Now more and more workers ______their free time trying to improve themselves at school or college.

阅读理解

    Emoji might not be your first choice of communication in a disaster, but researchers feel they could make a difference during emergencies, where every second counts. Now, the Emoji-quake campaign is lobbying for an earthquake emoji to be added to the Unicode set — the standard group of icons available on digital devices worldwide. The campaign aims to find an earthquake-appropriate design to be submitted to Unicode.

    "Approximately up to one third of the world's population are exposed to earthquakes," explains University of Southampton seismologist (地震学家) Dr. Stephen Hicks, a founder of the campaign. "So we really want to be able to communicate to all of those regions, all of those different languages, and an emoji is an amazing way of doing that."

    Unlike many other weather and climate related events, where longer warning times or visible signs are available, earthquakes move incredibly quickly and are difficult  to measure while they are still occurring. Populations in areas like Japan and Mexico are dependent on earthquake early warning technology, which issues an alert on digital devices and broadcast media. "You may have seconds to get under a table or to protect yourself," explains Dr. Hicks. "That can be life saving in many cases. Naturally you don't want too much wording in the warning message."

    Pictographs (象形文字) and other visuals like emoji have a track record of being faster and easier to understand than written information. Dr. Sara McBride, a communications specialist, who is also part of the campaign, told BBC News, "Emoji can cross the boundaries of written languages, helping communicate valuable information to people who may struggle to read a certain language."

    The potential usefulness of emoji in emergencies could extend well beyond earthquakes. A team of designers also came up with emerji—an entire set of emoji dedicated to climate and environmental events.

阅读下面材料，根据其内容和所给段落开头语续写两段，使之构成一篇完整的短文。续写的词数应为150左右。

The Voice of Rigo

Rigo had a loud voice. People were always telling Rigo to be quiet. His mother would tell him to use his quiet voice inside the house because the baby was asleep. His father would ask him to speak quietly in the car so that he could concentrate on his driving. His teacher would tell him to talk quietly so that he would not bother others who were studying.

Not only did he have a loud voice, but Rigo liked to talk a lot. Whenever he had time, he would talk with his classmates, sharing everything he considered fun. He liked to yell and shout. Sometimes he just yelled," Hey!" for no reason. He liked the sound of his very loud voice for he thought it had more penetrating (穿透的) power than that of an actor. But not everyone felt the same way.

When Rigo shouted goodbye as he left for school, his mother shook her head," Rigo! Be quiet!" When his father drove him to school, Rigo said," Hey! There's Chris!" He pointed at his friend, who was walking to school. His father shook his head."Rigo, use a quiet voice in the car." At school, his teacher talked to him three times about using his quiet voice. His classmates shook their heads, throwing an upset look at him when he talked aloud.

Later, Rigo had to sit by himself for a while. His teacher wanted him to practice being quiet. Rigo had to sit quietly for five minutes. It felt like five hours or five days. When the five minutes was up, Rigo went to his desk and sat quietly. It was not easy.

After school, Rigo was waiting for his father when he saw Chris again." Hey!" he yelled." Chris！Hey！"The headmaster was walking by. Rigo was sure he was going to get in trouble for his loud voice. He looked quickly at the ground. Maybe the headmaster would keep walking.

Paragraph 1：

The headmaster stopped and looked at Rigo.

Paragraph 2：

He said goodbye to the headmaster and ran to get in his father's car cheerfully.

假定英语课上老师要求同桌之间交换修改作文，请你修改你同桌写的以下作文。文中共有10处语言错误，每句中最多有两处。每处错误仅涉及一个单词的增加、删除或修改。
增加：在缺词处加一个漏字符号（∧），并在其下面写出该加的词。
删除：把多余的词用斜线（＼）划掉。
修改：在错的词下划一横线，并在该词下面写出修改后的词。
注意：1）每处错误及其修改均仅限一词；
2）只允许修改10处，多者（从第11处起）不计分。

    My brother Tom was very selfish when he was a little boy. He did not want share things with other people. For example, when he bought a chocolate cake, he put them in a secret place where I couldn't find. Then he ate it all by himself. He never helped other. He said he is busy. That is, a game of tennis making him very busy. He did not care if something he did made people angrily. For instance, on one night he played strong and loudly music till four o'clock in the morning. But he is difference now. He often helps grandma with housework, helps mum with cooking and helps his classmates with their lessons.

Everything________into consideration, they thought the car was good enough though it was heavy on oil.

阅读下面材料，根据其内容和所给段落开头语续写两段，使之构成一篇完整的短文。续写的词数应为150左右。

Polly, my stepmom, suggested the sweetest name to our pet dog: Mercy. We don't know why she gave the strange name. We soon learned it was just what this new dog would need.

My parents' bad tempered dog would jump out of bed and go-go-go all day long. So when they brought home a Christmas tree, they expected everything would be out of order. However, to their astonishment, Mercy didn't seem to take any care. She paid zero attention to the tree which suddenly grew in her living room. Nor did she react to the fancy presents under it, including a wrapped box of Milk-Bones.

Dad and Polly were quite careful; they'd never had a dog that didn't force them to move everything to higher ground as if they were expecting a flood. But Mercy seemed to take no notice. He didn't take any glance at it at all.

A few days before Christmas, Polly awoke early in the morning as usual. She passed the dusty living room and then stopped in surprise. Glancing back into the room, she saw that every last present was gone. Only the tree was still there.

Had they been robbed? Why hadn't Mercy barked? Where was she? Had the robbers taken her away? Polly noticed scrap of ribbon (丝带) on the floor, then bit of torn wrapping paper few feet away, some lights beyond that. The clues all made a mark leading toward the back door.

Polly put on the switch, bathing the backyard in light. The perpetrator's (肇事者)head lifted and froze. Alarm and guilt made her eyes wide. Oh, yes, it was Mercy.

She lay under her favorite tree in soft nest of shredde (碎片) wrapping paper, chewed-up boxes, and curling (缠绕) bits of ribbon. Presents, unpacked from their packages, were spread over everywhere. Beautifully wrapped boxes had gaping holes. Pieces of paper were mixed with the last remaining evidence of gifts. All the gift tags (标签) that could have been used as thank-you cards were destroyed.

Clearly Mercy's self-control had failed.

……

As for Thank-you cards, Mercy provided the answer.

The research paper published is primarily c  with factors affecting employee performance.

Many parents can ________unpleasant behavior from their children while they will not tolerate any from others.

Hello，you________7856321. But I'm sorry，right now I'm unable to answer your questions.

阅读理解

Breathing dirty air can cost someone's lifespan (寿命) months—even years, a new study finds. Worldwide, air pollution lowers average lifespans by a year. Scientists shared their new findings in Environmental Science & Technology Letters.

Air pollution (污染) has been linked to many health problems. Most earlier studies have looked at how tiny air pollutants affected rates of illness or death. But now an environmental scientist, Joshua Apte, is going even further. He works at the University of Texas, Austin. He together with his team is looking at life expectancy, hoping to make the threat easier to understand.

PM 2.5 is what scientists call tiny particles of pollution in the air. Higher levels of PM2.5 can cause health problems and cut months, if not years, from the average lifespan. This analysis shows pollution affects life expectancy in different parts of the world.

The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends limiting PM 2.5 to 10 micrograms (微克) per cubic (立方) meter of air. Apte's group used data to try to find how this low level would help people. But meeting the WHO standard won't get rid of health damage from dirty air. That's because even below 10 micrograms per cubic meter pollution still causes huge risks.

Reducing air pollution could increase life expectancy. The scientists also compared how other threats shorten life spans across the globe. These risk factors included smoking and cancer.

These results show that in poor countries, cleaning up dirty air could greatly increase lifespans. It could have as big an effect as cleaning up drinking water, or curing lung cancer. However, in wealthier countries air pollution shortens life expectancy by less than half a year. All forms of cancer, in fact, shorten the average life expectancy by more than 3.5 years. "Knowing this can really help people. or policymakers, decide where to spend their money." says Kirk Smith.

阅读下面短文，从短文后各题所给的四个选项（A、B、C和D）中选出可以填入空白处的最佳选项。

    I was a single(单身的) parent of four small children, working at a low-paid job. Money was always tight, but I 1 to make ends meet(收支平衡), and if not a lot, 2 we had enough. Not knowing we were poor, my kids just thought I was 3. I've always been glad about that.

    It was Christmas time, and although there wasn't 4 for a lot of gifts, we planned to celebrate with a family party. But the big 5for the kids was the fun of Christmas 6. They planned weeks ahead of time, asking 7 what they wanted for Christmas. 8, I had saved $120 for gifts to be shared by all five of us.

    The big day 9. I gave each kid a twenty-dollar bill and 10 them to look for 11 of about four dollars each. Then everyone went away excitedly. We had two hours to shop and 12 back at the “Santa's Workshop”.

    Driving home, everyone was in high Christmas spirits, 13 my youngest daughter, Ginger, who was unusually 14. She had only one small, flat bag with a few candies —fifty-cent candies! I was very doubtful but I didn't say anything 15 we got home. I called her into my bedroom and closed the door. This is what she told me:

    “I was looking 16 thinking of what to buy when I 17 to read the little cards on the “Giving Trees”. One was for a little girl, four years old, and all she 18 for Christmas was a doll. So I took the card off the tree and 19 the doll for her. We have so much and she doesn't have anything.”

    I never felt so 20 as I did that day.

他由于被人发现而感到非常吃惊,以至于都没有企图逃跑。

阅读理解

Swimming and English Learning

Can you swim? Do you like swimming? Yes? Well, how can you learn to swim? I think the best way is to go into the water and learn. I'm afraid you'll never learn to swim just by reading books about swimming or looking at others swimming. It's the same with the English study. We must practice, practice and practice.

Listening and speaking are very important for beginners. The children in English-speaking countries first listen to others. Then they try to imitate and speak. We can listen to English programs on radio. You may just understand a few words. It doesn't matter. Just be relaxed, and try to catch every word.

Somebody may be a good listener. But he dare not speak. He's afraid of making mistakes. You know we sometimes make mistakes when we speak Chinese. Don't be afraid. We must be brave. If you really want to learn English well, you must try to speak with everyone so long as he knows English. Whether you know him or not is not important. When there's nobody to talk with, you can talk to yourself in English. It's interesting and also a good way to practice your spoken English. Remember, the more you speak, the fewer mistakes you'll make.

Reading and writing are more important for senior school students. First we must choose the books we're interested in. A lot of reading will improve your language sense. This is the most important.

Keep writing English diaries. We can also write English articles. You may even post them to English magazines. Don't be afraid of failure. Failure is the mother of success.

Easier said than done. Well, let's do more practice from now on. I'm sure you'll learn English well in this way.

阅读理解

Of all the changes that have taken place in English-language newspapers during the past quarter-century, perhaps the most far-reaching has been the inexorable decline in the scope and seriousness of their arts coverage.

It is difficult to the point of impossibility for the average reader under the age of forty to imagine a time when high-quality arts criticism could be found in most big-city newspapers. Yet a considerable number of the most significant collections of criticism published in the 20th century consisted in large part of newspaper reviews. To read such books today is to marvel at the fact that their learned contents were once deemed suitable for publication in general-circulation dailies.

We are even farther removed from the unfocused newspaper reviews published in England between the turn of the 20th century and the eve of World War II, at a time when newsprint was dirt-cheap and stylish arts criticism was considered an ornament to the publications in which it appeared. In those far-off days, it was taken for granted that the critics of major papers would write in detail and at length about the events they covered. Theirs was a serious business, and even those reviews who wore (展示) their learning lightly, like George Bernard Shaw and Ernest Newman, could be trusted to know what they were about. These men believed in journalism as a calling (使命), and were proud to be published in the daily press. 'So few authors have brains enough or literary gift enough to keep their own end up in journalism,' Newman wrote "that I am tempted to define" journalism "as a term of contempt (轻蔑) applied by writers who are not read to writers who are".

Unfortunately, these critics are virtually forgotten. Neville Cardus, who wrote for the Manchester Guardian from 1917 until shortly before his death in 1975, is now known solely as a writer of essays on the game of cricket. During his lifetime, though, he was also one of England's foremost classical-music critics, and a stylist so widely admired that his Autobiography

阅读理解

     Books at Amazon :Best sellers of the month—Feb, 2018

    Freshwater by Akwaeke Emezi—February 6, 2018

    Hardcover :$15.91Audio CD :$29.99

    An extraordinary novel. Freshwater explores the amazing experience of having another self. It centers around a young Nigerian woman, Ada, who develops separate selves within her as a result of being born “with one foot on the other side.” Freshwater is a sharp call of a rare way of experiencing the world, one that shows how we all construct our identities.

    Milk and Honey by Rupi Kaur—February 16 , 2018

    Hardcover: $ 18. 00 Paperback: $ 8.99 Audio CD :$8.99

    A collection of poetry and prose (散文)about survival. About the experience of violence, abuse(虐待), love , loss, and femininity (女性). It is split into four chapters ，and each chapter serves a different purpose. Deals with a different pain. Heals a different heartache. Milk and Honey takes readers through a journey of the most bitter moments in life and finds sweetness in them because there is sweetness everywhere;if you are just willing to look.
     Educated by Tara Westover—February 13, 2018

    Hardcover: $ 16.80 Paperback: $ 28.00 Audio book: $6.00 Audio CD :$8.99

    An unforgettable biography about a young girl who, kept out of school, leaves her survivalist family and goes on to earn a PhD from Cambridge University. Educated is an account of the struggle for self-invention. It is a tale of fierce family loyalty, and of the sadness that comes from severing one's closest ties.

    Force of Nature by Jane Harper—February 20, 2018

    Hardcover: $17.10 Paperback: $ 23.41 Audio book:Free Audio CD :$ 34. 15

    An attractive novel from the author of the Sunday Times top 10 best seller. Five women go on a hike. Only four return. When five colleagues are forced to go on a corporate retreat in the wilderness , they reluctantly pick up their backpacks and start walking down the muddy path. But one of the women doesn't come out of the woods. And each of her companions tells a slightly different story about what happened.

Those remarkable persons, like Zhong Nanshan, set good for us with their great courage and determination(用适当的词填空)

Listen to the sentences and write it down.