It was Groundhog Day. A winter storm had hit overnight too. I tried to open my backdoor only to find six inches of wet, heavy snow piled up against it. I knew I had quite a job of shoveling out ahead of me, so I reached over to grab my snow shovel. It looked a lot more ready to work than I did. I sighed and pulled on my boots, gloves, and heavy coat.
The wind chill was below zero and cut into my face as I slowly shoveled off my deck. After that I stayed my way over to my daughter’s house shoveling the path as I walked. It took a while to get her driveway clear and I knew I still had a lot to do. Next came the paths down the hill to my own cars covered in snow. I had grabbed the broom to sweep them off as well. I winced when the breeze blew the swept snow back into my face. Then I started to shovel out my driveways. My back was aching as I worked. I wished I could be building a snowman instead of shoveling. Winter sure had seemed a lot more fun when I was a boy.
When I was done I examined my work. It didn’t look half bad. I smiled and looked at the woods covered in white. They were such a special sight. I leaned on my shovel and took it all in. Then I started up the hill with the snow shovel in one hand and the broom in the other. Suddenly, an urge came over me and I dropped them both. I spread my arms, fed back into the blanket of white and happily moved my arms and legs to make an angel in the snow.
As you go through the seasons of this life take joy in your work. Take joy in your life. Remember that the course of your days rests in your own hands.
1.What’s the theme of the text?
A. Enjoy winter work. B. Take things seriously.
C. Take joy in your life. D. Fight against cold.
2.Which is the correct order of what the author shoveled?
A. his deck-his daughter’s driveway-his cars-his driveway
B. his cars-his deck-his daughter’s driveway-his driveway
C. his daughter’s driveway-his deck-his driveway-his cars
D. his driveway-his daughter’s driveway-his cars-his deck
3.What can we conclude about the author from Paragraph 3?
A. He was not satisfied with his work.
B. He was absorbed in the snow sight.
C. He was fond of making snowmen.
D. He was in low spirits after work.
Several Jobs That Will Be Automated By Artificial Intelligence(AI) And Robots
Translator
Image recognition software and voice recognition software are bringing some major advances to language translation．Applications like Google’s Word Lens can translate words from signs and documents in real time and there are a lot of translation apps that allow you to type in a word or phrase and will translate it for you．
Some will even speak the phrase for you and raw word-to-word translation will be fully automated soon．
Fast food workers
Automated ordering booths have already made their way into a few McDonald’s restaurants around the world，and cooking positions could be removed next．The booths probably can’t handle customer service problems well，so televideo systems could bring in an office employee to deal with complaints．
Field technician
New advances in the Internet of Things could make this work obsolete.
Low-cost sensors combined with high availability cellular／satellite communications and cloud technology are being started to automate and alarm these sites, and can be checked and maintained from a desktop or mobile device.
Sales representative
But, e-commerce is changing how we make purchasing decisions, especially those where there isn’t much differentiation among the major competitors.
If you’re selling a high-differentiation product and／or a high-price, low-volume product you have some job security, but if you’re selling a high-volume, low-differentiation product, you better start polishing your resume, said Doug Camplejohn, CEO of Fliptop. “These kind of product sales are all moving online.”
1.What can Google’s Word Lens do?
A. Translate by image and voice recognition software.
B. Speak the phrase or word for you.
C. Make real-time translation.
D. Allow you to type in a word or phrase.
2.What can we infer from the second part?
A. All the restaurants own automated ordering booths.
B. Service problems can’t be handled automatically.
C. Cooks will not be automated by AI and robots.
D. Customers will have no complaints because of AI．
3.What does the underlined word“obsolete”mean in Part 3?
A. Abandoned. B. Welcome. C. Forbidden. D. Efficient.
4.What does the author mean by“you better start polishing your resume” in the last paragraph?
A. You must value your present work.
B. You have some job security.
C. Your resume needs correcting further.
D. You should consider changing the job.
听下面一段独白，回答以下小题。
1.What’s discussed in the passage?
A. Prisons in Britain. B. Cooking or cleaning. C. Work or study.
2.What will become of the lawbreaker?
A. He will be asked to do some homework.
B. He will be ordered to do some cleaning.
C. He will be paid for what he does.
3.How many hours can a prisoner in the closed prison spend outside?
A. 2 hours. B. 12 hours. C. 8 hours.
4.How will prisoners in open prisons spend the night?
A. They are free within the prison grounds.
B. They can study out of the prison grounds.
C. They are locked up during the night.
听下面一段较长对话，回答以下小题。
1.Why will the woman put on a show?
A. To make money. B. To have fun. C. To select singers.
2.What can we learn from the conversation?
A. Many people will watch the show.
B. Three songs will be sung in the show.
C. Three people will appear on the stage.
3.What do we know about the man?
A. He has never sung before.
B. He often appears on a stage.
C. He’ll sing and dance in the show.
听下面一段较长对话，回答以下小题。
1.Where is the woman going?
A. To the library. B. To the cinema. C. To the classroom.
2.What does the man invite the woman to do?
A. Write papers. B. See a film. C. Do some reading.
3.Why does the woman refuse the man’s invitation?
A. She has three classes.
B. She has to take exams.
C. She has to do her schoolwork.
听下面一段较长对话，回答以下小题。
1.How long will Uncle’s family stay at Tom’s?
A. For about a week.
B. For at least four days.
C. For three days.
2.What can we infer about their ages?
A. Tom is older than Fay but younger than Rosemary.
B. Fay is two years younger than Rosemary.
C. Rosemary is younger than Fay but older than Tom.
