天津市南开区2017届高三英语模拟试卷（四）

—________. I've bought a new one.

—He is an outstanding leader who _______his reputation.

    The 1 picked up the thermos and poured some hot water into the tea-cup and placed it on the small table in front of his 2 who were a father and daughter, and put the lid on the cup with a clink. Obviously 3of something, he hurried into the inner room, leaving the 4on the table. His two guests heard several drawers opening and a rustling （飒飒响声）.

    They 5sitting in the living-room, the 10-year-old daughter, looking at the flowers outside the window. The father was just about to take his cup when the 6came, right there in the living-room. Something was hopelessly broken.

    It was the thermos, which had fallen to the floor. The girl looked 7her shoulder at once, startled （吓一跳）,8 It was 9. Neither of them had touched it, not even a little bit. The sound caused the host to rush back from the inner room. He looked at the 10 floor and blurted out(脱口而出), “It doesn't matter, it doesn't matter!”

    The father started to say something. Then he muttered(嘀咕), “Sorry, I 11 it and it fell.”

    “It doesn't matter,” the host said.

    Later, when they left the house the daughter said, “Daddy, I saw your 12 in the windowpane(窗玻璃). You were sitting perfectly 13Why did you say…?”

    The father 14 “What then would you 15as the cause of its fall?”

    “It fell by itself! Maybe the floor is uneven. It wasn't steady when Mr. Li put it there.”

    “It won't 16 girl. It sounds more 17 when I say I touched it. There are things people accept less the more you18 them. The truer your story is, the less true it sounds.”

    The daughter was 19in silence for a while. Then she said, “Can you explain it only this way?”

    “Only this way,” the father laughed again. “Since life is not perfect, sometimes we need to deal with it with a white 20”

    Food festivals around the world

    In business, there's a speed difference: It's the difference between how important a firm's leaders say speed is to their competitive strategy and how fast the company actually moves. The difference is important regardless of industry and company size. Companies fearful of losing their competitive advantage spend much time and money looking for ways to pick up the speed.

In our study of 343 businesses, the companies that chose to go, go, go to try to gain an edge ended up with lower sales and operating incomes than those that paused at key moments to make sure they were on the right track. What's more, the firms that “slowed down to speed up” improved their top and bottom lines, averaging 40% higher sales and 52% higher operating incomes over a three-year period.

    How did they disobey the laws of business physics, taking more time than competitors yet performing better? They thought differently about what “slower” and “faster” mean. Firms sometimes fail to understand the difference between operational speed (moving quickly) and strategic speed (reducing the time it takes to deliver value). Simply increasing the speed of production, for example, may be one way to try to reduce the speed difference. But that often leads to reduced value over time, in the form of lower-quality products and services.

    In our study, higher-companies with strategic speed always made changes when necessary. They became more open to ideas and discussion. They encouraged new ways of thinking. And they allowed time to look back and learn. By contrast, performance suffered at firms that moved fast all the time, paid too much attention to improving efficiency, stuck to tested methods, didn't develop team spirit among their employees, and had little time thinking about changes.

    Strategic speed serves as a kind of leadership. Teams that regularly take time to get things right, rather than plough ahead full bore, are more successful in meeting their business goals. That kind of strategy must come from the top.

    My grandma whom we all called Nanny was a solid, first-generation, Italian immigrant. She came to this country with her family on a tiny ship during World War I when she was only 8 years old. During the trip she survived stormy seas, little food, and an attack by a German U-boat. After getting here, her large family worked hard to build a new life in America. They never had much money but were rich in love.

    One day, when I was about 5 or 6 years old, my parents and brothers went on a trip. It was just me and Nanny in the house for the weekend. Nanny seemed so happy to be taking care of me all by herself. She made me a special breakfast that first morning. However, all I could do was to complain about how the food was not how Mom always made it. Nanny quietly put down the plate and went into the living room. I followed a minute later and saw that she had tears in her eyes. It was the first time I had ever seen my strong and proud grandmother cry and I was the one who had caused it.

    I walked over to Nanny, climbed on her lap, and for the first time in my short life I did something else too. I apologized without being told to and asked Nanny to forgive me. She smiled, rubbed my head, and told me I was a good boy even though I didn't feel like one then.

    That memory just like my Nanny's love will stay in my heart forever. It is a sign of both strength and wisdom. Asking for forgiveness helps us to learn, to grow, and to love.

    Wouldn't it be wonderful to travel to a foreign country without having to worry about the headache of communicating in a different language?

    In a recent Wall Street Journal article, technology policy expert Alec Ross argued that, within a decade or so, we'll be able to communicate with one another via small earpieces with built-in microphones. That's because technological progress is extremely rapid. It's only a matter of time. Indeed, some parents are so convinced that this technology is imminent that they're wondering if their kids should even learn a second language.

    It's true that an increase in the quantity and accuracy of the data loaded into computers will make them cleverer at translating “No es bueno dormir mucho” as “It's not good to sleep too much.” Replacing a word with its equivalent (同义词) in the target language is actually the “easy part” of a translator's job. But even this seems to be a discouraging task for computers.

    It's so difficult for computers because translation doesn't—or shouldn't—involve simply translating words, sentences or paragraphs. Rather, it's about translating meaning. And in order to infer meaning from a specific expression, humans have to interpret a mass of information at the same time.

Think about all the related clues that go into understanding an expression: volume, gesture, situation, and even your culture. All are likely to convey as much meaning as the words you use.

    Therefore, we should be very skeptical of a machine that is unable to interpret the world around us. If people from different cultures can offend each other without realizing it, how can we expect a machine to do better? Unless engineers actually find a way to breathe a soul into a computer, undoubtedly when it comes to conveying and interpreting meaning using a natural language, a machine will never fully take our place.

    Some years ago industries had more freedom than they now, and they did not need to be as careful as they must today. They did not need to worry a lot about the safety of the new products that they developed. They took little notice of the health and safety of the people who worked for them. Often new products were dangerous for the people who used them and conditions in the work place had very bad effects on the health of the workers.

    Of course, sometimes there were real disasters which attracted the attention of governments and which showed the need for changes. Also scientists who were doing research into the health of workers sometimes produced information which governments could not ignore. At such times, there were inquiries into the causes of the disasters or the problems. New safety rules were often introduced as a result of these inquiries; however, the new rules came too late to protect the people who died or who became seriously ill.

    Today many governments have special departments which protect customers and workers. In the U. S, for example, there is a department which tests new airplanes and gives warnings about possible problems. It also makes the rules that aircraft producers must follow. Another department controls the foods and drugs that companies sell. A third department looks at the places where people work, and then reports any companies that are breaking the laws which protect the health and safety of workers. Of course, new government departments and new laws cannot prevent every accident or illness, but they are having some good results. Our work places are safer and cleaner than before. The planes and cars which we use for travel are better. Producers are thinking more about the safety and health of the people who buy and use their products.

注意：

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    Li Jin and Wang Ying are two students of Senior Three. They both work hard but they have different learning methods.