题目内容

Countries may be ranked by many various groups, such as how expensive or interesting they are to foreign tourists. They can also be ranked by their openness and friendliness toward visitors. You might be shocked to find out that, for example, the USA is number 102 on the list of the least welcoming places, 140 being the most unfriendly land.

Mongolia

Mongolia was closed for quite some time and opened up to foreigners only 20 years ago. That’s probably the major reason why it is not yet experienced enough in hosting tourists. The country is beautiful, with huge spacious areas of land that are low populated. There local people are not yet used to being visited by foreign guests.

Slovakia

There are, undoubtedly, pluses as well as minuses in every country. Slovakia is not the perfect destination for a couple of reasons. First and foremost, Slovakia is becoming more and more similar to the rest of European countries surrounding it. Sameness is not the best quality. As a rule, tourists want to travel and see things they have never seen before. It is good that the land’s countryside is still unique, although it is also being commercialized day by day.

Iran

Iran is not the best place to travel to. It is located close to Pakistan with its negative political atmosphere. Western visitors are not welcome over there and embassies (大使馆) advise against traveling to Iran. The population, contrary to the country’s government, consists of very friendly and welcoming people.

Kuwait

In Kuwait people are warm and friendly. It has a unique history, plenty of traditions and customs. People respect their culture and are very religious. It is a Muslim country, which means that you are not allowed to drink alcohol. If you happen to visit Kuwait during Ramadan, you will not be allowed to eat in public places, either.

Russia

Russia is truly a special place. It is definitely worth visiting. What you might not find attractive is the corruption and bureaucracy (官僚主义) that rule in some certain official circles. Another nuisance you should be ready for is that, as a visitor, you’ll be asked to receive an invitation. Only then will you be able to apply for a visa. Once you arrive in Russia, you’ll be warmly greeted and accepted by the local people.

1.You’ll meet friendly people in the following countries except in _____.

A. Iran

B. Kuwait

C. Mongolia

D. Russia

2.Which of the statements is true according to the text?

A. You can apply for a visa for Russia at will.

B. If you’re fond of drinking, then Kuwait is not an ideal destination.

C. You’re not advised to travel in Iran due to its high cost.

D. Mongolia is a beautiful country with much experience in hosting tourists.

3.Where does this passage probably come from?

A. A news report

B. A lecture speech

C. An advertisement

D. A text book

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With the development of society,it is common that many people are rushing all the way and all day,tired and subhealthy. 1. She described all the things she had to do—one was to make her bed—from the moment she woke up until she flew out of the door for work.I suggested she experiment by not making her bed for two weeks.She was shocked,probably thinking I’d been brought up by wolves in a forest.2.

Two weeks later she went into my office merrily.She had left her bed unmade for the first time in 42 years—and nothing bad had happened.“And you know what?”she said.“I don’t dry my dishes anymore,either.”

3. One was discovering that she had choices in her life that she had never seen before.The other was giving herself permission to be less than perfect.This story shows an important principle about managing time:No one can do it a11.Each of us has to make choices and accept trade-offs(利弊权衡).The problem is that many people choose in ways that put themselves and their health last. They take better care of their houses and cars than they do of themselves. 4.

So what is the solution? There’s an easy way.Decide what you want in your life,and put that first.On a daily basis,that should include regular meals,enough sleep and time with your family.Exercise,leisure,friendships and hobbies should also be regular aspects of life.5.The choice is yours:whatever makes you feel good about yourself and your life.Take a nap.Take a walk.Take time to play the piano.Stop bringing your briefcase home from the office.Stop keeping your house as clean as your mother kept hers.Fill more of your time with want-to-dos instead of have-to-dos.

A.Most people do not take time to relax themselves.

B.The point is to do something for yourself every day.

C.A patient came to see me about the stress in her life.

D.This woman had made two major breakthroughs.

E.Above all,you needn’t do anything for yourself regularly.

F.They put everyone else’s needs ahead of their own.

G.However,she went along with my idea.

Plays

Father Comes Home from the Wars (Parts 1, 2 & 3)

These three short plays by Suzan Lori-Parks are the start of an ambitious attempt to retell the story of the American civil war. The focus is on a slave promised his freedom by his master if he joins in the fight against the Union. Steve Toussaint and Jimmy Akingbola head the cast, and Jo Bonney is in charge.

• 15 September to 4 October, Royal Court, London. Box office: 020-7565 5000.

A Pacifist’s Guide to the War on Cancer

Bryony Kimmings and Brian Lobel consider our attitudes to cancer and the language we employ to deal with it through the stories of five people. This is an all-singing, all-dancing affair with music by Tom Parkinson, wiping off the pink charity ribbons to look at the realities of diagnosis(诊断)and what it means for the wider family.

• 20-24 September, Home, Manchester. Box office: 0161-200 1500.

The Nest

Every parent wants the best for their baby. Kurt and Martha are prepared to work hard to ensure theirs has everything he needs, even if that means Kurt taking on extra work. Franz Xaver Kroetz’s extraordinary play about the damage that profit causes to individuals and the environment gets a new translation from Conor McPherson.

• 15-22 October, Lyric, Belfast. Box office: 028-9038 1081.

The Red Barn

David Hare’s new play is based on La Main, a psychological thriller by the great Georges Simenon. The story concerns two couples who, on their way back from a party, struggle through the snow. The play is directed by Robert Icke, and the cast is headed by Mark Strong and Hope Davis.

• 6-20 October, Lyttelton, London. Box office: 020-7452 3000.

1.What do we know about Father Comes Home from the Wars?

A. It is set in the USA.

B. It is put on throughout September.

C. It tells of the hardship slaves suffered.

D. It is the first play to describe the cruelty of war.

2.When can you see the play directed by Robert Icke?

A. 19 September. B. 3 October.

C. 10 October. D. 21October.

3.In which play can we feel parents’ love for children?

A. The Nest

B. The Red Barn

C. Father Comes Home from the Wars

D. A Pacifist’s Guide to the War on Cancer

4.What do the plays mentioned in the text have in common?

A. They are all comedies. B. They are put on in autumn.

C. They are highly thought of. D. They are works of the same writer.

Scientists investigated why Ebola virus is so deadly when it spreads from animals to humans and then from human-to-human contact. The research team looked at the Zaire Ebola virus in an animal system to understand how it gains strength. This virus is responsible for the current outbreak in West Africa. They found that initially the animal systems were not affected by the virus, but succeeding transmission(传送) into other animals caused the virus to “hot up” and become more severe.

The team analyzed the viruses at different stages and were able to identify several changes in its genetic material that were associated with increased disease.

Professor Julian Hiscox, who led the study from the University’s Institute of Infection and Global Health, explains: “The work tells us that the evolutionary goal of Ebola virus is to become more fatal.”

“We were able to show through genetic analysis which parts of the virus are involved in this process. The information we have gathered will now allow us to monitor for such changes in an outbreak as well as develop future treatment strategies.”

Professor Roger Hewson, leading the study from Public Health England, Porton Down, said: “Ebola virus is such a destructive infection to the people affected by the disease and the economy of West Africa.”

“Our understanding of Ebola virus biology is way behind that of other viruses and our cooperation shows how we can bring together our specialists’ skills to close this knowledge gap.”

Professor Miles Carroll, a co-author of the work, said: “This study has allowed the team to be at the forefront of developing methodologies to analyze patient samples recently taken by the European Mobile Laboratory from West Africa to understand disease evolution during the current outbreak.”

1.What does the first paragraph mainly tell us?

A. How severe Ebola virus is.

B. How Ebola virus spreads.

C. How Ebola virus gradually becomes deadly.

D. What contributions scientists have made on Ebola virus.

2.Which of the following statements is mentioned in the passage?

A. In the first stage, the virus hurts its victims much.

B. As the virus spreads, it’ll change and become more and more deadly.

C. The research in Ebola virus is more advanced than that in other viruses.

D. The scientists have a negative attitude to the research in Ebola virus.

3.The underlined word “fatal” has the closest meaning to ______.

A. optimistic B. deadly

C. common D. fantastic

4.Where can we probably read this passage?

A. In a science report. B. In a storybook.

C. In an advertisement. D. In a textbook.

Many years ago, my father suffered from a serious heart condition. He was put on _______ disability and was unable to work at a steady job.

However, he wanted to do something to keep himself ______, so he decided to volunteer at the local children ______. My dad loved kids. It was the ______ job for him. He would talk to them and play with them. Sometimes, he would ______ one of these kids. In certain instance, he would tell the sad parents that he would soon be able to ______ their children in heaven and that he would take care of them until they got there. His assurance seemed to help those parents with their ______.

One of these kids was a girl who had been admitted with a rare disease that paralyzed (瘫痪) her from the neck down. She could do ______ and she was very ______. My dad decided to help her. He started ______ her in her room, bringing paints, brushes and paper. He stood the paper up ______ a backing, put the paintbrush in his mouth and began to paint. He didn’t use his ______ at all. All the while he would tell her: See, you can do ______ you set your mind to.

____, she began to paint using her ______, and she and my dad became friends. Soon after, the little girl was discharged (出院) and my dad also left the hospital because he became ______. Sometime later after my dad had ______ and returned to work, he was at the volunteer counter of the hospital one day. He noticed the front door open. In came the little girl who had been paralyzed; only this time she was walking. On seeing my dad, she ______ straight over to him and gave him a ______ she had done using her hands. At the bottom it read: thank you for helping me walk.

My dad would say sometimes love is more powerful than ______, and my dad, who died just a few months after the little girl gave him the picture loved every single child in that hospital.

1.A. permanent B. temporary C. mild D. slight

2.A. confident B. comfortable C. wealthy D. occupied

3.A. center B. hospital C. park D. camp

4.A. normal B. perfect C. awkward D. tiring

5.A. protect B. teach C. lose D. miss

6.A. bury B. praise C. spot D. accompany

7.A. sadness B. happiness C. nervousness D. forgiveness

8.A. anything B. nothing C. Everything D. something

9.A. disappointed B. bored C. depressed D. embarrassed

10.A. visiting B. observing C. avoiding D. contacting

11.A. on B. in C. over D. against

12.A. eyes B. neck C. hands D. head

13.A. whoever B. whatever C. wherever D. whenever

14.A. Gradually B. Briefly C. Suddenly D. Naturally

15.A. hands B. feet C. fingers D. mouth

16.A. better B. worse C. healthier D. fitter

17.A. took out B. turned away C. picked up D. knocked over

18.A. ran B. wheeled C. slid D. turned

19.A. card B. picture C. note D. photo

20.A. words B. exercise C. faith D. medicine

Being Left-handed in a Right-handed World

The world is designed for right-handed people, but why does a tenth of the population prefer the left? 1.

The answer to it remains a bit of a mystery. Since scientists have noticed that left-handedness tends to run in families, it’s assumed that left-handedness has a genetic(基因的) component to it. 2. In fact, identical twins, who share the same genes, can sometimes prefer to use different hands. There are also plenty of theories on what else might determine which hand you write with, but many experts believe that it’s kind of random.

Historically, the left side and left-handedness have been considered a negative thing by many cultures. 3. In some areas, the left hand became known as the “unclean” hand. In many religions, the right hand of God is the favored hand. For example, Jesus sits at God’s right side. God’s left hand, however, is the hand of judgement. Various activities and experiences become rude or even signs of bad luck when the left hand becomes involved. In some parts of Scotland, it is considered bad luck to meet a left-handed person at the start of a journey. 4.A person giving directions will put their left hand behind them and even physically try to point with their right hand if necessary. In some Asian countries, eating with the left hand is considered impolite.

5.People come to realize that left-handedness is natural. People even noticed that many famous people are left-handed, including Benjamin Franklin, Leonardo Da Vinci, and Charlie Chaplin. Some researchers find out that lefties are more creative and can deal with abstract thinking better. The left-handedness is more easily adaptable to the right-handed world as well. Being left-handed is no longer a sad story now; instead, it is a wonderful gift or maybe it is something you should take pride in.

A.In other words, left-handers are born that way.

B.Left-handedness used to be regarded as a disability.

C.The unfavorable associations of the use of the left hand among cultures are varied.

D.Why do they prefer to use their left hand rather than their right hand for ro-utine activities?

E. Why do some parents force their left-handed children to become right-handed when writing?

F. In Ghana, pointing, gesturing, giving or receiving items with the left hand is considered rude.

G. Fortunately, nowadays most societies and cultures no longer reject left-handedness like before.

A 16-year survey on the arctic Norwegian island of Svalbard found the reindeer(驯鹿)there have declined in weight by an alarming 12 percent. The reduction in average body-mass is being blamed on global warming.

In research presented lately at a meeting of the British Ecological Society in Liverpool, scientists will explain how rising temperatures are making female reindeer difficult to obtain nutrients during important periods of being pregnant.

Snow in Svalbard typically covers the ground for eight months of the year, which, combined with low temperatures, limits grass growth to June and July. But as summer temperatures have increased by around 1.5℃, grasslands have become more productive, allowing female reindeer to gain more weight by the autumn and therefore to conceive(孕育)more calves.

However, warmer winters have brought with them greater rainfall which freezes when is settles on the snow, therefore locking out the reindeer from the life-supporting food below. As a result, female reindeer are becoming starved, causing them to give birth to much lighter young. The average mass of an adult reindeer in 1998, when the survey began, was 55kg, but by 2016 IT had dropped to 48kg.

Professor Steve Albon, an ecologist at the James Hatton Institute in Aberdeen , said that, because the mammals have a relatively high surface-area-to-volume ratio(表面积与体积比), they are no particularly energy efficient.

Reindeer can often access the inadequate food sources beneath the snow by clearing IT away with their antlers(鹿角), but they cannot break through the hard ice. Without access to the food in winter, calves are being born far lighter than they should be. Numbers of reindeer have also increased rapidly in the past 20 years, meaning that those which are born are facing greater competition for food. “The implication(含义)are that there may well be more smaller reindeer in the Arctic in the coming decades, but possibly at the risk of catastrophic die-offs because of increased ice on the ground,”said Professor Albon Despite the gloomy findings, reindeer appear to be suffering less from the impact of climate change than some other arctic species.

1.Which of the following may be the most important reason for the smaller reindeer?

A. Heavy snow.

B. Greater rainfall.

C. Hard ice.

D. Global warming.

2.According to the passage, rising temperatures will not lead to_________.

A. grass growing more rapidly in summer

B. more rainfall in the arctic area in winter

C. female reindeer’s gaining more weight in winter

D. female reindeer’s suffering from hunger in winter

3.What does the underlined word“gloomy”in the last paragraph mean?

A. Exciting.

B. Optimistic.

C. Disappointing.

D. Doubtful.

4.How does the writer develop the passage?

A. By analyzing the research.

B. By classification of reindeer.

C. By comparing opinions of experts.

D. By telling stories of different species.

Hollywood’s theory that machines with evil(邪恶) minds will drive armies of killer robots is just silly. The real problem relates to the possibility that artificial intelligence(AI) may become extremely good at achieving something other than what we really want. In 1960 a well-known mathematician Norbert Wiener, who founded the field of cybernetics(控制论), put it this way: “If we use, to achieve our purposes, a mechanical agency with whose operation we cannot effectively interfere(干预), we had better be quite sure that the purpose put into the machine is the purpose which we really desire.”

A machine with a specific purpose has another quality, one that we usually associate with living things: a wish to preserve its own existence. For the machine, this quality is not in-born, nor is it something introduced by humans; it is a logical consequence of the simple fact that the machine cannot achieve its original purpose if it is dead. So if we send out a robot with the single instruction of fetching coffee, it will have a strong desire to secure success by disabling its own off switch or even killing anyone who might interfere with its task. If we are not careful, then, we could face a kind of global chess match against very determined, super intelligent machines whose objectives conflict with our own, with the real world as the chessboard.

The possibility of entering into and losing such a match should concentrate the minds of computer scientists. Some researchers argue that we can seal the machines inside a kind of firewall, using them to answer difficult questions but never allowing them to affect the real world. Unfortunately, that plan seems unlikely to work: we have yet to invent a firewall that is secure against ordinary humans, let alone super intelligent machines.

Solving the safety problem well enough to move forward in AI seems to be possible but not easy. There are probably decades in which to plan for the arrival of super intelligent machines. But the problem should not be dismissed out of hand, as it has been by some AI researchers. Some argue that humans and machines can coexist as long as they work in teams—yet that is not possible unless machines share the goals of humans. Others say we can just “switch them off” as if super intelligent machines are too stupid to think of that possibility. Still others think that super intelligent AI will never happen. On September 11, 1933, famous physicist Ernest Rutherford stated, with confidence, “Anyone who expects a source of power in the transformation of these atoms is talking moonshine.” However, on September 12, 1933, physicist Leo Szilard invented the neutron-induced(中子诱导) nuclear chain reaction.

1.Paragraph 1 mainly tells us that artificial intelligence may ________.

A. run out of human control

B. satisfy human’s real desires

C. command armies of killer robots

D. work faster than a mathematician

2.Machines with specific purposes are associated with living things partly because they might be able to ________.

A. prevent themselves from being destroyed

B achieve their original goals independently

C. do anything successfully with given orders

D. beat humans in international chess matches

3.According to some researchers, we can use firewalls to ________.

A. help super intelligent machines work better

B. be secure against evil human beings

C. keep machines from being harmed

D. avoid robots’ affecting the world

4.What does the author think of the safety problem of super intelligent machines?

A. It will disappear with the development of AI.

B. It will get worse with human interference.

C. It will be solved but with difficulty.

D. It will stay for a decade.

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