【推荐1】“Have you checked the oil in the car, Ted?” my father used to say to me. Sometimes our phone calls would begin and end with an only inquiry(询问) about the oil, without asking anything else. Fathers have lots of love to give, but it’s often provided through useful advice. In my experience, it’s mostly about the car.

Why can’t fathers just say “I love you” or “It’s great to see you”? Why can’t the sentences “I care about you” and “You made my life better from the moment you were born” be heard? Because fathers tend to express their true feelings indirectly. You just have to understand the language—Fatherlish(父亲式语言).

When I was 17 years old, I went on my first road trip in that old car. My father stood on the corner on a cold early morning to say goodbye. “Roads are dangerous,” he said, “so don’t try driving faster than a horse. And remember to take a break every two hours. And every time you stop for gas, you really should check the oil.” At the time I thought his speech was pretty funny and old.

Dad’s long gone now. But after all these years, I realize that if I had owned a copy of the Fatherlish-to-English dictionary, I would have understood that the speech that I always laughed at was simply Dad’s way to express love and care.

1. What can we learn from the first paragraph?

A．The author’s father expressed his love differently.

B．The author forgot to check the oil regularly.

C．The author wanted to buy a new car badly.

D．The author’s father preferred to make phone calls.

2. Why does the author mention his first road trip?

A．To show the danger of the trip.	B．To tell a very exciting experience.
C．To explain the rules of driving.	D．To present his father’s hidden love.

3. How does the author feel about his father’s speech at last?

A．Caring.

B．Traditional.

C．Funny.

D．Old.

4. What can be the best title for the text?

A．Checking the Oil	B．Making Phone Calls
C．Speaking Fatherlish	D．Taking Helpful Advice

【推荐3】Boomerang children who return to live with their parents after university can be good for families, leading to closer, more supportive relationships and increased contact between the generations, a study has found.

The findings contradict research published earlier this year showing that returning adult children trigger a significant decline in their parents’ quality of life and wellbeing.

The young adults taking part in the study were “more positive than might have been expected” about moving back home – the shame is reduced as so many of their peers are in the same position, and they acknowledged the benefits of their parents’ financial and emotional support. Daughters were happier than sons, often slipping back easily into teenage patterns of behaviour, the study found.

Parents on the whole were more uncertain, expressing concern about the likely duration of the arrangement and how to manage it. But they acknowledged that things were different for graduates today, who leave university with huge debts and fewer job opportunities.

The families featured in the study were middle-class and tended to view the achievement of adult independence for their children as a “family project”. Parents accepted that their children required support as university students and then as graduates returning home, as they tried to find jobs paying enough to enable them to move out and get on the housing ladder.

“However,” the study says, “day-to-day tensions about the prospects of achieving different dimensions of independence, which in a few extreme cases came close to conflict, characterized the experience of a majority of parents and a little over half the graduates”.

Areas of divergence included chores, money and social life. While parents were keen to help, they also wanted different relationships from those they had with their own parents, and continuing to support their adult children allowed them to remain close.

1. What is the finding of the previous research?

A．Boomerang children made their parents happier.

B．The parents were looking forward to their children’s return.

C．The parents’ quality of life became worse than before.

D．Boomerang children never did any housework.

2. What are college graduates’ attitudes towards returning home?

A．They are ashamed of turning to their parents for help.

B．They are glad that they could come back.

C．They are doubtful about whether they should return.

D．They are proud to be independent from the family.

3. What is the reason for the “boomerang children” phenomenon?

A．The children want to keep in closer touch with their parents.

B．The parents want to provide support to their children.

C．It is harder for the children to secure a satisfying job.

D．There is more housework needed to be done by the children.

4. The underlined word “divergence” in paragraph 7 may be best replaced by ________.

A．disagreement

B．harmony

C．responsibility

D．cooperation

【推荐2】Alexis, 17, sat quietly in the passenger seat of her dad's car. She let her eyes lazily scan, the landscape for wildlife. Then a deer came into view about 200 yards in front of them.“Dad, there's a deer there！” Alexis said. It was a male deer with sharp antlers(角) on each side of its head.

As the car moved closer, Alexis saw that the deer's head was bent toward the ground. Then she heard a scream and saw an arm fly up near the deer's head. Alexis realized the deer was attacking a woman. Sue, a 44­-year­old mother, had been out for her morning run. The deer followed her and edged closer.“I knew I was in trouble，” Sue says. She went to pick up a stick for self­-defense(自卫), and the deer charged. It lifted her with its antlers and threw her into the air. Sue could feel blood flew down her leg. Within seconds, the deer had pushed her off the road.

When Alexis and her father pulled up, the deer was throwing Sue like a doll. Alexis looked into the woman's terrified eyes, and before her father had even stopped the car, the teenager jumped quickly out of the car and ran toward the deer. “I was kicking it with my feet to get its attention” she says. Then her father, who had followed his daughter, pushed the deer away from the woman.

1. What was Sue doing when she was attacked by the deer?

A．She was driving home.	B．She was resting on the road.
C．She was taking exercise.	D．She was feeding wild animals.

2. The underlined word “edged” in Paragraph 2 probably means “________ ”．

A．changed

B．cut

C．ate

D．moved

3. What did Alexis do to save Sue?

A．She pushed the deer away.	B．She hit the deer with her feet.
C．She drove the car to hit the deer.	D．She beat the deer with a hammer.

4. Which of the following words can best describe Alexis?

A．Strong

B．Sad

C．Energetic

D．Brave.

【推荐3】For many years, a beautiful, white horse wandered the western plains. Native Americans saw him before the settlers came but never got close to him. Only one person ever touched the white horse. She was an old lady when she told the story to her grandchildren.

Gretchen's family came to Texas in a covered wagon when she was a very little girl. The oxen that pulled the wagons moved very slowly. There were no roads. The sun was hot. and the dust covered everything in sight.

The trip was especially tiresome for little Gretchen. To make it easier, she was allowed to ride an old horse named Nelly, a gentle animal with a slow pace. Gretchen's parents tied Gretchen securely to keep her from falling off.

One day, one of the wagons broke a wheel. When the wheel was being repaired, Nelly wandered along to an inviting area of green grass near the river bank with Gretchen, who had fallen asleep tied to the horse's back.

Suddenly, Gretchen awoke with a start, from across the river came the sound of a horse's whinny. There stood the beautiful white horse. His body was the colour of snow and his long mane and tail shone like silver thread.

The wild horse ran into a nearby canyon, and Nelly slowly followed behind. Gretchen cried out, but the wagon train was far away and no one could hear her. Finally, the horses came to a stop in a grassy valley. The white horse and old Nelly stood side by side eating grass.

Gretchen stared at the beautiful horse. He didn't seem at all afraid of her. Slowly she reached over to touch his neck. He lifted his head and looked at her with gentle, curious eyes. Then he put his head back down and ate the grass. The two horses seemed to have developed a bond, and Gretchen enjoyed being with them.

For over an hour the white horse stayed with old Nelly and Gretchen. Then just as the sun was getting low in the sky, Gretchen heard a familiar shout. Across the valley, she could see her father and several men headed toward her and the horses.

The white horse twitched （抽动）his ears in response to the men's shouts and then he was gone. The men stopped to watch as he ran across the valley and out of the canyon. Never again did he come close enough to be touched.

1. In this story, Nelly is the name of ______.

A．a wagon

B．a girl

C．a horse

D．an ox

2. Gretchen's family did not hear her cry for help because                   .

A．the river made too much noise

B．the horses were whinnying

C．the men were working on the wagon wheel

D．she was too far away

3. What can we infer from the passage?

A．Gretchen was good at riding horses.

B．The trip to Texas was long and full of hardship.

C．Gretchen's family came to Texas for environmental reasons.

D．Only Gretchen felt tiresome during the trip.

4. This story was written in order to ___.

A．explain a mystery

B．express an opinion

C．share an experience

D．predict an outcome

【推荐1】Dog owners swear that their furry best mend is in tune with their emotions, Now it seems this sense of interspecies connection is real: dogs can smell your emotions, and adopt them as their own

We already know dogs can see and hear the signs of human emotions says Biagio D'Aniello at the University of Naples Federico II, Italy. But nobody had studied whether dogs could pick up on olfactory(嗅觉的) signals from humans.

“The role of the olfactory system has been largely undervalued, maybe because our own species is more focused on the visual system.” says D'Aniello. However, dogs 'sense of smelling is far superior to ours, D'Aniello and his colleagues tested whether dogs could really sniff out our emotions. First, human volunteers watched videos designed to induce fear, happiness or a neutral response and the team collected samples of their sweat. Next, the researchers presented these sweat samples to dogs ,and monitored their behavior and heart rates. Dogs exposed to fear smells showed more signs of stress than those sniffing happy or neutral smells. They also had higher heart rates, and made less social contact with strangers.

D'Aniello's study suggests humans can unconsciously, hijack their dogs' emotion by releasing smells .A second study suggests dogs can return the favour, using their expressive faces.

Juliane Kaminski at the University of Portsmouth, UK, and her colleagues have found that dogs' faces fare most expressive when they know people are looking at them.

The researchers introduced dogs to a human who was either looking at them or facing away and either offering food or nothing. The team analyzed how much the dogs' facial movements varied in the four situations. They found that the dogs' facial expressions varied most when the person was looking at them. Kaminski says there was no sign of a “dinner table effect”, which “would predict that dogs try and look super-cute when they want something from the humans”.

It's not clear precisely how dogs visually signal us and how we respond, says Monique Udell of Oregon State University in Corvallis. “This kind of research is needed to fully understand the nature of the human-dog relationship.”

1. How did D'Aniello's research team carry out their study on dog's ability of sniffing out humans' emotions?

A．By analyzing the sweat samples from the dogs.

B．By monitoring dogs' response Co the same videos

C．By letting the dogs watch the volunteers 'expressive faces.

D．By watching the dogs' reactions to the given sweat samples.

2. The underlined word "hijack" probably means?

A．Study.	B．Control.
C．Find.	D．Display,

3. What can we infer from the second study?

A．Dinner-table effect really exists.

B．Dogs are very sensitive to human attention.

C．Dogs showed no facial expression when offered nothing

D．Dogs' facial expressions vary most when they want attention.

4. What is still puzzling scientists according to the passage?

A．How dogs react to human smells.

B．How dogs respond to humans 'attention.

C．How dogs hear and see the signs of humans' emotions.

D．How dogs communicate with humans by the sense of slightly.

【推荐2】In every school there is a "top" crowd that sets the pace, while the others follow their lead. For example, the top crowd decides that it is smart to wear bright red sweaters.   Very soon everybody is wearing a bright red sweater.   There is nothing wrong with that, except the fact that bright red is not suitable on some people at all.

The situation can even become dangerous, if the top crowd decides that it is smart to drink or to drive cars at 70 miles an hour.   Then the people who follow the lead are causing danger to people's lives. They are like sheep being led to the slaughterhouse (屠宰场）

Perhaps you have come across situations like these more than once in your life. In fact, at one time or another you probably did something you knew to be wrong.   You may have excused yourself by saying, "The crowd does it. " Well, let the crowd do it, but don't do it yourself.   Learn to say, "No"

Make your own judge.   If you know the crowd is planning something with which you disagree, please have the courage to leave them politely.   You'll have the satisfaction of standing on your own feet.

1. he writer disagree to wear red sweaters if ___ .

A．the crowd is wearing them	B．you can't afford them
C．your parents disapprove	D．you don't look good in red

2. The writer encourages the readers to ___.

A．follow the crowd	B．be independent
C．obey their parents	D．take the advice of their elders

3. People who blindly follow the "top" crowd __ .

A．will lose friends

B．will make themselves happy

C．sometimes do things against their better judgment

D．finally become pace-setters (领跑者) in their own right

4. Which is the best title for this passage?

A．Rules for Teens.	B．The "Top" Crowd.
C．On Being Yourself.	D．Follow the Leader

【推荐3】Elephants born without tusks(长牙) normally make up just 2 to 6 percent of the herd population. However, that is not the case at Mozambique’s Gorongosa National Park, where 33 percent of female elephants born after the country’s civil war ended in 1992 are tuskless. While that might be just a coincidence(巧合), Joyce Poole, an elephant behavior expert, has another theory.

The researcher thinks we may be witnessing an unnaturally evolution of the species due to the hunting of the elephants for their valuable tusks. Unlike our permanent teeth, tusks of elephants grow throughout the animal’s life, becoming longer and thicker with age. For decorative purposes, poachers usually first target older males due to their impressive tusks, and females are not spared either. As a result, in areas where hunting goes unchecked for long, the number of tuskless females increases. This allows them to gain a biological advantage, resulting in a larger than average population of female offspring (后代)with no tusks.

Poole believes this phenomenon explains the rise in the number of tuskless females at Gorongosa National Park. The researcher says before the war, the park was home to over 4,000 elephants. However, by the time the conflict ended in 1992, about 90 percent of the elephants had been slaughtered for tusks to help finance weapons and meat to feed the soldiers. Of the less than 200 survivors, over 50 percent of the females had no tusks. Hence, it is not surprising that the park’s tuskless elephant population has grown greatly.

So far, the hunting has largely influenced female elephants. Poole explains, “Very few males are tuskless because males require tusks for fighting. Without tusks, males have a much harder time breeding and do not pass on their genes(基因) as often as tusked ones.” If the hunting of males for tusks continues at this pace, it could result in a generation of elephants with much smaller tusks.

1. How does the writer draw readers’ attention to the topic?

A．By comparing figures.

B．By offering explanation.

C．By giving an example.

D．By introducing an expert.

2. What might be the reason for the increase of tuskless females?

A．Illegal hunting.	B．Pure coincidence.
C．Natural evolution.	D．Effective protection.

3. What does the underlined word “slaughtered” in Paragraph 3 mean?

A．Raised.

B．Protected.

C．Killed.

D．Trained.

4. What is the text mainly about?

A．The future of African elephants.

B．The protection of African elephants.

C．The increasing number of tuskless elephants.

D．The genetic consequence of hunting elephants.

5. In which section of a newspaper may this text appear?

A．Health.

B．Science.

C．Education.

D．Finance.

【推荐1】Influenced by many negative reports, some people usually regard teenagers as lacking a sense of responsibility, concern for others, and awareness of life. To break the stereotype（刻板印象）, I'm going to talk about the story of Jordan Rice.

I suspect you've got no idea about who Jordan Rice is. Actually, Jordan Rice was a 13-year-old boy who lived with his mom, dad, and little brother Blake in Toowoomba, Australia. He went to buy school uniform this Monday with his mom and brother. It was around 2 pm, when they were in the car on the way back from the shops. Not an unusual day.

Unexpectedly, a huge flood poured into the area. The water rose high enough to shut off the engine. Unfortunately, they were trapped in floodwaters. Mom got into a panic, and Jordan was frightened because he couldn't swim. No one came to help them out until an old man grabbed a rope, tied it to his body, and jumped into the water. Hopes were growing for the survival of Jordan—the old man was swimming toward him. Instead of seizing the chance, Jordan pushed Blake forward, saying, "Save my brother first."

There was no time for arguing. The old man tied the rope around Blake and carried him ashore. Then he swam back to save the other two. But the strain of the flood and the weight of two people were too much for the rope. It broke and so did Jordan and his mothers' hope. They were carried away by the brown water. Though they managed to hold on to a tree for a little while, they finally loosened their grip and accepted their fate. Being the only survivor of the trip, Blake was reunited with his father to become a family of two.

Jordan Rice was a 13-year-old boy from Toowoomba, Australia. During the destructive floods of Queensland, Jordan Rice sacrificed his life for his little brother. He is a hero and deserves to be remembered.

1. What does the author think of some people's opinion about teenagers?

A．It's a reasonable belief.	B．It's a fair evaluation.
C．It's an out-of-date view.	D．It's a prejudiced idea.

2. Why did the old man save Blake first?

A．He couldn't reach others.

B．His rope was not long enough.

C．There was no time for making other choices.

D．He believed that Jordan Rice could swim out.

3. In which section of a newspaper may this text appear?

A．Your Voice.

B．Star Stories.

C．News Express.

D．Magic World.

4. What is the best title for the text?

A．Save my brother	B．Meet the challenge
C．Be brave, boy	D．Accept your fate, teenager

【推荐2】On the first day of school we were challenged to get to know a new classmate. I was looking around when a gentle hand touched my shoulder. I found a little old lad with a warm smile.

She said, “Hi, handsome! I’m Rose. I’m 87 years old. Can I give you a hug (拥抱)?” I laughed and heartily responded, “Of course!”

“Why are you in college at such a young, innocent (天真的) age?”1 asked.

She jokingly replied, “I’m here to meet a rich husband, get married, have children, and then travel around.”

“No, seriously,” I asked. I was curious why she took on this challenge at this age.

“I always dreamed of having a college education and now I’m getting one!” she told me. We became instant friends.

Over the year, Rose became a campus icon (偶像) and she easily made friends wherever she went. She loved to dress up and she enjoyed the attention from the other

students. She was living it up. At the end of the term we invited Rose to speak at our football banquet. I’ll never forget what she taught us.

“We do not stop playing because we are old; we grow old because we stop playing. Here are the secrets to staying young. You have to laugh and find humor every day. You’ve got to have a dream. When you lose your dreams, you die. We have many people walking around who are dead, and they don’t even know it!” she said.

“There is a huge difference between growing older and growing up. Anybody can grow older. That doesn’t take any talent or ability,” she added. “But growing up requires finding the opportunity in change. The elderly usually don't have regrets for what they did, but rather for things they did not do.”

One week after graduation that year, Rose died peacefully in her sleep. She taught us by example that it’s never too late to be all you can possibly be.

1. Rose started college at the age of 87 in order to_____.

A．marry a rich man

B．travel around the world

C．make more friends

D．realize her dream

2. Which of the following best explains “She was living it up.” in the seventh paragraph?

A．She was living a long life.

B．She was enjoying herself.

C．She was spending a lot of money.

D．She was killing time.

3. When you lose your dreams, you die because ______.

A．there’s no sense in living without your aim

B．you can’t sleep well every night

C．you are too old and have to stop playing

D．something is terribly wrong with your brain

4. What would be the best title for the passage?

A．Meet the Challenge

B．Never Waste Time

C．Grow Up or Grow Old?

D．Have You Got Ready?

【推荐3】Jo Du was being helped into her beautiful white wedding dress this week when a tooth on the zipper (拉链) broke. It was Sunday in Guelph, Ontario, and no tailor (裁缝) shop was open.

Jo Du didn't want to marry Earl Lee with pins (别针) in the back of her dress. But no one in the wedding party knew how to make the repair.

The best man knocked on a neighbor's door to ask David Hobson if he might have a pair of scissors they could borrow. Mr. Hobson said, “I've got better than tools. I've got a tailor.”

David Hobson had a family of Syrian refugees (难民) living in his home for a few days: a mother, father, and 3 children.

The father of the Syrian family was Ibrahim Halil Dudu. He was a tailor in Syria for 28 years, and as soon as he saw the dress, Ibrahim Dudu got out his sewing (缝) tools and set to work.

“He really sewed her wedding dress back onto her,” Lindsay Coulter, the wedding photographer, told CTV News. “Everyone was so thankful. They said thank you a million times.”

“Every weekend I take photos of people on the happiest days of their lives, and today one man who has seen some of the worst things our world has to offer came to help,”said Lindsay Coulter, who posted photos and wrote on her Facebook page.

“I was so excited and so happy,” Ibrahim Halil Dudu said through a translator.“I like to help Canadian people from my heart.”

Earl Lee called the tailor's skillful repair, an “unbelievable act of kindness”from a“complete stranger who had only stepped foot in this country days ago.”

1. What was a big problem for Jo Du?

A．It was not easy for her to find some pins.

B．Her wedding dress had to be repaired soon.

C．She didn't know where to buy a new zipper.

D．There was something wrong with her scissors.

2. How did Hobson help Jo Du?

A．He introduced a tailor to her.

B．He lent a pair of scissors to her.

C．He helped her find the best man.

D．He helped organize her wedding.

3. Who solved Jo Du's problem in the end?

A．Earl Lee.

B．David Hobson.

C．Ibrahim Dudu.

D．Lindsay Coulter.

4. What can we infer about Lindsay Coulter?

A．She worked as a translator.

B．She felt sorry for the tailor.

C．She was a refugee from Syria.

D．She was a news reporter.