Section I Use of English
Directions:
Read the following text . Choose
the best word(s) for each numbered blank and mark A,B,CorDonANSWERSHEET1.(
10 points)
Section II Reading Comprehension
Part A
Directions:
Read the following four text s.
Answer the questions below each textby choosing A,B,C,orD.Mark
your answers on ANSWERS HEET1.( 40 points)
Text 1
How can the train operators
possibly justify yet another increase tcrail passenger fares?It has become a
grimly reliable annual ritual:every January the cost of travelling by train rises, imposing asignificant extra burden on those who have no option but
to use therail network to get to work or otherwise .Thisyearsrise,an average of2.7percent,maybea fraction
lower than last year 's,butitis stilwell above the
official Consumer Price Index (CPI)measureofinflation.Successive governments
have permitted such increases on thegrounds that the cost of investing in and
running the rail networkshould bebornebythosewhouseit, rather than the general tax paye iWhy,theargumentgoes,should a car-driving pensioner fromLincolnshire have to subsidise
the daily commute of a stock broke ifrom Surrey ?Equally, there is a sense that the travails of commuters inthe SouthEast
.manyofwhomwilface among the biggest rises, havereceived too much attention compared to those who must endure therelatively
poor infrastructure of the Midlands and the North .
However ,over the past 12months, those commuters have alsoexperienced some of the worst rail strikes
in years .Itis all very welltrain operators trumpeting the improvements the are
making to thenetwork .but passengers should be able to expect a basic level
ofservice for the substantial sums they are now paying to travel .
Theresponsibility for the latest wave of strikes rests on the unions .However , there is a strong case that those who have been worstaffected by
industrial action should receive compensation for thedisruption they have
suffered .
The Government has pledged to
change the law to introduce aminimum service requirements othat,even when strikes occur
services can continue to operate . This should form part of a wide ipackage of
measures to address the long - running problems onBritain 'srailways.Yes, more investment is needed ,but passengers
wills not be willing to pay more indefinitely if they must also endurecramped
unreliable services .punctuated by regular chaos whertimetablesarechanged ,orplannedmaintenanceismanagedincompetently . The threat of
nationalisation may have been seen of lfor now.butit will return with a
vengeance if the justified anger ofpassengers is not addressed in short order .
21.The author holds that this
year 's increase in rail passengers fares
A.will ease train operation 's
burden
B.has kept pace with inflation
C.is a big surprise to commuters
D. remains on
22.The stockbroker in2is used to
stand for
A.car drivers
B.rail travellers
C. local investors
D. ordinary taxpayers
23.It is indicated in 3 that
train operators
A. are offering compensations to
commuters
B.aretying to repair relations
with the unionsl
C. have failed to provide an
adequate source
D. have suffered huge losses
owing to the strikes
24..(缺)
25..(缺)
Text 2
Last year marked the third year
in a row that Indonesia 'sbleak rateof deforestation has slowed inpace.One
reason for the turnaroundmaybe the country’s antipoverty program .
In 2007, Indonesia started phasing
in a program that gives moneyto its poorest residents under certain conditions ,suc has requiring people to keep kids in school or get regular medical
care . Called conditional cash transfers or CCTs, these
social assistance programsare designed to reduce inequality and break the cycle
of povertyThe y're already used in dozens of countries worldwide .InIndonesia,the program has provided enough food and medicine to substantially
reduce severe growth problems among children .
But CCT programs don't generally
consider effects on the environment .In fact poverty alleviation and
environmental protection are often viewed as conflicting goals ,says Paul Ferraro,an economist at Johns Hopkins University .
That 's because economic growth
canbe correlatedwithenvironmental degradation , while protecting the environment is sometimes
correlated with greater poverty .However ,those
correlations don't prove cause and effect . The only previous studyanalyzing
causality , based on an area in Mexico that had
institutedCCTs, supported the traditional view .There,as people got moremoney , some of them may
have more cleared land for cattle to raisefor meat,Ferrarosays.
Such programs do not have to
negatively affect the environment ,though . Ferraro wanted to see if Indonesia 's
poverty-alleviationprogram was affecting deforestation . Indonesia has the
third-largestarea of tropical forest in the world andoneof the highest deforestation
rates .
Ferraro analyzed satellite data
showing annual forest loss from2008 to 2012-including during Indonesia 's
phase—in of theantipoverty program -in7, 468 forested villages across 15 provincesand multiple
islands .Theduo separated the effects of the CCT programon forest loss
fromother factors , like weatherand macroeconomic
changes , which were also affecting forest loss.
Withthat ,"we see that the program is associated
with a 30 percent reduction in deforestation , "Ferraro says .
That 's likely because the rural
poor are using the money as makeshiftinsurance policies against inclement
weather ,Ferrarosays.Typically, ilrains are delayed , people may clear land
to plant more rice tasupplement their harvests.With the CCTs, individuals instead can usethe money to supplement their harvests.
Whether this research translates
elsewhere is anybody 'sguess.Ferraro suggests the importance of growing rice
and market access .And regardless of transferability ,thestudyshowsthatwhat's
goodfor people may also be good for value of the avoided deforestationjust for
carbon dioxide emissions alone is more than the program costs .
26.According to the fisttwo
paragraphs ,CCTprogramsaim
to
A. facilitate healthcare reform .
B. help poor families get better off.
C. improve local education
systems .
D. lower deforestation rates .
27.The study based on an area in
Mexico is cited to show that
A. cattle rearing has been a
major means of livelihood for the poor
B.CCT programs have helped
preserve traditional lifestyles .
C. antipoverty efforts require
the participation of local farmers .
D. economic growth tends to cause
environmental degradation .
28.In his study about Indonesia , Ferraro intends to find
out
A.its acceptance level of CCTs.
B.its annual rate of poverty
alleviation .
C. the relation of
CCTstoitsforestloss.
D. the role of its forests in
climate change .
29.According to Ferraro ,theCCT program in
Indonesia is mostvaluable in that
A.it will benefit other Asian
countries .
B.it will reduce regional inequality
.
C.it can protect the environment
.
D.it can boost grain production .
30.What is the text centered on?
A.The effects of aprogram.
B .The debates over a program.
C.The process of a study.
D. The transferability of a study
.
Text 3
As a historian who's always
searching for the text or image that makes us re-evaluate the past,I've become
preoccupied with looking for photographs that show our Victorian ancestors
smiling( what better way to shatter the image of 19th-century prudery?) .l've
found quite a few, and-since I started posting them on Twitter-they have been causing
quite astir.People have been surprised to see evidence that Victorians had fun
and could,and did, laugh. They
are noting that the Victorians suddenly seem to become more human as the hundred-or-so
years that separate us fade away through our common experience of laughter .
Of course, I need to concede that my
collection of'Smiling Victorians' makes up only a tiny percentage of the vast
catalogue of photographic portraiture created between 1840 and 1900, the majority of which show sitters posing miserably anddu stiffly
in front of painted backdrops,or staring absently into
the middle distance .How do we explain this trend ?
During the 1840s and 1850s, in the early days of
photography, exposure times were notoriously long :the daguerreotype photographic method ( producing an image on a
silvered copper plate) could take several minutes to complete, resulting in blurred images as sitters shifted position or adjusted
their limbs. The thought of holding a fixed grinas the camera performed its
magical duties was too much to contemplate, and so an
on-committal blank stare became the norm.
But exposure times were much
quicker by the 1880s, and the introduction of the BoxBrownie and other portable cameras
meant that, though slow by today 's digital standards,the
exposure was almostc instantaneous.Spontaneous smiles were relatively easy to
capture by the 1890s,so we must look elsewhere for an
explanation of why Victorians still hesitated to smile .
One explanation might be the loss
ofdignity displayed through acheesygrin.“Nature gave uslipstoconcealourteeth,ran one popular Victorian
saying , alluding to.the fact that before the birth of
properdentistry , mouths were often in a shockingstate
of hygiene .A flashing set of healthyand clean ,regular'pearlywhites'
was a rare sight in Victorian society , the preserve of
eythesuper-rich( and even the dentalhygiene was not guaranteed ).
A toothygrin( especially when
there were gaps or blackened.edteeth) lacked class:drunks,tramps and music hall performers might gurn and grin with a smileas
wide asLewis Carrol'sgum-exposing
several minutes to complete , resulting inblurred
images as sitters shifted position oradjusted their limbs. The thought of
holdinga fixed grin as the camera performed its magicalduties was too muchp
tocontemplate ,andsoa non- committal blankstare became
the norm.
But exposure times were much
quicker by the 1880s, and the introduction of the Box Brownie and other portable cameras
meant that , though slow by today ‘s digitastandards ,the exposure was almost instantaneous . Spontaneous smiles were
relatively easy to capture by the 1890s,so we must look
elsewhere for an explanationof why Victorians still hesitated to smile .
Cheshire Cat, but it was not a becoming
lookfor properly bred persons .Even Mark Twain,a man
who enjoyed a hearty laugh, said thatwhen itcameto
photographic portraits there could be nothing more damningthan a silly, foolish smile fixed forever.
31. According to Paragraph 1, the author’sposts on
Twitter
A.Changedpeople'es impression of
the Victorians
B. highlighted social media’s
role inVictorian studies
C.re- evaluated the Victorians
notion of public image .
D. illustrated the development of
Victorianphotography .
32.Whatdoesauthor
sayabouttheVictorian portraits he has collected ?
A.They are in popular use among
historians .
B. They are rare among
photographs ofthat age.
C.They mirror19th- century
socialedu conventions .
D.They show effects of different
exposure times.
33. What might have kept the
Victorians from smiling for pictures in the 1890s?
A. Their inherent social
sensitiveness .
B. Their tension before the
camera .
C. Their distrust of new
inventions .
D. Their unhealthy dental
condition .
34.Mark Twain is quoted to show
that the disapproval of smiles in pictures was
A.adeep-rootbelief.
B.amisguidedattitude.
Ca controversial view .
D .athought-provokingidea.
35. Which of the following
questions doesthe text answer ?
A.Whydid most Victorians look
stern in photographs ?
B.Whydid the Victorians startto
view photographs ?
C.What made photography develop
slowly in the Victorian period ?
D.How didsm
linginphotographsbecome apost-Victoriannorm?
Text 4
From the early days of broadband , advocates for consumers
and web- based companies worried that the cable and phone companies selling
broadband connections had the power and incentive to favoi affliated websites
over their rivals’.That's why there has been such a strong demand for rules
that would prevent broadband providers from picking winners and losers online , preserving the freedom and innovation that have been the lifeblood
of the internet .
Yet that demand has been almost
impossible to fll-in part because of pushback from broadband providers ,anti- regulatory
conservatives and the courts .A federal appeals court weighed in again Tuesday ,but instead of providing a badly needed resolution ,it only prolonged the fight .At issue before the U.S. Court of
Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit was the latest take of the Federal
Communications Commission (FCC) on net neutrality, adopted on a party -line vote in 2017. The Republican penned order not only
eliminated the strict net neutrality rules the FCC had adopted when it had a
Democratic majority in2015,but rejected the commission
's authority to require broadband providers to do much of anything .The order
also declared that state and local governments couldn't regulate broadband
providers either .
The commission argued that other
agencies would protect against anti- competitive behavior ,such as a broadband -
providing conglomerate like AT&T favoring its own video- streaming service
at the expense of Netflix and Apple TV.YettheFCC also ended the investigations
of broadband providers that imposed data caps on their rivals ' streaming
services but not their own.
On Tuesday , the appeals court
unanimously upheld the 2017 order deregulating broadband providers ,citing a Supreme Court ruling from 2005 that upheld a similarly
deregulatory move.But Judge Patricia Milett rightly argued in a concurring
opinion that“the result is unhinged from the realities of modern broadband
service ,"and said Congress or the Supreme Court
could intervene to" avoid trapping internet regulation in technological
anachronism ."
In the meantime ,the court threw out
theFCC' s attempt to block allstate rules on net neutrality , while preserving the commission 's powei to preempt individual
state laws that that undermine its order . That means more battles like the one
now going on between the Justice Department and California , which enacted a tough net neutrality law in the wake of the FCC's
abdication.
The endless legal battles and
back -and-forth at the FCC cry out for Congress to act.It needs to give the
commission explicit authority once and for all to bar broadband providers from
meddling in the traffic on their network and to create clear rules protecting
openness and innovation online .
36.There has long been concern
that broadband provides would
A.bringweb- based firms under
control .
B. slowdown the traffic on their
network .
C. show partiality in treating
clients .
D. intensify competition with
their rivals .
37.Faced with the demand for net
neutrality rules ,the FCC
A.Stickstoanout-of- date order .
B.Takesananti- regulatory stance
.
C. Has issued a special
resolution .
D. Has allowed the states to
intervene
38.What can be learned about
AT&T from Paragraph 3?
A.It protects against unfair
competition .
B.Itengagesinanti- competitive
practices .
C.ItisundertheFCC's investigation
.
D.Itisin pursuit of quality
service .
39.Judge Patricia Millett argues that
the appeals court 's decision
A.focuses on trivialities.
B. conveys an ambiguous message
C.is at odds with its earlier
rulings
D.is out of touch with reality .
40.What does the author argue in
the last paragraph ?
A. Congress needs to take action
to ensure net neutrality .
B.The FCC should be put under
strict supervision .
C. Rules need to be set to
diversify online services .
D.Broadband providers' rights
should be protected .
Part B
Directions :
In the following article , some sentences have been
removed .FoiQuestions 41-45, choose the most suitable
one from the list A-Gtcfit into each of the numbered blanks . There are two
extra choiceswhich do not fit in any of the blanks .Mark your answers on
ANSWERSHEET 1.(10points)
In the movices and on televivion
,artificial intelligence is typically depicted as something sinister that will
upendourwayoflife. When itcomes to A I in business ,we often hear about it in
relation tcautomation and the impending loss of jobs ,butinwhatwaysisAlchanging
companies and the larger economy that don't involve doom-and-gloom mass
unemployment predictions ?
A recent survey of manufacturing
and service industries from Tata Consultancy Services found that companies
currently use A I moreoften in computer-to-computer activities than in
automating humanactivities .Onecommonapplication? Preventing electronic
securitybreaches ,which, rather than eliminating ITjobs, actually makes thosepersonnel more valuable to employers , because they help firmsprevent hacking attempts .
Here are a few other ways A I is
aiding companies without replacing employees.
Better hiring practices
Companies are using artificial
intelligence to remove some of theunconscious bias from hiring decisions
.“There are experiments thatshow that ,naturally, the results of
interviews are much more biasedthan what AIdoes, "says Pedro Domingo s, author of The
MasterAlgorith on:HowtheQust for the Ultimate learning
Machine WilReam be Our Worldanda computer science 41_ _One company that 's
doing this is called Blendoor.Ituses analytics to helpidentify where there
maybe bias in the hiring process .
More effective marketing
Some A I software can analyze and
optimize marketing email subject lines to increase open rates .One company in
the UK,Phrasee,claims their software can outperform human s by up to 10 percentwhen
it comes to email open rates . This can mean millions more inrevenue . 42
__These are"tools that help people used ata, nota
replacement for people , ”says Patrick H.Winston,a professor ofartificial intelligence and computer science at MIT.
Saving customers money
Energy companies can use A I to
help customers reduce theirelectricity bills , saving them money while helping the environmentCompanies
can also optimize their own energy use and cut down onthe cost of electricity .
Insurance companies ,meanwhile,canbase
theirpremiums on A I models that more accurately access risk.“Beforethey might
not insure the ones who felt like a high risk or chargethe mtoomuch,says Domingos, 43___
Improved accuracy
“Machine learning often provides
a more reliable form of statisticswhich makes data more valuable ,"says Winston
.It" helps peoplemake smarter decisions .”44______
Protecting and maintaining infrastructure
A number of companies , particularly in energy
and transportation ,use A I image processing technology
to inspect infrastructure and prevent equipment failure or leaks before they
happen .“If they failfirst and the nyoufixthem,it's
very expensive ,"says Domingo s.“45___
A.I replaces the boring parts of
your job .Ifyou'redoingresearch,you can have AIgo out and look for relevant sources and
informationthat otherwise you just would n't have time for.
B.Oneaccountingfirm,EY, uses an AI system that helps reviewcontracts during an
audit.Thisprocess ,along with employees reviewing the contracts ,is faster and more accurate .
C.There are also companies like
Acquisio,which
analyzes advertising performance across multiple channels like Adwords ,Bingand social media and makes adjustments or suggestions about
whereadvertising funds will yield best results .
D. You want to predict if
something needs attention now and pointto where it's useful for employees to go
to.
E.Before, they might not insure the
ones who felt like a high risk orcharge the mtoomuch,or
they would charge them too little and thenit would cost[the company] money .
F.We're also giving our customers
better channels versus pickingup the phone to accomplish something beyond
humanscale .
G.AIlooksat resumes in greater
numbers than humans would beable to , and selects the more promising candidates .
Part C
Directions :
Read the following text carefully
and then translate the underlined segments into Chinese.Your translation should
be written neatly on ANSWERS HEET2.(10points)
46.Those societies came out of
the war with levels of enrollment that had been roughly constant an 3%-5% of
the relevant age groups during the decades before the war.
47.And the demand that rose in
those societies of entry to highe education extended to groups and social
classes that had not thought of attending a university before the war.
48.In many countries of western
Eup. the numbers of student inhigher education doubled within five - years
periods during the 1960s and double again in seven eight or 10 years by the
middle of 1970s.
49.and when the new staff are
predominantly young men and women fresh from past graduate study , they largely define the
norms of academic life in that faculty .
50.High growth rates increased
the chances for academic innovation , they also weakened the forms and process by which
teachers and students are admitted into a community of scholars during periods
of stability or slow growth .
英语一小作文
Section IIIWriting
Part A
51. Directions:
A foreign friend of yours has
recently graduated from college and intends to find a job in China .Write him I
her an email to make some suggestions .
You should write about 100words
on ANSWER SHEET2.
Do not sign your own name at the
end.Use“Li Ming open"instead .
You do not need to write the
address .( 10 points)
英语一大作文
Part B
52. Directions:
Write an essay of 160-200 words
based on the following drawing. In your essay, you should
1) describe the drawing briefly,
2) explain its intended meaning, and then
3) give your comments .
You should write neatly on
ANSWERS HEET2.( 20 points)