第三部分：阅读理解(共两节，40分)
第一节 (共15小题;每小题2分，共30分)
阅读下列短文，从每题所给的A、B、C、D四个选项中，选出最佳选项，并在答题卡上将该项涂黑。
A
Sweat rolled off my forehead as my younger brother and I sat under the tree.
“Hi, Jason,” said my brother, Chad. “Do you hear the train?” I listened, but I heard only thunder in the distance. It was still miles away, but I heard it. It grew stronger and louder as it gained speed and got closer. How could that be? I wondered.
We were about to grab our bikes to see what it actually was when we stopped. What looked like a flock of birds darkened the sky overhead. When I looked at it closer, I realized it wasn’t birds. It was a tornado(龙卷风). The hairs on the back of my neck stood up as the air turned green and heavy. The sun disappeared. The wind strengthened and roared. I grabbed Chad’s arm and pulled him toward the house.
I tried to open the door, but it was as if an invisible force pushed against me. The door refused to open. When we finally managed to get inside, we found it was as dark as night. Our family had practiced a tornado safety plan many times. But I had never imagined that it would be just Chad and me at home the first time we needed to use it.
“Inside the closet!” I yelled. It was small and crowded, but we got in it anyway. Chad began to cry. “It’s going to be all right.” I told him. But I was worried about Mom. I hope she’d found a safe place to wait out the storm.
The storm continued to rage. I heard a thud on the roof. The whole house creaked and groaned. Then it was quiet. I opened the door and we inched our way out of the closet. Rain had got in through the open window and wet the carpets. A kitchen window had shattered, its screen blown away. I looked at the backyard. The tree was uprooted, and broken branches lay on the ground.
“Jason, I can’t get service,” Chad said as he held the phone in his hand. We had no electricity, either. I glanced at the wall clock. Had it been only 20 minutes since we’d first heard the thunder?
Then I heard footsteps toward the house. Mom had made it home safely. “Boys!” she yelled. “Are you all right?”
We ran out and hugged her. The sun came out, and this time it shone bright and clear.
56. When the tornado struck, ________.
A. the boys felt terrified and asked for help
B. a flock of birds darkened the sky overhead
C. the boys protected themselves in a safe place
D. the sound of the train grew stronger and louder
57. What can we learn from the passage?
A. Mom had trouble in finding the boys.
B. Jason knew how to deal with a tornado.
C. The tornado lasted for over half an hour.
D. Their house was flooded by the heavy rain.
58. Which of the following words can best describe Jason?
A. Calm and thoughtful. B. Cautious and curious.
C. Dependent and sensitive. D. Creative and active.
B
While your competitors are still waiting for the water to warm up, you could be giving your dragon boat season a jump-start with a paddling vacation in Orlando, Florida. Spring camp is suitable for all ages and levels, perfect for those looking for a break from the ordinary (or cold) while enjoying the sport of dragon boat with like-minded people.
The 2018 Florida Training Camp promises to be a week of fun and fitness on and off the water. Register as a team, small group or individual, with customizable(定制的) add-ons for those looking to give an edge to their personal performance.
The week will close out on Saturday with a camp BBQ and a racing regatta! Opening festivities begin on the evening of Sunday April 15th with camp check-in. Training begins on Monday April 16th and ends on Saturday April 21st.
GWN FLORIDA TRAINING CAMP
Dates: Monday April 16th to Saturday April 21st, 2018
Price: $395 USD, $370 before January 19th, 2018
Features include:
• Daily schedule
• Twice daily dragon boat training sessions
• Daily video analysis
• Individual help (twice weekly)
• Additional daily group sessions
• Camp-sponsored socials
CUSTOMIZE YOUR CAMP EXPERIENCE
The options outlined below are available during the week of camp and can be booked as an add-on. Add-ons can be included in your initial registration or purchased at a later time through the online registration system.
Option 1: High Performance Program, Cost: $75 USD
If you want to learn how to move your boat faster, then the High Performance program is for you! This option consists of three progressive one-hour sessions completely focused on racing techniques, strategies, and drills, with the goal of increasing your overall speed.
Option 2: Coaching Community Dragon Boat (Level 1), Cost: $175 USD
This course is intended for anyone interested in entry-level coaching. Expect the material included in the course to cover safety, ethics(道德) in coaching, coach-athlete communication, basic dragon boat technique, basic physiological requirements of dragon boat racing, race and practice planning, plus more.
59. According to the passage, in this camp.
A. you will enjoy a BBQ at the opening B. you need to be over 18
C. you should have some dragon boat skills D. you can have fun on land
60. How much does the camp with Option 1 cost if you pay at the end of 2017?
A. $ 370. B. $ 395. C. $ 445. D. $ 470.
61. We can learn from the passage that _____.
A. Option 1 includes a three-hour session
B. add-ons can be bought during registration
C. Option 2 is for those fond of advanced coaching
D. video analysis is covered in the coaching course
62. The purpose of the passage is to ______.
A. recommend an upcoming training camp
B. introduce the options in a training camp
C. provide ideas about how to spend a vacation
D. offer advice on how to win in dragon boat races
C
As the world’s population grows, farmers will need to produce more and more food. And large farms are increasingly using precision farming to increase yields (产量), reduce waste, and reduce the economic and security risks that inevitably accompany agricultural uncertainty.
Traditional farming relies on managing entire fields—making decisions related to planting, harvesting, irrigating, and applying pesticides and fertilizer (农药和化肥)—based on regional conditions and historical data. Precision farming, by contrast, combines sensors, robots, GPS, mapping tools and data-analytics software to customize the care that plants receive without increasing labor. Robot-mounted sensors and camera-equipped drones (无人机) wirelessly send images and data on individual plants to a computer, which looks for signs of health and stress. Farmers receive the feedback in real time and then deliver water, pesticide or fertilizer in adjusted doses(剂量) to only the areas that need it. The technology can also help farmers decide when to plant and harvest crops.
As a result, precision farming can improve time management, reduce water and chemical use, and produce healthier crops and higher yields—all of which benefit farmers’ bottom lines and conserve resources while reducing chemical runoff.
Many small businesses are developing new software, sensors, and other tools for precision farming, as are large companies such as Monsanto, John Deere, Bayer, Dow and DuPont. The U.S. Department of Agriculture, NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration all support precision farming, and many colleges now offer course work on the topic.
In a related development, seed producers are applying technology to improve plant characteristics. By following individual plants over time and analyzing which ones flourish in different conditions, companies can relate the plants’ response to their environments with their genomics(基因组学). That information, in turn, allows the companies to produce seed varieties that will grow well in specific soil and weather conditions. This advanced technology may also help to improve crop nutrition.
Farmers do not universally welcome precision agriculture for various reasons, such as high equipment costs and lack of access to the Internet. The technology may bring great challenges to experienced farmers who are not good at computers. And large systems will also be beyond the reach of many small farming operations in developing nations. But less expensive, simpler systems could potentially be applied. For others, though, cost savings in the long run may reduce the financial concerns. And however reticent some farmers may be to adopt new technology, the next generation of farmers are likely to warm to the approach.
63. Precision farming differs from traditional farming partly because it ________.
A. provides real time information about target crops
B. relies on regional conditions and historical data
C. offers plenty of water, pesticides and fertilizer
D. guarantees high yields with more labor
64. About precision farming, we can learn that________.
A. the government holds a cautious attitude
B. it draws positive responses from businesses
C. seed producers have already made huge profits
D. large systems will soon be built in developing nations
65. The underlined word “reticent” in the last paragraph probably means ________.
A. disappointed B. confused C. shocked D. unwilling
66. What is the best title for the passage?
A. Precision Farming Increases Crop Yields
B. More Challenges Faced by Modern Farmers
C. Development of Farming Systems in the U.S.
D. Traditional Farming is Gradually Disappearing
D
Is Technology Moving Too Fast?
Differing fundamentally from the prior technologies such as telephone, television and automobile, which are better known as lock-in, the new technologies—computers, biotechnology and nanotech (纳米技术)—are self-accelerating. This means that the products of their own processes enable them to develop even more rapidly. Since they drive almost whole sectors of society, creating unstable, unpredictable and unreliable conditions, there is a growing public concern that perhaps what civilization needs is a NOT-SO-FAST button.
Supporters of technological determinism make a strong case for letting self-accelerating technologies follow their own life cycle. Rapid development in computer technology, they point out, has separated robotics and the Internet—to the great benefit of industry and human communications. Besides, it isn’t so easy for a free society to put the brakes on technology. Even if one country decided to abandon the next technological revolution, another country would gladly take it up.
However, there are comforting situations in which technology may brake itself.
In the aging population of the developed world, many people are already tired of trying to keep up with the latest cool new tech. Youth-driven tech acceleration could be interpreted as simple youthful stupidity—short-sighted and short-lived. The market for change could dry up, and lock-in might again become the norm. Stress and great tiredness make powerful decelerators.
Change that is too rapid can be deeply divisive. If only elite (精英) can keep up, the rest of us will grow increasingly puzzled about how the world works. We can understand natural biology, complex as it is, because it holds still. But how will we ever be able to understand quantum computing (量子计算) or nanotechnology if its complexity keeps accelerating away from us?
Constant technological revolution makes planning difficult, and a society that stops planning for the future is likely to become a fragile society. It could experience violent economic unrest. It could slip into wars fought with cruel new weapons. Its widespread new technologies could fail in massive or horrible ways. All these constant, worrying small failures could weaken the whole social progress.
With so many powerful forces in play, technology could hyper-accelerate to the stars with astonishing rapidity, or it could stop completely. My expectation is that it will do both, with various technologies proceeding at various rates. The new technologies may be self-accelerating, but they are not self-determining. They are the result of ever renegotiated agreement with society. Because they are so powerful, their paths may undergo wild swings, but I think the trend will be toward the dynamic middle: much slower than the optimists expect, much faster than the pessimists think humanity can bear.
67. Supporters of technology self-acceleration hold the view that ________.
A. the society is free to make the technology go more slowly
B. the high rate of computer tech is of great benefit to human
C. robotics has developed less rapidly than computer technology
D. self-accelerating technologies promote international cooperation
68. According to the passage, what may slow down the accelerating technology?
A. A carefully planned society. B. The simple youthful stupidity.
C. People’s stress and exhaustion. D. The rapid change of the market.
69. What’s the author’s purpose in writing the passage?
A. To guide the new technologies for a safe acceleration.
B. To confirm the public concern about new technologies.
C. To explain the threats in technological self-acceleration.
D. To relieve the public fear for technology acceleration.
第二节(共5小题;每小题2分，共10分)
根据短文内容，从短文后的七个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。
A kiln (窑) is a type of oven or furnace used to cure, harden, or burn certain materials. Depending on which materials are heated in it, a kiln may be square, tunnel shaped, or beehive shaped, and usually made of brick or stone. 71 It may be set as low as sixty-five degrees to cure grain or as high as 3,200 degrees to transform limestone to quicklime (熟石灰).
72 They have a variety of purposes. The cement(水泥) industry uses revolving kilns to heat and separate raw materials. Bricks, pottery, and china made from clay must be fired, or hardened, in kilns. Certain kinds of coal and wood must be kiln-dried before they can be used. Hobbyists use small kilns to fire a variety of ceramic(陶瓷) objects.
There are two main types of kilns. A periodic kiln, used to fire certain kinds of delicate china, is raised to a high temperature and then completely cooled before its contents are removed. A continuous, or tunnel kiln contains several chambers, or zones, which heat, bake, and cool a product. Stacks of clay bricks move through a tunnel kiln on tracks. 73
Gas, oil, and coal are all used to heat modern kilns. 74 But for special jobs, where cleanliness and careful heat are important, kilns must be heated by electricity oven though it is more expensive. Small kilns used in the home or in craft shops are also heated electrically because electricity is clean and convenient.
75 When ancient people discovered that heat hardened some materials, they were able to make durable household objects such as jugs and bowls. Today our museums display many kinds of ancient statues and art objects that have lasted because they had been kiln-dried. They come from lands as far apart as China and Greece.
A. Its temperature may vary.
B. Then they come out, hardened, and cooled.
C. Kilns are used in industry and in craft-making.
D. Kilns have been in use for thousands of years.
E. An electric kiln is a heating chamber used to transform materials.
F. Most manufacturers use whichever material is cheapest in their area.
G. Clay, when heated properly, becomes hard enough to form bowls and plates.
第四部分：书面表达(共两节，35分)
第一节(15分)
假设你是红星中学学生会主席李华。来自美国姊妹校的部分学生将于下周五访问你校，请你用英文准备一份欢迎词，内容包括：
1. 表示欢迎。
2. 说明当天的安排：
1)观摩并体验太极拳(Tai Chi);
2)游览一处北京名胜。
注意：1. 词数不少于50。
2. 开头已为你写好，不计入总次数。
注意：1. 词数不少于50。
2. 开头已为你写好，不计入总次数。
提示词：书法 窗体顶端
提示词窗体底端
Dear friends,
