一、填空题
1、A1. Fill in the blanks with the words or expressions given in a word bank below. Each choice in the bank is identified by a letter. Please mark the corresponding letter for each blank.
| A. gives way to | B. are liable to | C. parallels | D. resorted to | E. peculiar |
| F. saddled with | G. calculate | H. boost | I. prospect | J. stand up for |
There is a real need to 1 academic achievement in schools and help with the development of a student’s overall character.
Being a single parent, there is no way for her to 2 the time and energy she has devoted to her children for the past 10 years.
Not until recently have we realized that the increasing world population may lead to a potential gloomy 3 for humanity: starvation.
Because women often restrict their diet in an effort to control weight, they may not consume enough iron-rich food and 4 experience an iron deficiency.
During the weeks of discussions, delegations from groups who are interested in the resolution may call on representatives to 5 their point of view.
Ernest Hemingway’s keen insight into his society, ardent love for people and perceptive abilities helped him to form his own 6 characteristic of writing.
The change in smoking habits 7 a change in the incidence of lung cancer. The more people smoke, the more chances of occurrence for lung cancer.
As a result of her divorce, she was obviously 8 the double burden of playing the role of both mother and father.
As our sweet childhood 9 adolescence’s temptation of love, we begin to learn, as adults, that most pleasures do not last forever.
In the economic recession, employers 10 the reduction of costs, most particularly in wages, in order to survive in the competitive world markets.
学生答案：H；G；I；B；J；E；C；F；A；D
2、A2. Read the passage and select one word for each blank.
| A. unavoidably | B. transition | C. enormous | D. radical | E. Meanwhile |
| F. definitely | G. adulthood | H. traditional | I. tend | J. resent |
The odyssey years refer to a life stage that young people have to go through. It’s described as an unsteady or fluid journey that young people need to take before they enter 1 .
The contemporary generation, also called pre-adults, adolescents, the lost generation, extended adolescents or emerging adults, are living in a society full of 2 changes. They graduated into one of the worst economies in decades, saddled with 3 pressure. According to a news report, half of recent college graduates are unemployed or underemployed with low-wage service jobs.
Research shows that young people, with prideful attitudes, 4 to be more depressed and less motivated if they are underemployed for just nine months.
Since they usually 5 competitive pressure, they often resort to heavy drinking to help distract them from their pain and stress.
6 , they act with rebellious behaviors, keep a distance from their parents, or even run away from home.
In this 7 phase, many young people unfortunately underestimate the satisfaction that comes from joining the working world.
During this unavoidable stage of their life, they are moving back home, going back to school or embracing unpaid internships as new starter jobs. Lacking 8 aspirations, they are marrying later and starting families still later. However, they 9 enjoy having fun. Obviously, in this unique phase, many young people think real life starts later, but they are actually falling behind. They don’t really understand that they are 10 facing peculiar challenges and dealing with a phenomenon that is a matter of choice in many cases.
3、A3. Read the passage and choose the best answers.
Passage One. Questions 1 to 5 are based on the following passage.
A recent global survey of 2,000 high-net-worth individuals found about 60% were not planning on a traditional retirement. Among U.S. participants, 75% expected to continue working in some capacity even after stepping away from full-time jobs. “Many of these people made their wealth by doing something they’re passionate(有激情的) about,” says Daniel Egan, head of behavioral finance for Barclays Wealth Americas. “Given the choice, they prefer to continue working.” Barclays calls these people “nevertirees”.
Unlike many Americans compelled into early retirement by company restrictions, the average nevertiree often has no one forcing his hand. If 106-year-old investor Irving Kahn, head of his own family firm, wants to keep coming to work every day, who’s going to stop him?
Seventy-eight-year-old Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s job security is guaranteed in the Constitution.
It may seem that these elderly people are trying to cheat death. In fact, they are. And it’s working. Howard Friedman, a professor at UC Riverside, found in his research that those who work hardest and are successful in their careers often live the longest lives. “People are generally being given bad advice to slow down, take it easy, stop worrying, and retire to Florida,” he says. He described one study participant, still working at the age of 100, who was recently disappointed to see his son retire.
“We’re beginning to see a change in how people view retirement,” says George Leeson, co-director of the Institute of Population Ageing at Oxford. Where once retirement was seen as a brief reward after a long struggle through some miserable job, it is now akin(近似) to being cast aside. What Leeson terms “the Warren Buffett effect” is becoming more broadly appealing as individuals come to “view retirement as not simply being linked to economic productivity but also about contribution.”
Observers are split on whether this is a wholly good thing. On the one hand, companies and financial firms can benefit from the wisdom of a resilient(坚韧的) chief. On the other hand, the new generation can find it more difficult to advance — an argument that typically holds little sway to a nevertiree.
What do we learn about the so-called “nevertirees”?
A) They are passionate about making a fortune.
B) They have no choice but to continue working.
C) They love what they do and choose not to retire.
D) They will not retire unless they are compelled to.
What do Irving Kahn and Ruth Bader Ginsburg have in common?
A) Neither of them is subject to forced retirement.
B) Neither of them desires reward for their work.
C) Both cling to their positions despite opposition.
D) Both are capable of coping with heavy workloads.
What is the finding of Howard Friedman’s research?
A) The harder you work, the bigger your fortune will be.
B) The earlier you retire, the healthier you will be.
C) Elderly people have to slow down to live longer.
D) Working at an advanced age lengthens people’s life.
What is the traditional view of retirement according to the passage?
A) It means a burden to the younger generation.
B) It is a symbol of a mature and civilized society.
C) It is a compensation for one’s life-long hard work.
D) It helps increase a nation’s economic productivity.
What do critics say about “nevertirees”?
A) They are an obstacle to a company’s development.
B) They lack the creativity of the younger generation.
C) They cannot work as efficiently as they used to.
D) They prevent young people from getting ahead.
4、A4. Read the passage and choose the best answers.
Passage Two. Questions 1 to 5 are based on the following passage.
When we talk about Americans barely into adulthood who are saddled with unbearable levels of debt, the conversation is almost always about student loan debt. But there’s a growing body of evidence suggesting that today’s young adults are also drowning in credit-card debt — and that many of them will take this debt to their graves.
More than 20% overspent their income by more than $100 every single month. Since they haven’t built up their credit histories yet, it’s a safe bet that these young adults are paying relatively high interest rates on the resulting credit card debt.
Although many young people blame “socializing” as a barrier to saving money, most of them aren’t knocking back $20 drinks in trendy(时尚的)lounges. They’re struggling with much more daily financial demands.
To a disturbingly large extent, the young and the broke are relying on credit cards to make it until their next payday. This obviously isn’t sustainable in the long run, and it’s going to put a huge drag on their spending power even after they reach their peak earning years, because they’ll still be paying interest on that bottle of orange juice or box of spaghetti(意式面条) they bought a decade earlier.
A new study out of Ohio State University found that young adults are accumulating credit card debt at a more rapid rate than other age groups, and that they’re slower at paying it off. “If what we found continues to hold true, we may have more elderly people with substantial financial problems in the future,” warns Lucia Dunn, professor of economics at Ohio State. “If our findings persist, we may be faced with a financial crisis among elderly people who can’t pay off their credit cards.”
Dunn says a lot of these young people are never going to get out from under their credit card debt. “Many people are borrowing on credit cards so heavily that payoff rates at these levels are not sufficient to recover their credit card debt by the end of their life, which could have loss implications for the credit card issuing banks.”
What is the main idea of the first paragraph?
A) Many young Americans will never be able to pay off their debts.
B) Credit cards play an increasingly important role in college life.
C) Credit cards are doing more harm than students loans.
D) The American credit card system is under criticism.
Why do young people have to pay a higher interest on their credit card debt?
A) They tend to forget about the deadlines.
B) They haven’t developed a credit history.
C) They are often unable to pay back in time.
D) They are inexperienced in managing money.
What is said to be the consequence of young adults relying on credit cards to make ends meet?
A) It will place an unnecessary burden on society.
B) It will give them no motivation to work hard.
C) It will exert psychological pressure on them.
D) It will affect their future spending power.
What will happen to young adults if their credit card debt keeps accumulating according to Lucia Dunn?
A) They will have to pay an increasingly higher interest rate.
B) They may experience a financial crisis in their old age.
C) Their quality of life will be affected.
D) Their credit cards may be cancelled.
What does Lucia Dunn think might be a risk for the credit card issuing banks?
A) They go bankrupt as a result of over-lending.
B) They lose large numbers of their regular clients.
C) Their clients leave their debts unpaid upon death.
D) Their interest rates have to be reduced now and then.
5、A5. Read the passage and choose the best answers.
Passage Three. Questions 1 to 5 are based on the following passage.
In recent years, a growing body of research has shown that our appetite and food intake are influenced by a large number of factors besides our biological need for energy, including our eating environment and our perception of the food in front of us.
Studies have shown, for instance, that eating in front of the TV (or a similar distraction) can increase both hunger and the amount of food consumed. Even simple visual cues, like plate size and lighting, have been shown to affect portion size and consumption.
A new study suggested that our short-term memory also may play a role in appetite. Several hours after a meal, people’s hunger levels were predicted not by how much they’d eaten but rather by how much food they’d seen in front of them — in other words, how much they remembered eating.
This disparity (差异) suggests the memory of our previous meal may have a bigger influence on our appetite than the actual size of the meal, says Jeffrey M.Brunstrom, a professor of experimental psychology at the University of Bristol.
“Hunger isn’t controlled solely by the physical characteristics of a recent meal. We have identified an independent role for memory for that meal,” Brunstrom says. “This shows that the relationship between hunger and food intake is more complex than we thought.”
These findings echo earlier research that suggests our perception of food can sometimes trick our body’s response to the food itself. In a 2011 study, for instance, people who drank the same 380-calorie (卡路里) milkshake on two separate occasions produced different levels of hunger-related hormones (荷尔蒙), depending on whether the shake’s label said it contained 620 or 140 calories. Moreover, the participants reported feeling more full when they thought they’d consumed a higher-calorie shake.
What does this mean for our eating habits? Although it hardly seems practical to trick ourselves into eating less, the new findings do highlight the benefits of focusing on our food and avoiding TV and multitasking while eating.
The so-called mindful-eating strategies can fight distractions and help us control our appetite, Brunstrom says.
What is said to be a factor affecting our appetite and food intake?
A) How we perceive the food we eat.
B) What ingredients the food contains.
C) When we eat our meals.
D) How fast we eat our meals.
What would happen at meal time if you remembered eating a lot in the previous meal?
A) You would probably be more picky about food.
B) You would not feel like eating the same food.
C) You would have a good appetite.
D) You would not feel so hungry.
What do we learn from the 2011 study?
A) Food labels may mislead consumers in their purchases.
B) Food labels may influence our body’s response to food.
C) Hunger levels depend on one’s consumption of calories.
D) People tend to take in a lot more calories than necessary.
What does Brunstrom suggest we do to control our appetite?
A) Trick ourselves into eating less.
B) Choose food with fewer calories.
C) Concentrate on food while eating.
D) Pick dishes of the right size.
What is the main idea of the passage?
A) Eating distractions often affect our food digestion.
B) Psychological factors influence our hunger levels.
C) Our food intake is determined by our biological needs.
D) Good eating habits will contribute to our health.
6、A5-1 Passage Four. Questions 1 to 5 are based on the following passage.
The United States is facing a housing crisis: Affordable housing is inadequate, while luxury homes abound (充裕) , and homelessness remains a persistent problem. Despite this, popular culture and the housing industry market happiness as living with both more space and more amenities (便利设施). Big houses are advertized as a reward for hard work and diligence, turning housing from a basic necessity into a luxury.
This is reflected in our homes. The average single-family home built in the United States before 1970 was less than 1,500 square feet in size. By 2016, the average size of a new, single-family home was 2,422 square feet. What’s more, homes built in the 2000s were more likely than earlier models to have more of all types of spaces: bedrooms, bathrooms, living rooms, dining rooms, recreation rooms and garages.
There are consequences of living big. As middle-class houses have grown larger, two things have happened. First, large houses take time to maintain, so cleaners and other low-wage service workers are required to keep these houses in order. Second, once-public spaces, where people from diverse backgrounds used to come together, have increasingly become privatized, leading to a reduction in the number of public facilities available to all, and a reduced quality of life for many. Take swimming pools. While in 1950, only 2,500 U.S. families owned pools, by 1999 this number was 4 million. At the same time, public municipal pools were often closed, leaving low-income people nowhere to swim.
The trend for bigger housing thus poses ethical questions. Should Americans accept a system in which the middle and upper classes enjoy a luxurious lifestyle, using the low-wage labor of others? Are we willing to accept a system in which an increase in amenities purchased by the affluent means a reduction in amenities for the poor?
I believe neither is acceptable. We must change the way we think: living well does not need to mean having more private spaces; instead, it could mean having more public spaces. A better goal than building bigger houses for some is to create more publicly accessible spaces and amenities for all.
1.What are big houses promoted to be in the United States?
A) A luxury for the homeless.
B) A reward for industriousness.
C) An abundant source of comforts.
D) An absolute necessity for happiness.
2.What is one of the consequences of living big?
A) Many Americans’ quality of life has become lower.
B) People from diverse backgrounds no longer socialize.
C) People no longer have access to public swimming pools.
D) Many Americans’ private life has been negatively affected.
3.What questions arises from living big?
A) Questions related to moral principles.
B) Questions having to do with labor cost.
C) Questions about what lifestyle to promote.
D) Questions concerning housing development.
4.What kind of social system does the author think is unacceptable?
A) One in which the wealthy exploit the low-wage laborers building their houses.
B) One in which the rich purchase amenities at an increasingly unjustifiable price.
C) One in which the upper classes deprive the lower classes of affordable housing.
D) One in which the affluent enjoy a more comfortable life at the expense of the poor.
5.What does the author advocate for people to live well?
A) Finding ways to turn private spaces into public ones.
B) Building more houses affordable to those less affluent.
C) More public spaces created for everyone to enjoy.
D) All amenities made accessible to the rich and the poor alike.
7、A5-2 Passage Five. Questions 1 to 5 are based on the following passage.
Most of us in the entrepreneurial community are blessed—or cursed-with higher-than-average ambition. Ambitious people strongly desire accomplishments and are willing to take more risks and spend more effort to get them.
Overall, this is a positive quality, especially for people trying to build their own businesses. Apparently, if you’re more naturally driven to set goals, you are more likely to succeed.
Actually, this isn’t always the case. In fact, in some cases, extreme ambition may end up doing more harm than good.
One major side effect of excessive ambition is the tendency to focus too determinedly on one particular vision or end goal. This is problematic because it hinders your ability to adapt to new circumstances, which is vital if you want to be a successful entrepreneur. If a new competitor emerges to threaten your business, you may need to change direction, even if that means straying from your original vision. If you have too much ambition, you’ll find this hard, if not impossible.
Few people are successful when they try to build their first brand. Unfortunately, for the most ambitious entrepreneurs, a failure is seen as disastrous, and impossible to recover from.
It’s a clear departure from the intended plan toward the intended goal. For people with limited ambition, however, failure is viewed as something closer to reality. Remember, failure is inevitable, and every failure you survive is a learning experience.
Ambitious people tend to be more materialistically successful than their non-ambitious counterparts. However, they’re only slightly happier than their less-ambitious counterparts, and tend to live significantly shorter lives. This implies that even though ambitious people are more likely to achieve conventional “success,” such success means nothing for their health and happiness—and if you don’t have health and happiness, what else could possibly matter?
Clearly, some amount of ambition is good for your motivation. Without any ambition, you wouldn’t start your own business, set or achieve goals and get far in life. But an excess of ambition can also be dangerous, putting you at risk of burnout, stubbornness and even a shorter life.
What does the author think of most entrepreneurs?
A) They are more willing to risk their own lives.
B) They are more ambitious than ordinary people.
C) They achieve greater nonconventional success.
D) They have more positive qualities than most of us.
What does the author imply by saying “this isn’t always the case” (Line 1, Para. 3)?
A) Ambitious people may not have a greater chance of success.
B) Ambitious people may not have more positive qualities.
C) Entrepreneurs’ ambition does as much good as harm.
D) Entrepreneurs are more naturally driven to success.
What does the author say is of extreme importance for one to become a successful entrepreneur?
A) Holding on to one’s original vision.
B) Being able to adapt to new situations.
C) Focusing determinedly on one particular goal.
D) Avoiding radical change in one’s career direction.
How do the most ambitious entrepreneurs regard failure in their endeavor?
A) It will awaken them to reality.
B) It is a lesson they have to learn.
C) It means the end of their career.
D) It will result in a slow recovery.
5.What does the author advise us to do concerning ambition?
A) Distinguish between conventional success and our life goal.
B) Follow the example of the most ambitious entrepreneurs.
C) Avoid taking unnecessary risks when starting a business.
D) Prioritize health and happiness over material success.
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