meaning privacy-compromising information such as your location won’t leak out either. However, your phone won’t get any calls while it’s in the bag.

Of course, the safest approach is not to buy a new gadget in the first place. That might not be practical these days, but do you really need a smart speaker or a television set that’s connected to the Internet?

56. What does the author suggest we should do in order to be risk-free? A. Be cautious about using smart devices. B. Be particular about the devices we buy. C. Follow the manufacturer’s instructions. D. Kill the power or not buy devices at all. 57. If a CEO needs to organize a video conference while on a trip, he is advised to ________. A. kill the MIC B. limit the MIC C. cover the camera D. block the signals

B

Cheating is nothing new. But it’s becoming a lot more sophisticated. Republican vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin was caught out once. A photo taken after the speech she’d given on a “return to conservative principles” showed her left hand covered with crib notes. These included the words “energy, budget cuts, tax” and “lift Americans’ spirits”. The word “budget” had been crossed out. Video footage also showed her reading from her hand when asked what top three things a conservative-led congress should do. Writing notes on your hand is one way to cheat in an exam. But these days, it’s a lot easier ... especially with the Internet.

Anyone who wants to cheat in an exam can probably find the answers online. There are hundreds of sites offering solutions to all sorts of tests. And it’s a lucrative business. One operator in Oregon made $700,000 in about nine months before his arrest. The owner of a website in Ohio pocketed more than $300,000. And a famous overseas site is estimated to sell about 146,000 sets of answers and take in about $10 million per year. Actually, getting hold of the exam answers isn’t that hard. Some do the exam themselves and use button cameras or document-scanning pens to copy the tests. Others organize for a group to take tests repeatedly until they can memorize the entire exam between them. Others simply bribe exam administrators.

At the moment, such business is booming. More and more companies now require their employees to take professional exams. And hundreds of businesses and trade organizations have introduced formal certification programs to measure employee skills. In the US alone, at least 2 million exams are taken every year for information technology certification. But employees also have to take exams for all sorts of professions from crane operators to court reporters to school bus drivers and financial planners. Test officials estimate that hundreds of thousands of test-takers have used the Internet to buy answers for professional tests. And a recent survey found that 28 percent of test centres had at least one cheating incident over the last five years. In one incident, tens of thousands of soldiers obtained answers to tests in a range of military skills.

Many see this as a cause for concern. Many tests are for work in sensitive areas such as defence installations and hospitals. Now, how would you feel if you knew that the people in charge of the computers controlling nuclear weapons might have cheated in their tests, and may not really know what they’re doing?

58. Why does the author mention Sarah Palin in the first paragraph?

A. To exhibit the fact that cheating is common in various fields. B. To discourage average people from writing notes on their hands. C. To show much disagreement as to cheating among political leaders. D. To introduce the negative influences of cheating in front of the public.

59. The underlined word “lucrative” in Paragraph 2 is closest in meaning to ________.

A. ripe B. stable C. profitable D. fresh 60. What is the main cause of more cases of cheating? A. The formation of employee skills. B. The availability of information technology.

C. The popularity of the cheating industry. D. The requirement of taking professional exams.

C

THE UK government has announced plans to tackle sources of air pollution, including popular wood-burning stoves, but its Clean Air Strategy, which was unveiled last week, fails to address the real problem.

Although pollution from woodburning stoves is a relatively new problem for the UK, it has long been a major one in countries such as Canada and New Zealand. And the take-home message from them as to controlling the release of harmful particulates in the air is simple: ban wood burning.

“There does not seem to be a limit below which there is no impact on health,” says Gary Fuller at King’s College London, whose team has shown that wood burning is now the source of a third of particulate pollution in UK cities.

As New Scientist reported last year, families with wood burners are likely to be exposed to the highest levels of pollution and their neighbours are next in the firing line, given that the particulates produced can easily escape from homes. Despite this, the UK government isn’t planning a ban. Instead, it wants “to prohibit the sale of the most polluting fuels”, such as wet wood. What’s more, lots of people with wood burners don’t buy wood from shops. Instead, they scrounge it from wherever they can, with building waste one popular source. This is a disaster in pollution terms as treated or painted wood can release highly toxic chemicals when burned. The plan is also to “ensure that only the cleanest stoves are available for sale by 2022”. But even the cleanest stove produces eight times as much pollution as a diesel truck, says Fuller.

Some cities actually required old wood stoves to be replaced with cleaner new ones. That has helped, but wood burning remains a major source of pollution, says Fuller. In most cases, conventional gas central heating plus properly insulating (使隔热) your home is less harmful in global-warming terms than switching to a wood burner.

Finally, there are separate but related EU laws that set limits on the maximum allowable concentrations of specific pollutants in the air at individual locations. The UK frequently breaches these: London’s Oxford Street often hits its annual limit within the first weeks of each year. As a result, the UK government has lost a series of court cases brought by the environmental organization ClientEarth. Separately, on 17 May, the UK and five other countries were referred to the Court of Justice of the European Union for their repeated failures to keep to these limits. If the government really wants to clean up the UK’s air, it has a lot more work to do. 61. What does the underlined word “them” in Paragraph 2 refer to?

A. The British authorities. B. Countries like Canada and New Zealand. C. Details of Clean Air Strategy. D. Citizens in woodburning countries.

62. Why does the author think the UK government is doing a stupid job in terms of handling wood

burning?

A. It is not worthwhile bothering to deal with wood burning.

B. It is impractical to get all the families to give up wood burning. C. The government has failed to aim its policies at proper targets. D. Citizens are forced to collect and burn treated or painted wood.

63. According to the author, to stay warm in winter, a Londoner had better ________.

A. turn to a cleaner stove B. put on more clothes C. stick to central heating D. redecorate the house 64. What can be a suitable title for the passage? A. No More Stoves B. Say Good-bye to Pollution

C. Clean Air Strategy D. Why Not Central Heating

D

I will absolutely be the first person to romanticize libraries. I come from a home with thirty-two bookcases, a count that does not include the several dozen boxes of books in the attic labeled “work” and “extra.” All these books are courtesy of my parents, both of whom were English majors in their day and in whose footsteps I never hesitated to follow. My childhood dream was of a house with a claw-foot bathtub, stained glass, and (most importantly) an enormous library made of built-in shelves, a sliding ladder, and window seats in every window. As a high school girl, I began working at the county library near my house, following up on two summers of volunteering with their summer reading program. I was all starry eyes and romantic visions of alphabetizing the classics and discovering gems among the new arrivals. What I found instead was that the life of a library was nothing like my daydreams, but far more important than I could have imagined.

There is no library that is only a library anymore. Modern libraries can’t afford and don’t try to be only a receptacle for free books. They offer classes, book groups, Internet access, resume and tax help, tutoring, and multimedia resources for anyone who might wander in. Librarians are equipped to help with research and give recommendations. Most libraries have access to interlibrary loans, making the acquisition of nearly any piece of material merely a matter of time. What makes libraries so unique and important, however, is none of the diversity of resources and opportunities for community that they most certainly provide.

____________________________________. Every building one enters today comes with some expectation of spending money. Restaurants require paying for service. Shops require the intention of purchasing something. Houses require rent. Anyone who has lived near the poverty line, whether or not they have actually been homeless, has felt the threatening pressure toward expenditure that permeates the public spaces of modern Western culture. Even a free restroom is becoming difficult to find, especially as growing cities experience ever-increasing space restrictions.

In a library, no one is asked to pay anything simply to sit. For those with few resources besides time, this is a godsend. Libraries are unofficial playgrounds for low-income families on rainy days, homeless shelters in cold months, reprieves from broken homes for grade-school-age children. They are the last bastions of quiet and calm where nothing is asked of one but to exist. Many arguments have been made about how the library is an outdated institution offering outdated services—that in the twenty-first-century how-to books on building sheds and daily newspaper copies are obsolete and the funding used for libraries ought to be reallocated to other programs. I can only assume that those who make such arguments are people who have always been comfortable with the expenditures it takes to move through the world. For those people, libraries can be about books. But not everyone has the luxury of seeing past the space.

Libraries, as they exist in the twenty-first century, are the only remaining public domain. In a library, anyone of any walk of life can come and go as they choose, and so long as they remain respectful of the space they can remain as long as they wish. Libraries welcome everyone, offering a place to be and easily accessible resources to the most vulnerable populations, whether in downtown Chicago or small-town Oklahoma. My childhood romantic vision of the library is still close to my heart, but the very real work that public libraries do today is so much more critical than a leather-bound edition of Homer or a graphic novel fresh off the press. Those are the things the library gives me, but libraries are for everyone. 65. What can we infer from Paragraph 1?

A. The author has a vivid memory of her childhood life. B. The author had an appetite for reading long before. C. The author’s early romantic visions proved untrue.

D. The author’s parents deliberately tricked her into reading.

66. Why does the author talk about the diverse services modern libraries provide?

A. Modern libraries make reading more enjoyable than before. B. People nowadays come to libraries for different purposes.

C. The core essence of public libraries remains unchanged. D. Technological changes become a must in modern libraries.

67. Which of the following sentences will best suit the missing part in Paragraph 3?

A. Libraries are a place in every town and city for people to have inner peace. B. Libraries are the last place in every town and city that people can simply exist.

C. Libraries are temporary shelters in every town and city for people to escape reality. D. Libraries are free restrooms with much spare space in every town and city. 68. According to the author, who are most likely to frequent libraries?

A. Rich businessmen faced with huge pressure. B. Young adolescents loaded with school work.

C. School children coming from broken homes. D. Senior citizens looking for old companions.

69. What does the underlined sentence in Paragraph 4 imply?

A. Libraries provide them with no more than books. B. Books plus diverse services should be provided. C. They don’t have to go to libraries to read books. D. The books and services in libraries are outdated. 70. The author wrote the passage to ________.

A. express deep affection for public libraries B. describe problems libraries are faced with C. call on more people to read in libraries D. illustrate the necessity of public libraries 第四部分 任务型阅读（共10小题；每小题1分，满分10分）

请认真阅读下列短文，并根据所读内容在文章后表格中的空格里填入一个最恰当的单词。 ．．

注意：请将答案写在答题卡上相应题号的横线上。每个空格只填1个单词。

All company leaders will face major business decisions throughout their time as the heads of their organizations. Difficult decisions related to activities such as M&A, leadership changes, restructuring, and massive growth plans will directly impact the company’s employees.

If you’ve already established trust with your workforce, you can significantly minimize potential negative impacts and make sure your employees will buy into your decisions, even if they don’t necessarily agree with them. But earning their faith takes time. As a leader, you are trusted only to the degree that people believe in your ability, consistency, and commitment to deliver. The good news is that there do exist some strategies to help you earn confidence. Instill trust through an employee engagement program

By encouraging consistent feedback and establishing an honest environment, employees will trust the direction and information you give them. Create a highly engaged culture by prioritizing real-time recognition, continuous feedback, and ongoing goal-setting.

? Change and react with meaningful conversations. You’ve likely had to adjust your business plan in the middle of the year. Real-time, continuous communication helps you keep employees in the loop and adjust to expectations as your organization’s needs change.

? Giving timely feedback is the most effective way to communicate expectations. Not only that, but saving your big praise until the end of the year isn’t just ineffective—it makes it more difficult to deliver.

? Ongoing goal-setting can help people understand where their contributions fit within the organization and where they need to aim. Better yet, these can be transparent across the organization so everyone is held accountable for the outcomes and behaviors that drive your business and cultural success.

Gather and measure sentiment (情感) during times of change

Part of the difficulty in making tough business decisions is that leaders don’t want to surprise or disappoint employees. Think about the last time you made a major company-wide announcement. Did you know if employees were happy? Were they shocked? Or even worse, did you have no