Along with global warming and the Ebola virus，this year, something far less life-and society-threatening also spiraled out of control：email．

It was long ago invented as something to make us more productive．But what productivity expert would ever say that it's a good thing that instead of working，we now“answer email? Or that on some days，I am unwilling to leave my desk to head into a meeting because it means taking my finger off the keyboard and knowing 1 will return to a flood of new messages waiting patiently for my total attention?

Some people struggle for“inbox zero”．But like many people，I now get so much junk mail that if I were to adopt such a goal，I would spend every workday doing nothing but deleting emails．To make sure nothing important gets buried，I have developed an embarrassinglv old system of keeping a pen-and-paper list of emails that need responses on a series of Post-It notes．As far back as 2007，Fred Wilson famously declared “email bankruptcy”．I'm close to doing the Same．

But I may not need to．I predict that 2015 will mark the beginning of the end of emails．Already, some tools have emerged(出现)over the years，like software Freedom which disables access to the Internet for chosen periods of time．Corporations have gradually been adopting stricter email policies：A few years ago，Volkswagen said it would stop sending emails from its servers to company-owned BlackBerrys after the end of its workday．

But this great hope is largely the optimist in me speaking，and I give this prediction small chances compared to some of our others．As Tony Hsieh once told me，the problem with email is that it is a“good—enough”solution．Some technologies stay around just because there isn’t anything better．It’s probably right．But my wish is that 2015 is the year when truly effective email management solutions go from good to great-and that email volume goes from crazy to reasonable．We’ll a11 be better for it．

1.The underlined word “spiraled” in Paragraph l probably means “_____________”.

A．increased rapidly B．moved in circle

C．changed unexpectedly D．appeared suddenly

2.The writer is unwilling to attend a meeting because____________.

A．he has to return with quantities of emails

B．answering emails calls for great attention

C．more emails will flood in waiting for him to check

D．he doesn’t want to take his fingers off the keyboard

3.From Paragraph 3，we may infer that____________.

A．the goal “inbox zero” is hard to obtain

B．the writer is devoted to deleting emails

C．pens and paper are highly favored at work

D．Fred Wilson famously declared “email bankruptcy”

4.The writer may agree that____________.

A．emails will come to an end

B．emails will still hold a place

C．existing email management is perfect

D．emails will never be sent to BlackBerrys

The passages below discuss the retirement age．

Passage 1：

In the United States，the financial crisis has left the country with 11 million fewer jobs than Americans need now．No matter how tough the policy ,we are not going to find 11 million new jobs soon．So common sense suggests we should make some decisions about who should come first：older people，who have already worked three or four decades at hard jobs? Or younger people，many just out of school，with fresh skills and ambitions?

The answer is obvious．Older people who would like to retire and would do so if they could afford it should get some help．The right step is to reduce，not increase，the retirement age．As a rough cut，why not make it a law to set a three—year window during which the age for receiving full Social Security benefits would drop to 62——providing a voluntary ,one—time，grab-it-now bonus for leaving work? Let them go home! With a secure pension(退休金)and medical care，they will be happier．Young people who need work will be happier．And there will also be more jobs．With pension security, older people will consume services until the end of their lives．They will become．each and every one，an employer．

Passage 2：

Too many people see longer working lives as a worry rather than an opportunity—and not just because they are going to be chained to their desks．Some worry that there will not be enough jobs to go around．This misunderstanding，known to economists as the“lump of labour fallacy(劳动总量固定的谬论)”，was once used to argue that women should stay at home and leave all the jobs for breadwinning males．Now lump-of-labourites say that keeping the old at work would deprive(剥夺)the young of employment．The idea that society can become

better-off by paying more of its citizens to be idle(无所事事的)is clearly ridiculous．On that reasoning，if the retirement age came down to 25 we would all be as rich as Bill Gates．

1.In Passage 1，one reason for suggesting earlier retirement in the US is the_______

A．tough policy B．stable pension

C．high unemployment D．free medical care

2.In Passage I，the writer suggests encouraging older people to retire earlier by____________.

A．cutting their pension if they remain at work

B．giving them an extra sum o f money on retiring

C．convincing them that young people need work

D．offering them a bonus each year for three years

3.Lump-of-laborites believe that____________．

A．young citizens should be better paid

B．the old should leave jobs for the young

C．males should earn bread for the family

D．earlier retirement will lead to a poorer society

4.What is the author’s attitude towards earlier retirement in Passage 2?

A．Negative． B．Positive．

C．Unconcerned． D．Tolerant．

In China，cultural differences arose from growing rice or wheat．Different thinking styles between northern and southern Chinese people can trace(追溯)their roots to rice fields and wheat fields．

Rice farming promotes a holistic(整体的)focus on distinguishing relationships among people and objects，and valuing others as much as or more than oneself, say psychologist Thomas Talhelm of the University of Virginia and his colleagues．Holistic thinking among many modem Chinese people partly reflects regional histories of building communal irrigation systems(共有灌溉系统)and cooperatively planting and harvesting rice fields over thousands of years．

They draw that conclusion based on studies of college students from regions with different agricultural practices．Students from southern and central China’s rice．growing provinces think holistically, even though they have probably never farmed rice，Talhelm’s group reports．In contrast，students from northern and central Chinese provinces that have specialized in wheat growing exhibit a preference for abstract analysis and self over others，the scientists find．Wheat is less labor-intensive(劳动密集型)to grow than rice，SO farmers can plant and harvest crops without much help from neighbors．Analytical，individualistic thinking is not more common among students from richer

Provinces, contrary to the argument that this attitude springs from modernization. ”Rice theory might explain why East Asia is so much less individualistic than expected based on its wealth, ” Talhelm says.

Talhelm，s team tested 1,162 Chinese students，who Viewed lists of three items，such as a rabbit，a dog and a carrot. For each list，students chose two items that belonged together. Earlier research found that analytical thinkers often group items according to categories，so rabbits and dogs go together．Holistic thinkers tend to 1ook for relationships，such as rabbits eating carrots. Students from rice-growing areas made an average of around seven to nine holistic matches of 10 possible matches，compared with roughly f1ve to seven holistic matches for those from Wheat-growing areas.

Talhelm’s team also analyzed national statistics in China from 1 996，2000 and 2010 and found a higher divorce rate and a greater number of successful patents for new inventions in wheat-growing provinces than in rice-growing provinces. That trend is in line with the ides that analytical thinking develops both individualism and creativity.

1.People who think holistically probably_____________.

A．come from wheat—growing areas

B．1ive in northern and central China

C．rely more on themselves

D．think of others before themselves

2.Which of the following statements is true?

A．East Asia is poorer than the other areas of Asia.

B．Modernization contributes to analytic al thinking.

C. Analytical thinkers tend to pick out items by type.

D．Richer people show more individualistic thinking.

3.The author develops the passage mainly by____________.

A．making comparisons

B. listing examples

C．telling his personal experience

D. presenting problem and solution

4.What would be the best title for the passage?

A．Cultural differences in China

B．1isting examples

C．Chinese people tracing their roots

D. Farming influences thinking styles

Will money make kids pass exams? A new report says1.___________(承诺)children money does not help exam grades．It could be a2.w of money using cash to get kids to study more．3.____________, taking kids on a trip somewhere nice could encourage them to 4.______________,(努力)and do better at sch001．Of 10,000 pupils5._________ (调查)in the research，there has been an improvement in class work and homework，but this does not result in better test scores．

Lead researcher Dr．Burgess suggests the research doesn’t look at the things6.________,really get kids to increase their effort．He adds that clearly some kids believe that education is a way to7.a ,their dreams, but there are other kids who think one’s efforts make little8.d , These kids might think exam success is because9.___________ genes and their family background．Education expert Dr．Collins holds the view that what really10.m , is how students are taught．Good teachers are better than rewards，especially for children from low-income families．

阅读使人充实，阅读对于每个人的成长至关重要。请认真阅读下面的引言(quotation)，按要求用英语写一篇短文。

Reading makes a full man． 一Francis Bacon

内容要求：

1．你对该引言的理解；

2．举例说明；

3．恰当的结尾。

注意：

1．短文开头己给出，不计入总词数；

2．文中不能出现考生的具体信息；

3．词数：120左右。

As Francis Bacon puts it，reading makes a full man．

It was a physical class. But it was nothing like previous ones — the class was “attended”

by over 60 million students across China, and the teacher was not even on the planet: she was 340 kilometers above the earth.

“Hello, everyone. I’m Wang Yaping. I’ll host your lecture today.” Smiling to the camera, Wang, China’s second female astronaut, started her video class on June 20 on board the Tiangong-1 space station.

To show how Newton’s Laws work in space, Wang and her fellow astronauts used simple items like balls and spinning tops. The highlight of the lecture was when Wang made a film of water using a metal ring, something that only happens in zero gravity, where the surface tension(张力) of water is much higher than it is on the earth. She then took it a step further by pouring more water onto the film and turning it into a water ball, leaving the audience amazed by what they saw.

The 40-minute lesson seemed to have passed too quickly for students to see enough of those magical experiments. But sending stuff into space is really expensive. According to The Beijing Times, every kilogram launched into space cost 20,000 dollars. The experimental items taken this time were all strictly selected and weighed about 2.9 kilograms in total. This adds up to quite a large price tag.

The organizers of the event also had to consider the time of day: the communication signal between the earth and Tiangong-1 was best during that specific 40 minutes, when the spacecraft was flying within the coverage of all of the ground-based testing stations.

1.Why is the class different from a common one?

A. Because it took 40 minutes.

B. Because over 60 million students across the world attended it.

C. Because the teacher was on the planet.

D. Because the lecturer was in space.

2.One of the experiments shows .

A. object motion under weight conditions

B. laws of physics under weightless conditions

C. laws of physics under weight conditions

D. how Newton’s Laws work on the earth

3.Which phrase can best replace the underlined words in the passage?

A. took a photo of water.

B. recorded moving pictures of water.

C. made a thin layer of water.

D. all the above.

4.Which of the following statements can be the best title of the passage?

A. Teaching from the Sky. B. Teaching on Physics.

C. Teaching Experiments. D. Teaching by an Astronaut.

Discover Artistic Talents across the Country

Redtory, Guangzhou

Redtory, established in 2009, is a spacious art district often referred to as Guangzhou’s 798. Made up of more than 30 old halls, mostly buildings of red brick, the place was originally built in 1956 as Chinese largest can factory. Some of the rusty machines from the old factory have been kept as art equipment, giving the zone an old charm.

Where: No. 128 Yuancun Siheng Road, Tianhe District, Guangzhou

Opening hours: Mon-Sun 10:30 am-9 pm

Tank Loft, Chongqing

This 12,000-square-meter art center was established on the site of a used military tank warehouse(仓库). It is the largest contemporary art base in western China, featuring modern exhibition, galleries, design studios and art bookstores. The art zone is located on the campus of the Sichuan Fine Arts Institute and was created by the school in the early 2000s.

Where: No. 108 Huangjueping Center Street, Jiulongpo District, Chongqing

Opening hours: 9 am-5 pm(closed Mondays)

M50, Shanghai

M50, also known as 50 Moganshan Road, is the center of Shanghai’s contemporary art scene, with more than 100 artists whose studios are open to the public. This district, on the bank of Suzhou Creek, was previously a textile factory until it seized production in 1999. Xue Song, a Shanghai artist, was the first to establish a studio there in 2002.

Where: No. 50 Moganshan Road, Pudong District, Shanghai

Opening hours: 10 am-5 pm(closed Mondays)

798 Art Zone, Beijing

Attracted by ordered designing, convenient traffic and unique style of Bauhaus architecture, art organizations and artists have crowded in the vacant plants and transformed them since 2001, gradually forming a district gathered galleries, art studios, cultural companies, fashion shops etc. As the earliest area where the organizations and artists moved in located in the original area of 798 factory, this place was named as Beijing 798 Art Zone.

Where: No. 4 Jiuxianqiao Road, Chaoyang District, Beijing

Opening hours: 10 am-6 pm

1.If you are going to visit an art zone at 7pm, which one can you go to?

A. Redtory, Guangzhou. B. Tank Loft, Chongqing.

C. M50, Shanghai. D. 798 Art Zone, Beijing.

2.Tank Loft, Chongqing is quite different from the others in .

A. size B. site C. feature D. weather

3. Which of the following was built first?

A. Redtory, Guangzhou. B. Tank Loft, Chongqing.

C. M50, Shanghai. D. 798 Art Zone, Beijing.

Camilla Broomstick, a missing Camden –area woman, was reported found inside her damaged Chevrolet Malibu Sunday afternoon in a County near Camden New Jersey, at the bottom of an embankment(路堤) off a highway, according to authorities. Her car, turned upside down, was spotted by a passer-by who had stopped to view scenery and noticed something shining and what looked like a body, authorities said. When emergency responders arrived, they found Broomstick alive inside her severely damaged car. The vehicle rested upside down after flying 120 feet off the highway and rolling an additional 200 feet into an aspen woods.

“The crash alone would have killed her,” New Jersey State Trooper Dean Enoch said. “It's surprising that she survived the crash at all, and then to be down there for that amount of days without food or water.”

Earlier Monday, the family released a statement at the hospital thanking emergency responders who rushed Broomstick to the hospital and to the man who found her and notified authorities.

“We sincerely appreciate all the thoughts, prayers and kind gestures from the community during such a hard time for our family,” the statement read. “While we're hopeful of her prognosis(愈后), Camilla was seriously injured and with multiple internal and external injuries. Later this afternoon Camilla will be undergoing surgery here to amputate(截肢) both of her feet. Doctors were not able to save her feet due to the serious injuries. Camilla is in critical but stable condition at this time and has a very long road ahead.”

In the statement, family members mentioned reports that Broomstick wrote a request for help on an umbrella she pushed out the car window. “We cannot comment on that right now because we have not seen the umbrella,” the statement said. Family members also asked that the public respect their privacy.

1.Who found the severely damaged car?

A. The authorities. B. A passer-by.

C. Emergency responders. D. Her families.

2.Where was the damaged car when it was found?

A. 200 feet from the high way. B. 120 feet from the high way.

C. 220 feet from the high way. D. 320 feet from the high way.

3.What can we know from the passage ?

A. Camilla Broomstick was lucky to survive.

B. Camilla Broomstick had a strong will.

C. Camilla Broomstick had a good body.

D. Camilla Broomstick was bad in driving.

4.What is implied in the last two paragraphs?

A. Broomstick’s family are grateful for the doctors.

B. Broomstick’s family are not sure about the umbrella.

C. Broomstick’s family are worried about her legs.

D. Broomstick’s family are not willing to be disturbed.

If you put a buzzard（秃鹰） in a pen(围栏) six to eight feet square and entirely open at the top, the bird, in spite of its ability to fly, will be a prisoner. The reason is that a buzzard always begins a flight from the ground with a run of ten to twelve feet. Without space to run, it will not even attempt to fly, but remain a prisoner for life in a small prison with no top.

The ordinary bat that flies around at night, a remarkably nimble creature in the air, cannot take off from a level place. If it is placed on the floor or flat ground, all it can do is to shuffle about helplessly and, no doubt, painfully, until it reaches some slight height from which it can throw itself into the air. Then, at once, it takes off like a flash.

A bumblebee (大黄蜂), if dropped into an open tumbler(平底玻璃杯), will be there until it dies, unless it is taken out. It never sees the means of escape at the top, but insists on trying to find some way out through the sides near the bottom. It will seek a way where none exists until it completely destroys itself.

In many ways, there are lots of people like the buzzard, the bat and the bumblebee. They are struggling about with all their problems and frustrations, not realizing that the answer is right there above them.

1.Why does a buzzard choose to stay in a pen?

A. Because it is safe to live there.

B. Because it gets used to living there.

C. Because it cannot take off within an limited area.

D. Because it lost its ability to fly.

2. The underlined word in the second paragraph probably means “ .”

A. to run slowly B. to move slowly

C. to pace slowly D. to fly slowly

3.A bumblebee will completely destroy itself for .

A. it does not look for a way out above

B. it is dropped into an open cage

C. it does not try to find a way to escape

D. it hurts itself while flying

4. In which way are many people similar to a buzzard, an ordinary bat and a bumblebee?

A. They are overcoming all their problems and frustrations.

B. They are all content with the things as they are.

C. They choose to give in to problems and frustrations.

D. They do not seek new ways to deal with difficulties.

We spend so much time waiting to be loved, hoping love will find us, and looking for that special love．Unfortunately, that’s not usually how life works. To be loved, you should love and respect yourself as much as you do others. In order to love someone, you should love yourself．

●Stop comparing yourself to others．1.We all have different gifts．When you compare yourself to others for what they have, whether it is a car, a house, or a job, it makes you feel bad about yourself. Really be grateful about everything you have. Gratitude keeps your heart open to love．

●Practice receiving love. To truly love is to be able to receive it. When someone loves you, does some kind deeds to you, or says kind words, accept it．2.Know that you are worthy of love. It is important to accept a gift of love by others. You give yourself a chance to learn more about yourself that you are lovable．3.

●4.Write about your experiences, good and bad. When you write down good experiences, allow yourself to feel those feelings. When you remember bad experiences, allow yourself to feel self-compassion. Compassion is not self-pity, but rather willingness to accept one's own pain and regret．

●Stop trying to be perfect. Stop blaming yourself for being less than perfect．5.Just follow all the steps above and don't let anyone's expectations of you put any pressure on you．

A. Keep a diary．

B. Appreciate yourself．

C. Do not feel sorry about it．

D. Always do your best, but not reaching perfection is NOT failure．

E. Allow yourself to feel the love that has come your way．

F. You give someone a joy of giving by loving you．

G. Everyone on the earth is unique.