On my first day in America, I was excited, but nervous as well. But my dear neighbor Susan came to me with love and helped me get used to my new life far away from home.

       When I opened the door, Susan came in with a home-made apple pie. She hugged me and said: “Aww, you must be the precious Chinese doll!”

       With a big smile, she went on: “Alice, I am sure you have never ever tried a home-made apple pie before! You are going to love it so much!”

       Honestly, I was greatly surprised by this welcome from a stranger. And the apple pie made me feel at home.

       Susan was really helpful.

       When I was thinking about a costume to wear at Halloween, she suggested I dress up like a traditional Chinese girl. “I happen to have a traditional Chinese dress and guess what, I’m a great make-up artist!” she said. Susan did not hide her excitement, when, after an hour of hard work, she pushed me to the mirror to examine our work. The clothes fit me perfectly! I am sure that I stood out from the crowd that Halloween, and I am very grateful to Susan for her help.

       My first Thanksgiving was another highlight festival. On the morning I was surprised to find a gift box in my front yard. There was a note on it: “Hello Alice, I’m the Thanksgiving bunny! Enjoy your gift!” I looked around and caught Susan peeking (窥视) at me from her porch. Seeing that she had been caught, she awkwardly picked up a newspaper and pretended to read it. I couldn’t help laughing. When I walked up to her, she said: “It was not me. It was the Thanksgiving bunny!” Susan is such a lovely person; she is the American above all others I need to thank.

       I began to realize that the meaning of the Chinese saying, that “Neighbors carry more weight than distant relatives,” is alive in America. Susan filled my heart with warmth and joy, just as Angels do.

21.    What made the writer feel at home in America?

    A. Her precious Chinese doll.                        B. Susan’s thanksgiving bunny in Halloween.

    C. Gifts from her parents in China.                   D. Susan’s warm welcome on the first day.

22.    Which of the following is TRUE according to the passage?

    A. The author got a Chinese dress from Susan to wear at Halloween.

    B. Susan was always curious about what her neighbors were doing.

    C. The author had never had an apple pie before she came to America.

    D. Susan helped the author to fall in love with all kinds of American festivals.

23.    The passage mainly tells us that ____.  

    A. good neighbors can be quite helpful in our life

    B. all new comers to America can receive help from their neighbors

    C. festivals are good chances for neighbors to care for each other

    D. neighbors are more important than relatives

Most people will answer a ringing phone. Usually you don’t know who is phoning or how urgent their business is, so a ringing phone is difficult to ignore. In one experiment, a researcher wrote down the numbers of several public phones in stations and airports. Then he called the numbers. Someone nearly always answered. When he asked why, people usually said, “Because it rang.”

A few years ago in New Jersey, a man with a gun killed 13 people. Armed police surrounded his house but he refused to come out. A reporter found out the phone number of the house and called. The man put down his rifle and answered the phone. “What do you want?” he said, “I’m really busy right now.”

Imagine you’re at work and the phone is ringing in someone else’s office. Do you answer it or not? In one survey on telephone use, 51% of participants told researchers that they did. We can’t ignore the phone and for that reason, it forces its way into our lives. It interrupts what we are doing and on top of that, the caller is often someone we don’t really want to talk to. However, in the survey, 58% said they never took the phone off the hook, and 67% didn’t mind if someone called during a television program. For 44% it wasn’t a problem if someone rang during a meal, while only 28% were annoyed or upset. If someone phoned in the middle of the night, 40% told researchers that they got nervous or frightened, while around 30% got angry.

Of course, when someone is really annoying, you can choose to hang up on them. This is in fact one of the rudest things you can do on the phone, but 79% said they were prepared to do it in some cases. Only 6% told researchers they never hung up on people.  

24.    The gunman answered the phone because ____.

  A. he decided to give in to the police                   B. it was difficult to ignore a ringing phone

  C. he was annoyed at the ringing phone             D. he intended to be friendly with the media

25.    What is implied by the sentence “79% said they were prepared to do it in some cases” (in the last paragraph)?

  A. They were annoyed by the rude callers.

  B. They were prepared to become those rude callers.

  C. They were likely to hang up on annoying callers.

  D. They never hung up on others because it was rude.

26.    The purpose of the survey is to find out ____.

  A. how the phone interrupts people’s work

  B. what role the phone plays in people’s lives

  C. why people mind a ringing phone sometimes

  D. when the phone communication is more welcome

Halfway through your walk to school, a wild Pikachu appears. Just a few throws of a Pokéball, and it could be yours. Will you stop to catch it? Nintendo is betting you will. Not just that, they’re betting that you’ve waited most of your life to see a Pokémon in the real world.

Pokémon Go — the iOS and Android app from Nintendo, The Pokémon Co., and developer Niantic Labs — promises to let anyone with a smart phone “find” and train the different creatures of Pokémon all around them. For these companies, Pokémon Go offers the biggest opportunity to bring augmented (增强的) reality (AR) into the mainstream as well as a chance to prove not only that AR technology is ready for people, but that people are ready for AR. Unlike VR (virtual reality虚拟现实), which copies an environment, real or imagined, to allow for users’ interaction (互动), the purpose of AR is to add people’s interactions with their world, usually by offering information that can be seen. “It’s a new kind of experience, about mixing the gameplay with other things you’re doing,” says John Hanke, CEO and founder of Niantic Labs.

Niantic has some expertise in this field. The company — which began as a startup inside Google and has since gone independent — is behind the popular AR mobile app Ingress. In that game, the screen shows points of energy springing up around a map of the user’s surroundings. The energy appears at important real-world locations, like museums or monuments, and users have to explore the world to visit, and then battle over those spots. Like Ingress, Pokémon Go will create interactions based on users’ locations.

If it sounds like a fantasy version of Google Maps, that’s because it is: Hanke joined in developing Google Maps, Google Earth and Street View, and he wanted to apply those technologies in new ways. Mobile games, he says, seemed a perfect fit to encourage people to go outside and discover what he calls the “secret history” of their neighborhoods. “You think you know them but you don’t,” Hanke says, “or maybe you walked by this place and never looked twice at it — whether it’s a piece of artwork or a landmark you don’t know the story behind.”

27.     Pokémon Go was created by the following companies, except     .

       A. Nintendo              B. Google                     C. The Pokémon Co.    D. Niantic Labs

28.     According to Para. 2, which of the following is TRUE?

     A. People are ready for the AR technology.

     B. AR technology is one of the mainstream technologies.

     C. AR technology is more enjoyable than VR technology.

     D. AR technology can improve people’s interaction with the real world.

29.    What does the underlined word “them” refer to in Para. 4?

     A. Companies.              B. Technologies.         C. Mobile games.    D. Neighborhoods.

30.    In the last paragraph, Hanke holds a ____ attitude towards mobile games.

     A. cautious                 B. negative           C. positive          D. critical

Every kid wishes to be an adult. Do you remember playing house as a child — pretending to be a grown-up like your parents? Did you imagine you were a doctor, a soldier or a teacher? At that time, anything seemed more exciting than being young. ___31___ They become “kidults” (kid+adult), who participate in youth culture and activities traditionally intended for children.

Some kidults collect toys they once played with. ___32___ It is not unusual to see a 20-something woman with a big, Snoopy-shaped cushion (坐垫) on her sofa or a Hello Kitty mobile phone accessory (挂件).

___33___ For example, Bloomsbury even published the Harry Potter novels with an adult cover. That way, no one else on the subway will know that an adult is actually reading a children’s book!

“Kidults can be like vitamins to society. Adults who value their childhood and hold on to pure, child-like emotion may be needed in such a rough and dry society,” said Lee Sojung, professor of Foreign Studies at Hankuk University. ___34___ It could give children and their parents books, movies, and cartoon shows to enjoy together. He may be right.

Tim Greenhalgh, a professor in London explained that some kidults just refuse to grow up. ___35___ Kidults would like to forget their age and openly show their fear of society and adulthood. “So, they can escape from increasingly complex and stressful lives that are hard to deal with,” Greenhalgh said.

Happiness Is an Attitude

The 92-year-old confident and proud lady, who is fully dressed each morning by eight o’clock, with her hair fashionably combed and makeup perfectly applied, ___56___ she’s completely blind, moved to a nursing home today.

Her husband recently passed away, ___57___ (make) the move necessary.

After many hours of waiting patiently in the hall of the nursing home, she smiled ___58___ (sweet) when told her room was ready. As she got into the elevator in her wheelchair, I provided a description of her tiny room.

“I love it,” she started with the enthusiasm of ___59___ eight-year-old child having just been presented with a new dog.

“Mrs. Jones, you haven’t seen the room… just wait.”

“That has ___60___ to do with it,” she replied. “Happiness is something you decide on ahead of time. ___61___ I like my room or not doesn’t depend on how the furniture ___62___ (arrange)… it’s how I arrange my mind. I already decided to love it. It’s a ___63___ (decide) I make every morning when I wake up. I have a choice: I can spend the day in bed recounting the difficulty I have with the parts of my body ___64___ no longer work or get out of bed and be thankful for the ones working. Each day is a gift, and as long as my eyes open, I’ll focus ___65___ the new day and all the happy memories I’ve stored away… just for this time in my life.”