When I was about twelve，I headed to a restaurant for dinner with my family. It was winter，and on that night the wind was really blowing hard.
As my mom and I headed to the restaurant from our car，a girl about my age and her mother came up to us. They asked if we had any spare change (零钱). My mom right away asked where they lived. They pointed to an old car in a parking lot across the street. The girl said there were six of them living in that car.
My mom said she had something to do after handing the people a few dollars. She sent me inside the restaurant with my dad and my three siblings (兄弟姐妹). But she didn't come. Later，I found out she had gone home and put all the food in our cupboards (食橱) into a few bags. Then，she brought that food over to the car and handed the bags to the family. I wasn't there when that happened，but I can only imagine the joy it brought to those people. A few days later, when I actually found out about what she had done,I asked her why she helped those people. She told me that they were not lucky. I remember the face of that girl who had asked us for change. She was the same age as me，yet we looked so different.
Here I stood，dressed in almost new clothes，headed to eat in a restaurant and then back home to the bedroom I shared with my younger sister . I remember thinking that the other girl didn't have any food to eat and she was heading back to a cold car shared with five other people.
After painting this picture in my mind，I understood why my mom had done what she did. I will never forget what she did that night，and how she taught me one of the best lessons I ever learned.
1. From the passage，we can know the writer's mother was ______ .| A．humorous | B．determined |
| C．kind-hearted | D．selfish |
| A．the poor family had no place to live |
| B．the poor girl was older than the author |
| C．the writer's mother didn't know how to cook |
| D．the poor girl lived near the restaurant |
| A．It was a winter morning when the story happened. |
| B．There were six people in the writer's family. |
| C．A few months later the writer found out what her mother had done. |
| D．The writer couldn't understand what her mother did. |
| A．How to support a poor family |
| B．A friend in need is a friend in deed |
| C．The hard life of a little girl's family |
| D．A lesson in kindness from my Mum |
相似题推荐
Winners are great at overcoming problems. For example, if you were late because your car broke down, maybe you need to have your car examined more regularly. Or, you might start to carry along with you the useful phone numbers, so you could call for help when in need. For another example, if your colleague causes you problems on the job for lack of responsibility or ability, find ways of dealing with his irresponsibility or inability rather than simply blame the person. Ask to work with a different person, or don’t rely on the person. You should accept that the person. Ask to work with a different person, or don’t rely on this person. You should accept that the person is not reliable and find creative ways to work successfully regardless of how your colleague fails to do his job well.
This is what being a winner is all about—creatively using your skills and talents so that you are successful no matter what happens. Winners don’t have fewer problems in their lives; they have just as many difficult situations to face as anybody else. They are just better at seeing those problems as challenges and opportunities to develop their own talents. So, stop focusing on “whose fault it is.” Once you are confident about your power over bad situations, problems are just stepping stop on for success.
1. According to the passage, winners__________
| A．deal with problems rather than blame others |
| B．meet with fewer difficulties in their lives |
| C．have responsible and able colleagues |
| D．blame themselves rather that others |
| A．avoid | B．accept | C．improve | D．consider |
| A．find a better way to handle the problem |
| B．blame him for his lack of responsibility |
| C．tell him to find the cause of the problem |
| D．ask a more able colleague for help |
| A．excuses for their failures |
| B．barriers to greater power |
| C．challenges to their colleagues |
| D．chances for self-development |
| A．A Winner’s Secret. | B．A Winner’s Problem. |
| C．A Winner’s Opportunity. | D．A Winner’s Achievement. |
【推荐2】Libraries. They have that reassuring smell of well-read pages, are peaceful, have free Internet and, of course, abundant books.
But guess what? There’s a new kind of library sweeping the nation — a tool library — and it’s just as cool, but in all sorts of different ways.
It’s often said that the average electric drill is only used for 11 minutes in its entire lifetime. Granted, it doesn’t take that long to drill a hole, but still — that’s crazy. Yet the majority of households have one, even though DIY is actually a really infrequent activity for most people.
What if you could just borrow tools when you need them, and drop them back so that they can be used by someone else all the time you’re not DIY-ing? Well, in some parts of Scotland, you now can. Membership-based tool sharing services are popping up in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Stirling, Linlithgow and Cumbernauld. They work just like a normal library but instead of books, you can borrow a massive range of tools and equipment when you need them, then drop them back when you’re done.
Zero Waste Scotland’s Andrew Pankhurst recently renovated (翻新) his house using the Stirling Tool Library. He said, “It’s amazing. It had all the tools I was looking for, and some I didn’t even realize I needed.”
And that’s the beauty of a tool library. Borrow a tool, use it for one afternoon at a small amount of cost of buying it and instead of it cluttering up your house gathering dust, it’s back off to a busy life all across town, week in and week out.
The tools available to borrow are mainly received as donations. The tool library will then repair them if needed and PAT test for safety ready to be borrowed and saved from going to landfill.
So next time you have a job to do around the house, why not borrow rather than buy?
1. What can we learn from paragraph 3?| A．The electric drill is worth buying. |
| B．People dislike to use out-of-date tools. |
| C．Most of the tools aren’t often used at home. |
| D．DIY is a really frequent activity for most people. |
| A．Familiar. | B．Practical. |
| C．Essential. | D．Disappointing. |
| A．Clearing up. | B．Piling up. | C．Throwing out. | D．Breaking up. |
| A．Borrowing Is the New Buying |
| B．Please Make a Donation Today |
| C．When in Doubt, Go to the Library |
| D．Today a Reader, Tomorrow a Leader |
| For Children Museum: Children’s Museum, Sundays, 89 North Street, 67641235 Story time: Children’s Library, 106 Green Street, Wednesdays during 9:30 a.m -5:00p.m.66599624 Sports: Soccer Club, Tuesdays and Thursdays, 16 Yangtze Road, 96725643 Basketball Club, Wednesdays and Fridays, 79071632 Cinema: New films for children, 99 Brick Road, 69001354 |
| Useful Phone Numbers Fast Food Restaurant: 66387901 Hospital: 68787451 Visitor Information Center: 800-120-9847 Taxi: 79210583 Visitor Hotel Information: 800-739-7302 |
1. If children want to watch new films，they should go to________.
| A．16 Yangtze Road | B．89 North Main Street |
| C．106 Green Street | D．99 Brick Road |
| A．ask for some hotel information |
| B．do some shopping |
| C．have a good story time |
| D．order fast food in a restaurant |
| A．800-120-9847 | B．79210583 |
| C．6878745l | D．96725643 |
| A．looking for a hotel | B．doing eye exercises |
| C．eating fast food | D．taking a taxi |
【推荐1】Each morning a rich man found a poor man sitting on a bench(长凳) in the park. The poor man always sat there, looking at the big hotel in which the rich man lived. One day, the rich man got out of his car and said to the poor man, “Excuse me. I want to know why you sit here and look at my hotel every morning.” “ Sir, ” said the poor man, “ I am a failure. I have no money, no family, no home. I sleep on this bench, and every night I dream that one day I’ll sleep in that hotel.” The rich man said, “Tonight your dream will come true. I’ll pay for the best room in that hotel for you a whole month.”
A few days after, the rich man went into the poor man’s room to ask him how he was enjoying himself. To his surprise, he found that the man had moved out of the hotel back to his bench. When the rich man asked why, he said, “You see, when I’m sleeping on my bench, I dreamed I am there, in the big hotel. It’s a wonderful dream. But when I was there I dreamed I was back to this cold bench. It was a terrible dream, and I couldn’t get any sleep at all.”
1. The poor man lived in ______ before he met the rich man.| A．the hotel | B．his home | C．the park | D．the car |
| A．waited for the rich man | B．looked at the rich man’s hotel |
| C．looked at the rich man's car | D．enjoyed the clean car |
| A．sleeping in a hotel | B．becoming rich |
| C．owning that hotel | D．being the rich man’s friend |
| A．he didn’t want to live in such a fine room |
| B．he didn’t like the rich man |
| C．he couldn’t pay for the room |
| D．he couldn’t get any sleep at all there |
【推荐2】Daylight saving is a seasonal time change, which is used in about 70 countries around the world, including most of Europe and the UK. It is designed to create an extra hour of daylight for people to enjoy at the end of the day during the warmer months. So our clocks are moved forward at the start of daylight saving. This means that while our clocks might show 8 p.m. during daylight saving, we are actually enjoying a 7 p.m. level of daylight. So we effectively have an extra hour of light at the end of the day — to go for a walk with our family, play outside with our friends and not have to turn on the electric lights at home. Digital devices like mobile phones, tablets and computers automatically (自动地) change, while items like clocks and some watches need to be changed by hand.
George Vernon Hudson, an insect expert from New Zealand, came up with the idea of daylight saving in 1895. He suggested shifting (转移) the time by two hours, but his idea didn’t catch on. Seven years later, a British builder called William Willett took the idea to England’s government as a way to prevent the nation from wasting daylight. His suggestion got some high support but was refused by the British government.
Then in 1916, two years into World War I, the German government started looking for ways to save energy. “They remembered Willett’s idea of moving the clock forward and thus having more daylight during working hours,” David Prerau, author of Seize the Daylight: The Curious and Contentious Story of Daylight Saving Time told National Geographic. “While the British were talking about it year after year, the Germans decided to do it more or less by an official order.”
England and almost every other country that fought in World War I soon followed suit. In those days, coal was the main source of energy people used in their homes. Needing energy in homes for one less hour a day during daylight saving meant more coal could be used in the war effort.
1. What will happen to our clocks when daylight saving begins?| A．They will stop for one hour. | B．They will be an hour fast. |
| C．They will break and need repair. | D．They will move backward automatically. |
| A．When England started daylight saving. | B．Why daylight saving time was created. |
| C．What benefit daylight saving brought. | D．Who came up with the idea of daylight saving. |
| A．He disagreed with Willett’s idea. |
| B．He wrote a book about daylight saving. |
| C．He was a reporter of the magazine National Geographic. |
| D．He persuaded the government to practice daylight saving. |
| A．To put more energy into the war. | B．To follow the lifestyle in England. |
| C．To make people enjoy more daylight time. | D．To produce more goods and services. |
【推荐3】Well, there was a man here once by the name of Jim Smiley, in the winter of 1894—or maybe it was the spring of 1850. But any way, he was the strangest man. He was always making money on anything that turned up if he could get anybody to try to make money on the other side. And if he could not do that, he would change sides—anyway that suited the other man would suit him—anyway just as long as he got a bet, he was satisfied. But still, he was lucky, uncommonly lucky. He most always come out winner. He was always ready and laying for a chance. If there was a dog-fight, he would try to win money on it. If there was a cat-fight, he would take the risk. If there was a chicken-fight, he would try to bet on it. If there were two birds setting on a fence, he would want you to decide which one would fly first so he could win money.
Lots of the boys here have seen that Smiley and can tell you about him. Why, it did not matter to him. He would try to make money on anything. He was the most unusual man. Parson Waler’s wife was very sick once, for a long time, and it seemed as if they were not going to save her. But one morning he came in, and Smiley asked him how was his wife, and he said she was better, thank God. And Smiley, before he thought, says, “Well, I will risk my money she will not get well.”
And Smiley had a little small dog. To look at the dog, you would think he was not worth anything but to sit around and look mean and look for a chance to steal something. But as soon as, money was up on him, he was a different dog. Another dog might attack and throw him around two or three times. Then all of a sudden Smiley’s dog would grab that other dog by the back leg and freeze to it till the men said it was over.
Smiley always came out the winner on that dog, at least until he harnessed a dog once that did not have any back legs. The dog’s legs had been sawed off in a circular saw. Well, the fighting continued long enough and the money was all up. Then when Smiley’s dog came to make a grab of the other dog’s back legs, he saw in a minute how there was a problem. The dog appeared surprised, and then discouraged, and didn’t try no more to win the fight, and so he got shucked out (摆脱) bad. He gave Smiley a look, as much as to say his heart was broke, and it was his fault, for putting up a dog that had no back legs for him to take hold of, which was his main dependence in a fight, and then he limped off a piece and laid down and died. He was a good dog, and would have made a name for himself if he had lived, for he had intelligence. It always makes me feel sorry when I think of that last fight of his and the way it turned out.
1. Which of the following statements is most accurate of Jim Smiley according to this passage?| A．Jim Smiley was extremely strange and unlucky. |
| B．Jim Smiley was always getting into trouble at work. |
| C．Jim Smiley loves and knows a lot about animals. |
| D．Jim Smiley was always ready to bet on anything. |
| A．thoughtless | B．tricky |
| C．unconventional | D．adventurous |
| A．It was good-looking and worth a lot of money. |
| B．It was so imposing as to frighten other dogs. |
| C．It won a fight by grabbing the opponent’s back leg. |
| D．It was loyal to Jim Smiley and stole money for him. |
| A．it was ashamed for losing the fight | B．it was exhausted in the fight |
| C．it was abandoned by the owner | D．it was not as intelligent as expected |
【推荐1】Could the device, smartphone or PC, which you are using affect the moral (道德的) decisions you make when using it? To test it, researchers presented multiple dilemmas to a sample set of 1,010 people. The participants were assigned a device at random.
One case of the questions participants were asked is the classic “trolley (有轨电车) problem”: A runaway trolley is headed towards five people tied up on a set of train tracks. You can do nothing, resulting in the deaths of five people, or push a man off a bridge, which will stop the trolley. The practical response is to kill one man to save five lives, which 33.5 percent of smartphone users chose, compared to 22.3 percent of PC users.
“What we round in our study is that when people used a smartphone to view classic moral problems, they were more likely to make more unemotional, reasonable decisions when presented with a highly emotional dilemma,” Dr Albert Barque-Duran, the lead author of the study, told City, University of London. “This could be due to the increased time pressure often present with smartphones and also the increased psychological distance which can occur when we use such devices compared to PCs.”
As for why the researchers started this study, Dr Barque-Duran noted, “Due to the fact that our social lives, work and even shopping take place online, it is important to think about how the contexts where we typically face moral decisions and are asked to engage in moral behavior have changed, and the impact this could have on the hundreds of millions of people who use such devices daily. “It’s clear that we need more research on how our devices affect our moral decision-making because we’re using screens at an ever increasing rate.”
1. Why did the author mention the trolley problem?| A．To introduce a difficult problem to readers. |
| B．To introduce the aim of carrying out the study. |
| C．To show an example of the questions in the study. |
| D．To show the difficulty in dealing with dilemmas. |
| A．Calmly. | B．Cruelly. |
| C．Carelessly. | D．Enthusiastically. |
| A．help people bear more pressure |
| B．help people make decisions quickly |
| C．make people feel more mentally distant |
| D．make people stay happier to solve problems |
| A．The importance of smartphones. | B．The significance of the study. |
| C．How to make moral decisions. | D．What affects people’s daily life. |
【推荐2】Can trees talk? Yes, but not in words. Scientists have reason to believe that trees do communicate with each other. Not long ago, researchers learned some surprising things. First a willow tree attacked in the woods by caterpillars changed the chemistry of its leaves and made them taste so terrible that they got tired of the leaves and stopped eating them. Then even more astonishing, the tree sent out a special smell—a signal causing its neighbors to change the chemistry of their own leaves and make them less tasty.
Communication, of course, doesn’t need to be in words. We can talk to each other by smiling, raising our shoulders and moving our hands. We know that birds and animals use a whole vocabulary of songs, sounds, and movements. Bees dance their signals, flying in certain patterns that tell other bees where to find nectar for honey. So why shouldn’t trees have ways of sending message?
1. It can be concluded from the passage that caterpillars do not feed on leaves that ______.| A．are lying on the ground | B．bees don’t like |
| C．have an unpleasant taste | D．have an unfamiliar shape |
| A．growing more branches | B．communicating with birds and bees |
| C．shaking caterpillars off | D．changing its leaf chemistry |
| A．waving its branches | B．dropping its leaves |
| C．giving off a special smell | D．changing the colour of its trunk |
| A．touching one another | B．making special movement |
| C．smelling one another | D．making unusual sound |
【推荐3】Scientists say they have found high levels of small plastic particles(颗粒) in Arctic snow. A German-Swiss research team collected snow samples(样本）from the Arctic and other areas. They included northern Germany, the Bavarian and Swiss Alps, and the North Sea island of Heligoland.When the researchers examined the samples in a laboratory, they were surprised to find very high levels of microplastics.
Microplastics are very small pieces of plastic. These plastic particles are generally smaller than 5 millimeters in length. They come from the breakdown of man-made plastic products and industrial waste.
The study found the highest levels of microplastics came from the Bavarian Alps. One snow sample from the area had 154,000 microplastic particles per liter. Samples collected from the Arctic had much lower levels. However, even samples from the Arctic contained up to 14,000 particles per liter.
The study also attempted to explore how some of the material could have been carried in the atmosphere. A limited number of earlier studies did find microplastics in the air of some cities, including Paris, Tehran and Dongguan, China.
Bergmann Melanie co-wrote the report on the new study. She believes the new study clearly shows that “the majority of the microplastic in the snow comes from the air.” The new study suggests that much of the microplastic found in Europe and the Arctic comes from the atmosphere and snow.
While there is growing concern about the effect of microplastics on the environment, scientists are still studying their possible harmful effects on humans and animals. “I hope the new study will lead to more research on this issue. I think microscopic plastic particles should be included in worldwide observations of air pollution levels.We really need to know what effects microplastics have on humans, especially if inhaled with the air that we breathe.” Bergmann said.
1. Why did scientists collect samples from so many places in paragragh 1?| A．To make the research convincing. |
| B．To attract people to explore there. |
| C．To measure the length of microplastics . |
| D．To examine the samples easily in the lab. |
| A．The risks of microplastics. |
| B．The transport of microplastics. |
| C．The breakdown of plastic products. |
| D．The description of microplastics. |
| A．Many people threw them away at the Alps. |
| B．They were delivered to remote areas through air. |
| C．They could be caught sight of in the air. |
| D．They had no great effect on the environment. |
| A．Scientists are worried about the the influence of microplastics. |
| B．We have found a practical solution to the environment problem. |
| C．The effect of microplastics on human must be urgently researched. |
| D．There is no need to change observations of air pollution levels. |
【推荐1】No longer in the pink
The world is going to have to start thinking thoroughly to save its coral reefs. Corals are comeback creatures. As the world froze and melted and sea levels rose and fell over 30,000 years, Australia's Great Barrier Reef, which is roughly the size of Italy, died and revived five times. But now, thanks to human activity, corals face the most complex mixture of conditions they have yet had to deal with.
According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a rise in global temperatures of 1.5°C relative to pre-industrial times could cause coral reefs to decline by 70-90%. When waters become unusually warm, corals throw out the algae, leaving reefs a ghostly white. This ''bleaching'' is happening five times as often as it did in the 1970s.
Corals need protection from local sources of harm. Their ecosystems suffer from coastal currents, whether dirty water or waste from farms. Plastic and other rubbish block sunlight and spread aggressive bacteria. Governments need to carry out tighter rules on these industries, such as tougher local building codes, and to put more effort into strengthening rules against overfishing.
Many reefs that have been damaged could benefit from restoration. Coral's biodiversity offers hope, because the same coral will grow differently under different conditions. Corals of the western Pacific near Indonesia, for example, can survive higher temperatures than the same species in the eastern Pacific near Hawaii.
Stronger measures to fight against the larger threats corals face should also attract more research. Shading reefs using a polymer film as a sunscreen to cool them is under discussion for parts of the Great Barrier Reef. Other schemes to help corals involve genetic engineering, selective breeding and brightening the clouds in the sky above an area of the reef by spraying salt into the lowest ones, so that they turn away more of the sun's energy. These measures may sound extreme, but people need to get used to thinking big. Dealing with the problems caused by climate change will call for some far-reaching ideas.
1. Thorough thinking is needed to save the coral reefs because __________.| A．corals have come back in the Great Barrier Reef in Australia |
| B．corals are frozen and melted five times over 30,000 years |
| C．corals are strong enough to survive human activity |
| D．human activity are threatening the condition of coral reefs |
| A．warming | B．throwing out |
| C．whitening | D．dying |
| A．coastal water flows | B．more sunlight |
| C．waste from farms | D．bad bacteria |
| A．encourage people to come up with more ideas |
| B．introduce some advanced technological progress |
| C．raise people's awareness of protecting the environment |
| D．warn people of the threats and risks corals are facing |
【推荐2】Alex Vardkostas spent his child flipping (快速翻转) burgers at his parent’s restaurant in Southern California. It was, he recalls, a repetitive and uninteresting task.
Vardkostas said, “Making so many burgers every day, I realized that there must be a better product I can create to make food. ”He helped develop the restaurant’s main attraction: a robot machine that makes “the world’s freshest cheeseburgers”.
The machine has already drawn big crowds. People want to see exactly how a robot makes a burger and whether it tastes good. The robot is 14-foot long and takes five minutes to make a delicious burger.
After seeing the robot in action, one customer, Evan, was almost speechless. “I knew that they could drive cars,” he said, “but i didn’t know that robots could make a delicious burger.”
The robot’s 350 Sensors (传感器) and 20 microcomputers help make sure that every burger is perfect. The materials are organic and locally sourced (寻找……的来源) whenever possible, but the burgers are still affordable (负担得起的). Because a machine makes the burgers, the restaurant doesn’t have to pay kitchen staff (职员). Employees focus on offering e customer good service.
Besides, the restaurant offers its employees higher pay than the ordinary standard in the food industry. Staff members are able to read books for five percent of their workday so that they can continue to learn. Money is allotted (分配) for books, and more educational opportunities are being planned.
For Evan, the most important thing is still the burger. “The restaurant’s robot is the perfect chef,” he said, “because a person can make mistakes but a robot can’t.”
1. Why do many customers visit Alex’s restaurant?| A．To watch how Alex flip burgers. | B．To eat the cheapest cheeseburgers. |
| C．To learn from a robot to make food. | D．To experience food made by a robot. |
| A．Boring. | B．Surprising. | C．Puzzling. | D．Exciting. |
| A．They are equipped with sensors. |
| B．They aren’t sold at a very high price. |
| C．Each of them owns an ugly shape. |
| D．They become popular with the people around the world. |
| A．They can improve themselves by reading. |
| B．They need to buy books for customers. |
| C．They can become rich in a short time. |
| D．They have to hand in their learning plan. |
【推荐3】As Australia experiences record-breaking drought and bush-fires, koala populations have declined along with their habitat, leading to koalas becoming “functionally extinct”. The chairman of the Australian Koala Foundation, Tabart, estimates that over 1,000 koalas have been killed from the fires and that 80 percent of their habitat has been destroyed.
Functional extinction is when a population becomes so limited that they no longer play an important role in their ecosystem and the population becomes no longer possible to live.
Deforestation and bush-fires destroy the main food source of koalas, the eucalyptus (桉树) tree. An adult koala will eat up to 2 pounds of eucalyptus leaves per day as its main food.
Many are asking the Australian government to pass The Koala Protection Act, written in 2016 but never passed into law. The Koala Protection Act would work to protect habitat and trees important to koala as well as protect koalas from hunting.
Recent videos of Australians saving koalas has led to increased donation to help burned koalas. The Port Macquarie Koala Hospital set up a Go Fund Me page seeking donations to help the hospital treat injured koalas. To date, they have raised $1.33 million, well over their $25,000 goal, which comes from over 30,000 donors. The funds will also be used for a “Koala Ark” as a refuge for burned koalas to live in healthy habitat.
1. According to the first paragraph, what can we know about the drought and bush-fires?| A．They are the most serious ones in the history of Australian. |
| B．They have made koalas extinct. |
| C．They have killed 80% of the koalas. |
| D．They brought the most serious influence to Australian. |
| A．When a species becomes extinct. |
| B．When a species is limited to certain habitat. |
| C．When ecosystem no longer plays an important role. |
| D．When the number of a species becomes so small that they have little chance to live. |
| A．koalas mainly feed on eucalyptus tree leaves |
| B．the Australian government has passed The Koala Protection Act into law |
| C．The Koala Protection Act is aimed to protect koalas and its habitat |
| D．a good many Australians are quite concerned about koalas |
| A．Some videos require people to donate for koalas. |
| B．Go Fund Me page treated injured koalas. |
| C．Australians have deep love for koalas and donate generously to help them. |
| D．The funds will be used to set up healthy habitat for koalas. |
