22. Which country's location specially attracts retirees from the U.S.?

A Malaysia’s. B. Mexico's C. Panamas. D. Ecuador's 23. What is the main reason for retirees to choose Panama? A. Beautiful beaches. B. A booming economy C. A pleasant climate. D. Discounts for retirees.

B

I am astonished at the way God knows when to send a special gift of encouragement at just the right time! It might be in a dream, a lost letter, a memory, or something found that we'd forgotten about. My grandmother was from a town in Michigan. And summer after summer I enjoyed staying with my grandparents as a young child. I was from the city and loved the small town where they lived. People knew everyone, their children, their pets, their ancestors.

Grandma was always using her hands for something exciting. She would make sandwiches and we'd have tea parties, plant flowers and carefully tend them. She loved knitting sweaters as well as making beautiful quilts for her grandchildren. I remember the small thimble (顶针）she would place on her finger while doing her needlework.

A few years ago, when Grandma left this earth for her new residence in Heaven, I bid farewell to my loving grandmother. How quickly our lives can change! We had just had tea together a couple of months earlier, on her 91st birthday. I missed her very much, but I noticed it mostly on my birthdays, because there was no card from Grandma. She'd never forgotten my birthday!

On one particular birthday when I was feeling a little low, something happened and made me feel as if she was sharing that special day with me. I was arranging some colorful pillows that she had made, and suddenly I felt something inside one pillow; it was small and hard. I moved the object to a seam(缝)that I carefully opened, and, to my delight, out came a tiny silver thimble!

How happy I was to find something that had been a part of her! Not realizing it had fallen off her finger, I pictured her sewing it into that little pillow that I just happened to fluff (抖松 ), to place on my bedspread (床罩) that day. I carefully laid the thimble alongside the others I'd collected over the years. What a precious memory of a very special lady who, somehow, I knew, was laughing in delight at sewing her thimble into my pillow. I heated the kettle and made some tea, using my best china, as Grandma always did, and then enjoyed my tea and Grandma's thimble. What a wonderful birthday that was! 24. In the author's memory, what would her grandmother do?

A. She would make sandwiches and hamburgers for her family. B. She would wear a thimble for needlework every day. C. She would make beautiful quilts for money. D. She would look after the flowers in the garden.

25. What does the underlined word \A. The modern' worlds fast-changing life

B. The fact that the grandmother had passed away. C. The author’s missing her grandmother. D. The love the author got from her grandmother. 26. How did the author feel when she found the thimble? A. Surprised.

B. Regretful. C. Guilty. D. Lonely

27. Which of the following might be the best title for the passage? A. Grandma's Thimble. B. Grandma's Life Story.

C. The Joy of Finding Something Lost. D. The Importance of Putting Things Away.

C

There had been worrying news about Justice League in the months before its release, with a lot of re-shoots of scenes, a new director being brought in to finish the film after Zack Snyder’s loss of his daughter, (Zack Snyder was the original director). And, of course, there had been a lot of negative talk about Ben Affleck's acting skills in the role of Batman.

Some people are saying that Justice League is another big disappointment, because it could have been wonderful and instead fails to really entertain. Others say that Warner Bros. has finally got it right and that the future for Justice League looks bright.

My opinion lies somewhere in the middle. The film was by no means a disappointment: it was exciting and funny and brought a lot of fun. There was something special about watching the heroes from your childhood brought to life on the big screen and maybe that was affecting my opinion.

However, I will say that a lot of work needs to be done if the producer wants to produce better sequels (续集). Although the film was good, it was obvious which scenes had been reshot and how the characters had been changed. I also have to mention the special effects created in several scenes. These are the ones that you don’t expect to see in a film with such a big budget.

Another point to add is that it is good to see the producer making Superman slightly a brighter character

and adding some jokes to the plot to keep things fun. But the producer must be careful not to make the mistake that another film producer--here, not mentioning its name--is coming very close to doing: turning all of the films into bright and colorful shows and losing a lot of serious and seriously good stories. So, Justice League is not a great film but it is certainly not' a terrible one. A lot of work is still to be done.

28. Before the release of Justice League, many people showed _______ .

A. their pity for the director, Zack Snyder B. their concern about the film's quality C. their higher expectation of the new director. D. their support for the actor, Ben Affleck 29. According to the author, what's special about Justice League?

A. It advocates social justice, B. It brings lots of fun to audience. C. It has some brave heroes. D. It brings back childhood memories. 30. What's Paragraph 4 mainly written to show?

A. The author's views on the film's weaknesses B. The author's advice to the film's director. C. The author’s love for the film, D. The author’s expectation of the film's sequels 31. The mention of another film producer is to _______. A. stress the importance of fun in a film B. show Justice League's lack of a serious plot C. serve as a warning to Justice League's producer D. set an example for Justice League's producer

D

What's the small animal that buzzes here and there and visits flowers? If you said bees or hummingbirds (蜂鸟), you got it. You wouldn't be the first if you mixed the two up. Now a group of researchers even say we should embrace our history of considering the two together in the same group. The way scientists study bees could help them study hummingbird behavior, too.

Scientists first compared the two back in the 1970s when studying how animals search for food. The idea is that animals use a kind of math to make choices in order to minimize the work it takes to earn maximum rewards. Researchers at the time focused on movement rules, like the order in which they visited flowers, and where flowers were located to others. It was \like an algorithm (算法)” for efficient searching, said David Pritchard, a biologist at the University of St Andrews Students Association in Scotland. Hummingbirds and bees had similar solutions.

As the field of animal cognition （认知）appeared, hummingbird and bee research parted. Neuroscientists and behavioral ecologists developed ways to study bee behavior in naturalistic settings. Hummingbird researchers compared hummingbirds to other birds and borrowed methods from psychology to study their ability to learn in the lab. To be fair, hummingbirds and bees differ. For example, hummingbirds have more advanced eyes and brains than bees. Honeybees and bumblebees are social but hummingbirds typically aren't.

But however, they perceive or process information, they both experience similar information, Dr Pritchard said. In day-to-day searching for food, for example, hummingbirds may rely on more of a bee's-eye view than a bird’s-eye view. Like other birds, they rely on landmarks, distances and directions to make maps when travelling long distances, but they don't use these cues to find flowers. Move a flower just an inch or so away from where a hummingbird thought it was and it will hover over the flower's original location. Dr Pritchard is investigating if, like bees, hummingbirds engage in view matching---hovering, scanning snapshots of a place to their memory and using those as references later. 32. What is the center of research on hummingbirds and bees in the 1970s?

A. Memory. B. Movement rules. C. Reward calculating. D. Information processing. 33. Which subject's research methods were adopted to study the learning ability of hummingbirds? A. Math. B. Biology.

C. Ecology. D. Psychology.

34. How do researchers find out that hummingbirds are not like birds?

A. By setting them free. B. By moving flowers. C. By matching view. D. By making maps. 35. Which of the following can be the best title for the text? A. Hummingbirds and bees B. Hummingbirds in the lab

C. New trends in studying bees D. Thinking of hummingbirds as bees 第二节（共5小题；每小题 2 分，满分 10 分）

根据短文内容，从短文后的选项中选出能填入空白处的最佳选项。选项中有两项为多余选项。

Virtual Teams

Virtual teams are a great way to enable teamwork in situations where people are not sitting in the same office at the same time． 36 This is particularly so for businesses that use virtual teams to build global presence, or need less common skills or knowledge from people who are unwilling to travel． Virtual teams are governed by the same basic principles as traditional teams． 37 It is the way the team members communicate. They rely on special communication channels enabled by modern technologies, such as emails, faxes, and teleconferences, and alike. Due to more limited communication