–– Fancy meeting you here.

–– _______

A. So you’re going. B. That’s very kind of you.

C. Have a nice time! D. Yes, what a coincidence!

Strawberry (草莓) fields dotted with hunched-over workers picking and packaging, then pushing the delicate red fruit to waiting trucks — it is a typical winter scene embedded in the patchwork of homes and farms that make up eastern Hillsborough County.

That scene is changing, though, as the labor pool shrinks and technology comes knocking. Wish Farms owner Gary Wishnatzki and his engineer partner Bob Pitzer are banking on technology.

As strawberry season wrapped up in February, their driverless strawberry-picking machine drove into the fields for some test runs. The results were impressive and enlightening（有啟迪作用的）, Wishnatzki said.

For some three years now, farmers have been forced to abandon millions of dollars worth of strawberries in fields, mostly in Hillsborough and Manatee counties, because they lacked laborers, industry experts say. The problem has been just as serious in California, Arizona and other farm communities.

The reasons for the shrinking worker pool are numerous. Migrant（移民）workers who have picked the fields for years are aging. Young adults in migrant families already in the United States are getting better educations and have more choices these days, including the construction industry, which again is on the upswing. Stricter security is allowing fewer undocumented workers to cross the border from Mexico. And Mexicans are having much smaller families now — just over two children per family, compared with 7.3 per family in 1960, according to a Pew Hispanic Center report released in 2012.

And since Mexico’s economy bounced back faster than that of the U.S., more Mexicans have been able to find work closer to home, according to the study.

“We came up with a concept we perceive as a necessity,” Wishnatzki said. “The labor pool has been shrinking for over 10 years now. It has been pretty harmful.” So in 2012, he and Pitzer formed their partnership, Harvest CROO Robotics, to develop a mechanical picker.

The Harvest CROO design has multiple picking heads that will move across a field, picking 25 acres over a three-day period, the typical time for picking fruit as it ripens. It has a “vision system” to distinguish between red and green strawberries and is able to get under the leaves to find and pick the ripe berries.

Picking strawberries is nothing like using a combine on a corn field, coming through and thrashing down the plants. Strawberries are delicate and ripen in various intervals, which Harvest CROO is taking into account in developing its machine.

A strawberry-picking machine will never completely replace the need for human labor in the fields, Wishnatzki said, but if the machines can supplement（補充）labor enough to keep the industry profitable, he and Pitzer will have met their goal.

1.Which of the following describes the typical winter scene of eastern Hillsborough County?

A. Farmers work hard on a corn field.

B. Workers pick and package strawberries.

C. Scientists test machines in strawberry fields.

D. Farmers operate strawberry-picking machines.

2.The mechanical picker is introduced due to ______.

A. the labor shortage

B. the market demand

C. the aging of the local population

D. the new concept of farming

3.Which of the following statements about Mexicans is true according to the passage?

A. Mexicans like to find jobs far away from home.

B. There are more Mexican laborers than needed in Arizona.

C. Security regulations now make it easier to employ Mexicans.

D. Young people from migrant Mexican families now have access to more career choices.

4. The “vision system” is designed to ______.

A. take pictures

B. locate leaves

C. find the ripe berries

D. help the color-blind

5.The goal of developing the strawberry-picking machine is to ______.

A. get rid of human labor

B. help farmers make money

C. show the power of robots

D. compete with the corn industry

假設你是李越，請給張老師(Mr. / Ms. Zhang)寫一封100-120個詞的英文信。根據(jù)你的情況，告訴老師你希望在英語寫作方面得到幫助。你可以希望老師著重糾正語言錯誤，也可以希望老師在作文結(jié)構(gòu)方面給予指導，并說明你的理由。

注意：1. 信的抬頭與落款已給出（不計入詞數(shù)）；

2. 不得以任何形式透露地區(qū)、學校、姓名等真實信息。否則，視為考試作弊。

Dear Mr. / Ms. Zhang,

______________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________

Yours sincerely,

Li Yue

Sara, my colleague, has been ______ the run all week preparing for her son’s wedding.

A. in B. to C. on D. at

Private taxi booking apps have ______ like mushrooms in the past few months because of their convenience and high efficiency.

A. broken up； B. lined up；C. come up；D. sprung up

The famous piano teacher ______ Robby as a student only because he said it had always been his mother’s dream to hear him play the piano.

A. took on B. took up C. took in D. took over

Tom seldom, ______, paid for the software on his computer. That is, he used lots of pirated software.

A. if any B. if ever C. if some D. if never

I have done everything possible to prevent him from running the risk but ______.

A. in time B. in case C. in vain D. in need

Bit by bit, the sand dust that fills the sky is dying down. The blue sky and the burning sun once again hang over the desert.

He is on the road, driving his beat-up yellow cab. The sides of the road are littered with damaged vehicles. Masses of smoke in the distance tell him that a war is being dragged on throughout his country.

It’s a fine day despite the choking heat. Not a breath of wind is blowing.

A group of vehicles are traveling towards him, carrying many passengers. The scene reminds him of the market days in this country when crowds of trucks transport folks to the markets; the only difference is, this time, they are not trucks, but tanks, carrying foreigners, guns in hand. He stares at them. They stare back. So they pass by one another.

“The damned war!” he whispers bitterly. Two days ago, a bomb fell on the market in front of his house, destroying nearly everything in sight. He survived by luck. He decided then and there that he would give up this cab business. This will be his final run. After this, he will leave this place together with his wife and children.

“Shala and my children, we’ll soon meet each other again, after I’m done here.” He turns his head to take a glance at a photo of his wife and children. The glass on the frame is broken, but their smiles in the picture do not fail to provide him with the only comfort that he has.

Shortly he arrives at a checkpoint. Tanks sit by the side of the road, the sight of which sends a marked coldness through his backbone. A bunch of soldiers armed to the teeth stand by. A foreign soldier signals him to stop. He calms himself down and pulls over. During the past few days, nearly no civilian（平民）vehicles come out of the capital city, his car being the only one on roads.

A few foreign soldiers come up to him, one, two, three, four, five. The leader bends over to have a look at the old car, then at him. “Where do you come from and where are you going?” With a smile on his face, he answers with a broken speech in the tongue that the soldier can understand, “Sir, I come from the capital. I’m leaving that place because it is a very dangerous place to be, with the war and everything.”

While talking, he hands a cigarette over to the soldier, then lights it up for him.

“When will the war end?” he asks.

“It won’t take long. We’ll soon give all of you in the capital the true freedom.” The soldier breathes a deep mouthful. He seems to have spotted the photo in the car, “The cigarette is not bad at all. Are those your wife and kids? I have two of my own, roughly the same age.”

“Oh, yes, they are mine and they are constantly on my mind. They left the city a bit earlier, and I’m on my way to be reunited with them. Perhaps I’m never coming back. Driving a cab around during war times is too dangerous. I’m giving up the business.” He looks at the soldier, still smiling.

“After we overthrow your dictator(獨裁者), you won’t have that to worry about. You can come back and pick up your life again.” The soldier is leaning on the door of the car. It is perhaps the first time in many days that he has seen a happy face among the local people. It cheers him up.

“Maybe, but I have to go to see my family. If you would pay us a visit, my wife will prepare a good meal for all of you. Come with me. This is going to be my last business run and I won’t even charge you.”

“Can’t make it. We’re on duty. Give our regards to your wife and kids.” The soldier is a bit excited, thinking maybe quite some locals have open arms for them after all. “Oh, yes, I almost forgot. The south is battle-infected. Where is your family?”

Still smiling, he picks up the broken picture frame, presses a kiss on the photo, then turns around, staring into the eyes of that soldier, not quite himself from excitement, and the other foreign soldiers holding guns. Words drop out of his lips slowly but firmly:

“Paradise.”

Perhaps the last thing he sees is the confused, fearful, twisted expression on the face of that soldier, and the cigarette end dropping from his fingers.

Then he pushes the button.

1.What is this passage mainly about?

A. A cruel war going on in the country.

B. A brave defender of the country.

C. A cab driver’s last business run.

D. A moving talk between a civilian and a soldier.

2.According to the passage, the man’s wife ______.

A. has already been killed by the bomb

B. must be the only comfort to the man

C. is really good at cooking local food

D. has managed to escape to another city

3. Why does the man keep smiling while talking to the soldier?

A. To show his kindness.

B. To satisfy the soldier.

C. To hide his true feeling.

D. To express his happiness.

4.The underlined sentence “Come with me, this is going to be my last business run and I won’t even charge you” suggests that the man ______.

A. treats the soldier as his friend

B. wants to quit his cab business

C. offers a free ride to the soldier

D. intends to kill the soldier

5.Which of the following may best describe the feeling of the locals about the foreign soldiers?

A. Fear. B. Hate. C. Disappointment. D. Unconcern.

書面表達

在英語課堂上，你喜歡你的老師上課時只用英語，還是英語漢語兼用？請你圍繞“How do you prefer your English classes to be taught? In English only, or in both English and Chinese?”這個話題，寫一篇100-120詞的英語短文。

注意：1．只選擇一種授課形式；2．請以具體事例闡述你選擇的理由。

命題、校對 高三備課組