A

It is every kid’s worst nightmare and six-year-old Jaden Hayes has lived it - twice. Firstly, he lost his dad when he was four and then last month his mom died unexpectedly in her sleep.

“I tried and I tried and I tried to get her awake - I couldn't,” said Jaden. Jaden was understandably heartbroken.

But there was another side to his grief. A side he first made public a few weeks ago when he told his aunt, and now guardian, Barbara DiCola, that he was sick and tired of seeing everyone sad all the time. And he had a plan to fix it.

“And that was the beginning of it,” said Barbara. “That’s where the adventure began.”

Jaden asked his aunt Barbara to buy a bunch of little toys and bring him to downtown Savannah, Georgia near where he lives, so he could give them away.

“I’m trying to make people smile,” said Jaden.

Jaden targeted people who weren’t already smiling and then turned their day around. He’d go out on four different occasions now and he was always successful. Even if sometimes he didn’t get exactly the reaction he was hoping for.

It was just so overwhelming to some people that a six-year-old orphan would give away a toy- expecting nothing in return - except a smile.

“I’m counting on it to be 33, 000,” said Jaden. When asked if he thought he could make that goal, he answered, “I think I can.”

1. Why did Jaden give the toys to other people?

A. Because he wanted to fix the toys.

B. Because he wanted to see more people.

C. Because he wanted to give the toys away.

D. Because he wanted to make people happy.

2. What can we learn from the passage?

A. Jaden lived with his aunt.

B. Jaden targeted people who were not happy.

C. Jaden got nothing he wanted all the time.

D. Jaden was sick and tired of seeing everyone.

3. Which of the following words can best describe Jaden?

A. Helpful and impatient.B. Creative and tricky.

C. Optimistic and courageous.D. Ambitious and greedy.

【答案】1. D    2. B    3. C

【1题详解】细节理解题。根据倒数第四段“I’m trying to make people smile,” said Jaden.可知Jaden说:“我想让人们微笑。”由此可知，Jaden把玩具给别人因为他想让人们快乐。故选D。

【2题详解】细节理解题。根据倒数第三段Jaden targeted people who weren’t already smiling and then turned their day around.可知Jaden的目标是那些没有笑容的人，然后改变他们的一天。由此可知，Jaden瞄准的是那些不快乐的人。故选B。

【3题详解】推理判断题。根据文章内容Jaden的小男孩在挚爱双亲去世后依旧表现得坚强，想要通过送别人玩具来给人们带去快乐。由此可推知，Jaden是一个乐观和勇敢的孩子。故选C。

B

Tesla’s lifestyle products tend to cash in on the brand appeal of the electric carmaker  and its  very publicly engaged chief manager Elon Musk, and the new Tesla Wireless Charger is no exception. It is not for the car, but for the cellphone.

The device, which is sold on Tesla’s website alongside hats and the company’s existing desktop and portable chargers, is a small, Apple-like device that costs $65. It has an integrated USB-C cable for when you want to plug it directly into your device, and a USB-A port for non-USB-C devices. You can get it in black or white, but it only comes with 6,000mAh of juice and 5W of output  charging (The wired charging method gets you 7.5W).

For about half the price, you can get Anker’s 10,000mAh Power Core charger, which has 12W of output charging but no wireless charging capabilities. For $50, you can get an RAV Power 10,400mAh wireless charger with 10W of output.

Of course, nobody is really buying this for the functions. They’re buying it because it has a Tesla logo on it and it looks really nice, which is totally fair for $65 and the ease of use wireless charging allows. It’s not a bad purchase for a big Tesla fan.

4. Which of the following would be the best title for the passage?

A. A Wired Charging MethodB. A New Wireless Charger

C. A New Tesla CarD. A New Apple Device

5. If you spend $32.5, you can get ______.

A. a desktop

B. a Tesla wireless charger

C. an RAV Power wireless charger

D. an Anker’s 10,000mAh Power Core charger

6. A new wireless charger has ______.

A. 12W of output chargingB. 10W of output charging

C. 5W of output chargingD. 7.5W of output charging

7. Where is the passage most probably from?

A. A literary essay.B. A science report.

C. A historical novel.D. A sale website.

【答案】4. B    5. D    6. C    7. D

【4题详解】主旨大意题。根据文章主要介绍了一款无线充电器的情况，包括其功率和价格等情况。故B选项“一个新的无线充电器”符合文章标题。故选B。

【5题详解】细节理解题。根据第二段中可知The device, which is sold on Tesla’s website alongside hats and the company’s existing desktop and portable chargers, is a small, Apple-like device that costs $65.可知这款设备在特斯拉的网站上与转换终端、公司现有的台式电脑和便携式充电器一起出售。它是一款类似苹果的小型设备，售价65美元。以及第三段中For about half the price, you can get Anker’s 10,000mAh Power Core charger…可知以大约一半的价格，你可以买到Anker的10,000毫安时功率Power Core充电器……由此可知，如果你花32.5美元，你就可以得到Anker的1万毫安Power Core充电器。故选D。

【6题详解】细节理解题。根据第二段中You can get it in black or white, but it only comes with 6,000mAh of juice and 5W of output charging (The wired charging method gets you 7.5W).可知你可以买到黑色或白色的，但它只有6000毫安时的电量和5W的输出电量(有线充电方式是7.5W)。由此可知，一个新的无线充电器有5W的输出充电。故选C。

【7题详解】推理判断题。根据第二段中可知The device, which is sold on Tesla’s website alongside hats and the company’s existing desktop and portable chargers, is a small, Apple-like device that costs $65.可知这款设备在特斯拉的网站上与转换终端、公司现有的台式电脑和便携式充电器一起出售。它是一款类似苹果的小型设备，售价65美元。由此可推知，文章最有可能来自销售网站。故选D。

C

New study shows rapid decline in insect populations. A growing number of the Earth's insect population now can be seen only in collections on exhibitions. Nobody's seen those for 400 years. A new review of over 70 studies of insect populations suggests that human pressures are causing insect populations to plummet by as much as a quarter every decade. The loss of species is inevitably concerning because often we don’t know what those species are doing or we don’t know what other species are depending on them.

Insects make up the largest class of animals on earth and represent more than half of all known living creatures. They are incredibly diverse, and in many ways make  life on Earth  possible. But when we decrease the number of species, we're destroying ecosystem function. Why does that matter? It is because that it's ecosystems that support humans. But those life-support systems that keep us alive, even if we live in a city, are produced by healthy ecosystems. And none of these ecosystems will run well without insects. Bees and butterflies pollinate(授粉) our food, flowers and trees. They feed all kinds of larger animals, including humans. A large number of crops we eat and rely on are pollinated by insects, so we can’t imagine a world where that pollination process is not taking place.

And there are some cases already around the world where we are having to pollinate by hand, at huge cost, a huge economic cost, simply because the insects aren’t there to do the work that we would normally ask them to do for free. And in some cases, if you’re talking about food crops, just try to imagine the scale of what the world would look like if insects weren't doing that for us. One  big warning, all of the studies come from industrialized countries in Europe and North America. In some areas, the decline is even more rapid. According to one recent study, the number of ground insects in Puerto Rico has fallen by 98% over the last 35 years. A growing body of research shows that insects are declining about twice as fast as vertebrates.

The researchers predict that all insect species could be gone in a century in these industrialized countries

8. What does the underlined word “plummet” in Paragraph 1 probably mean?

A. Reduce.B. Increase.

C. Disappear.D. Raise.

9. We can learn from Paragraph 2 and 3 that ______.

A. we can make a big profit by pollinating by hand

B. insects have no impact on industrial development

C. pollinating by hand can replace pollinating by insects

D. insects account for the largest composition in the entire animal kingdom

10. What’s the author’s attitude towards the phenomenon mentioned in the news?

A. Unclear.B. Concerned.

C. Suspicious.D. Critical.

11. The author helps readers better understand his idea mainly by ______.

A. using research resultsB. making comparisons

C. giving some examplesD. telling personal stories

【答案】8. A    9. D    10. B    11. C

【8题详解】词义猜测题。根据后文The loss of species is inevitably concerning because often we don’t know what those species are doing or we don’t know what other species are depending on them.可知物种的消失是不可避免的，因为我们经常不知道那些物种在做什么，或者我们不知道其他物种依赖于它们。由此可知，一项对70多项昆虫种群研究的最新回顾表明，人类的压力正导致昆虫种群每十年锐减四分之一。即划线单词意思为“减少”。故选A。

【9题详解】细节理解题。根据第二段第一句Insects make up the largest class of animals on earth and represent more than half of all known living creatures.可知昆虫是地球上最大的一类动物，占所有已知生物的一半以上。由此可知，昆虫是整个动物界中最大的组成部分。故选D。

【10题详解】推理判断题。根据文章第一句New study shows rapid decline in insect populations.可知新的研究表明昆虫的数量在迅速减少。结合文章说明了一项对70多项昆虫种群研究的最新回顾表明，人类的压力正导致昆虫种群每十年锐减四分之一。昆虫是地球上最大的一类动物，占所有已知生物的一半以上。文章指出如果失去昆虫，我们将不得不人工授粉，代价是巨大的经济成本。由此可推知，作者对新闻中提到的昆虫减少的现象的态度是关心的。故选B。

【11题详解】推理判断题。根据倒数第二段中According to one recent study, the number of ground insects in Puerto Rico has fallen by 98% over the last 35 years. A growing body of research shows that insects are declining about twice as fast as vertebrates.可知根据最近的一项研究，波多黎各的地面昆虫数量在过去35年里下降了98%。越来越多的研究表明，昆虫数量下降的速度是脊椎动物的两倍。由此可推知，作者主要通过举例来帮助读者更好地理解他的观点。故选C。

D

When I re-entered the full-time work after a decade of running my own business, there was a  top thing I was looking forward to: to make friends with the colleagues once again. As a matter of fact, it wasn't until I entered the company that I realized making friends with colleagues wasn’t the first at all. It is developing interpersonal relationships at work that is vital, which can not only help overcome a range of problems at work but also promote productivity and the quality of work output.

Perhaps my expectations of lunches and chatting with friends were the memory of the last time I was in that kind of office environment. However, as I near the end of my fourth decade, I realize work can be fully functional and entirely satisfying without needing to be the best workmates with the people sitting next to you.

In an academic analysis just published in the very influential Journal of Management, researchers have developed the idea of "indifferent relationships", which is a simple term that summarizes the fact that relationships at work can be less close, unimportant and even replaceable.

Indifferent relationships are neither positive nor negative. The limited research conducted so far shows they're especially obvious among those who value independence over cooperation, and harmony over disharmony. Indifference is also the preferred choice among those who are socially lazy and regard maintaining relationships over the long term takes effort.

As mentioned above indifferent relationships may not always be the most helpful way in solving problems at work. Even so, there are proven benefits on indifferent relationship. One of them is efficiency. Less time chatting and socializing means more time working and producing. Another is self-respect. As human beings, we tend to compare ourselves to each other. Apparently, we look down on acquaintances more than friends. In the process their strengths can raise the sense of self-worth. The third advantage is that the emotional neutrality of indifferent relationships has been found to improve critical thinking, enhance people’s attention to task solving, and make it easier to gain valuable information.

None of those benefits might be as fun as after-work socializing but, hey, I'll take it anyway.

12. What did the author realize when he re-entered the company?

A. Building interpersonal relationships was important.

B. Making new friends with workmates was not so easy as he had expected.

C. Developing positive interpersonal relationships helped him find his place.

D. Working in companies requires more interpersonal skills than self-employment.

13. Which one belongs to indifferent relationships at work according to the passage？

A. Being in conflict with workmates in the office.

B. Spending less time chatting and socializing in the office.

C. Having deep and meaningful conversations with colleagues.

D. Being the best mates with the people sitting next to you in the office.

14. What can be one of the benefits of the indifferent relationships?

A. They provide fun at work.

B. They improve work efficiency.

C. They help control emotions at work.

D. They help solve problems during work time.

15. What’s the author’s attitude towards indifferent relationships?

A. Cautious.B. Doubtful.

C. Approving.D. Indifferent.

【答案】12. A    13. B    14. B    15. C

【12题详解】细节理解题。根据第一段中It is developing interpersonal relationships at work that is vital, which can not only help overcome a range of problems at work but also promote productivity and the quality of work output.可知在工作中发展人际关系是至关重要的，这不仅有助于克服工作中的一系列问题，而且还能提高工作效率和工作质量。由此可知，当作者再次进入公司时，他意识到了建立人际关系很重要。故选A。

【13题详解】推理判断题。根据倒数第二段中Less time chatting and socializing means more time working and producing.可知少些时间聊天和社交意味着多些时间工作和生产。结合选项可推知，B选项“在办公室少花时间聊天和社交”属于工作中的冷漠关系。故选B。

【14题详解】细节理解题。根据倒数第二段中Even so, there are proven benefits on indifferent relationship. One of them is efficiency.可知即便如此，“冷漠”关系还是有其益处的。其中之一是效率。由此可知，冷漠关系的好处之一是提高工作效率。故选B。

【15题详解】推理判断题。根据倒数第二段中Even so, there are proven benefits on indifferent relationship.可知即便如此，“冷漠”关系还是有其益处的。以及后文分别说明了冷漠关系的三个好处，由此可推知，作者对于冷漠关系是支持态度。故选C。