More than a century ago, the composer and bandleader John Philip Sousa warned that technology would destroy music, who said, “These talking machines are going to ruin the artistic development of music in this country. When I was a boy … in front of every house in the summer evenings you would find young people together singing the songs of the day or the old songs. Today you hear these terrible machines going night and day. We will not have a vocal cord (声带) left.”
Music has greatly changed in the past hundred years, which has been everywhere in our world: rivers of digital melody flow on the Internet or on disc; MP3 players with forty thousand songs can be put in a back pocket or a purse. Yet, for most of us, music is no longer something we do ourselves, or even watch other people do in front of us. It has become a radically virtual medium, an art without a face.
Ever since Edison invented the phonograph cylinder(留声机), people have been assessing what the medium of recording has done for and to the art of music. Sousa was a spokesman for the party of doom; in the opposite corner are the utopians(乌托邦), who argue that technology has not imprisoned music but liberated it. Before Edison came along, Beethoven’s symphonies could be heard only in select concert halls. Now the recordings carry the man from Bonn to the corners of the earth. Glenn Gould, after renouncing live performance in 1964, predicted that within the century the public concert would disappear into the electronic air.
Having discovered much of my favorite music through LPs and CDs, I am not about to join Sousa’s party. Modern urban environments are often so soulless or ugly that I’m grateful for the humanizing touch of electronic sound. But neither can I accept Gould’s slashing futurism. I want to be aware of technology’s effects, positive and negative. Fortunately, scholars and critics have been methodically exploring this terrain for many decades, trying to figure out exactly what happens when we listen to music with no musicians in the room.The first paragraph is intended to .
| A．defend an argument | B．make a prediction |
| C．criticize an attitude | D．summarized a viewpoint |
The author’s attitude towards the recorded music may best be described as .
| A．dissatisfied | B．defensive | C．optimistic | D．objective |
The underlined word “terrain” in the last paragraph most nearly means .
| A．region | B．subject | C．land | D．distinction |
The primary purpose of the passage is to .
| A．explain different attitudes of scholars and critics |
| B．defend the view of one group from the criticism of another |
| C．advocate an unexpected solution to a pressing problem |
| D．present the key issues in an ongoing debate |
"A photograph that one has taken of oneself, typically with a smart phone or webcam and uploaded to a social media website" is the definition of "selfie" in the Oxford English Dictionary. In fact, it wasn't even in the dictionary until August of last year. It earned its place there because people are now so obsessed with (对……痴迷) selfies ─ we take them when we try on a new hat, play with our pets or when we meet a friend whom we haven't seen in a while.
But is there any scientific explanation for this obsession? Well, you should probably ask James Kilner, a neuroscientist(神经系统科学家) at University College London.
Through our lifetime we become experts at recognizing and interpreting other people's faces and facial expressions. In contrast, according to Kilner, we have a very poor understanding of our own faces since we have little experience of looking at them ─ we just feel them most of the time.
This has been proved in previous studies, according to the BBC.
Kilner found that most people chose the more attractive picture. This suggests that we tend to think of ourselves as better-looking than we actually are. To further test how we actually perceive our own faces, Kilner carried out another study. He showed people different versions of their own portrait ─ the original, one that had been edited to look less attractive and one that was made more attractive ─ and asked them to pick the version which they thought looked most like them. They chose the more attractive version.
But what does it say about settles? Well, isn't that obvious? Selfies give us the power to create a photograph ─ by taking it from various angles, with different poses, using filters (滤色镜) and so on ─ that better matches our expectations with our actual faces.
"You suddenly have control in a way that you don't have in non-virtual(非虚拟的) interactions," Kilner told the Canada-based CTV News. Selfies allow you "to keep taking pictures until you manage to take one you're happy with" , he explained.What is the passage mainly about?
| A．The definition and fun of taking selfies. |
| B．A study of why people love taking selfies. |
| C．How taking selfies influences people's daily lives. |
| D．How to interpret people's facial expressions in their selfies. |
The underlined word "perceive" in Paragraph 5 can be replaced by "______".
| A．interpret | B．beautify | C．choose | D．explain |
What did Kilner discover from his researches?
| A．People interpret others' facial expressions worse than their own. |
| B．People tend to spend more time looking at their faces than at others'. |
| C．People tend to believe they look more attractive than they actually are. |
| D．People who like taking selfies know more about their facial expressions. |
According to Kilner, people like taking selfies probably because they think ______.
| A．it is a good chance to learn more about their actual faces |
| B．it is a way to respond to others' facial expressions correctly |
| C．it enables them to interact with their friends in social media |
| D．it allows them to satisfy their expectations with their appearances |
Foxes and farmers have never got on well. These small dog-like animals have long been accused of killing farm animals. They are officially classified as harmful and farmers try to keep their numbers down by shooting or poisoning them.
Famers can also call on the services of their local hunt to control the fox population. Hunting consists of running after a fox across the countryside, with a group of specially trained dogs, followed by men and women riding horses. When the dogs eventually catch the fox, the kill it or a hunter shoots it.
People who take part in hunting think of it as a sport. They wear a special uniform of red coats and white trousers, and follow strict rules of behavior. But owning a horse and hunting regularly are expensive, so most hunters are wealthy.
It is estimated that up to 100,000 people watch or take part in fox-hunting. But over the last couple of decades the number of people who are against fox-hunting, because they think it is brutal(残暴的), has risen sharply. Nowadays it is rare for a hunt to pass off without some kind of conflict between hunters and hunt opponents (阻止者). Sometimes these incidents lead to violence, but mostly opponents discourage the hunt by misleading riders and disturbing the trail of the fox's smell, which the dogs follow.
Noisy conflicts between hunters and opponents have become so common that they are almost as much a part of hunting as running after foxes itself. But this year supporters of fox-hunting face a much bigger threat to their sport. A Labour Party member of Parliament(英国议会), Mike Foster, is trying to get Parliament to approve a new law which will make the hunting of wild animals with dogs illegal. If the law is passed, wild animals like foxes will be protected under the ban in Britain.Wealthy people in Britain have been hunting foxes to ______.
| A．benefit the farmers | B．get entertainment |
| C．show off their wealth | D．limit the fox population |
The opponents of fox-hunting often discourage the game by ______.
| A．using violence |
| B．taking legal action |
| C．seeking help from farmers |
| D．confusing the fox hunters |
A new law may be passed by the British Parliament to ______.
| A．protect wild animals like foxes |
| B．control fox-hunting on a large scale |
| C．prohibit farmers from hunting foxes |
| D．standardize the behavior of fox-hunting |
What can be inferred from this passage?
| A．Limiting the fox population is unnecessary at all. |
| B．Killing foxes with poison is not allowed by the law. |
| C．Hunting foxes with dogs is considered cruel and violent. |
| D．Fox-hunting causes conflicts between hunters and farmers. |
I log onto a computer at the doctor's office to say I have arrived and then wait until a voice calls me into the examination room.
There, a robotic nurse directs me onto a device and then takes my blood pressure. Some time later, in steps the doctor, who is also a robot. He notes down my symptoms and gives me a prescription (处方). I pay for my visit using a credit card machine and return home without having met another human being.
When I call my dentist's office and actually get a human being on the line, I am thrilled. And when I see the introduction of yet more self-service checkout stations at the grocery store, I feel like shouting, "When it comes to cashiers, make mine human, please!"
After all, human cashiers sometimes give you a store coupon (优惠券) for items you are buying. Even more than that, real-life cashiers often take an interest in particularly cute children, which can brighten a young mother's day. A cashier may also show compassion (同情)for an elderly person struggling to get that last penny out of her purse.
What technological device would do any of this? I don't want to go back to the Stone Age, but I'm also worried about a world run by machines. Sometimes when you're chatting with someone, you discover things you need to know. Maybe a receptionist needs prayers said for a sick child. Maybe a salesperson can offer a bit of encouragement to a customer who is feeling tired.
Machines can be efficient and cost-effective and they often get the job done just fine. But they lack an element so important to everyday life.
Call it the spirit, the soul or the heart. It is something no machine will ever have. It is being human that prompts us to smile at others, which may be what they need at that moment.What's the author's purpose in writing the first two paragraphs?
| A．To indicate high technology can make our future life very easy. |
| B．To describe a possible future scene where robots take control of our life. |
| C．To warn readers of the possible dangers of robotic nurses and doctors. |
| D．To predict how technology can affect the way we see a doctoring the future. |
Why does the author prefer being served by humans rather than by robots?
| A．Robots are indifferent and emotionless. |
| B．Robots can't provide efficient services. |
| C．Robots don't offer to give store coupons. |
| D．Robots are unable to do a job as well as humans. |
What's the author's attitude towards machines?
| A．He wishes one day they would come to life. |
| B．He is absolutely against their existence in his life. |
| C．He doesn't like they get involved in his life too much. |
| D．He is afraid they would take the place of human beings. |
Katie was in big trouble. She was such a sweet kid; a third-grade teacher always dreamed of having a classroom filled with Katies; she was never ever a discipline(纪律) problem. I just couldn’t imagine why she had made her parents so angry.
It seemed that Katie had been running up sizable charges in the lunchroom. Her parents explained that Katie brought a great homemade lunch each day, and there was no reason for her to buy school lunch. They assumed a sit-down with Katie would solve the problem, but failed. So they asked me to help them get to the bottom of this situation.
So the next day, I asked Katie to my office. "Why are you charging lunches, Katie? What happened to your homemade lunch?" I asked. "I lose it," she responded. I leaned back in my chair and said, "I don't believe you, Katie. " She didn't care. "Is someone stealing your lunch, Katie?" I took a new track. "No. I just lose it," she said. Well, there was nothing else I could do.
The problem was still unsolved the next week when I noticed a boy who was new to the school sitting alone at a lunch table. He always looked sad. I thought I would go and sit with him for a while. As I walked towards him, I noticed the lunch bag on the table. The name on the bag said "Katie".
Now I understood and I talked to Katie. It seemed that the new boy never brought a lunch, and he wouldn't go to the lunch line for a free lunch. He had told Katie his secret and asked her not to tell anyone that his parents wanted him to get a free lunch at school. Katie asked me not to tell her parents, but I drove to her house that evening after I was sure that she was in bed. I had never seen parents so proud of their child. Katie didn't care that her parents and teacher were disappointed in her. But she cared about a little boy who was hungry and scared.
Katie still buys lunch every day at school. And every day, as she heads out of the door, her mom hands her a delicious homemade lunch.What did the author think of Katie?
| A．She performed well at school. |
| B．She was a girl filled with love. |
| C．She often made trouble at school. |
| D．She used to be a discipline problem. |
Why did Katie eat school lunch instead of her homemade lunch every day?
| A．She lost her homemade lunch. |
| B．She had her homemade lunch stolen. |
| C．She didn't like the taste of her homemade lunch. |
| D．She gave her homemade lunch to a hungry boy. |
What was Katie's parents' reaction to the truth about the lunch?
| A．They were very angry. | B．They were proud of Katie. |
| C．They were disappointed. | D．They were rather upset. |
What can we learn from the passage?
| A．Katie was informed that her parents had known her secret. |
| B．Katie told the author the truth of her lunch during their first talk. |
| C．Katie's secret of lunch was discovered by the author by accident. |
| D．Katie stopped buying lunch at school after her secret was discovered. |
I am a vegetarian（素食主义者）. Many people are quick to think of vegetarianism as strange behavior. I treasure our Earth, and since we only have one, we should protect it and the wildlife that lives on it. But that’s only one of the reasons to be a vegetarian.
Vegetarians may live longer, healthier lives. There is a connection between red meat consumption and various diseases. From an economic standpoint, it requires less land, money and energy to produce foods for a vegetarian diet. While there are many benefits to being a vegetarian, only a handful of those who attempt to adopt this lifestyle succeed.
The most important quality required to be a vegetarian is firmness since surrounded by the temptation of meat, we tend to give up vegetarianism easily. Creativity is almost as important as commitment. It’s easy to tire of eating nothing but salad. But with a little creativity and some soy products, almost any meal can become vegetarian-friendly.
Not everyone wants to be vegetarian. Accepting this is part of being a vegetarian with style. Forcing your beliefs on others is disrespectful. Stylish vegetarians should also be able to turn down a meaty dish politely without annoying their hosts.
Being a successful vegetarian has been easy for me, but it may not be so for others. A common mistake is quitting before your body has adjusted to the change. It can be difficult to keep the lifestyle in the beginning because of temptation. However, it fades over time. Another common mistake is quitting because you’ve been misinformed about the nutritional wisdom of being a vegetarian. That’s why it is vital to be educated. Countless people will tell you that it’s impossible to obtain the nutrients and protein（蛋白质）your body requires without meat, but they are incorrect. People actually need only 44-55 grams of protein a day, and that is easily found in a vegetarian diet. Many meat eaters are consuming three times that amount, which is not beneficial. It leads to diseases. Vegetables can also supply all the vitamins, minerals and nutrients your body needs. However, if you’re still not convinced, you can take a multi-vitamin.According to the passage, being a vegetarian helps ______.
| A．protect the wildlife |
| B．free people from diseases |
| C．rid people from strange behaviors |
| D．develop a better economy |
What’s the underlined word temptation in Paragraph 3 closest in meaning to?
| A．Unpleasant taste | B．Extreme attraction |
| C．Great consumption | D．Significant importance |
Stylish vegetarians do not ______.
| A．force others to be vegetarians |
| B．respect other people’s beliefs |
| C．turn down hosts gracefully |
| D．refuse an offer of meat |
Which of the following is NOT true?
| A．Many people give up before their bodies can adjust to the transition. |
| B．Many people quit because they’re poorly educated about nutrition. |
| C．Consuming 150 grams protein a day can be harmful. |
| D．Vegetarians need multi-vitamins to keep healthy. |
Which of the following is NOT mentioned in the passage?
| A．Reasons why the author became a vegetarian. |
| B．Important qualities required to be a vegetarian. |
| C．Advantages and disadvantages of being a vegetarian. |
| D．Common mistakes on the way to being a vegetarian. |