I had just visited my best friend in hospital with my mum, 1.hadn’t seen my friend since she’d gone into hospital six months earlier.
I knew where she was coming from as she was2.(grave) ill, but as I’d been visiting her every week I had stopped seeing the obvious; my friend3.(lose) most of her body weight and her hair was falling out, it wasn’t looking good.
After the visit I took my mum to the station4.(see) her off on her train; the mood was understandably bleak but I stayed positive as well you do, don’t you? I went to get 5. (we) some coffee and my mum some food for the journey. I misread the amount of my purchase and didn’t have enough money.
6.some reason, this was the straw that broke the camel’s back; I burst into uncontrollable7.(tear) as a massive queue was gathering behind me. A woman came up to me and offered to pay, putting an arm round my shoulder, no questions8.(ask).
I could barely say thank you through the confusion and the flood of emotion that was pumping through me 9. running off in embarrassment. After composing myself I ran round the station 10.(try)to find this kind lady to thank her properly but never did.
When my grandma fell ill just a few days before Christmas, I felt shocked and sad that she wasn’t going to be at able for Christmas with the people she loved around her. Mother said, “If she can’t come here for Christmas, we’ll take Christmas to her !” She was very _______when we all arrived at the ward with a lot of_______, full of bustle(喧闹)and chatter.
Afterwards, the idea for Secret Santa started to _______in me. The following year, I decided to put my thoughts into action and _______a request on Facebook and Twitter asking people to donate presents to those who were in hospital at Christmas. The _________was incredible.
The first year, in the week _______up to Christmas, I put on a red Santa’s hat and pushed a trolley(手推车) full of presents _______the hospital wards and the local children’s hospice(收容所) handing out some Christmas _______. I made sure those who weren’t _______ also received a present.
And, of course, the nurses and carers were________big boxes of Chocolates. I also took presents into care homes for the __________. Often it was just something little, but I think they were just ________to see a friendly face. It felt good doing something for other people.
________my grandma died last year, I was still determined to keep the ________running for a second year. This time I was overwhelmed(征服)by the response. There were twice as many presents__________as there were the previous year.
We’ll be________presents right up to the Christmas Eve before going to Midnight Mass(子夜弥撒), so it takes a lot of energy and time. But it’s ________ worth to see the looks on the children’s faces when they get their presents, and to see how happy the older folk are with a (n)________and a chat. I love being a real-life Santa Claus.
My grandma always told me Christmas was about giving, not________. “That’s the real spirit of Christmas!” she used to say. ________, I can pass on that message to others.
1.A. positive B. awkward C. greedy D. delighted
2.A. presents B. fruits C. flowers D. foods
3.A. mix B. push C. grow D. check
4.A. cut out B. put out C. make out D. leave out
5.A. honor B. response C. proof D. model
6.A. leading B. turning C. adding D. looking
7.A. beyond B. around C. under D. opposite
8.A. origin B. trust C. guide D. cheer
9.A. rich B. lonely C. well D. outgoing
10.A. treated B. devoted C. invited D. sent
11.A. young B. elderly C. deaf D. blind
12.A. curious B. pleased C. generous D. confused
13.A. Since B. Unless C. If D. Although
14.A. appeal B. fortune C. gesture D. identity
15.A. bought B. created C. donated D. used
16.A. decorating B. delivering C. wrapping D. carrying
17.A. more than B. less than C. rather than D. other than
18.A. report B. praise C. outcome D. visit
19.A. gathering B. misunderstanding C. receiving D. celebrating
20.A. Generally B. Appropriately C. Consequently D. Hopefully
Some Ways to Have an Amazing Day
Here are a few tips for making sure you can answer the pop quiz of life confidently:
Be kind.
1. How often do you stop to talk to the people you encounter every day? Do you know the names of the people at the bank, the grocery store, or restaurant? One great way to get more out of your day is to fill it with people you know. The best way to know more people is to be kind to everyone you meet. Take a moment to learn a little about them.
2.
I avoided saying “Stay Busy” because sometimes we can fill our day with meaningless activities and feel busy but then at the end of the day we look back and realize we accomplished nothing. A great way to stay productive is to look at the things you would like to accomplish today, this week, this month, etc. and then plan some time to work on each of them.
Look for ways to serve.
I truly believe that giving meaningful service to other people is the greatest key to our personal happiness. It may be just a smile and a “hello”. 3. It may be just a phone call to tell them “thank you for being a friend.” When we serve other people, we develop personal joy.
Find a purpose.
The happiest people have one or more big “life goals”. 4. When we have a big goal that we feel passionate about we become more excited to work on that goal every day.
5. When you give yourself the pop quiz at the end of the day, you will be ready to say you did everything you
could.
A. Keep learning new things
B. Make the most of every day
C. Stay productive all the time
D. Try to do more in your everyday life
E. It may be helping them with their work
F. It has been said that you can measure a person by how they treat the people who can do nothing for them
G. It may be to run a marathon, write a book, start a business, develop a product or learn a new hobby or profession.
Artificial intelligence keeps defeating human, it is making countless victories against human in different fields of life and trying to push human to the corner.
Google’s DeepMind has defeated the world’s number one player Ke Jie. Human brain somehow has been replaced by a machine and scientists are working very hard on developing a human brain by implanting a chip and connecting it to the thick neuron that connects the two hemispheres of the brain. Well, who doesn’t want to get his brain upgraded to be as smart as the brain of Albert Einstein or Charles Darwin?
Humans will probably one day invent a brain that can be implanted in the human skull and reprogram all the human thoughts, but this invention doesn’t seems to be happening in the foreseeable future since human brain took millions of years to evolve. Some scientists believe that human will defeat death in the next twenty hundred years but they can’t really predict how long it’s going to take to develop a human brain that can completely replace the natural brain.
Despite of this accomplishment in the field of artificial intelligence, it couldn’t crease people from believing that science can’t stand alone. For instance, AI can imitate human brain and most of the time outperforms it, but there are still a lot of hidden secrets. AI outsmarted Ke Jie has consciousness unlike the AI, Ke Jie felt sad when he was defeated and buried his face in his hands but the AI didn’t feel happy and celebrate his victory.
The computer of 1960 is the same as the computer of 2017 in terms of consciousness, there is no signs so far telling us that there is an algorithm(运算)that can make a conscious computer and decipher (译解) its feelings. We can predict what the future will look like according to the past, especially from scientific point of view but the development of human brain seems unpredictable and unknown.
1.What is the possible meaning of the underlined word “neuron” in Para. 2?
A. The tube through which blood flows in your brain.
B. The kind of cell that carries information.
C. The soft fatty substance in the hollow center of bones.
D. The bony part of one’s head which encloses his/her brain.
2.What is Paragraph 3 mainly about?
A. It took millions of years for human brain to evolve.
B. Humans wish to get their brains upgraded to be as smart as possible.
C. Humans will probably invent a brain that can reprogram all the human thoughts.
D. It is hard to develop a human brain that can completely replace the natural brain.
3.“Ke Jie felt sad when he was defeated” is mentioned in Para. 4 to ________.
A. show that the AI has no human emotions
B. explain that AlphaGo is virtually unbeatable in the board game
C. tell us the accomplishment in the field of artificial intelligence
D. analyze Ke Jie’s psychological characteristics when playing the game
4.What can be the best title for the passage?
A. World Top Go Player Ke Jie Challenges AlphaGo
B. AlphaGo Teaches To use AI To benefit Humans
C. Google AI Defeats Human Go Champion
D. AI Can Imitate Human Brain And Most Of the Time Outperforms It
In the early 1980s, one of our neighbors asked my mom if she would make a few gift baskets for her to give as gifts for the holidays. My mom agreed and news of the unique gift baskets my mom was making spread like wildfire throughout the neighborhood. My mom was busy throughout the holiday season, so she asked a friend to help her. When the orders continued after the holiday season for baby gifts, birthday gifts and more, it occurred to them that maybe this job could be turned into a business and they did it.
My mom went into her business because she had creative ideas. She got orders and filled order. But there was no goal and no real plan. In 1991, my mom’s partner got into financial trouble and there was not enough money to support either mom or her partner.
So if you are led by your creativity or enthusiasm, make sure you ask yourself what you purpose to do your business is. If you don’t set goals, how will you know which direction to go in? Do you want to create jobs and growth in the economy? Are you looking for a hobby? You can’t keep scores if you don’t know what game you are playing.
After my mom’s partner quit, she had to abandon her business to support herself. She swore she would run a business again and do it differently the next time. However, there wasn’t a “next time” for her. She passed away just after her 51st birthday. She never had someone tell her how important having a goal was, she never had a chance to be everything she could be.
There are no right or wrong goals, only the ones that matter to you. Set them so that you can make progress and achieve success, whatever they may mean to you.
1.What did the writer’s mom do after failing in her business?
A. She found a different partner.
B. She celebrated her 51st birthday.
C. She planned to have a second try with different methods.
D. She decided never to run a business again.
2.What can we infer from the passage?
A. The writer began her business with a set goal.
B. The writer mother was a woman without creativity.
C. The writer’s mother died because of her failure in business.
D. The writer believes having goals in mind ensured one’s success.
3.How does the writer present his point of view mainly?
A. By providing examples. B. By explaining causes.
C. By making comparisons. D. By listing figures.
Rainforests, it turns out, are not created equal. Take the Amazon rainforest, an area that covers about 7 million square kilometers. But within that huge expanse are all kinds of ecological zones, and some of these zones, says Greg Asner, are a lot more crowded than others.
“Some forests have many species of trees,” he said, “others have few. Many forests are unique from others in terms of their overall species composition…” And all of these different small areas of forest exist within the giant space that is the Amazon Rainforest.
So Asner, using the signature technique called airborne laser-guided imaging spectroscopy, began to map these different zones from the air. “By mapping the traits of tropical forests from above,” he explains, “we are, for the first time, able to understand how forest composition varies geographically.”
The results show up in multicolored maps, with each color representing different kinds of species, different kinds of trees, the different kinds of chemical they are producing and using, and even the amount of biodiversity, the animal and plant species that live within each zone.
Armed with this information, Asner says decision-makers now have “a first-time way to decide whether any given forest geography is protected well enough or not. If not, then new protections can be put in place to save a given forest from destruction.”
Asner says the information is a great way for decision-makers to develop a “cost-benefit ratio type analysis.” Conservation efforts can be expensive, so armed with this information, government leaders can ensure they are making the most of their conservation dollars by focusing on areas that are the most biologically diverse or unique.
The next step, Asner says, is to take his project global, and to put his eyes even higher in the sky, on orbital satellites. “The technique we developed and applied to map Peru is ready to go global.” Asner said. “We want to put the required instrumentation on an Earth-orbiting satellite, to map the planet every month, which will give the best possible view of how the world’s biodiversity is changing, and where to put much needed protections.
1.Unequally-created rainforests refer to the fact ______.
A. how crowded they are
B. where they are located
C. when they came into being
D. what kinds of species they have
2.What can government leaders learn from Asner’s mapping?
A. The cost to conserve forests.
B. The chemicals needing for certain forests.
C. The forest areas needing special protection.
D. The number of animals living in a forest.
3.What is Asner planning to do now?
A. To send a satellite to map the world.
B. To track the change of biodiversity in the world.
C. To develop technology for mapping the globe.
D. To advertise his project around the world.
4.What does the passage mainly talk about?
A. Using eyes in the sky to map biodiversity.
B. Making a map of big forests in the world.
C. Learning about the biodiversity of Amazon forest.
D. Protecting the forest from being destructed.
