The Human Touch

I spent an hour in the bank with my dad to transfer (轉賬) some money. I asked him, “Dad, why not use online banking?”

“________ would I do that?” He replied.

“Well, then you won’t have to spend an hour here. You can do your shopping online, too. Everything will be easier!” I was excited to try to ________ my father.

He asked, “If I do that, I won’t have to step out of the house?”

“Yes!” I said. I told him how even fruit and vegetables can be sent to us now and how online shops ________ everything to customers’ doors.

However, his answer left me speechless. He said, “Since I walked into this bank today, I have met four of my friends and I have talked for a while with people here. I have plenty of free time, so I like to come to the ________. Two years ago, when I was seriously sick, the shop owner, from whom I buy fruit, was ________ and came to see me. Also, when your mom fell down a few days ago while on her morning walk, the bank manager saw her and helped her get to the hospital. You see, people ________ and we matter to them.”

He continued, “Why would I want to look at my computer all the time? I like to know the ________. Do online shops deliver bonds (情感紐帶) and relationships as well?”

I was silent after hearing his words. My dad was right, of course. We shouldn’t spend so much time in front of a computer. It’s better to spend time with ________ people.

1.A.When B.Where C.Why D.How

2.A.encourage B.support C.interview D.protect

3.A.throw B.send C.give D.sell

4.A.bank B.shop C.office D.hospital

5.A.bored B.moved C.strange D.worried

6.A.share B.wonder C.care D.argue

7.A.place B.person C.tool D.item

8.A.kind B.friendly C.amazing D.real

Each New Year is a time for change and a fresh start, so many people like to make New Year’s resolutions (決心). Here are some teenagers’ New Year’s resolutions for 2019.

1.Jacky’s New Year’s resolution is .

A.to get healthy B.to get better grades C.to be nice to others D.to be more helpful

2.Who will pay more attention in class?

A.Jacky. B.Ted. C.Mary. D.Amy.

3.Mary will try not to be .

A.heavy B.careless C.weak D.angry

Don’t Disrespect Others

More than 70 years ago, a young man traveled far away to take an entrance exam for a famous music school. During the exam, he tried his best, but the examiner didn’t enroll (錄取) him.

The young man had no money, so he could only make a living by playing the violin on the street. He played so well that a lot of people stopped to listen and put money into his violin case.

A hoodlum (流氓) dropped some money at the young man’s feet. The young man bent down to pick up the money, then handed it to the hoodlum and said, “Sir, your money dropped on the ground.”

The hoodlum took the money, threw it at the young man’s feet again and said, “This money has been yours, so you must take it!”

The young man deeply bowed to him and said, “Sir, thank you for your support! When you dropped your money, I picked it up for you. Now my money is on the ground, may I trouble you to pick it up for me?”

The hoodlum was surprised. Finally, he picked up the money, put it into the young man’s violin case and left in shame.

The examiner who had been quietly watching the young man among other onlookers decided to give him a second chance. He brought the young man back to the school and enrolled him in the end.

The young man became a famous musician later.

1.The young man traveled far away to for a famous music school.

A.earn money B.play the violin C.take an exam D.fight a hoodlum

2.The young man played the violin on the street because .

A.he had no money and needed to make a living B.he wanted a lot of people to listen to his music

C.he decided to find someone who liked his music D.he needed to make his examiner know him well

3.What did the young man teach the hoodlum?

A.He should never give up hope. B.He should respect other people.

C.He should never waste his money. D.He should work hard on his skills.

Sheep Learned to Read Faces

①Which animals are smart? Your answer may be dogs, or elephants. Now there is one more animal on the list: sheep.

②According to a new study, sheep learned to recognize four famous people after being shown their pictures, suggesting these animals have face-recognition abilities similar to humans.

③Before testing, scientists let the sheep take a look at pictures of four famous people like former US President Barack Obama and British actress Emma Watson. Then the sheep went into a room with two computer screens. Each screen showed a human face looking straight ahead. One screen showed a famous person and the other screen showed a common person. The sheep were more likely to walk toward the screen showing the famous person. On average, they chose correctly in 8 out of 10 tests.

④After learning the animals’ ability to recognize famous people, researchers gave them a new task. They wanted to see if the farm animals could correctly recognize the same people shown from the side. The animals were still able to identify (識別) them, though they were a bit slower to recognize the pictures than before and they were correct less than 70% of the time.

⑤Finally, the researchers wanted to know if the sleep could recognize their trainers from a photo. Pictures of their trainers were randomly (隨機地) shown on screens along with other unfamiliar faces. Without any training, the sheep could recognize their trainers.

⑥The results show that the animals’ face-recognition abilities are similar to those of monkeys, and humans.

⑦Face recognition is a difficult process (過程). But sheep have big brains. When they see other sheep, they use this process to recognize one another, said Jenny Morton, the lead researcher.

⑧The researchers plan to further study the sheep and find out if they can recognize different facial expression made by humans.

⑨The researchers hope that the study could shed light on certain brain diseases (疾病) such as Huntington’s disease, which affects (影響) abilities like facial recognition.

⑩We can’t say for sure, but it might help us understand how the disease starts, said Morton.

1.Scientists found that sheep can .

A.become humans’ best friend B.be smarter than other animals

C.identify people by their names D.recognize familiar human faces

2.Which paragraphs describe how the scientists did the experiments?

A.①②③ B.③④⑤ C.⑥⑦⑧ D.⑧⑨⑩

3.What do the words “shed light on” in Paragraph 9 probably mean?

A.Make it easier to understand. B.Turn a very strong light on.

C.Find ways to solve problems. D.Keep trying new experiments.

See Through the News

①Mark Twain once said: “A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes.”

②This is especially true when talking about news stories we read online every day. Have you ever noticed that some stories don’t seem true? These stories are known as “fake news”, and have become common on social media (社交媒體).

③In a new study, researchers from MIT found that lies and fake news spread faster and farther than true stories on social media.

④They analyzed (分析) more than 126,000 stories shared by 3 million users on Twitter. It turned out that fake stories often reached between 1,000 and 100,000 people, but true stories reached just a little over 1,000.

⑤This may be because fake news can easily catch people’s attention. Fake news stories often talk about widely-discussed topics which are easy for people to argue about. They also have new and surprising information. Fake news stories are more sensational (聳人聽聞的) and might make people feel angry or surprised.

⑥In 2017, the Wenzhou Evening News reported that a girl was not allowed to take her college entrance exam because she showed up two minutes late. Many internet users became angry after hearing this, believing that the school was being unreasonable. But in fact, the girl was 17 minutes late. Students are usually allowed to take the exam as long as they arrive no later than 15 minutes after the exam starts. But the girl was two minutes later than allowed.

⑦Luckily, there are more and more programs to help stop fake news. Nearly one third of teenagers in the United States find many stories online are not true after taking a news literacy class. In Britain, several famous reporters will go to around 1,000 secondary schools. While there, the reporters will give students lessons on how to identify fake news. The best thing for us to do is to think critically (批判地) and check carefully before sharing a story.

1.What did the researchers from MIT find in their study?

A.People are more interested in reading real news than fake stories.

B.Fake news can reach more people than real news on social media.

C.There are more fake news stories than real stories on social media.

D.Social media will make it impossible to spread real news to others.

2.What is the fifth paragraph mainly about?

A.How fast fake news can spread. B.What topics fake news is about.

C.Why fake news spreads so fast. D.What people think of fake news.

3.What is the writer’s main purpose in writing this passage?

A.To help readers be more careful with fake news.

B.To explain reasons behind people’s news sharing.

C.To introduce different ways to identify fake news.

D.To encourage readers to stop reading news online.

How to Write an Essay (短文) on a Book

Do you have a big headache when you have to write an essay on a book you just finished reading? The following homework helper can help you solve the problem.

Before you start to write, you need to complete the activities below to plan what you will write.

Book’s title:

Writer’s names:

Here is a summary (摘要) of the book:

This is a theme, or big idea, from the book:

Here are some examples from the book that illustrate (闡明) this theme:

Example 1

Example 2

Example 3

Then you can start to write you essay. You can get clearer ideas from the essay sample (樣例) below.

1.Do you need to plan your writing before you start to write your essay?

2.What is the theme of the book Charlotte’s Web?

3.Who is Wilbur’s real friend, Charlotte or Templeton?

4.How many examples are there in the essay sample to illustrate the theme?

5.What can you write at the end of the essay, according to the homework helper?

根據(jù)中文提示完成下列英文句子。

1.該到課外體育活動的時間了。

___________________________ after-class sports activities.

2.我不介意走著去那兒。

I ___________________________ there on foot.

3.她正在為即將到來的旅行做準備。

She is ___________________________ the coming trip.

根據(jù)中文和英文提示，完成一篇不少于50詞的文段寫作。所給提示詞語僅供選用。請不要寫出你的校名和姓名。

現(xiàn)在某英文報紙正在開展以“My Team”為主題的征文活動。假如你是李華，請用英語寫一篇短文投稿，談一談你參加某個團隊的經(jīng)歷，主要內(nèi)容包括：你參加了什么團隊，當初為什么參加該團隊，在參與團隊活動中學到了什么。

提示詞語：football，like，exercise，cooperate

提示問題：

What team are you in?

Why did you join the team?

What do you learn from taking part in its activities?

—I like jackets. What about ?

— favourite clothes are T-shirts.

A.your; I B.you; My C.you; I D.your; My

Fruit is good for health, so I often have breakfast with one______.

A.candy B.cake

C.banana D.hamburger