1 . Sara Hinesley, who is 10, doesn’t understand why it is so remarkable that she won a national handwriting competition.
Sara, a third-grade student at St. John Regional Catholie School in Frederick, Maryland, won the 2019 Nicholas Maxim award for her cursive (草书的) handwriting.
She paints and draws, and sculpts clay. She can write in English and some Chinese. When she learnt to write in cursive this year, Sara said, she thought it was “kind of easy”. This is all despite the fact that Sara was born without hands.
To write, Sara holds her pencil between her arms and then focuses on the shapes of letters, each point and curve. “Writing in cursive feels like creating art work,” Sara said. “I like the way the letters are formed. It’s kind of art.”
Sara has never worn a prosthesis (artificial arms), and when she is offered help or a tool that might ease some tasks — such as cutting paper with scissors — she rejects it, said her mother, Cathryn Hinesley She has this independent trend where she just knows that she can do it and she'll figure out her own way. She is beautiful and strong and mighty just the way she is, and she just lives that way. She really does. She moves through life in this way that you never really see her as having a disability because she has a “can do, I-can-solve-anything attitude”
“Sara is an evidence of strong will and the human spirit,” Cathryn said. “Every day I am amazed at the things she is capable to do and that she chooses to do. She doesn't attempt to find her way to avoid s difficulty. She finds a way to finish the task.”
Sara received her national award — a medal — at an award ceremony on June 13, where she was also given a $500 prize. She is the first student from St. John’s to ever receive the Nicholas Maxim award.
1. We can infer from the first sentence that .| A．Sara makes every effort to win the award |
| B．Sara considers it easy to win the award |
| C．Sara doesn’t take the award seriously |
| D．Sara is excited at winning the award |
| A．Brave. | B．Intelligent. | C．Generous. | D．Strong-minded. |
| A．She expects Sara to be independent. | B．She is greatly proud of Sara. |
| C．She doesn’t think Sara has a disability. | D．She is concerned about Sara's future. |
| A．Health. | B．Education. | C．Science. | D．Entertainment. |
2 . Inventor James West was born in 1931 in Virginia. As a child, he spent lots of time studying how things worked and enjoyed taking apart small machines. “If I had some tools, any small machines that could be opened were in danger,” West said. “I had a strong desire to know what was inside.”
After an accident with a radio, West paid special attention to electricity. But his parents were concerned about the future job for an African-American scientist. They preferred him to become a doctor. However, West headed to Temple University in 1953 to study physics. Because of his school performance in physics, he managed to get training during the summer at Nokia Bell Labs, a world-known American industrial research and scientific development company. He received a college degree in physics in 1957, and upon graduation, he became a worker at Nokia Bell Labs.
In 1960, while at Bell, West teamed up with scientist Sessler to develop a less expensive, more powerful and smaller microphone (麦克风), In 1962, they finished the development on the product. Their invention became the industry standard. And even today, 90 percent of microphones -- for example, found in telephones, tape recorders, baby monitors and hearing aids -- are based on their technology.
West was chosen as Inventor of the Year by the state of New Jersey and president of the Acoustical Society of America. And both West and Sessler were chosen into the National Inventors Hall of Fame.
West left Bell in 2001. After some interviews with several universities, he chose the Johns Hopkins University and became a research professor at its Whiting School of Engineering. “I discovered that Johns Hopkins was a lot like Bell Labs, where the doors were always open and we were free to work with researchers in other areas,” he said. “I like the fact that I won’t be locked into one small closed room here.”
1. Being a child, James West often liked ___________.| A．collecting various tools |
| B．working hard at schoolwork |
| C．helping repair household machines |
| D．studying the operation and structures of machines |
| A．His university was famous for its physics teaching. |
| B．His good performance made him get a promising job. |
| C．He gave up the chance to turn his interest into his major. |
| D．He hardly got his parents’ support for his further education. |
| A．went through plenty of difficulties |
| B．was unpopular in the market at first |
| C．was inspired by some electronic products |
| D．prepared useful technology for many modern machines |
| A．It held lots of outdoor activities. |
| B．It had a close connection with Bell Labs. |
| C．It had good working atmosphere for teamwork. |
| D．It was rich in teaching resources and advanced technology. |
3 . Former pro basketball player Kobe Bryant won five NBA titles with the Los Angeles Lakers while making himself as one of the game’s all-time greats. He died tragically in a helicopter crash on January 26, 2020.
Kobe Bryant was born with basketball already in his blood. His dad was a former NBA star Joe “Jellybean” Bryant. Born on August 23, 1978, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Kobe spent his early years in Italy, because his dad started playing basketball in Europe and his family moved there. The family moved back to the United States when Kobe was 13 and he started playing high school basketball.
Kobe knew he was already good enough to play in the NBA, so he skipped college and was selected right after high school. He played in the NBA All-Star Game for the first time in 1998 and by 2000, Kobe had developed into one of the best basketballs players. Kobe and Shaquille O’Neal teamed up to lead the LA Lakers to three straight NBA Championship (冠军) Titles from 2000 to 2002.
In 2003, Kobe was caught by the police. In 2004, the case against Kobe was dropped, but Kobe still had to live with a damaged reputation. In 2004, Kobe tried to prove that he could lead the LA Lakers without Shaq. After Kobe told the Lakers he wouldn’t be wearing the purple and gold if Shaq was in the team, O’Neal was traded to the Miami Heat before the 2004-2005 season.
In 2008, Bryant was named Most Valuable Player and carried his team to the NBA Finals, where they lost to the Boston Celtics. In the 2009 NBA Finals, the Lakers beat the Orlando Magic to win the championship.
Although later seasons were affected by injuries, he surpassed (超越) Michael Jordan for third place on the NBA all-time scoring list in December 2014 and retired in 2016 after scoring 60 points in his final game.
1. Kobe Bryant passed away at the age of _______.| A．37 | B．40 | C．42 | D．45 |
| A．Kobe’s blood was special when he was born. |
| B．All of Kobe’s family members are basketball players. |
| C．Kobe got a basketball when he was born. |
| D．Kobe was born to be a basketball player. |
| A．upset | B．confident | C．doubtful | D．not confident |
| A．A Brief Introduction of Kobe | B．How to Become A Basketball Star |
| C．The NBA All-Star Game | D．The LA Lakers |
1. Which of the following is a feature of a hit song?
| A．Being easy to remember. |
| B．Having an unpleasant tune. |
| C．Being released in an album. |
| A．2-3 minutes. | B．2-5 minutes. | C．5-7 minutes. |
| A．Taylor Swift. | B．Skrillex. | C．Bob Dylan. |
| A．Lyrics. | B．Artists. | C．Pop music. |
5 . You may be familiar with the following famous people, but have you heard of their graduation speeches, in which they either share their unforgettable experiences or give you some great inspiration?
● Michael Dell, University of Texas at Austin
And now you’ve finished something great and important here, and it’s time for you to move on to what’s next. And you must not let anything prevent you from taking those first steps. You must also commit to the adventure. Just have faith in the skills and the knowledge you’ve been blessed with and go.
● J. K. Rowling, Harvard University
Half my lifetime ago, I was striking an uneasy balance between my ambition and the expectations from my parents who were not rich. But what I feared most for myself at your age was not poverty, but failure. The fact that you are graduating from Harvard suggests that you know little about failure. You might be driven by a fear of failure quite as much as a desire for success.
● Steve Jobs, Stanford University
Sometimes life’s going to hit you in the head with a brick. Don’t lose faith. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work, and the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking, and don’t settle.
● Bill Gates, Harvard University
We need as many people as possible to have access to the advanced technology, and they can lead to a revolution in what human beings can do for one another. They are making it possible not just for national governments, but for universities, smaller organizations, and even individuals to see problems, see approaches and deal with the world’s inequities (不公平) like hunger, poverty and so on.
1. What Michael Dell said is to encourage us to .| A．love our work | B．listen to expectations |
| C．follow our dreams | D．follow others’ example |
| A．to dream | B．to fail | C．of being poor | D．of being hungry |
| A．Helping solve some global problems together. |
| B．Taking responsibility for their own behavior. |
| C．Making contributions to their own country. |
| D．Mastering as much knowledge as possible. |
6 . Jack London, one of America’s great writers of adventure stories, was born in California in 1876. During his life, London did many jobs. His broad life experiences would become the background for his writing.
London loved to read. As a teenager, he spent many hours educating himself at the Oakland Public Library. He attended college at the University of California at Berkeley in 1896, but he stayed for only six months. He thought Berkeley was “not lively enough” and wanted to do something more exciting.
London wrote stories about working people and the hard times they had making a living. He knew their problems at first hand. He worked as a sailor, factory worker, and gold rusher, to name but a few of his many jobs.
Like many people of the time, London caught the Klondike Gold Rush Fever. In 1897, he headed for Alaska. He didn’t find gold, but he discovered something even more valuable. He discovered that people enjoyed listening to the stories he made up. London entertained (使……快乐) the miners with story after story. Later, using his experiences during the Gold Rush, he created many more colorful stories. London decided to live a full, exciting life. Each day, he pushed himself. Once London made up his mind to be a writer, nothing could stop him. His goal was to write at least one thousand words every day. He refused to stop even when he was sick. In eighteen years, the writer published fifty-one books and hundreds of articles. He was the best-selling and highest-paid author of his day. Many people also considered him to be the best writer.
White Fang and The Call of the Wild are his most famous stories and are about surviving in the Alaskan wilderness.
Readers can enjoy Jack London’s talent for telling wonderful stories each time they open one of his novels.
1. What did Jack London think of his college life?| A．It was not very easy. | B．It was not very busy. |
| C．It was not very interesting. | D．It was not very comfortable. |
| A．When he was a teenager. | B．When he was in Alaska. |
| C．When he went to college. | D．When he worked as a sailor. |
| A．Strong-minded. | B．Big-mouthed. |
| C．Well-educated. | D．Sort-hearted. |
| A．The Klondike Gold Rush Fever | B．The Background of White Fang |
| C．Jack London—A Great Writer | D．Jack London’s Later Life |
In the field of sports there are some famous living legends, such as Lang Ping, and Michael Jordan.
As a player, Lang Ping brought not only honour but also glory to
Known as “Air Jordan”, Michael Jordan changed basketball with his graceful moves and jumps. Jordan’s skills were impressive but the mental strength
1. Why did people come to the bar?
| A．To hear the lady sing. | B．To make the lady famous. | C．To listen to the piano. |
| A．After he became a famous pianist. |
| B．That night after his first singing. |
| C．Long before he played the piano in the bar. |
| A．He became a well-known singer in America. |
| B．He had his own piano bar. |
| C．He continued to play the piano in the bar. |
| A．People will succeed if they have talent. |
| B．Everyone should make full use of his talent. |
| C．Few people have real talent. |
When Beethoven was only four, his father decided to make him a musician. Beethoven was made to practice
However, this didn’t stop Beethoven. During his life, he composed about 30 pieces of music. It is
10 . Donna Strickland was awarded the 2018 Nobel Prize in Physics jointly with Arthur Ashkin and Gérard Mourou.It’s the first time in 55 years that a woman has won this famous prize, but why has it taken so long? We look at five other pioneering female physicists — past and present — who actually deserve the prize.
Jocelyn Bell Burnell
Perhaps the most famous snub (冷落): the student Bell discovered the first radio pulsars in 1967, when she was a PhD student at Cambridge.The Nobel Prize that recognised this landmark discovery in 1974, however, went to her male supervisor, Antony Hewish.Recently awarded a £2.3 million Breakthrough Prize, which she gave away to help under-represented students, she joked to The Guardian, “I feel I’ve done very well out of not getting a Nobel Prize.”
Lene Hau
Hau is best-known for leading the research team at Harvard University in 1999 that managed to slow a beam of light, before managing to stop it completely in 2001.Often topping Nobel Prize prediction lists, could 2019 be Hau’s year.
Vera Rubin
Rubin discovered dark matter in the 1980s, opening up a new field of astronomy.She died in 2016, without recognition from the committee.
Chien-Shiung Wu
Wu’s “Wu experiment” helped disprove the “law of conservation of parity”.Her experimental work was helpful but never honoured, and instead, her male colleagues won the 1957 Nobel Prize for their theoretical work behind the study.
Lise Meitner
Meitner led groundbreaking work on the discovery of nuclear fission.However, the discovery was acknowledged by the 1944 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, which was won by her male co-lead, Otto Hahn.
1. When was the discovery of radio pulsars recognised by the Nobel?| A．In 1944． | B．In 1967． | C．In 1974． | D．In 1980． |
| A．Donna Strickland. | B．Jocelyn Bell Burnell. |
| C．Lene Hau. | D．Vera Rubin. |
| A．The five female scientists did greatly in chemistry. |
| B．Vera Rubin had opened up a new field in geometry. |
| C．Lise Meitner’s teacher won a Nobel Prize for her work. |
| D．The five female scientists haven’t been awarded Nobel Prize. |
