山东省泰安市岱岳区满庄一中2018届英语中考模拟试卷

    Once upon a time, the colors of the world argued. All of them thought that they were the best and most beautiful.

    Green said, “1 I am the most important. I am the sign of life and of hope. I'm the color of grass, trees and leaves.2me, all animals would die.”

    Blue interrupted (插嘴), “Don't just think about the Earth. What is the color of the sky and the sea? Isn't water the most 3thing for life?”

    Yellow laughed: “You are all so serious. I 4laughter, happiness and warmth into the world. Every time people look at a yellow sunflower, they start to 5.Without me, there would be no fun.”

    Orange said loudly, “I am the color of health and strength. I carry the most important vitamins (维生素). Think of carrots, pumpkins and oranges.

    6 I fill the sky at sunrise or sunset, everyone is amazed at my beauty and 7gives another thought to any of you.”

    8 could stand it no longer, so he shouted, “I am the color of danger and of courage. I am willing to fight for a cause (事业). I bring fire into people's blood.”

    Their voices became louder and louder. Loud thunder could be heard and rain started to pour. When the colors began to cool, the rain said, “You 9 colors. Don't you know that each of you are unique? Join hands and follow me.”

    They did what they were told and together 10 the most beautiful rainbow.

    After arriving in New Jersey, US, for a one-year cultural exchange program, I noticed that many local people love Chinese culture. I felt like sharing our culture with them. As one of the 13th-generation disciples of Chen-style tai chi, I set up a tai chi club for local primary students. My tai chi program lasted for 10 weeks, with classes taking place every Tuesday.

    I have been in several cultural exchange programs before, but I haven't really worked with little kids. It was a little intimidating for me at first. Kids are extremely noisy and active. It was challenging enough just to take control of the class. In the beginning, we could only go over a few gestures during each class, as I spent most of my time working on class discipline (纪律).

    However, as the class went on, we grew more and more familiar with each other. Slowly, I found the fun and sense of achievement that lies under the kids' nervousness and tiredness. Watching the kids learn tai chi under my instruction was exciting. Nothing made me happier than seeing their smiles after learning a new gesture. With each punch, kick and stretch, I could sense their progress and their interest in learning. They asked me many questions about tai chi.

    This experience also improved my leadership. I realized that it was important to unite the whole class and encourage kids to help one another when they meet difficulties. I will try my best to spread tai chi culture here.

    Millions of Chinese have been playing a mobile game called Travel Frog recently. You play as the “mother” of a frog who lives alone and enjoys traveling. You need to prepare food and tools for his trips. The frog will send you postcards while he is away.

    The game's popularity may have something to do with how lonely people are these days, according to the Xinhua News Agency. Many players have said that the lonely frog is just like them. But playing with the frog helps them forget their loneliness for a short time.

    Loneliness seems to be a common problem today. According to the Guardian, about 40 percent of American adults say they're lonely. And in the UK, about one in five people in the country are “always or often lonely”, The Telegraph reported.

    This might be why the UK government declared (宣布) the country's very first “Minister of Loneliness” (孤独大臣) in January. The minister's job is to find ways to help UK citizens feel less lonely. The minister's office will provide more money for activities that connect people together.

    This loneliness problem may be partly due to social media. When we see pictures of friends having fun or posting selfies (自拍) without us, we may compare their “perfect” lives with our own and feel inferior (较差的) and lonely.

    But we should remember that no one is destined (注定) to be lonely. As UK poet John Donne once wrote, “No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent (陆地), a part of the main.”

    Tips to get rid of loneliness

    Sing your favorite songs.

    Connect with a friend.

    Do something creative, such as drawing a picture.

    Imagine some place you'd like to visit, like a fun gathering or a sporting event.

    Do you know what family instructions (家训) are? They are common beliefs that family members follow. In ancient China, people passed down their family instructions from generation (一代) to generation.

    Some schools in Zhejiang are encouraging students to learn more about their own family instructions. At Hangzhou Gongyi Middle School and Hangzhou Xuejun High School, it was part of students' winter vacation homework to learn about their family instructions.

    Meng Yaohan, 16, from Hangzhou Xuejun High School, looked at her family instructions. One of them is “don't take the wrong way”, a piece of advice that has been passed down for 100 years. Her father told her how her grandfather stuck to his “right way” - to become an engineer. “It inspired me to pursue (追求) what I love,” she said.

    Shen Duanjie, 14, from Hangzhou Gongyi Middle School, has benefited from his family instruction – “democratic” (民主的) and “equal” (平等的). In his own words, it has helped him get along with his parents.

    The school has also published books about two classic collections of family instructions – The Family Instructions of Zhu Xi (《朱子家训》) and Family Instructions of Yan Clan (《颜氏家训》). The books include dialogues and pictures drawn by students.

    Gong Zhenyue, 14, drew pictures for one of the instructions in Family Instructions of Yan Clan. She was impressed (对……印象深刻) by the instruction, which says that parents should not only love their children, but also educate them. “It made me understand my parents' strictness (严格) with me,” she said. She made it her own family instruction.

    Artificial intelligence (AI, 人工智能) can help us make phone calls. It can guide us to where we want to go. It can play games. And now, AI can do even more things.

    Researchers from Microsoft have created the first machine translation system that can translate news articles from Chinese to English, Business Standard reported.

    According to Microsoft's official website, researchers tested the system by asking it to translate hundreds of sentences taken from news stories. Then, language experts compared the results to two translations that were done by humans. The experts concluded that the system's translations were as good as the human translations.

    Machine translation is always challenging. This is partly because different words can be used to express the same meaning. It can be hard to say which word is more “correct”.

    Experts used several methods to improve the system's translation abilities. “Much of our research is really inspired (得到启发) by how we humans do things,” lead researcher Liu Tieyan said.

    One method is called dual learning. In this method, the system translates every sentence from Chinese to English, as well as translates the sentences back from English into Chinese. This way, the system can improve itself and learn from its own mistakes. This is similar to what humans do to make sure their translations are accurate (准确的).

    Another method makes use of deliberation networks . The researchers taught the system to repeat the process of translating the same sentence over and over. Gradually, the system can improve the quality of its translations. This is similar to how people revise their own writing by going through it again and again.

    On June 2, 1886, a German captain threw a message in a bottle into the water while his ship crossed the Indian Ocean. Around 132 years later in January, the bottle was found on the Australian coast

    The bottle was thrown into the water to track ocean currents (洋流). Between 1864 and 1933, German sailors threw thousands of bottles into the sea.

    But throwing messages in bottles into the ocean is not just for scientists. People send out such messages for many reasons. Some people write information about themselves in the hopes of finding a pen pal And still other people just write down some jokes, song lyrics or anything else they think might be fun.

    There are even online messages in bottles. People can send the messages through WeChat or QQ.

    The reasons and ways might be different, but the goal is always the same: to reach out and try to connect with someone In 1988, the British band The Police wrote a song called Message in A Bottle that describes this feeling.

    As the song's lyrics say, we are “a hundred billion castaways(被抛弃者) looking for a home”. When will you feel relieved (释然的) ? “A hundred billion bottles washed up on the shore

A. Others write down secrets, hoping that the waves will wash them away.

B. This kind of shared feeling might be why this tradition has remained popular for so long.

C. making it the oldest-known message in a bottle in the world.

D. Seems I'm not alone at being alone.

E. Some 663 of those messages were found later.