked in their room after endless family quarrels.

An important new study into teenage attitudes surprisingly shows that their family life is more harmonious than it has ever been in the past.” We were surprised by just how positive today’s young people seen to be about their families,” said one member of the research team. “They’re expected to be rebellious(叛逆的) and selfish but actually they have other things on their minds; they want a car and material goods, and they worry about whether school is serving them well. There’s more negotiation and discussion between parents and children, and children expect to take part in the family decision-making process. They don’t want to rock the boat.”

So it seems that this generation of parents is much more likely than parents of 30 years ago to treat their children as friends. “My parents are happy to discuss things with me and willing to listen to me,” says 17-years-old Daniel Lazall. “I always tell them when I’m going out clubbing. As long as they know what I’m doing, they’re fine with it.” Susan Crome, who is now 21,agrees.”Looking back on the last 10 years, there was a lot of what you could call negotiation. For example, as long as I’d done all my homework, I could go out on a Saturday night. But I think my grandparents were a lot stricter with my parents than that.”

Maybe this positive view of family life should not be unexpected. It is possible that the idea of teenagers’ rebellion is not rooted in real facts. A researcher comments, “Our surprise that teenagers say they get along well with their parents comes because of a brief period in our social history when teenagers were regarded as different beings. But that idea of rebelling and breaking away from their parents really only happened during that one time in the 1960s when everyone rebelled. The normal situation throughout history has been a smooth change from helping out with the family business to taking it over.”

1.The study shows that teenagers don’t want to ___

A. share family responsibility    B. cause trouble in their families

C. go boating with their family    D. make family decisions

2.Compared with parents of 30 years ago, today’s parents___.

A. go to clubs more often with their children    B. are much stricter with their children

C. care less about their children’s life    D. give their children more freedom

3.Which title best gives the main idea of the passage?

A. Discussion in family.    B. Teenage education in family.

C. Harmony in family.    D. Teenage trouble in family.

There are many weird sports that are present from around the world. From each region of the world, along with the very popular common sports, there are also those really popular but very weird kinds of sports.

The Ultimate Test between Man and Horse:

This indeed a very strange kind of sport that tests your stamina. You will learn how to be agiler while competing against a horse. This game originated in Welsh town of Llanwrtyd Wells. This sport really has to do with strength. You will require great agility and strength in order to take part in this. Marathon human contestants are put to test against those mounted on horses. This is how the marathon testing takes place.

Love Locked Race

This is a sports event that was first introduced in Finland. This is all about a male competitor racing with a female in a certain way. There would be many obstructions and blocks on the way which would definitely bring you challenges. The person to win would have to finish the race without losing his female partner in the course of overcoming the obstacles even for once. This race takes place really fast and the obstacles are set that way.

Toe sport

This is yet another weird sport that welcomes you to use your toes. This is quite the same kind of sport that you used to play as a child which involved toe wrestling. This has now been turned into a major sport that even has a World Toe Wrestling Competition. It first originated in a pub of Derbyshire.

The locals took this sport with great enjoyment and then made this so popular that it soon had its own championship. The individuals who participate have only got to use their feet in locks but then this is tougher than it may sound.

The Mud Pit Belly Flop

This is a kind of game where even the spectators get splashed in mud but in fact that is quite the fun. The very annual Summer Redneck Games in East Dublin brings about this game and brings about some of the greatest hubcap discus throws with it. This is also a great sport to show the strength and dexterity of your feet.

1.Which sport requires couples to participate?

A. The Ultimate Test between Man and Horse.    B. Love Locked Race.

C. Toe sport.    D. The Mud Pit Belly Flop.

2.Which statement shows the popularity of the Toe Sport?

A. It first originated in a pub of Derbyshire.

B. The locals took this sport with great enjoyment.

C. It has a World Toe Wrestling Competition.

D. Even kids are fond of the sport.

3.What kind of people are likely to take part in the Ultimate Test between Man and Horse?

A. People with agility and strength.

B. People with companions.

C. Marathon runners.

D. Horse riders.

听下面一段独白，回答以下小题。

1.What was the season according to the story?

A. Summer.    B. Autumn.    C. Winter.

2.Why did the Hermanns go shopping only on Saturday?

A. Mr. Hermann didn’t have to work.

B. Mr. Hermann had to do housework.

C. Mr. Hermann didn’t like the other days.

3.What can we know about Mr. Hermann from the story?

A. He was tired of his wife.

B. He was a good husband.

C. He would stay outside waiting.

4.What kind of lady was Mrs. Hermann?

A. A shopping lover.

B. A hardworking housewife.

C. A very beautiful young lady.

听下面一段较长对话，回答以下小题。

1.What is the woman’s destination?

A. England.    B. London.    C. Hangzhou.

2.Why does the man like travelling by train?

A. He can enjoy the scenes outside.

B. He thinks it is very safe.

C. He can meet different people.

3.What do we know about the woman?

A. She is not a Chinese.

B. She can sleep well on the train.

C. She likes talking with people on the train.

4.What can we learn from the conversation?

A. Some trains today are modern.

B. People in England like travelling by air.

C. The woman regrets taking the train this time.

听下面一段较长对话，回答以下小题。

1.Why does the woman like to surf the Internet?

A. To do a course.    B. To get information.    C. To be in touch with her family.

2.What does the man hate?

A. His computer is too slow.

B. He can’t follow the English soccer.

C. There are too many junk mails online.

3.What do the man and the woman agree?

A. It is very expensive to surf the Internet.

B. It’s hard to get information through the regular media.

C. It’s frustrating to get rid of the disadvantages of the Internet.

听下面一段较长对话，回答以下小题。

1.What did Linda do after the party?

A. She typed a paper.    B. She visited her uncle.    C. She studied history.

2.Why was Linda so nervous?

A. she didn’t have much sleep.

B. She was worried about her paper.

C. She thought her paper might be late.

听下面一段较长对话，回答以下小题。

1.How often did the man listen to the news from China?

A. Once a week.    B. Almost every day.    C. Sometimes.

2.Which is the best way to learn Chinese?

A. Studying in China.

B. Speaking Chinese every day.

C. Listening to the news from China.

What will the man do right now?

A. Buy his mum a coat.    B. Buy his mum a handbag.    C. Give Mary a call

What time will the man call the woman?

A. At 5:30.    B. At 6:00.    C. At 6:30.

How much should the man pay?

A. $19.    B. $18.    C. $17.

Which dress does the woman want to buy?

A. The red one.    B. The green one.    C. The brown one.

Which place is the woman heading for right away?

A. Her office.    B. A flower shop.    C. A hospital.

假定你是李华，获悉你的一位南非朋友（1ucy）在约翰内斯堡大学孔子学院（Confucius Institute at Johannesburg University）举办的中文诗词朗诵比赛中荣获一等奖。请你用英语给她写封信表示祝贺，并希望她有机会来中国深造。

注意：词数100左右；可以适当增加细节，以使行文连贯。

Dear Lucy,

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

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（∧），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。

Last Friday, our class invited a old craftsman to teach us how make dough figurines (面人). First, he show us the basic steps and making techniques. We stood around him but watched attentively. Then he started to have a try. He walked around and helped us patient when necessary. Finally, all of us had our own work and we took pictures for our hand-made figurines excitedly. Looked at these lifelike figurines, we were all felt happy.

阅读下面材料，在空白处填入1个适当的单词或括号内单词的正确形式。将答案填写在答题卡的相应位置。

Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) wasn’t fully accepted outside of China for centuries. There was once a Chinese man in the US who 1. (accuse) after he used a certain form of TCM treatment 2. (cure) his grandson’s disease.

In the last 10 years or so, however, TCM 3. (get) more popular all over the world. A report 4. (publish) on Dec. 6 says this style of healthcare, which includes different forms 5. herbal medicine and exercise, has spread to 183 countries and regions. For instance, in Lima, the capital of Peru, there are more than 50 Chinese medicine clinics, about 70 percent of 6. were set up by local doctors, TCM has become popular with the people of Peru.

7. TCM has been widely accepted, it still faces challenges. For example, there is trouble in being able to prove 8. (exact) what certain drugs are made up of, as well as being able to keep the effects the same every time.

Some researchers have suggested TCM should be more exact and come together with Western Medicine. “9. (bring) together Western Medicine and TCM, rather than being in 10. (compete), is where the potential for great effects lies.

Bending our knees in the sand and protected by only a plastic glove, I put my hand into the cigarette ends, drink bottles and rotten fruit. I ____ to my friends, triumphantly (洋洋得意地) waving a ____ sock at them before dropping it into the rubbish bag.

My friends and I are ____ of the CSF, a high school community service club. On a Sunday morning we came to the Santa Monica Beach as ____ as possible. It was Step. 17. International Coastal Cleanup Day, and people in more than 90 countries were ____ to clean up the beaches. When four of us and the club adviser ____ near the Santa Monica Pier (码头), the beach was nearly empty. We were —____ with plastic gloves, rubbish bags and information ____, which we used to ____ the rubbish we found for later research. In ____ of two or three, we started by collecting the most ____ pieces of rubbish, such as bottles and bags. Soon our backs were hurting from ____ so much. To pass the time, our club adviser invented a ____ called “Balloon Search” — whichever group found the most shreds (碎片) of balloons would ____.

My group found several sickening and ____ items, such as, used underwear, dead birds and toothbrush. Another group ____ found false teeth!

After three hours of collecting rubbish, we ____ ourselves to lunch, I washed my ____ with a soap four times in the bathroom, but the smell of ____ fish stayed. Although we were tired, we all ____ that the work was definitely worth it.

1.A. explained    B. got    C. shouted    D. nodded

2.A. beautiful    B. muddy    C. plastic    D. white

3.A. students    B. customers    C. cleaners    D. member

4.A. early    B. late    C. soon    D. often

5.A. calling    B. gathering    C. meeting    D. pretending

6.A. turned up    B. came up    C. turned out    D. came out

7.A. equipped    B. filled    C. covered    D. pulled

8.A. scores    B. papers    C. tools    D. sheets

9.A. copy    B. record    C. hold    D. sort

10.A. search    B. memory    C. groups    D. forms

11.A. amazing    B. expensive    C. useful    D. noticeable

12.A. walking around    B. bending over    C. falling down    D. moving back

13.A. game    B. machine    C. sport    D. rule

14.A. leave    B. blow    C. win    D. speak

15.A. interesting    B. surprising    C. important    D. pleasant

16.A. again    B. still    C. even    D. suddenly

17.A. treated    B. helped    C. took    D. invited

18.A. clothes    B. hands    C. face    D. hair

19.A. bitter    B. fresh    C. tasty    D. rotten

20.A. agreed    B. decided    C. promised    D. understood

The time our students didn't spend in school was mostly spent consuming: products, media and entertainment. What can we do about it—especially during these long summer months when our kids expect to be entertained? 1..

We should encourage our kids to travel. I'm not talking about the grand European tour. Travel is simply an opportunity to help our kids to learn to see different social and economic arrangements.

Start close to home and visit a different neighborhood. 2.. Travel need not be about changing locations, hut reaching across generations to break out of the artificial age segregation (隔离) of our time.

Few experiences help our kids discover the distinction between needs and wants. It’s doesn't have to be a hike through the Yukon, but just living out of a backpack for a long weekend where they take an active role in planning meals, buying food and setting up the tent. 3.. Instead, they'll have been the planners, the decision makers and the risk calculators.

4.. So we should work with our children to build reading lists of books. Becoming a reader grows our horizons (视野), our appetite for the good, the true and the beautiful.

5.. Because the health of our society not only depends on shared principles like laws, but it is also built on the strength of its citizens and local self-reliance. This sould be a gift of these long summer days to our children.

A. Vacations are no reason for children to be lazy

B. We also want our kids to travel into literature

C. Travel is a great thing, but it needs time and money

D. Your kids can learn to work for their community

E. However, solving the problem in a single summer is not enough

F. You don’t have eyes to see your own community until you’ve visited another

G. The key thing is not to have been passive consumers

Radio newsreaders and television hosts at Ireland’s national broadcaster RTE are mostly up in arms at being told to pronounce words according to the Queen’s English.

A report in The Irish Sun newspaper says that RTE’s workers have been given an A-Z style guide of words which instructs them on how to pronounce certain words in an effort to make sure they are clearly understood. The A-Z comes with videos containing lessons of how to “properly” pronounce the “problem” words. An official at RTE told the Irish Sun that producers gave the guide to keep up standards. “The guide is there for anyone who needs it.” he said, “RTE often get letters from the public over how certain words were mispronounced. The word ‘issue’ is a big one at the moment, people don’t like how it’s pronounced. There is an expectation that as the national broadcaster we are correct.”

However, Irish linguistics expert Professor Raymond Hickey, who took the side of most of the radio newsreaders and TV hosts, called the RTE’s actions “internalized colonialism (内化殖民主义)”. He expressed his disbelief that Irish speakers were being asked to use words with an English accent. He said: “The basic problem is RTE expects its workers to speak as if they were English. Why? We have our own form of English, which is different but fully reasonable and accepted worldwide.” Professor Hickey specially talked of some examples of the words Irish hosts are being asked to pronounce with a British English accent. He said: “The Irish don’t pronounce the TH [in ‘birthday’] as a fricative, but as a stop with no breath…. The same is true of ‘news’ — the Irish pronunciation is and always has been ‘nooze’.”

1.When told to speak the Queen’s English, RTE’s workers showed great ________.

A. anger

B. interest

C. curiosity

D. disappointment

2.RTE provides its workers with an A—Z style guide in order to ________.

A. instruct them to pronounce clearly

B. keep up pronunciation standards

C. meet their work demands

D. make sure that the public are correct

3.What’s the official’s in s intension of mentioning the letters from the public?

A. To warm the national broadcaster of the mispronunciation.

B. To show how “problem” words are mispronounced.

C. To explain why RTE take the actions.

D. To prove the public are believable.

4.According to Professor Raymond Hickey, the RTE’s actions ________.

A. are reasonable and acceptable

B. are impractical and foolish

C. will win the Irish trust

D. make no sense

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is making it possible for companies to monitor workers’ behavior in great detail and in real time. Start to slack off (懈怠), and AI could talk to your boss.

One company offering such services is London-based start-up Status Today. Its AI platform relies on a regular supply of employee data, including everything from the files you access to when you use a key card. From this, it builds a picture of how employees normally function and signals any unusual performance. The idea is to spot when someone might become a security risk by doing something different from their usual behavioral patterns. “All of this gives us fingerprint of a user, so if we think the fingerprint doesn’t match, we raise a warning”, says Mircea Dumitrescu, the company’s chief technology officer.

The system also aims to catch employee actions that could accidentally cause a security breach (漏洞), like opening malware (恶意软件).“We’re not monitoring if your computer has a virus.” says Dumitrescu. “We’re monitoring human behaviors.”

But catching the security breach means monitoring everyone, and the AI can also be used to track employee productivity. “It seems like they are just using the reputation of AI to give an air of lawfulness to old-fashioned workplace surveillance (监视),” says Javier Ruiz Diaz of digital campaigning organization the Open Rights Group. “You have a right to privacy and you shouldn’t be expected to give that up at work.”

Exactly how companies use the system will be up to them, but it’s hard to shake the picture of an AI constantly looking over employees’ shoulders. “It will bother people, and that could be counterproductive if it affects their behavior,” says Paul Bemal at the University of East Anglia.

Phil Legg at the University of the West of England says it will never catch every security risk. “If people know they’re being monitored, they can change their behavior,” he says.

1.According to the text, AI monitors employees by ________.

A. taking pictures of them    B. getting access to their data

C. signaling their usual performance    D. catching their actions

2.What’s Javier Ruiz Diaz’s attitude towards the system?

A. Doubtful.    B. Supportive.

C. Uncaring.    D. Negative.

3.What does the underlined word “that” in paragraph 4 refer to?

A. Security breach.    B. Employees’ productivity.

C. The right to privacy.    D. Workplace surveillance.

4.Phil Legg’s concern about the system suggests that ________.

A. it is too risky to be used at work

B. it will affect employees’ emotions

C. it may not be so effective as expected

D. it will encourage employee, productivity

When I was eleven, my parents gave me the first book I ever owned—The Tales of Edgar Allan Poe. I distinctly remember opening it, reading the first lines of “The Cast of Amontillado,” and remarking to myself. “So this is what reading is!” My delight was unbounded. Little did I know at the time that I was at the beginning of a lifting journey.

So, if I read my first real book at 11, what was I reading before then? In a word, readers: relatively plotless, repetitive if well-intentioned attempts to teach child to recognize letters and their sounds and to build their vocabularies. Being a dutiful boy, I went through the motions and I learned what words were. But I had no idea what writing was until Poe. In Poe’s stories, the sentences were more complex and stylish than anything I had ever read before.

Poe, in short, was a star. My parents gave me that first book, but then I went off on my own. I liked science, which led me to discover Jules Verne, the Father of scene fiction and H G. Wells, well known for his novel The Time Machine. Other writers followed quickly one after another: Isaac Asimov, Ray Bradbury, Arthur C. Clarke. But I didn’t limit myself to science fiction. Other titles that deeply impressed me early on, and which I have carried on my life’s journey, include The Yearling, Shane, Ivanhoe, Of Mice and Men, To Kill a Mockingbird and The Good Earth.

It went on from there. I became that kid who, long after his parents told him to turn the lights off, hid under the covers with a flashlight and a book, his greatest fear of being discovered and having his lighting taken away. I realize that my parents must have known I was defying (违背) them. But in their wisdom they pretended to be ignorant of it. And so I owe my star as a reader to my parents.

1.What did the author feel about The Tates of Edgar Allan Poe?

A. Attractive and interesting.

B. Complex and dull.

C. Distinct but difficult.

D. Plotless but easy.

2.From paragraph 3 we Can learn that the author ________.

A. liked reading tales best

B. enjoyed reading science fiction most

C. took no interest in realistic novels

D. liked reading freely and widely

3.What did the authors parents react to his reading by flashlight?

A. Told him to turn off the flashlight.

B. Took away his book.

C. Made allowance for him.

D. Scolded him at once.

4.What is the best title for the text?

A. My Start as a Real Reader

B. The Tales of Edgar Allan Poe

C. When I Began to Like Reading Freely

D. Edgar Allan Poe Was My Favorite Star