If you land in India anytime in late February or March, it’s wise to check the dates of the annual Holi festival and bring a spare set of clothes. That’s because for a few days in spring, people crowd the streets and pelt (投掷) anyone walking by with brightly-colored powder to celebrate the arrival of spring and the end of evil. It’s hard to avoid the fun and the paint, unless you stay inside or look angry enough to discourage the custom.
“Watch out, madam!” said my taxi driver in Amritsar as we drove through a crowd of young people pelting each other with powder. “The colors never come out of your clothes,” he said. “And you might be having purple hair for many days.”
I did a quick check. I was wearing black, a color rarely seen in India. It is usually connected with the lowest social classes, and can be viewed as unlucky. I was happy for my clothes to be painted in colors.
“I have some powder I bought for my children. You can have some gladly, to join in our customs.” he encouraged. Holding what the driver handed me as my weapon of choice, I walked into the Holi smoke. At first people politely avoided foreigners. But then a girl in a sari(一种印度服饰) ran up smiling and put paint on my face. I returned the favor with a handful of pink.
With its brilliant clothes, exotic flowers, trucks covered with lights and brightly painted pictures of gods, India is truly one of the most colorful places on the planet!
1.Which of the following sentences about the Holi festival is correct?
A.It falls on the same day each year and is celebrated for a few days.
B.It is a playful cultural event to throw colors at friends or strangers.
C.It has many purposes, celebrating the end of spring in particular.
D.It is fun for local people but a little unacceptable for foreigners.
2.I was happy for my black clothes to be painted in colors because .
A.the festival influenced my taste in fashion.
B.the taxi driver suggested wearing something colorful.
C.black was the color not liked by people in India.
D.a girl invited me to join in their customs.
3.We can learn from the passage that .
A.the color black provides people with a sense of mystery and tradition.
B.foreigners can’t be too careful in the street in India during the Holi festival.
C.a sari, worn especially by Indian women, is a must for the Holi celebration.
D.anyone can be attacked during Holi festival.
难度: 中等查看答案及解析
Telling a yellow taxi and a binoculars (双筒望远镜)apart is so easy that most people could do it without a second thought. However, it is not so for an artificial intelligence: if you turn the taxi upside down, it sees Binoculars.
This is just one of dozens of examples that show AI is a lot worse at identifying(识别) objects by sight than many people realize. The examples, collected by Anh Nguyen at Auburn University in Alabama, raise concerns about the real-world ability of AI image recognition systems.
Nguyen and his colleagues took images of common objects from the Internet and rotated (旋转) and changed the position of the objects in the pictures. They found this was enough to confuse several AI systems, including Google’s. In one case, a school bus that was correctly identified in the original image was misidentified as a lunch box when upside down in the road. It shows these systems aren’t as intelligent as many people think they are.
Nguyen worries what could happen in real-world situations. For example, it makes sense for a driverless car with AI system to avoid an object it can’t recognize. But if the car stop unexpectedly because it thinks a Coke can is a fire fighting truck, this could be as dangerous as thinking a fire fighting truck is a Coke can. This is one reason why driverless cars will need several sensors (传感器) to provide more information, says Nguyen.
His team has been discovering these problems for the past few years, but nobody knows how to fix them. The biggest problem to progress is that when an AI looks at an image, it can’t extract (提炼) rules that would help it identify a similar one next time – such as the rule that horses have four legs. “To reach a human level of reasoning, we need a way to extract rules from images,” says Nguyen.
1.In paragraph 1, the example of a taxi is used to .
A.raise people’s concerns about the safety of AI system.
B.prove that human beings are much smarter than AI systems.
C.introduce the topic concerning AI’s image recognition ability.
D.show a taxi can have different forms when seen from different views.
2.We can learn from the last paragraph that .
A.AI can’t tell a horse and a car apart because they both have four legs.
B.AI can’t reason like human, which is the biggest challenge.
C.AI doesn’t have the ability to tell things apart that look similar.
D.AI can’t identify images from earlier experiences.
3.What is the best title for this passage?
A.Problems remain to be solved.
B.AI is no cleverer than human beings.
C.AI can’t see things from another view.
D.Driverless cars need to be improved.
难度: 中等查看答案及解析
Traveling with kids is 90 percent reminding yourself to live in the moment and 10 percent making up your mind to never again leave your house.
I have an uncanny ability to forget this as soon as we return home from a trip and I've finished washing piles of dirty clothes in our luggage and cleaning all the messy caused by the kids. Extremely tired and annoyed, I would actually begin to miss the place we just left!
Family travel is like childbirth, I suppose. Painful, loud, messy, sort of awful, actually, but also wonderful. And you remember only the wonderful—until you’re back on a plane and your kids are fighting over who gets the aisle seat. Then you remember the bad stuff.
Last weekend, my kids and I flew to Texas for a trip we would have nothing to complain(抱怨) about—big hotel, wonderful view.
And yet—we found things to complain about. The pool was bigger in that other hotel! Why do you get to shower first? They call this coffee?! Luckily, I’ve learned to put my metaphorical coat of armor (盔甲) on as soon as we land somewhere, and it forces complaints to bounce off me and land in a pile at my feet.
For three days, genuine fun was had and annoying complaints were heard and ignored. Until it was time to catch a plane and fly home.
Unfortunately, our flight was canceled. We spent hours finding a hotel room. We hit the hotel pool before bed and swam well into the night, my kids making up songs and laughing so hard at their silly lyrics (歌词) and their crazy good fortune to be swimming at 10: 30 on a school night.
And that was when it hit me that family travel is all those things I said before but it’s also a lot more. It’s taking your kids to parts of the world that will open their eyes and finding that actually, yours need opening too. It’s remembering that joy and memories are where you make them, not where you find them.
1.The underlined word “uncanny” in Paragraph 2 is closest in meaning to .
A.unknown. B.uncertain.
C.unexpected. D.unusual.
2.According to the passage, family travel is like childbirth in that .
A.they both cause financial trouble and pain.
B.they are both hard as well as rewarding.
C.childhood memories come flooding back when they travel.
D.both of them need many preparations.
3.By saying “I’ve learned to put my metaphorical coat of armor on” in Paragraph 5, the author means that_ .
A.she tries to deal with the complaints more wisely and properly.
B.she turns those annoying complaints into a means to educate kids.
C.she has improved her language skills when handling the complaints.
D.she has succeeded in escaping kids’ fighting thanks to the armor.
4.From the author’s experience in the passage, we can NOT learn that .
A.family vacation benefits her kids as well as her.
B.joy and memories should be created rather than discovered.
C.the most unforgettable memory for her is about the complaints.
D.she has to spend some time on housework after the family vacation.
难度: 困难查看答案及解析
While the internet is a great place for learning, socialising and having fun, it can also come with some danger. It’s understandable that you may want to stop your children from ever going online in order to protect them. 1.. Here are five tips to help you talk to your kids about online safety.
1. Be honest about the dangers
As soon as your kids are old enough to get online, have an age-appropriate chat with them about what they could meet with. Be honest about the issue of scammers(骗子)and advise them to come to you if they come across such incidents. Let them know that the anonymity(匿名)of the internet allows people to pretend to be someone they’re not so.2..
2. Encourage them to speak up
Flag certain behaviours or incidents that they should immediately alert you to. These include someone they don’t know trying to communicate with them online, coming across inappropriate sites, and someone threatening them online.
3.Let them know that they won’t be punished
Your kids may be scared to tell you if they’ve encountered trouble online for fear that you may stop the usage of their phone or computer .3.. Your role is to help them and keep them safe.
4.4..
Make it absolutely clear that there are a few things that are completely out of bounds(界限). These include meeting up with anyone they got to know online whom they don’t know in real life, giving away any personal information such as their address or phone number, or your credit card details, and posting personal photos or videos that they wouldn’t be comfortable sharing with the world.
5. Spend time with your kids online
Sit with them when they’re using the computer or phone.5..If you encounter a site or post that is inappropriate, explain clearly why you think so.
A.Find out what sites they’re using or games they’re playing.
B.Set rules for what they shouldn’t do.
C.However, it’s far better to equip them with the right skills so they will be able to deal with dangerous situations.
D.Make it clear that you won’t punish them for being honest.
E.Completely stopping them using Internet is the best way.
F.Just as they wouldn’t trust strangers in real life, they need to be extra careful online.
G.Internet is a place filled with danger
难度: 中等查看答案及解析
In December 1996, when my son Zac was six months old, I noticed something wasn’t right. He would play with toys on his ____ side and it was as if his right side wasn’t there. When I took him to see the baby nurse a few weeks later, she ____ I see a paediatrician(儿科专家)as soon as possible.
For the next six months, Zac and I paid countless ____ to the paediatrician. Zac screamed and I tried ____ to calm him down. Then at 12 months, Zac had a CT scan(扫描) to see ____ was going on. The scan ____ showed that my beautiful boy had cerebral palsy(脑瘫). I was shocked. This wasn’t what I had ____ for my baby. I’d planned football in the park and fun holidays. All this seemed so far away from what we were now _____ with.
But ____, Zac began to set his own pace. When he was 11months old, he began to crawl by pushing himself along with his right leg ____ behind. He walked at 20 months. Although his body was unbalanced, it never ____ him from doing anything. ____ was made and we became more and more confident. Through all of it, Zac continued to smile, laugh and ____ complain.
During the process, I controlled my ____ of him getting hurt playing sport and let him ___ his passions(激情). He especially excelled in long jump and he has even ____ his state six times in the national competition. Then in 2011, he became the Australian long jump ____ holder in the under-13 group. If I had been too afraid to let him play sport, he would never have had the ____ to travel, compete and meet amazing people from all over the world.
Earlier this year, he began to study a Bachelor’s degree at Flinders University. He ____ our family and I enjoy the unique journey we shared together. I am so ____ he chose me to be his mum. He is my most incredible gift.
1.A.left B.up C.down D.forward
2.A.said B.suggested C.told D.mentioned
3.A.attention B.visits C.money D.efforts
4.A.hardly B.helplessly C.hard D.fiercely
5.A.how B.where C.why D.what
6.A.process B.methods C.results D.ways
7.A.planned B.hoped C.imagined D.chosen
8.A.dealt B.solved C.focused D.faced
9.A.gradually B.suddenly C.totally D.immediately
10.A.pushing B.dragging C.hanging D.swinging
11.A.supported B.preserved C.stopped D.protected
12.A.Progress B.Celebration C.Program D.Challenge
13.A.always B.sometimes C.occasionally D.seldom
14.A.thought B.fear C.devotion D.permission
15.A.spread B.observe C.follow D.deliver
16.A.represented B.showed C.belonged D.earned
17.A.competition B.record C.game D.athlete
18.A.change B.present C.thought D.chance
19.A.teaches B.contributes C.inspires D.reminds
20.A.peaceful B.skillful C.meaningful D.grateful
难度: 中等查看答案及解析
阅读下面材料，在空白处填入适当的内容或括号内单词的正确形式 。
According to Maoyan, the 1.(big) movie ticketing app in China, “My people ,My country ”came out on top ,with 278 million yuan .The movie is made up of seven separate 2.(story). Each of the leading actors is caught up in 3.key moment of China’s history ,such as the nation’s founding 4.Oct. 1,1949, the handover of Hong Kong on July 1,1997 5. the 2008 Beijing Olympics. The movie highlighted(突出) both its patriotic content(爱国情怀) and its star power, 6.(include) the famous director Chen Kaige and the well-known star Huang Bo . “I 7.(go)to see the movie yesterday. Tears welled in my eyes ,and I felt 8.(touch) and proud at the same time ,” one Weibo user wrote .The movie was made by seven directors, most of 9.lived through these important moments. The movie’s theme song “Me and My Mother Country”10.(record)by Hong Kong’s singer Faye Wang has been heard in shops, restaurants and workplaces all across the mainland .
难度: 中等查看答案及解析
假定你是李华，你所在的班级将举行派对，请你给外教Mr. Smith 写一封邀请信，内容包括：
1、 时间：周日下午6点
2、 地点：学校餐厅
3、 活动安排：享用晚餐、观看演出、玩游戏等。
注意：1、词数80左右；
2、可适当增加细节，以使行文连贯。
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难度: 中等查看答案及解析
阅读下面的短文，根据所给情节进行续写，使之构成一个完整的故事。
Practice after practice, he eagerly gave everything he had to football. But being half the size of the other boys, he got absolutely nowhere. At all the games, this hopeful athlete sat on the bench and hardly ever played.
This teenager lived alone with his father and the two of them had a very special relationship. Even though the son was always on the bench, his father was always in the stands cheering. He never missed a game. This young man was still the smallest of the class when he entered high school. But his father continued to encourage him but also made it very clear that he did not have to play football if he didn't want to.
But the young man loved football and decided to continue. He was determined to try his best at every practice, and perhaps he'd get to play when he became a senior. All through high school he never missed a practice nor a game but remained a bench-warmer all four years. His faithful father was always in the stands, always with words of encouragement for him. When the young man went to college, he decided to try out for the football team as a “walk-on”(跑龙套).Everyone was sure he could never make the cut(比赛资格), but he did.
The news that he had survived the cut made him so excited that he rushed to the nearest phone and called his father. His father shared his excitement and was sent season tickets for all the college games. This persistent young athlete never missed practice during his four years at college, but he never got to play in a game.
It was the end of his senior football season, and as he ran onto the practice field shortly before the final game, the coach met him with a telegram. The young man read the telegram and he became deathly silent. Swallowing hard, he mumbled to the coach, “My father died this morning. Is it all right if I miss practice today?”The coach put his arm gently around his shoulder and said, “Take the rest of the week off, son, and don't even plan to come back to the game on Saturday.”
注意：
1．所续写短文的词数应为150左右；
2．应使用5个以上短文文中标有下划线的关键词语；
3．续写部分分为两段，每段的开头语已为你写好；
4．续写完成后，请用下划线标出你所使用的关键词语。
Paragraph1：
Saturday arrived, and the game was not going well.
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Paragraph2:
Finally, after the team left, the coach noticed the young man sitting quietly in the corner alone. __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
难度: 中等查看答案及解析