The ocean is always moving：waves break on the surface, sea levels rise and fall with the tides, and currents flow below the surface. Although it looks as if the water in a wave is moving across the surface of the ocean, it is not. The water is actually moving up and down. This is why an object on top of a wave will bob up and down, but not move forward.

When a wave reaches the shore, however, the water does move forward. It surges(前進(jìn) )onto the shore. This is because the “bottom” of the wave drags on the sand and the “top” continues on, crashing onto the shore. This crashing water is called the surf. Most waves are caused by wind blowing across the ocean's surface. The size of a wave depends on how fast and how far the wind blows over the surface and on the depth of the wave. Small winds can cause ripples, while strong winds create large hurricane waves.

Along most shorelines. water levels rise and fall twice a day. These changes, called tides. are caused by the gravitational pull of the Sun and the Moon. The ocean surface lifts, or bulges(凸出), in two places: on the side of Earth that faces the Moon and on the side of Earth that faces away from the Moon. Both bulges cause a high tide on nearby shorelines. At the same time that the high tides occur, low tides occur between the two bulges.

Tides are also affected by the pull of the Sun, although the effect of the Sun is not as great as the effect of the Moon. When the Moon and Sun are lined up with Earth, the combined pull is the strongest, causing the highest high tides and the lowest low tides. These very high and very low tides are called spring tides. Weaker tides, called neap tides, happen when the Moon and the Sun are at right angles to Earth. High tides alternate with low tides. Along most shorelines, a high tide or low tide occurs about every six hours.

1.The word “alternate” in the last paragraph means .

A. appear suddenly

B. bob up and down

C. change or become quickly

D. happen or follow one after another

2.The best title for the passage is .

A. The Moving Ocean B. Tides and Waves

C. Ocean and Earth D. Waves and Currents

In a Station of the Metro

The apparition of these faces in the crowd;

Petals on a wet, black bough.

This is the only Ezra Pound poem that many people will read in their lives. Why? One obvious reason is that it’s just two lines long. The poem, which can be understood as “A man sees a bunch of faces in the subway and thinks they look like flowers on a tree branch,” is an exercise in shortness. Pound wrote it after having a spiritual experience in a Paris metro (subway) station.

In 1916, the US poet originally thought he could best describe his vision in a painting. Unfortunately, he wasn’t a painter. So he wrote a thirty-line poem, which he didn’t like. He dropped the long version in the waste bin. Six months later, he wrote a shorter poem, but didn’t like that one either. Finally, a full year after the experience, he had been reading short Japanese poems called haikus, and he figured he would try this style. The result, which was published in 1913, is one of the most famous and influential works in modern poetry.

This poem is one of the monuments (紀(jì)念物) of the 20th-century artistic movement known as “Imagism”. Basically, Pound and his friends thought that images (意象) weren’t just decoration: they were the highest form of speech. By finding the right image, the poet can express the true, spiritual reality of a thing, which is more important than using a bunch of adjectives to describe its physical appearance. Thus, “In a Station of the Metro” is a poem that consists of one image expressed with absolute (絕對(duì)的) exactness and nothing else.

To the imagists, the best way to describe an experience is not to use more and more words; the best way is to find exactly the right words. Have you ever told a beloved one that “words can’t express” how much you love them? Well, Pound would say that you’re just being lazy. In his view, words can express anything, even if it takes an entire year to find the right ones.

1.In the short poem, Ezra Pound .

A. tells us one of his painful experiences

B. compares the passengers’ faces to flowers

C. describes a man walking among the crowd

D. shows a wet, black tree branch in a metro station

2.According to the text, “In a Station of the Metro” was .

A. based on one of Pound’s paintings

B. first discovered in a waste bin

C. influenced by haikus

D. completed in 1916

3.Pound and his friends .

A. stressed the importance of using adjectives

B. were good at describing abstract images

C. decorated their poems with pictures

D. used images to express their ideas

Some 30,000 years ago, artists who lived in caves in Europe painted pictures of the animals around them: panthers, hyenas, rhinos, cave lions, mammoths and other creatures which have been extinct for a long time. The paintings were highly realistic. Some even showed movement.

The artwork, more than a thousand drawings, is considered the oldest group of human cave drawings which have ever been discovered. They were preserved because the cave was sealed---closed off--for more or less 23,000 years.

Fast forward to December 18, 1994, a group of French cave scientists were exploring caves in southern France. Jean Marie Chauvet, who led the group then, describes the process of discovering the cave paintings. “At that time I was in the front, Eliette just walked behind me, Christian behind. Eliette said she saw two marks with red ochre and she said, ‘They came here.’ And at this very moment everything began. The drawings and everything linked to the parietal art(壁畫(huà)). That is where it is tarted.”

Cave art expert Jean Clotttes reviewed the paintings. “I was amazed at the number of paintings there were and paintings of their quality and particularly in front of the panel of the horses.”

Scientific analysis confirmed the prehistoric date of the artwork. Studies showed the drawings were created tens of thousands of years ago, before human history was written. The United Nations’ cultural agency UNESCO lists the cave as a World Heritage Site. They say that the drawings form a remarkable expression of early human artistic creation of grand excellence and variety.

The Chauvet Cave has been named after the explorer who first entered it. However, its environment and drawings are too fragile to be visited by human beings. So the cave is closed, and only people there for scientific purposes can go inside and see the artwork.

However, French authorities asked experts to create an exact copy of the cave, called Pont d’Arc Cavern. The copy, which we also called replica, cost more than 59 million dollars to build. It opened at the end of April in France.

Pascal Terrasse is the president of the cavern. He says everyone will be able to experience the thrill of looking at drawings made by the first humans in Europe. He says the place is magic because it is done so well. Authorities say they think as many as 400,000 people will be allowed to visit Pont d’Arc Cavern every year.

1.According to Jean Clottes’ words in Paragraph 4, the paintings in the cave were .

A.abstract B. superior C. creative D. inspiring

2.Which of the follow statements is TRUE about the Chauvet Cave?

A.It was closed off for more than 30,000 years.

B.It is thought to be the origin of modern parietal art.

C.The environment and artwork there are very easy to damage.

D.The majority of drawings there are about the extinct animals.

3.The purpose of creating Pndt d’Arc Cavern is to .

A.show admiration for the earliest artists in Europe

B.arouse visitors’ awareness of protecting ancient art

C.offer visitors chances to view the wonderful artwork

D.collect money for the perseverance of the Chauvet Cave

根據(jù)短文內(nèi)容, 從短文后的選項(xiàng)中選出能填入空白處的最佳選項(xiàng)。選項(xiàng)中有兩項(xiàng)為多余選項(xiàng)。

Too many of us are waiting too long to live our best lives. We keep putting everything off until tomorrow. Then, before we know it, we find ourselves asking, "How did it get so late so soon?"

So we’d better make today the beginning of our new life. Take time to realize what we want and need. Take time to love, laugh, cry, and learn. ____1.___ Here are five things we should start doing today:

Accept ourselves. The secret to happiness and success is the acceptance of ourselves. We will never become who we want to be if we rely on everyone else to qualify us. __2.____ So always go with ourselves, never against ourselves. Be who we were created to be and we will set the world on fire.

Make ourselves a priority. To tell the truth, there are only a few people in this world who will stay 100% true to us, so we should stay true to ourselves. Put our own needs into the list of things to do.

___3.____ Don’t sit back and let things happen to us. Go out and make things happen. We are what we do, not what we say we’ll do. Stop saying "I wish" and start saying "I will". Turn our dreams into plans.

Do the work. We can’t underestimate(低估) a person who always works hard. Be that person. __4.___ Always remember that the task ahead of us is never greater than the strength within us. Do what’s right, not what’s easy. Our dreams are worth it.

____5.____ We can’t force things to happen; we can only drive ourselves trying crazily. There’s a time and place for everything. So don’t force what’s not yet supposed to fit into our life. When it’s meant to be, it will be. Work hard, and be patient.

A. Take positive action.

B. Enjoy every moment of life.

C. Life is shorter than it often seems.

D. Everyone has a different way of life.

E. Accept ourselves just the way we are.

F. Allow life to happen like it’s supposed to.

G. In life, we don’t get what we wish for; we get what we work for.

完形填空

閱讀下面短文, 從短文后各題所給的四個(gè)選項(xiàng)(A、B、C、D)中, 選出可以填入空白處的最佳選項(xiàng)。

Until I was 13, I assumed I was just like everyone else. But one day I read a piece of paper in my dad’s briefcase that ________ everything. That’s when I saw the words: “Simone is said to have Asperger syndrome.”

I screamed at my dad, “Tell me what it is!” He _______ that I have a mild form of brain disorders, which was a problem that shapes the way I interact with other people. I wasn’t sure exactly what he _______, but it didn’t matter. I just wanted to try to ________ my shock and go back to the way things were before I knew.

But even though I wouldn’t ________ acknowledge the news, Asperger’s still destroyed my confidence and made me ________ and isolated. I felt like an outcast(被拋棄者)---not just because Asperger’s made it hard for me to make friends, but because now I had this _______ . I just wanted to be like everyone else. ________, at 16, I said to myself, “Enough! You can’t run and hide from it, girl. Just face it.”

It’s funny, the first time I thought something was _______ was not because of what I couldn’t do ---- it was because of what i could do. In the sixth grade, while other kids were _______ with spelling, I was like a human spell-checker! I’ve also had a photographic memory, and _______ I call my “super powers”---extrasensory hearing and acute awareness: I can ______ phone numbers people dial just by the sound the buttons make when pressed or _______ hear one sour note in an entire symphony! And I can ________ pay attention to two things at once.

Don’t get me wrong. Asperger’s can be very confusing. For years I felt like a butterfly ________ in its cocoon(繭), waiting to emerge. It took years of work with a psychologist to ________ the difficulty of making friends.

I’m not going to let Asperger’s create ________ for me. That’ why I am happy to have found out about and faced my _______. Asperger’s is a metaphor(象征) for life: We all have _______ , but the key is to be able to have the ______ to face what’s bad about them and still find what’s good.

1.A. prevented B. changed C. determined D. improved

2.A. explained B. realized C. apologized D. suspected

3.A. meant B. predicted C. concerned D. doubted

4.A. admit B. subscribe C. recognize D. ignore

5.A. appropriately B. consciously C. previously D. automatically

6.A. anxious B. stressed C. lonely D. ashamed

7.A. sign B. symbol C. label D. signal

8.A. Consequently B. Gradually C. Fortunately D. Eventually

9.A. unusual B. specific C. uncomfortable D. awkward

10.A. combining B. exchanging C.struggling D. dealing

11.A. that B. what C. whom D. which

12.A. figure out B. pick out C. try out D. make out

13.A. even B. still C. ever D. just

14.A. sensitively B. fully C. flexibly D. firmly

15.A. absorbed B. buried C. engaged D. trapped

16.A. get over B. knock down C. take up D.go through

17.A. surprises B. limitations C. opportunities D.experiences

18.A. failure B. desperation C. disability D. suffering

19.A. talents B. dreams C. challenges D. aims

20.A. ambition B. courage C. right D. attempt

語(yǔ)法填空

閱讀下面材料, 在空白處填入適當(dāng)?shù)膬?nèi)容（不多于3個(gè)單詞）或括號(hào)內(nèi)單詞的正確形式。

Many people travel during the holiday season but do not make sure that their houses and homes ___1.___(protect). Crimes go up ____2.____(rapid) during the winter an summer holiday seasons. Here are some things that you should keep in mind when you go on holiday.

Always give ___3.____(strange) the feeling that you are at home. Have the snow __4.___( clean ) off your stairs or out of your driveway during the winter season. You might ask someone to park his/her car in ___5.___(you) driveway.

Tell your newspaper deliverer that you are not at home. ____6.__(have) a pile of newspapers and other mail on your doorsteps tells people that you are not at home, so you could also have a neighbor ___7.____ a relative get your mail every day.

Fix a timer(定時(shí)器) in some of your rooms ____8._turns lights on and __9.____ during different time of the day. Some TVs also come with a timer that you could set to be turned on during certain time. Have motion(運(yùn)動(dòng)) sensitive lights outside your house that keep thieves away ____10.___ you are not at home.

閱讀下面短文, 根據(jù)其內(nèi)容寫(xiě)一篇60詞左右的內(nèi)容概要。

With global warming and melting ice, it isn’t easy being a polar bear anymore. Some studies have predicted that polar bears could die out by the end of the century. The good news is not all researchers think the bears are absolutely disappearing. Scientists at the American Museum of Natural History(AMNH) have published a new paper indicating that things might not be as bad for polar bears as some scientists expect.

To understand the reason for the researchers’ cautious optimism, we must first understand the factors that are threatening the polar bear’s existence. Polar bears consume a diet of mainly young seals. In order to hunt these seals, polar bears need to rest at the top of sea ice---the same ice that is increasingly melting for most of the year thanks to climate change. In another 50 years, experts expect that the Arctic will be too warm for sea ice to form for half of the year, leaving polar bears without a reliable food source and in serious danger of starvation.

As it turns out, alternative food sources for the polar bears aren’t completely out of the question. For as long as biologists have tailed after the animals, they’ve seen polar bears eating animals found on land like caribou(馴鹿) and snow geese---as well as the snow geese’s eggs.

Can polar bears actually survive off these alternative food sources for long periods of time? To figure this out, researchers calculated the nutrients that a caribou and snow geese diet would provide. They found that even adult male polar bears would be able to obtain more calories than would burn in hunting these meals. Moreover, the food would provide the food lecessary to avoid starvation during the summer months.

Unfortunately, not all polar bears have tended to seek food on land. That said, the researchers expect that necessity would push more polar bears to hunt on land to avoid starvation. They also expect that the bears could learn from their fellow bears how to hunt on land until the practice becomes second nature.

_______________________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________________

One evening after dinner, Mr. and Mrs. Tisich called a family meeting. —We’ve had to make a difficult decision, Mr. Tisich announced. —You see, your mother has been offered a post as co-director of a television station in Chicago. Unfortunately, the station is not here. After thinking long and hard about it, we’ve concluded that the right decision is to move to Chicago.

Marc looked shocked, while his sister Rachel breathlessly started asking when they’d be moving. —It’s surprising, but exciting! she said. Marc simply said, —We can’t go—I can’t leave all my friends. I’d rather stay here and live with Tommy Lyons!

The Tisichs hoped that by the time they moved in August, Marc would grow more used to the idea of leaving. However, he showed no signs of accepting the news, refusing to pack his belongings.

When the morning of the move arrived, Marc was nowhere to be found. His parents called Tommy Lyon’s house, but Mrs. Lyons said she hadn’t seen Marc. Mrs. Tisich became increasingly concerned, while her husband felt angry with their son for behaving so irresponsibly.

What they didn’t know was that Marc had started walking over to Tommy’s house, with a faint idea of hiding in Lyons’s attic(閣樓) for a few days. But something happened on the way as Marc walked past all the familiar landscape of the neighborhood: the fence that he and his mother painted, the tree that he and his sister used to climb, and the park where he and his father often took evening walks together. How much would these mean without his family? Who make them special in the first place? Marc didn’t take the time to answer that question but instead hurried back to his house, wondering if there were any moving cartons(紙板箱) the right size to hold his record collection.

1.The conflict(分歧) in this story was caused by_______.

A. Marc’s disagreement with his parents about their move

B. a quarrel between Tommy Lyons and Marc

C. Marc and Rachel’s different tempers(脾氣)

D. Mr. and Mrs. Tisich’s words of Marc’s irresponsibility

2.Hearing the decision to move to Chicago, Marc and Rachel both felt _______.

A. angry and upset

B. surprised

C. anxious for more details

D. worried about packing

3.The reason for Marc’s going home was that _______.

A. he did not want to be left behind

B. he wished to be a more responsible person

C. he hoped to reach an agreement with his parents

D. he realized his family was very important to him

4.What would most likely happen next?

A. Marc would bring his records over to the Lyons’s house.

B. Mr. and Mrs. Tisich would call the police.

C. Mr. and Mrs. Tisich would start searching for Marc.

D. Marc would join his family for house moving.

Love it or hate it, there is no escape from Internet slang(俚語(yǔ)).

This is especially true among young people in some English-speaking countries such as Australia, the UK and the US. These days, if they haven’t caught up with the latest popular Internet slang, chances are that they often feel behind the times.

Take these posts by The Washington Post for example: “David Bowie dying is totes tradge” and “When Cookie hugged Jamal, it made me totes emosh. ”

What on earth do these mean? Well, “totes” is a short form of the adverb “totally”. Likewise, “tradge” means “tragic” and “emosh” means “emotional”.

It seems that, for millennials (those born between the early 1980s and late 1990s), typing in this abbreviated form is not only time-saving but also in.

Many millennial slang words are formed by what linguists(語(yǔ)言學(xué)家) call the practice of “totesing” —the systematic abbreviation of words, according to a recent article in The Washington Post.

Some people think that millennial slang affects the English language negatively. However, Melbourne University linguist Rosey Billington doesn’t agree.

“When you are able to use language in a creative way, you show you are linguistically knowledgeable because you know the language rules well enough to use words in a different way.” Billington told News.com.au.

Her view is supported by two linguists, Lauren Spradlin and Taylor Jones, from the City University of New York and the University of Pennsylvania respectively. The two believe that totes-speak is a highly-organized system that can only be used by speakers who have mastered English pronunciation.

The ability to break apart syllables(音節(jié)) and mix different sounds together is key. “Totesing is about sounds, and it follows the sometimes-complex sound system of English,” Jones told The Washington Post. “Totesing is considered random by some people, but it’s not true. Instead, it has strict rules to follow. You need to be very fluent in the English language to be able to understand totes-speak. ”

1.How does the author explain the meaning of totesing?

A. With comparisons.

B. Through examples.

C. By listing facts.

D. By analyzing causes and effects.

2.What is Lauren Spradlin’s attitude toward the practice of totesing?

A. Worried. B. Indifferent(漠不關(guān)心的).

C. Positive. D. Doubtful.

3.The underlined word “random” in the last paragraph probably means _______.

A. complex B. organized

C. irregular D. meaningless

4.What is the main idea of this passage?

A. The reasons why totesing is popular among the young.

B. The ways that the young use in totesing.

C. The popularity of totesing and linguists’ attitude to it.

D. The definition(定義) and practice of totesing.

Do you often feel lonely? What do you do when you feel that way? Hide yourself away and spend your time reading, watching TV or walking around?

You might think that feeling lonely is just like feeling happy, sad or scared — that it’s just one of your various moods. That is true. However, if you let yourself be lonely for too long without dealing with it, you could be making a serious mistake.

Doctors have known for some time that feeling lonely is bad for the mind. It can lead to mental health problems such as depression, stress and reduce confidence. “Being lonely means not feeling connected or cared for, but it’s not about being mentally alone,” Lisa Jaremka, scientist from Ohio State University, US, told Live Science in January. And there’s growing evidence that not having friends is connected with physical illness as well.

In 2006, for example, scientists studied 2,800 women who had cancer. They found that those who had few friends or family were five times more likely to die of their disease than women with many social contacts. Also, even healthy people had a better chance of falling ill if they felt left out by others, according to the BBC.

The results have scientists thinking that loneliness might hurt the immune system(免疫系統(tǒng)), which protects the body from diseases.

Hoping to prove this theory, Jaremka and her research team put volunteers(志愿者) through a stress test. During the test, volunteers were asked to make an unprepared speech in front of a group of stony-faced people. The researchers found that volunteers who said they were lonely in their daily lives felt more stress during the test. And their blood samples showed that all the stress had managed to cause harmful changes to their immune system.

“Loneliness has been thought of in many ways as a chronic stressor(慢性增壓器) — a socially painful situation that can last for quite a long time, ” explained Jaremka, who led the study.

The number of people suffering from loneliness is increasing all over the world. However, solving the problem is easier said than done. It won’t work to just “tell anyone to go out and find someone to love you”, said Jaremka. “We need to create support networks.”

1.If people feel lonely for a long time, ________.

A. they won’t feel happy anymore

B. they are more mentally harmed than physically

C. they will find the feeling goes away by itself

D. they are more likely to fall ill

2.What was the purpose of the stress test carried out by Jaremka’s team?

A. To find out how people fight diseases.

B. To prove loneliness hurts people’s immune systems.

C. To find out the relationship between loneliness and stress.

D. To see how people’s emotions change when they give unprepared speeches.

3.What made scientists think loneliness might make the body worse at fighting diseases?

A. Growing evidence of mental problems related to loneliness.

B. Some research results about the relationship between cancer and loneliness.

C. Some studies showing that people suffering from loneliness fell ill or died more easily than those who didn’t.

D. The result of a test where volunteers were asked to make an unprepared speech.

4.We can conclude from the article that ________.

A. loneliness has become the No. 1 killer in the world

B. loneliness is increasing due to advanced technologies

C. websites must be set up to help people deal with loneliness

D. much more work needs to be done to fight loneliness