C

　　Once upon a time, science fiction was just a genre among other genres.

　　There were crime stories, there were horror stories, there was literary fiction—and there was science fiction. But today science themes dominate these other genres. It’s difficult to think of much modern crime, horror or “serious” fiction that doesn’t involve science.

　　And it’s not just books. With every second movie and computer game having a sci-fi element, science fiction seems to have controlled our entire entertainment culture. It’s clear that if we want to define science fiction we should relate it to the role that science plays in our lives.

　　Perhaps the place to start is by noting when it began.

　　Although some experts have claimed to be able to trace sci-fi back to ancient times, it is more believable to find it in initial form in the 19th century, when industrial societies arose. One of the features that set industrial societies apart from other kinds was the increasing part that science played in everyday life. Factories with vast machines turned out huge quantities of goods, which were transported by trains, motor vehicles and ships all over the world. Cities were built on the back of technology, with electricity in homes and hospitals helping everyone to lead healthier, more convenient lives. All of these changes had great effects not only on people’s real lives, but on their imaginative ones.

　　Writers began to articulate these changing physical and mental landscapes, eventually giving science fiction a large and devoted fan base of especially young readers, who found that it spoke to their curiosity about the future that science would create.

　　But sci-fi reflected fears about science more than it did hopes. The typical early science fiction novel might be a UK novel like H.G. Wells’ The War of the Worlds (1897). With great skill, Wells played upon the fears of technology by imagining Earth under threat by a civilization—that of men from Mars.

　　The science fiction of today expresses the impact of the computing revolution, robotics and our environmental challenges, while it is less concerned with “little green men from Mars” and other themes of past sci-fi.

　　Given that science, technology and politics are always intertwined (交織), contemporary science fiction often has a great deal to say about power. Many recent novels—like American Cory Doctorow’s Little Brother (2008)—are concerned with government and security service “conspiracies (陰謀)” against the people, particularly as the revelations of whistleblowers like Edward Snowden sink in. This can give sci-fi writing a “skeptical” feel.

　　This underlines one of the features that remains constant between the beginnings of the empire of science fiction and its state today.

　　As then, so now: We want to read about how fearful the future will be, not how it will be a paradise (天堂).

　　62. The underlined word “dominate” in Paragraph 1 probably means “______”.

　　A. induce B. represent C. interfere D. influence

　　63. What caused science fiction to appear in the 19th century?

　　A. The curiosity of young readers about the future.

　　B. The changes that the industrial revolution brought about.

　　C. People’s stretched imagination affected by their real life.

　　D. People’s fears about science rather than hopes.

　　64. What is mostly conveyed in contemporary science fiction?

　　A. Our earth is threatened by aliens from Mars.

　　B. Modern crime and horror are involved in science.

　　C. Power is a very important element to ensure security.

　　D. Entertainment culture and environmental issues are crucial.

　　65. What’s the main idea of the passage?

　　A. The impact of the science fiction.

　　B. The development of the science fiction.

　　C. The content of the science fiction.

　　D. The characteristic of the science fiction.

　　D

　　Jane Austen was born in Steventon, England, in 1775, where she lived for the first twenty-five years of her life. Her father, George Austen, taught her largely at home. She began to write while in her teens and completed Pride and Prejudice, titled First Impressions, between 1796 and 1797. A publisher rejected it, and it was not until 1809 that Austen began the revisions that would bring it to its final form. Pride and Prejudice was published in January 1813, two years after Sense and Sensibility, her first novel, and it achieved a popularity that has continued to this day. Austen published four more novels: Mansfield Park, Emma, Northanger Abbey, and Persuasion. The last two were published in 1818, a year after her death.

　　During Austen’s life, however, only her immediate family knew of her authorship of these novels. At one point, she wrote behind a door that would make a noise when visitors approached; this warning allowed her to hide manuscripts (手稿) before anyone could enter. Though publishing with no name prevented her from acquiring an authorial reputation, it also enabled her to preserve her privacy at a time when English society associated a female’s entrance into the public sphere with a loss of female qualities. Additionally, Austen may have sought to remain unknown because of the more general atmosphere of repression (約束) in her times.

　　The social environment of Austen’s Regency England was particularly stratified (分層次), and class divisions were rooted in family connections and wealth. In her work, Austen is often critical of the assumptions and prejudices of upper-class England. She distinguishes between internal merit (goodness of person) and external merit (rank and possessions). Though she frequently criticizes humorously those who pay too much respect to social position but look down upon people of a lower social position, she also makes fun of the poor manners and misbehavior of those lower on the social scale. Nevertheless, Austen was in many ways a realist, and the England she describes is one in which social mobility is limited and class-consciousness is strong.

　　Ideas of appropriate behavior for each gender factored into Austen’s work as well. While social advancement for young men lay in the military, church, or law, the chief method of self-improvement for women was the acquisition of wealth. Women could only accomplish this goal through successful marriage, which explains the existence of marriage as a goal and topic of conversation in Austen’s writing. Though young women of Austen’s day had more freedom to choose their husbands than in the early eighteenth century, practical considerations continued to limit their options.

　　Even so, critics often accuse Austen of reflecting a limited world. As a minister’s daughter, Austen would have done church work and was certainly aware of the poor around her. However, she wrote about her own world, not theirs. The critical analysis she makes of class structure seem to include only the middle class and upper class; the lower classes, if they appear at all, are generally servants who seem perfectly pleased with their fortune. This lack of interest in the lives of the poor may be a failure on Austen’s part, but it should be understood as a failure shared by almost all of English society at the time.

　　In general, Austen occupies a curious position between the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Her favorite writer, whose words are often repeated in her novels, was Dr. Samuel Johnson, the great model of eighteenth-century classicism. Her plots bear similarities to such works of Johnson’s contemporaries as Pamela, written by Samuel Richardson. Austen’s novels also display an ambiguity about emotion and an appreciation for intelligence and natural beauty.

　　In their awareness of the conditions of modernity and city life and the consequences for family structure and individual characters, they prefigure (預示) much Victorian literature (as does her usage of such elements as frequent formal social gatherings, sketchy characters, and scandal).

　　66. From the passage we know that Pride and Prejudice by Austen ______.

　　A. earned her instant reputation

　　B. remains well received today

　　C. achieved popularity after her death

　　D. is revised by her immediate family

　　67. What can be inferred from the passage?

　　A. She used different pen names in her life.

　　B. The success of her works troubled her a lot.

　　C. People could change their social status flexibly.

　　D. She couldn’t enter a profession like men.

　　68. In her writing, marriage became a goal and topic of conversation because______.

　　A. women were placed at a disadvantage in their marriage

　　B. men could advance themselves in their careers through marriage

　　C. only through good marriage could women realize their dreams

　　D. only through proper marriage could women find their true love

　　69. What can we learn from the fifth paragraph?

　　A. Austen was criticized for her devotion to church work.

　　B. Austen made no reference to life of the poor in her works.

　　C. The lack of interest in the lives of the poor is only Austen’s failure.

　　D. Austen’s works mainly reflect the lives of middle and upper classes.

　　70. It is implied in the passage that ______.

　　A. Austen was somewhat influenced by her contemporary writers

　　B. Austen and her contemporary writers changed Victorian literature

　　C. Austen played a less important part in the nineteenth century

　　D. Austen was one of the pioneers of eighteenth-century classicism

　　第Ⅱ卷 (兩部分 共35 分)

　　第四部分 任務型閱讀 (共10 小題;每小題1 分，滿分10 分)請認真閱讀下列短文，并根據(jù)所讀內(nèi)容在文章后表格中的空格里填入一個最恰當?shù)膯卧~。

　　注意：每個空格只填1 個單詞。請將答案寫在答題卡上相應題號的橫線上。

　　Have you ever wondered why some people seem to be so successful in life?

　　Everything flows just right for them, the great job, great salary, perfect love, and ideal life. One reason for success is the ability to make correct choices and decisions that lead to positive outcomes. It’s based on power of understanding things immediately, without the need for conscious reasoning or study. This ability is intuition (直覺) and highly successful people enjoy a higher degree of intuition than the average person. Successful people combine all they have learned together with what they sense with their intuition.

　　Everybody is intuitive, but not everybody trusts their intuition when it comes to making decisions. Most people don’t even believe they have intuition, so, it doesn’t even cross their minds to use it for problem solving. Even today, there are those who are afraid of their clairvoyant (有透視力的) ability. They have many misconceptions about it, thinking it’s taboo. Others believe they have it, have had experiences with it, but never knew it could be a valuable tool for problem solving.

　　Intuition is actually a skill that can be developed and applied effectively for improving all areas of life. It is not a “gift” that only a few have. In fact, everyone has some degree of intuition. Your intuition has probably been a guiding force for you all of your life by having provided you with information that helps you reach positive outcomes. This type of information tends to come from ideas based on intuition, inspirational thoughts, dreams, or visions. It can, coincidentally, come from others, or from your inner voice. Often, it’s a very strong feeling deep in the pit (凹處) of your stomach or your heart. No matter how the information comes to you, when applied, the outcome is usually positive.

　　Intuition is like reading. It’s a skill that can be developed through time. No one is born knowing how to read; yet almost everyone has the potential of learning how to read. As time went by, the more we read the more skillful we became at reading. With intuition, the more you understand and use your intuition, the better it develops. Some people seem to have more intuition than others. It’s probably because they had positive experiences with it as they were growing up, and are now more comfortable with using it.

　　第五部分 書面表達 (滿分25 分)

　　81. 閱讀下面短文，然后按照要求寫一篇150 詞左右的英語短文。

　　As World Book Day arrived this year, reading events sprang up nationwide as the government encouraged a love of literature among the public.

　　Jiangsu province launched a four-day reading festival in Nanjing on April 23rd during which scholars gave lectures, and a team of volunteers was created to read books aloud to the visually disabled. The government also turned the city’s library into a readers’ paradise, equipped with a book cafe for lectures and book fairs.

　　Beijing launched the 5th Reading Season. The government puts great emphasis on encouraging a love of reading among people and a survey shows that government has included a policy to promote reading in the government’s work report since 2014.

　　Party members are required to set an example of valuing reading, and recent surveys show they devote more of their leisure time to it. Many spend more time on reading than before, about 14 hours a week now.

　　[寫作內(nèi)容]

　　1. 用約30 個單詞寫出上文概要;

　　2. 用約120 個單詞發(fā)表你的觀點，內(nèi)容包括：

　　(1) 對讀書活動的理解;

　　(2) 用2~3 個理由或論據(jù)支撐你的觀點;

　　(3) 談談你在全民讀書活動中的打算。

　　[寫作要求]

　　1. 發(fā)表觀點時必須提供理由或論據(jù);

　　2. 闡述觀點、提供論據(jù)或敘述經(jīng)歷時，不能直接引用原文語句;

　　3. 作文中不能出現(xiàn)真實姓名和學校名稱;

　　4. 不必寫標題。

　　_________________________________________________________________

　　_________________________________________________________________

　　_________________________________________________________________

　　_________________________________________________________________

　　_________________________________________________________________

　　_________________________________________________________________

　　_________________________________________________________________

　　_________________________________________________________________

　　_________________________________________________________________

　　_________________________________________________________________

　　參考答案

　　1—5 BAACA 6—10 BACAA 11—15 BACAC 16—20 BAABB

　　21—25 BDDCB 26—30 ADCAD 31—35 CBACA

　　36—40 ADBCA 41—45 DCDBC 46—50 BABCA 51—55 CDDAB

　　56—60 DACAC 61—65 BDBCB 66—70 ADCDD

　　71. relationship/ connection/ link 72. think 73. Combination 74. make

　　75. aware/ conscious 76. avoid/prohibit/ forbid 77. value/benefit

　　78. provides/equips 79. use 80. stronger/ greater

　　One possible version:

　　On World Book Day, places like Jiangsu and Beijing held their characteristic activities to encourage people to develop interest in reading where Party members are required to take the lead.

　　Personally, to improve the overall quality of the public, reading deserves to be paid enough attention to. To begin with, education is the priority of a nation, without which a nation wouldn’t be strengthened. Additionally, reading is actually of great benefit to self-improvement, which broadens our horizons and enriching our life.

　　As for me, books are to mind what exercise is to body. Firstly, I will read Chinese and foreign classics in my spare time, which provide me with a thorough understanding of life and society.

　　What’s more, I will organize a reading corner in my class so that we can exchange ideas about what we read. As long as we stick to reading, we can get improved gradually. (150 words)