阅读理解

Languages have been coming and going for thousands of years, but in recent times there has been less coming and a lot more going. When the world was still populated by hunter­ gatherers, small, tightly knit (联系) groups developed their own patterns of speech independent of each other. Some language experts believe that 10,000 years ago, when the world had just five to ten million people, they spoke perhaps 12,000 languages between them.

Soon afterwards, many of those people started settling down to become farmers, and their languages too became more settled and fewer in number. In recent centuries, trade, industrialisation, the development of the nation­state and the spread of universal compulsory education, especially globalisation and better communications in the past few decades, all have caused many languages to disappear, and dominant languages such as English, Spanish and Chinese are increasingly taking over.

At present, the world has about 6,800 languages. The distribution of these languages is hugely uneven. The general rule is that mild zones have relatively few languages, often spoken by many people, while hot, wet zones have lots, often spoken by small numbers. Europe has only around 200 languages; the Americas about 1,000; Africa 2,400; and Asia and the Pacific perhaps 3,200, of which Papua New Guinea alone accounts for well over 800.The median number (中位数) of speakers is a mere 6,000, which means that half the world's languages are spoken by fewer people than that.

Already well over 400 of the total of 6,800 languages are close to extinction (消亡), with only a few elderly speakers left. Pick, at random, Busuu in Cameroon(eight remaining speakers), Chiapaneco in Mexico (150), Lipan Apache in the United States (two or three) or Wadjigu in Australia (one, with a question­ mark): none of these seems to have much chance of survival.

in my life that I to the Great Wall for a visit.

这是我生平第一次到长城参观。

As a t, if you want to change writing into a different language, you must have a good knowledge of both English and Chinese.

If you want to try some new learning methods, you'd better select those that are ________ for yourself.

Uother easy-handle roles, the chance to play the British secret agent was a big moment in Tom's life.

假设你是红星中学高三学生李华。上星期六，你和同学们参观了中国近五年伟大成就展。请按照以下四幅图的先后顺序，以“A Visit to the Exhibition on China's Achievements”为题，给校刊“英语角”写一篇英文稿件，介绍参观的全过程。

注意：词数不少于60。

提示词：讲解员  docent

阅读理解

    Alexander John Jordan was born in Madison, Wisconsin in 1914. After graduating from high school, he attended the University of Wisconsin. After about one year of college, Alex dropped out.

    Alex then went from job to job. He drove a taxi and worked for Royavac. He also worked for his father's construction company, where Alex got his basic knowledge of construction.

    In the 1940s, Alex discovered Deer Shelter Rock and began having small picnics on the top of the rock. He then started bringing his tent and camping out. One night, his tent got blown away and from that day, Alex decided he wanted to build something more stable. That was the beginning of his dreams. Alex started off by renting the rock and a bit of land around it from a local farmer. He first built a small studio with a fireplace. Then Alex, with his parents' help, bought 240 acres of land, so he could build as he pleased. What took shape on and around Deer Shelter Rock was truly a wonderful achievement. More wonderful still is the fact that he built much of the original house by himself, carrying the materials up the 75-foot-high rock.

    As curiosity grew surrounding his project, more and more people came to visit the House on the Rock. Alex decided to charge people 50 cents to visit, thinking that would drive them away; however, people gladly paid the fee. In 1960, Alex decided to open the House on the Rock to the public. This increased the interest and the crowds grew. All of the money taken in over the years was put directly back into the House. Alex was devoted to the House on the Rock. It was his life and dream.

阅读理解

Being compared to great people like Stephen Hawking and Albert Einstein is not something that happens to the average person. At the age of just 23, Sabrina Gonzalez Pasterski has already achieved much more goals than most of us ever will in our lifetime.

When she was only 14 years old, the Chicago girl made her own single engine airplane—by herself. She then flew it across Lake Michigan, becoming the youngest person to ever fly their own plane.

She graduated from Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy (IMSA) in 2010 and entered Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

At first, she had to wait to be accepted into the school, but once Professors Allen Haggerty and Earll Murman watched her video they had no doubt. Femalista quoted Haggerty as saying: After just three years at MIT she has already achieved the highest possible grade point average of 5.0.

She is now studying further at Harvard University, with full academic freedom. Once again she is only 23 years old.

What's even more impressive is that she is no longer interested in building planes but has turned her attention to physics, namely black holes and how gravity (重力)affects space and time—that is why she is being compared to Einstein and Hawking.

Pasterski records all of her work on her website Physics Girl, but if you are a little shocked by her achievements, she has some words for you.

During an interview with Marie Claire earlier this year she said, "Being optimistic about what you believe you can do. When you're little, you say a lot of things about what you'll do or be when you're older—I think it's important not to forget those dreams."

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Nowadays, most people have a device that features artificial intelligence (AI), with the likes of Siri always there to greet us with a friendly voice.

But Microsoft's XiaoIce is different. Launched in 2014 for the Chinese market," she" has a creative advantage over her competitors. While most AI assistants simply read out information they get online, XiaoIce has a" realness" that the others are short of. Indeed, if you asked nicely, she could read you a poem from the weekly column in China Daily.

The newspaper has been printing XiaoIce's selfpenned poetry each week since Aug. 19, taken from her own book of poems, The Sunlight that Lost the Glass Window.

To turn XiaoIce into a master of poetry, Microsoft scientists" fed" her the works of over 500 influential modern poets, reported China Daily.

This led to her figuring out a writing style of her own and creating over 70,000 original poems. Most of the poems are so comparable to those written by humans that they cannot be easily distinguished, and XiaoIce's book even got good feedback from experts.

" Xiaolce's work carries a strange taste. The more you chew on it, the more interesting it becomes, " Scholar Zhang, a literature professor at the Nanjing University of Science and Technology, told China Daily.

However, it seems not everyone is a fan." The poems dissatisfied me with their slippery tone and rhythm. The sentences were aimless, lacking the inner logic for emotional expression," Yunnan-based poet Yu told China Youth Daily. This isn't the first AI to attempt poetry. Last year, Google's Parsey McParseface made some poems of its own, although they were branded" wrongly" by reviewers. While it seems like AI is becoming more" intelligent" and less" artificial" all the time, when it comes to creativity, perhaps this is one job that software should leave to us humans.

I've learned English for more than eight years and I am familiar with computer (操作).

翻译

任务型阅读

Saving money while traveling

    There are a lot of matters to think on before going out on a trip.  If you fail to plan the trip properly, then money will simply let itself loose from your pocket. Moreover, if you haven't planned a road map of your tour,  then confusion is quite inevitable (必然的).

    Package tours. Tours and travel agencies have attractive offers for tourists wanting to spend a couple of days on trips. Once you have accepted the package tour, all your expenses during the travel will be greatly reduced. You can save a lot in lodging(住宿 ) and traveling.

    Inexpensive lodging. Never choose expensive lodging if your tour is a low-budget one. People tend to spend a lot booking luxury hotels (豪华旅馆),  and save little to enjoy other activities during the trip. This idea is absolutely not wise when spending limited money on the trip is your main aim. Moreover, the expenses increase quickly when your kids are with you. You can use the money saved on good food and amusement.

    The peak season is the time when rates are sky high due to the increase of millions of tourists who can afford to spend a lot of money. You, not being amongst this crowd that can spend generously, must book your holidays during the off season.

    A guide map. Make a guide map about the places to visit, expenses of travel and the activities to try. While planning you should also estimate (估计) your total expenses. Calculate the maximum amount and try to spend less than that. Refer to the guide map while traveling and follow the money-saving travel tips as much as possible.

A. Reduce shopping.

B. Off season travel.

C. You must keep yourself updated with such offers.

D. This will help you to keep actual expenses below the estimated.

E. You can save lots of dollars when you don't have a credit card.

F. Therefore, book a fairly low-price lodge to save a few dollars.

G. So knowing some money-saving travel tips becomes necessary for you. 

假定你是李华,你的英国朋友Mike 最近写信告诉你，他申请了牛津大学（Oxford University）但未被录取，感到很沮丧。请你给他写封回信，内容包括：

1）表示安慰；

2）提出建议；

3）美好祝福。

注意：1）词数 80 左右；

2）可适当增加细节，以使行文连贯。

Asking around. I find many people (will) to pay a little higher price for things friendly to the environment.

下面短文中有10处语言错误。请在有错误的地方增加、删除或修改某个单词。

增加：在缺词处加一个漏词符号（∧），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）每句不超过两个错误；

2）每处错误及其修改均仅限一词；

只允许修改10出，多者（从第11处起）不计分

Last month, I took part a volunteer activity. We set off by bus at about 9:00 in the morning. After a three-hour drive, we arrived at a village surrounding by hills. It was nearly 12 o'clock, but we had lunch in the village. The meal, what was made with vegetable grown by the villagers, tasted delicious. After lunch, they played a few games with the children in the village. Finally, we visited the old man who had no children. We gave to him some rice and oil and sing some songs for him. He smiled happy, and I felt I got happiness in return.

根据短文内容，从短文后的选项中选出能填入空白处的最佳选项。选项中有两项为多余选项。

    I've seen every shape, color and creative package of job application possible. But I've never seen one that actually scared me. But then recently, something happening shocked me., safety guards at Eastern Illinois University asked all the students to leave a building.

    “There was no return address. It was poorly written and poorly addressed to the university. There were misspellings,” school spokeswoman Vicki Woodard said on Saturday. “There was some tape over it. .” The unusual size, no return address, misspellings in the address and the tape holding torn parts together were enough to bring in the local bomb experts. They examined the package with X-rays and blocked off nearby streets—only to discover the envelope contained only an application for admission to the school.

    . Would you think that young student would be a great addition to your university? Would you want that person working for you—representing your company? , with a baseball cap on, and then asking, “You don't have any jobs, do you?”, I am always amazed. I also see college graduates wandering at career fairs in slippers and coffee-stained T-shirts, handing out resumes (简历) in hope of getting a well-paid job. These people are usually not hired.

It's funny how a clean shirt and pair of pants, an enthusiastic smile and direct eye contact can change the economy immediately. .

A. If you dress well and behave politely

B. Just the whole appearance was rather strange

C. I wonder what you would think of that application

D. Good manners and politeness are usually ignored nowadays.

E. When I see people walking into business companies in torn shorts

F. After a doubtful looking package addressed to the college was discovered

G. It's also funny how a well-prepared application will get you into your favorite university

She tried what she could (improve) her English.