First stop, weather: Sunny day. Look outside the window. Oh, no, it isn’t. Second stop, Air Quality Index: 344, dangerous, Level 6 Severely Polluted. Mental recheck required: It really is a sunny day and the weather app isn’t lying or in need of being replaced, it’s just that you can’t see the sun through the thick fog. Note to self: Cycling to work is out, face mask is in.
Has the world stopped turning? News app merely confirms that it’s business as usual. Another government has fallen, your soccer team has lost again, and China’s economy is still increasing steadily.
Diary app informs you of all the things you failed to do the previous day and loads you up with another half-dozen tasks. Next, browse a couple of social networking apps to determine the status updates of friends.
Another sound from the phone, it’s a message from your significant friend who is already at work, saying the Taobao. com order for Italian cheese is about to arrive.
Apps have become part of our “every-moment” lives. Apps provide so much information. But the dark side to all this connectivity would be lack of privacy, being a slave to the app. The only real problem is that once you lose your smartphone, you lose your life.
Some friends and family do not have smartphones, but prefer the old-fashioned Nokia that merely makes phone calls and sends instant messages. While I respect their purity and desire to be free of the control of technology, it’s obvious they are outsiders, and their lives are loaded up with paper and old devices. They’re still buying books at stores, complaining the lack of CDs on the market, watching TV and missing out on complete news cycles. Though I would add, they have lives that aren’t spent inside small screens.
My phone is a palm-sized one-stop shop and about the only thing it doesn’t do is teleport（心灵运输）. What’s not to like?
小题1:The functions of apps mentioned in the passage can be listed as follows EXCEPT that _______.| A．the apps can show you weather forecast | | B．the apps can tell you how to work directly | | C．the apps can inform you the latest news | | D．the apps can tell you what you failed to do |
小题2: According to the passage, the author thinks that _______.| A．people’s life is governed by apps | | B．people feel bored about the use of apps | | C．people can’t live without apps | | D．people hate apps with powerful functions |
小题3:It can be inferred from the last paragraph but one that _______.| A．more and more people like Nokia more than apps | | B．using Nokia can be free of the control of technology | | C．all people don’t like the advanced smartphones | | D．ordinary people don’t like shopping online |
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小题1:B
小题2:A
小题3:C |
试题分析：本文介绍的了一种智能手机上的应用软件。这种软件的功能很多，它可做闹钟，能够预报天气和空气质量指数，能浏览新闻，朋友的信息，还能提醒你前一天没有做完的事情。虽然它的功能这么多，但是不好的一面就是，这种软件使人们没有隐私，生活中的很多事情都受它的控制。所以有一些人不喜欢智能手机，而更喜欢旧式的功能简单的诺基亚手机。
【小题1】细节理解题。根据第二段的First stop, weather，Second stop, Air Quality Index，第四段的Diary app informs you of all the things you failed to do the previous day可知apps的功能有:空气，空气质量指数，告诉你没能做到的事情。所以A,C,D项属于 apps的功能。故选B。
小题2:作者态度题。根据第六段的But the dark side to all this connectivity would be lack of privacy, being a slave to the app. The only real problem is that once you lose your smartphone, you lose your life. the app 会使人们缺少隐私，沦为它的奴隶，唯一的一个问题就是一旦你失去你的智能手机，你就失去了你的生命。所以说 apps 控制了你的生命。故选A。
【小题3】推理判断题。根据最后一段的Some friends and family do not have smartphones, but prefer the old-fashioned Nokia that merely makes phone calls and sends instant messages.一些朋友和家庭，没有智能手机，他们更喜欢旧式的，只能打电话和发短信的诺基亚手机。所以可以推断出C项正确。
考点： |
核心考点
试题【Another day begins with the call of the phone’s alarm, Where are you? Open your 】；主要考察你对
题材分类等知识点的理解。
[详细]举一反三
An Ofsted (英国教育标准办公室）study reports that teachers are discouraging students who want to leave school and work as apprentices (学徒）in beauty salons (美容中心）or hair dressers.
Inspectors questioned 105 young people for a report on apprenticeships published on Wednesday. They found several examples of young people who felt they had been laughed at by their teachers for wanting to progress to work-based learning, particularly in care or hairdressing, rather than stay on at school.
Right or wrong, is it any surprise that this is happening? From 2014，the government will measure schools according to the rate of their pupils who go to university. Brian Lightman , general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, says the government has already put teachers under “very great pressure to focus on academic subjects”
On the other hand, the Education Act 2011，which came into force in November, places schools under a duty to give fair career advice to pupils. This advice must include information on all post-16 education and training choices, including apprenticeships. This doesn’t appear to be happening in several schools, according to Ofsted9S report. Many of the young people the inspectors talked to said the advice they had received on apprenticeships was “unsatisfactory”.
Schools were also blamed for lack of work experience courses, which are particularly important for teenagers considering an apprenticeship. They help students decide whether they enjoy a line of work and enable employers to see whether those on work experience have the potential to be hired as apprentices in future years.
But there is a good reason why they can’t do this: they’d be unable to adapt to GCSE (英国齊通中等教育证书）exams if they did. Sometimes, it seems, schools just can’t win.
小题1:Why do teachers oppose the students’ leaving school and working as apprentices?| A．The government urges teachers to concentrate on academic subjects. | | B．The students are only wasting time working as apprentices. | | C．Employers are under great pressure of taking GCSE exams. | | D．Employers don’t give students chances to work as apprentices |
小题2:Pressure for schools to provide pupils with career advice comes from ______. | A．Association of School and College Leaders | | B．Education Act 2011 | | C．GCSE exams | | D．OFSTED |
小题3:The underlined word “They” in Paragraph 5 refers to _____. | A．schools | | B．employers | | C．work experience courses | | D．teenagers considering an apprenticeship |
小题4:What does the author think of teachers’ discouraging students working as apprentices?| A．Surprising | B．Understandable | | C．Wrong | D．Right |
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Exhausted and unhappy, you still have to squeeze a smile to your friends, or teachers. That’s just life, you may think. But new research suggests that putting on a fake smile can worsen people’s mood and even lower work efficiency.
Lead researcher Brent Scott with other researchers studied a group of bus drivers for two weeks. They tried to find out what happened when the drivers were involved in “surface acting” or fake smiling, and the opposite, “deep acting” which means people put on real smiles by recalling pleasant memories or thinking about their current situation more positively.
The results showed that on days when drivers were forced to smile, they felt depressed and didn’t want to work. On days when they smiled due to positive thoughts, their mood improved a lot as well as their work efficiency.
The research goes against the popular belief among companies that employees should be cheerful to customers at all times. They include employees of shops, banks, call center workers and others who have face-to-face contact with members of the public. “Smiling for the sake of(为了) smiling can lead to emotional exhaustion and coldness, and that’s bad for the organization,” Scott told the Daily Mail.
The study also showed that women were harmed more by fake smiling than men. Their mood and work performance both worsened more. But they were helped more by deep acting — their mood became better and they worked more efficiently.
However, while deep acting seemed to improve mood in the short term, Scott says it’s not a long-term solution for unhappiness.
“There have been some suggestions that if you do this over a long period that you start to feel inauthentic(不真实的),” Scott said. “You may be trying to cultivate positive emotions, but at the end of the day you may not feel like yourself anymore.”
小题1:Brent Scott and others’ experiments on bus drivers suggest that ______.| A．depression among bus drivers is common | | B．thinking in a positive way helps with work efficiency | | C．bus drivers with pleasant memories tend to be less efficient | | D．the bus drivers’ work efficiency is determined by their mood |
小题2:According to the article, which of the following statements about “fake smiling” is TRUE?| A．It is good for the business but bad for the employees. | | B．It doesn’t work on people who are emotionally expressive. | | C．It is a widely accepted cultural practice in the US. | | D．It causes more harm to women than men. |
小题3:We can conclude from the article that the researchers think that ______.| A．people should be true to their feelings | | B．smiling helps to put people in a good mood and become more efficient | | C．it is unnecessary to cultivate positive emotions | | D．deep acting can improve mood in the long run |
小题4:The article is mainly about ______.| A．the importance of smiling during face-to-face contact | | B．a new study on fake smiling and its influence on people | | C．suggestions on improving work efficiency | | D．how to cheer up when you are exhausted |
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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，并在答题卡上将该项涂黑。
This morning, as I was getting close to the supermarket, I saw a small 36 gathering around an elderly woman with blood under her face. I stopped and asked if I could 37 . I told her I was certified（授予证书的）in first aid. Then I 38 someone for a first aid kit（工具箱）. But she didn’t want help, saying she was fine. But she wasn’t fine. I asked her to 39 with me and we 40 about her routine of getting groceries. People brought out ice packs, water and paper towels from the 41 nearby. I put on the gloves from the first aid kit, and cleaned her up a bit, but 42 I just talked to her and held her hand.
Two 43 happened to be passing by and 44 to help check her out a bit. Finally, after ten minutes the 45 arrived and I talked to the emergency medical team and they __46 .
I was certified in first aid years back, and I got re-certified a month ago, but I never 47 it once. However, I realized being certified isn’t 48 about providing the aid. I didn’t stop the bleeding. I didn’t 49 to examine her. Mostly it was about providing comfort for people in a difficult 50 . The certification gave me the 51 to do that: to kneel on the sidewalk, holding an old woman’s hand, and to help make those _ 52 few minutes just a little bit better.
If you’re not certified in first aid, I can’t 53 it strongly enough. It takes four hours of your time at your 54 Red Cross. With what you’ll 55 , maybe you’ll be able to help someone like the old lady one day.
| 小题1: | | A．people | B．public | C．traffic | D．crowd |
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| 小题2: | | A．watch out | B．look out | C．help out | D．make out |
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| 小题3: | | A．paid | B．sent | C．applied | D．scolded |
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| 小题4: | | A．stay | B．walk | C．accompany | D．shop |
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| 小题5: | | A．looked | B．cared | C．talked | D．quarreled |
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| 小题6: | | A．hospital | B．supermarket | C．station | D．office |
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| 小题7: | | A．mostly | B．maybe | C．simply | D．extremely |
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| 小题8: | | A．policemen | B．volunteers | C．clerks | D．doctors |
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| 小题9: | | A．refused | B．stopped | C．lay | D．woke |
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| 小题10: | | A．ambulance | B．family | C．driver | D．officer |
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| 小题11: | | A．operated on | B．turned up | C．ran away | D．took over |
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| 小题12: | | A．liked | B．noticed | C．used | D．met |
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| 小题13: | | A．necessarily | B．possibly | C．hopefully | D．commonly |
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| 小题14: | | A．want | B．teach | C．permit | D．try |
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| 小题15: | | A．place | B．situation | C．life | D．position |
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| 小题16: | | A．harm | B．confidence | C．lesson | D．wish |
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| 小题17: | | A．confusing | B．moving | C．scary | D．friendly |
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| 小题18: | | A．recommend | B．demand | C．support | D．explain |
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| 小题19: | | A．formal | B．national | C．local | D．private |
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| 小题20: | | A．recognize | B．offer | C．allow | D．Learn |
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Can a fish hear fishermen moving along the stream? What are the facts about the ability of a fish to see? Can they tell the difference between colors?
The sharp hearing of a fish has been proved by two scientists, who trained a fish to expect its food when it heard the sound of a whistle. And a slight sound two hundred feet away could drive fishes away. That should make fishermen start thinking.
One scientist had made experiments to prove fish can recognize different colors such as red, brown, yellow and green.
Fish also have an eye for different shapes. One scientist proved this by teaching fish to connect certain patterns with food. He used a small circle and a square. If the fish swam towards the circle, they received food as a reward. If they swam towards the square, they received nothing. The fish learned in time to go to the circle but not to the square. Does this mean that in time fish might learn to leave alone all food on hooks that they have seen often before? Here is something for all fishermen to think about!
These facts help to make more believable some of the “believe it or not” stories that have been told about fish. It is clear that fish have sometimes shown their ability to gain knowledge as man does. A good example of what we might call “thinking” by a fish is given by an experience of Dr. Andrew Gage. Fishing over a bridge, he hooked a fish. It struggled and dragged the line two hundred feet away before he stopped it. Then it swam back to the bridge. The clever fish then swam round a pile and, with a sudden push, broke the line. If the story ended there, one could say that the fish had freed itself by chance. However, Gage went on fishing. Below him he could see the fish that had broken loose. After another twenty minutes the fish again seized the food on the hook. This time it did not swim out but swam round one of the piles and again broke the line.
Many stories are told of the fish that get away and the clever “old hand” ones that can’t be caught. The more often a fish is nearly caught, the more difficult it will be to interest it next time.
小题1:The last two paragraph’s mainly discuss _________.| A．whether a fish can think as man does | | B．how a fish could escape from danger | | C．how to catch a fish more easily | | D．whether a fish is believable |
小题2: What’s the best title of the passage?| A．Fish can hear and see | | B．How clever is a fish? | | C．Fish can play tricks | | D．How scientists help fishermen. |
小题3:We can infer from the last paragraph that _________.| A．it’s difficult to catch fish; | | B．fish are cleverer sometimes than fishermen | | C．fish seem to learn by their experience | | D．fewer people will be interested in fish |
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Our senses aren"t just delivering a strict view of what’s going on in the world; they"re affected by what’s going on in our heads. A new study finds that hungry people see food-related words more clearly than people who"ve just eaten.
Psychologists have known for decades that what"s going on inside our head affects our senses. For example, poorer children think coins are larger than they are, and hungry people think pictures of food are brighter. Rémi Radel of University of Nice Sophia-Antipolis, France, wanted to investigate how this happens.
Does it happen right away as the brain receives signals from the eyes or a little later as the brain’s high-1evel thinking processes get involved. Radel recruited 42 students with a normal body mass index. On the day of his or her test, each student was told to arrive at the lab at noon after three or four hours of not eating. Then they were told there was a delay. Some were told to come back in 10 minutes; others were given an hour to get lunch first. So half the students were hungry when they did the experiment and the other half had just eaten.
For the experiment, the participant looked at a computer screen. One by one, 80 words flashed on the screen for about l/300th of a second each. They flashed at so small a size that the students could only consciously perceive. A quarter of the words were food-related. After each word, each person was asked how bright the word was and asked to choose which of two words they’d seen-a food-related word like cake or a neutral word like boat. Each word appeared too briefly for the participant to really read it.
Hungry people saw the food-related words as brighter and were better at identifying food- related words. Because the word appeared too quickly for them to be reliably seen, this means that the difference is in perception, not in thinking processes, Radel says. "This is something great to me. Humans can really perceive what they need or what they strive for. From the experiment, I know that our brain can really be at the disposal of our motives and needs. "Radel says.
小题1:Why was there a delay on the day of the experiment?| A．Because hungry people needed time to fill their stomach. | | B．Because Radel wanted to create two groups of testers, hungry and non-hungry. | | C．Because noon was not the right time for any experiment. | | D．Because Radel needed time to select participants in terms of body mass index. |
小题2:What does the writer want to tell us?| A．Human’s senses aren’t just delivering a strict view of what’s going on in the world. | | B．What’s perceived by our senses affects our way of thinking. | | C．Human brains can really be at the disposal of our motives and needs. | | D．Thinking processes guarantee the normal functions of our senses. |
小题3:What can we infer from the passage?| A．42 participants are too small a number for a serious investigation. | | B．An experiment with hungry and non-hungry participants is not reliable. | | C．Our thinking processes are independent of our senses. | | D．Humans can perceive what they need without involving high-level thinking processes |
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