When the young donkey Daisy May came to us, she was pregnant. With no donkey experience , I was unprepared for what might come next.
After some difficulty, Daisy's baby was born. I thought the poor thing was dead. I planned to put the loss behind us and make sure she never got pregnant again. Just then, I heard a little noise. I couldn't believe that baby was breathing and looking at me! We called him Samson, and of course I became his mother as much as Daisy was.
When Samson was nine months old, I had to separate Daisy and Samson for a few hours a day to wean （使断奶）him, but otherwise he went wherever she did. I think she would be lost without him. His donkey stepdad Bernard taught him to always be ready to have fun. They enjoy playing football together and going for a roll on a hot summer day.
I asked a worker to make a harness （马具）for my three little donkeys. When I brought it home I taught them one by one how to pull a cart. Samson watched and freely followed Daisy. When he was three, I put the harness on him and he knew exactly what to do.
That was 15 years ago. Now, the most exciting thing about Samson is that he has become a little renowned. People come from all over to see him perform. The neighbors bring their grandchildren, and my sons bring their friends.
Samson shakes hands, unties my shoe, picks up a hat and more. And when I ask him if he has any bad habits, he tries to pick my pocket! He surprisingly learned these tricks himself. I just ask him to do them and he understands.
The relationship I have with my "baby" Samson has been an amazing experience. Every day is a fun day with this superstar donkey.
1. Why was the author at a loss for what might happen next at first?| A．She wasn't ready to be a mother. |
| B．She never raised a donkey before. |
| C．The donkey was pregnant by accident. |
| D．The donkey gave birth to a dead baby. |
| A．He was surrounded by love. |
| B．He was separated from his family. |
| C．He was unwelcome to the neighbors. |
| D．He was skilled in entertaining people. |
| A．strange. | B．proud. | C．humorous. | D．famous. |
| A．friendly and courageous. | B．intelligent and lively. |
| C．carefree and creative. | D．patient and fortunate. |
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【推荐1】Dallas-based Knit Wits is made up of a group of grandmothers with a strong love for knitting (编织) who tum their love for crafting into a purposeful attempt. Meeting regularly, they pour their collective love into every stitch (针法) they make. The group has been working for over ten years, meeting every Friday, to support organizations that help others, locally and around the world. Over the years, they’ve crafted thousands of items insupport of the important things.
Recently the Knit Wits member Mary Ann Stover was inspired to have the group knit hats for infant (婴儿) patients with heart disease at Children’s Health Hospital. The hats, each a unique work of art, designed with holiday themes, reflect the skill of the Knit Wits. More importantly, the special of Knit Wits is its understanding of the emotional effect these small objects can have on the infants experiencing medical treatments.
Bealle, a certified child life specialist at Children’s Health Hospital, explained how the hats are making a difference to the tiny patients and their families. “Caregivers are able to wear the hats on their body to move their smells before placing the hats back on the infants, encouraging connecting and making the infants less stressful,” he said.
Throughout the infants’ admission, many holidays are celebrated. At times, some infants are seriously ill and unable to dress up for holiday photos the families have planned. Thanks to the donations from Knit Wits, the hospital team is able to prove the family with a suitable themed infant hat the family can use for their photos and holiday celebrations.
1. What do we know about the hats from paragraph 2?| A．They centre on spiritual comfort. |
| B．They have holiday food subjects. |
| C．They are knitted by the caregivers |
| D．They are worn on child parents’ birthdays. |
| A．To hold an artistic activity. |
| B．To see off the recovered patients. |
| C．To relax the infants for treatments |
| D．To welcome the arrival of various holidays. |
| A．Why some holiday celebrations are held. |
| B．What the hats can be used as on holidays. |
| C．Why some special photos are important. |
| D．What the hats can be matched with. |
| A．Unsuccessful | B．Impractical. | C．Warm-hearted | D．Dishonest. |
【推荐2】Getting to Antarctica is not easy. The few who are lucky enough to visit this most mysterious continent do so by ships. To reach Antarctica, ships must pass through a notoriously violent area of ocean called the Drake Passage, considered to be the roughest stretch of sea on the planet.
Walls of water thirty, sometimes forty feet high continually crashed about our ship for two solid days. We would hold on to a rope inside the ship while being violently tipped to one extreme side, then to the other, and then back again. My daughter Claire and I were as mentally prepared as we could be.
About two and a half days after entering the Drake Passage, the waters calmed. Soon, we noticed small black spots on nearby pieces of floating ice. Emperor penguins! Then, we began the two-mile hike over the ice to the penguin colony. Within several hundred yards, little clusters of emperors, perhaps ten or so at a time, greeted us, sliding on their bellies and making their wonderful noises, sort of a nasally squeal.
One day two adult emperors with their three chicks in-tow approached Claire, who was resting on the ice. They left the chicks with her, as if she were the babysitter. Twenty minutes later they returned to collect the chicks, And I will never forget the penguin that, when I jokingly asked which way back to the helicopters, pointed a wing in the correct direction. Every night aboard our safe and warm ship, we thought about what it takes to survive in Antarctica, an incredibly harsh place.
But each day on the ice, we also thought about the Drake passage, that monstrous body of water we had to endure to get where we were. Over the course of our visit, we came to respect the power of that sea. We still talk about the penguins, as I’m sure we always will But we talk about the Drake too. Both experiences were unforgettable, and one would not have bee possible without the other.
1. What does the word notoriously mean in paragraph 1?| A．Frequently traveled. | B．Hard to locate. | C．Recognized negatively. | D．Aimlessly sailed. |
| A．Boring. | B．Comfortable. | C．Smooth. | D．Difficult. |
| A．Dependence on one another. | B．Collecting their baby chicks in time. |
| C．Friendly and entertaining behavior. | D．Ability to survive in their environment. |
| A．An increased respect for the power of nature. |
| B．An understanding of how animals survive in cold climates. |
| C．An awareness of the types of activities his daughter enjoys. |
| D．An interest in other journeys that involve physical challenges. |
【推荐3】Besides regularly donating blood, Ashish, the 48 year- old surgeon also encourages others to do the same through Bloodline, a nonprofit association he founded in 2017.
According to Ashish, who has been a doctor at a United Family Healthcare hospital in Shanghai since 2007, Bloodline is aimed at creating a blood bank that can help the community as well as individuals with rare blood types who face an urgent need for blood.
“My father, a doctor who specialized in treating chest infections, only charged those who could afford the medical treatment. For those who couldn't pay, he never mentioned money and instead gave them the drugs for free." he says.
During his growing up years, Ashish was also exposed to social services, helping collect food and money for a local children's hospital.
Ashish first donated blood when he was 18. After arriving in China in 2003, Ashish learned mandarin at Fudan University in Shanghai before becoming a graduate student in general surgery at Shanghai Huashan Hospital. Here, he continued participating in blood donation drives as his way of giving back to society. In 2011, he became a volunteer at the Shanghai Blood Center where he helped raise public awareness about blood donations.
The idea of setting up an online community for this cause came in 2013 as he believed that there should be a group of expats who get together voluntarily to work with patients and organize regular gatherings to raise public awareness. In 2017, this community was officially registered as Bloodline.
“Our organization currently has a presence in 14 cities, including Beijing, Dalian, and Guangzhou. I's often a small group of people in each city but they can help a great deal." says Ashish, who holds the roles of ambassador and director of the foreign volunteers group at the Shanghai Blood Center.
Ashish has also placed greater emphasis on raising awareness of their causes in children, noting that people from the younger generations are more receptive to the idea of donating blood. Bloodline is currently planning to launch a junior club within the organization where youth will get to tour blood donation centers, witness how the blood is processed, who the end users are, and the difference that they can make to the lives of those in need of blood.
“We come from different countries and have different skin colors but the blood streaming through our bodies is the same. When there is a need to roll up sleeves and save lives, we will step forward bravely." he says.
1. The aim of Bloodline is to ________.| A．assist people with rare blood type |
| B．reduce the financial burden of poor people |
| C．help people with urgent need for rare blood |
| D．raise public awareness about blood donation |
| A．benefited from blood donation himself |
| B．got involved in other social services as well |
| C．received his medical degree in Fu Dan University |
| D．got the idea of founding Bloodline from his father |
| A．Love is without boundaries. | B．Hard work leads to success. |
| C．One needs to return the favour. | D．Family influences children most. |
【推荐1】In 2017, Jim McGee was diagnosed with a kidney (肾) illness, and he was told by the doctors that he could only live about four years. Therefore, he was in bad need of a kidney transplant (移植). However, it was said that 13 people would die every day while waiting for a right kidney with the right blood and tissue types. Jim’s wife, Shirley McGee, and some family friends offered but weren’t a match.
In order to seek for help, Shirley and her husband wore T-shirts with a sentence “I’m in need of a kidney transplant.” whenever they went out but still no luck. Jim lost heart.
In early 2018, Jim didn’t feel like attending a reunion of some classmates, saying there was no need to do this. However, Shirley said, “Come on. You really need to see your friends. Go, and enjoy yourself.” Then, Jim reunited with some old classmates, whom he hadn’t seen for nearly 50 years, including Doug Coffman. Jim told them his problem. As life would have it, Doug Coffman, then 70, happened to have the right blood type and immediately decided to help.
After a series of tests, finally, when the doctors gave Doug Coffman the OK to donate, he immediately called Jim, and told him the good news. On September 18, 2018, Doug went into surgery at 7: 30 a. m.; Jim followed at 9: 30 a.m. By noon, they were both in the recovery room. The transplant was a great success.
1. How did Jim feel about his illness after the failed wait for the right kidney?| A．satisfied. | B．nervous. | C．ashamed. | D．discouraged |
| A．reasonable and energetic. | B．supportive and considerate. |
| C．outgoing and thankful. | D．knowledgeable and responsible. |
| A．To find the right kidney. | B．To share his sad story. |
| C．To meet his fellow classmates. | D．To have a complete examination there. |
| A．He had visited Jim regularly. |
| B．He was too old to offer his help to Jim. |
| C．He was Jim’s best friend. |
| D．He helped Jim without hesitation. |
【推荐2】A young woman one day said something that hurt her best friend of many years. She regretted it immediately and would like to do anything to take the words back. What she had said hurt her friend so much that the woman herself also felt very painful. To make up what she had done, she went to an old wise man in the village and asked for advice.
The old man understood the young woman’s suffering. He knew he must help her. He knew he could never remove her pain, but he could teach. And he also knew the result would depend only on her character.
“Tonight take your best feather pillows and put single feather on the doorstep of each house in the village before the sun rises.” he said.
The young woman hurried home to prepare for it, even though the feather pillows were very dear to her. All night long, she made her efforts alone in the cold. Finally it got light and she placed the last feather on the step of the last house. Just as the sun rose, she returned to the old man.
“Now,” said the man, “go back and refill your pillows with the feathers you have put on the steps. Then everything will be as it was before.”
“You know that’s impossible! The wind blew away each feather as fast as I placed them on the doorsteps!” The young woman was surprised.
“That’s true. “said the old man,” Each of your words is like a feather in the wind. Once your words are spoken, no matter how much effort you make and how sincere you are, you can never return them to your mouth. Choose your words well and protect people you love from being hurt.”
1. The young woman suffered from_________.| A．her friend’s words | B．the old man’s advice | C．what she had said | D．what her friend had done |
| A．could remove her pain | B．knew a lot about her character |
| C．refused to teach her | D．decided to help her learn something |
| A．find more feathers | B．make some new pillows |
| C．take away the feathers | D．put the feathers back to the pillows |
| A．Take one’s advice before doing. | B．Think carefully before speaking. |
| C．Ask for advice when you get hurt. | D．Talk to people when you have troubles. |
On 8th August, 1914, 27 men who had replied to an advertisement in The Times boarded a ship leaving for the Antarctic (南极洲). The name of the ship was the Endurance and the captain was an Irishman called Ernest Shackleton.
The aim of the journey was to cross the frozen continent via the South Pole — a journey of 1, 800 miles. Shackleton thought the journey would last six months.
But when land came into sight, the Endurance became trapped in the ice and began to break up. Shackleton and his men watched the Endurance sink into the icy sea. They then headed north, pulling three lifeboats behind them.
After six days, bad weather forced them to give up and the men set up camp on a sheet of ice which began slowly moving across the Antarctic Circle.
They survived on the ice for five months. Then, on 16th April, 1915, Shackleton saw land. It was Elephant Island — a large rock with nothing growing on it, but much better than a floating piece of ice. When they reached the island, Shackleton came up with an idea — it was a risk but he would have to take it. He and five men would take one of the lifeboats, and sail 800 miles to South Georgia, where there was a permanent camp. They could then return to rescue the rest of the men.
It took Shackleton 17 days to reach South Georgia. Unfortunately he landed on the wrong side of the island, and had to walk 36 hours over mountains to reach the camp. The whale hunters at the camp couldn’t believe their eyes when they saw the six men walking down from the mountains. Shackleton kept his promise. More than three months later, be returned to Elephant Island to rescue the crew he had been forced to abandon. He had failed to reach the pole — but he had saved the lives of all his men.
1. What was the goal of the adventure? (no more than 8 words)2. Why did they leave the Endurance? (no more than 6 words)
3. What does the underlined word mean in Paragraph 5? (1 word)
4. How did Shackleton save the lives of all his crew? (no more than 15 words)
5. What do you think of Shackleton? Please explain. (no more than 20 words)
