【推荐1】They were a happy family: four daughters were allin the same school in different grades. The youngest, Janice, who was in my class, seemed to be glued to her mother’s skirts．Theirthree older girls took the bus to school everymorning, but Janice was always driven to schoolbyher mother.

One Friday, Janice's mother asked for a talk with me. She said in a soft voice,"My husband is going to Europe on business for two weeks, and heinsists that I go with him. I have tried to explainover and over that Janice needs me here. But he thinks that she will be fine without me, so I have no choice, I have to go. I have told the babysitter todrive her every morning. Will you please giveJanice special attention and help her? I want to besure everything goes well for her."

I told her that we would make every effort tosupport Janice. I even volunteered to meet Janiceat her car so she would see a familiar face. As amother myself, I'd like to help. Janice’s motherthanked me for our understanding.

On Monday morning, expecting a tearfulanxious child, I planned a special program of funand games. I waited outside to greet Janice, butjust then the bus arrived and not three, but fourgirls got off. Janice skipped along joyfully, saying“goodbye” to her sisters as she ran with two friends into the classroom. I walked slowly into theclassroom and called Janice over to ask how thebus ride went. Impatiently she said, “Oh, I alwayswant to take the bus with the other kids. ButMother needs to be with me. You see there won’t be any more babies, so I have to be a baby a littlelonger. While she is away, I'll just ridethe busevery day. I am five, you know.”

1. Why did Janice’ s mother want to have a talk with the author?

A．To ask her to help Janice with her homework.

B．To ask her to pick up Janice every day.

C．To ask her to give Janice more attention.

D．To ask her to meet Janice at her car.

2. What did the author not do for Janice?

A．Plan a special program of fun and games.

B．Wait for her outside the school.

C．Greet her when she got off the bus.

D．Ask about her bus ride.

3. What did Janice look like on Monday morning?

A．She was tearful and anxious.

B．She was worried about her mother.

C．She missed her mother very much.

D．She was happy rather than sad.

4. What do we know from the passage?

A．Janice is too young to go school by bus.

B．Janice likes taking a bus to school.

C．Janice doesn’t like her babysitter.

D．Janice is no longer a child.

【推荐2】Seventy years ago I was quite a small little girl, the baby of the family, with an older brother and sister. My father was very ill at the time, and my mother took in sewing(缝纫) of any kind so we could live. She would sew far into the night with an old sewing machine. She never complained even when the food would be very scarce. She would sew until the early hours of morning.
Things were very bad that particular winter. Then a letter came from where her sewing machine was bought, saying that they would have to pick up her machine the next day unless payments were brought up to date. I remember when she read the letter I became frightened; I could picture us starving to death and all sorts of things that could come to a child‘s mind. My mother did not appear to be worried, however, and seemed to be quite calm about the matter. I, on the other hand, cried myself to sleep, wondering what would become of our family. Mother said God would not disappoint her, that he never had. I couldn‘t see how God was going to help us keep this old sewing machine.
The day when the men came for our machine arrived. There was a knock at the kitchen door. I was frightened as a child would be, for I was sure it was those men who would take away our sewing machine. Instead, a nicely dressed man stood at our door with a darling baby in his arms.
He asked my mother if she was Mrs. Hill. When she said she was, he said, "I‘m in trouble this morning and you have been recommended by the druggist and grocer down the street as an honest and wonderful woman. My wife was rushed to the hospital this morning, and since we have no relatives here, and I must open my dentist office, I have nowhere to leave my baby. Could you possibly take care of her for a few days?" He continued, "I will pay you in advance." With this he took out ten dollars and gave it to my mother.
Mother said, "Yes, yes, I will be glad to do so," and took the baby from his arms. When the man left, my mother turned to me with tears streaming down a face that looked as though a light was shining on it. She said, "I knew God would never let them take away my machine."
1. The turning point in the story may refer to ______.

A．a letter to the family

B．the man’s coming for help

C．the man’s wife being rushed to the hospital

D．the nicely dressed man’s trouble

2. Why did the man turn to the writer’s mother for help?

A．The people around him recommended the mother to him.

B．He was familiar with the mother.

C．The mother had sewn for him.

D．The mother was hired by the man.

3. According to the text all the following are true to the man EXCEPT _____.

A．his wife stayed in hospital

B．he was confused when in trouble

C．he had few men to turn to for help

D．he was a dentist

4. What does mother mean by saying “I knew God would never let them take away my       machine?”

A．God can solve all the problem.

B．The sewing machine is my only support.

C．Never give up when in trouble.

D．Everybody should believe in God.

【推荐3】A few years after Mom died, Dad showed up for lunch wearing the soft smile that took over his face whenever he was thinking about her. “I’ve found these,” he said, handing me a bag. “She would have wanted you to have them.”

I opened the bag to find dozens of shells, each one bearing Mom’s handwritten words: Stone Harbor, N. J. — 8-98. They were pretty common, but to Mom, they were evidence of her endlessly magical life.

She was 61 when she collected these shells, already showing signs of the lung disease that would kill her the next year. Mom needed an adventure. She loved seashore. So we decided to take her to Jersey Shore.

As soon as I said “Jersey Shore”, she started to shout over and over again— “I can’t believe I’m going to New Jersey!”

Once we got to Stone Harbor, Mom acted like the town mayor, greeting everyone as if they were loyal constituents. And she spent hours collecting shells on the beach. The morning we left, I found her photographing every corner of her bedroom. “I don’t even want to forget this,” she said.

For a long time, Mom’s shells stayed buried in a drawer. Last month, I rediscovered them. I put them where I can easily to see them. One by one, the shells are finding a new place in my home. They remind me to live a life like my mother — who never lost her sense of passion.

1. The underlined word “them” in Paragraph 1 refers to             .

A．the bag the author’s dad found	B．the photos the author’s mom took
C．the shells the author’s mom collected	D．the words the author’s mom wrote

2. Why did the author’s mom greet everyone in the Stone Harbor?

A．She knew them very well.	B．She was very excited.
C．She wanted to make friends with them.	D．She was popular among the people there.

3. What do we know about the author’s mom?

A．She had a sense of adventure.	B．She passed away at the age of 61.
C．She was brought up in New Jersey.	D．She showed great enthusiasm for life.

4. We can infer from the last paragraph that the shells         .

A．remind the author of her mom’s attitude towards life

B．make the author think of her mom’s death

C．were taken out of the drawer for the purpose of decorating the house

D．were hidden in a drawer because they are very precious

【推荐1】For years, I thought that my mother would become a Centenarian   (百岁老人) , but after 98 years and eight months, she recently died of old age. As it was with my father, her funeral took place in the most peaceful setting of the countryside of rural Washington County. Even after my father died, we continued to think of our parents as one. They were a team in the traditional sense. Church and family were their life- lines. They worked hard, never complaining. They expected to earn their daily bread by the sweat of their brow.
Once during a conversation with Tom Brokaw, who wrote the best- selling hook The Greatest Generation, I told him, "You left out my parents." They didn’t go off to war, but they belonged to the Greatest Generation. They, too, were part of the foundation that made America truly great. They kept the home fires burning.
Our mother gloried in being a housewife and mother. Having been a teacher in her early adult years, when education was more important than anything else, she gave up her job to raise a family .She was an excellent cook, but she had to cook on a wood stove. There was no refrigerator, nothing electric. But nobody was ever better at making do. In addition to all the household chores and responsibilities, she went to the fields every day to help produce a crop to pay the rent and to provide for the family. She and my dad worked hard to save every penny possible.
They saved ever7 penny to buy a farm late in life. They also saved enough money to live out their respective live with home care without taking up residency in a nursing home. They were fiercely independent.   If you had suggested they accept a government transfer payment, they would have spit in your eye.
1. Which of the following is the best title for the passage?

A．Mother played a great pan in the family.

B．Mother died at the age of 98 years old.

C．Mother was buried by the side of father.

D．Mother survived father by many years.

2. The underlined part "one" in the passage means____ .

A．parent	B．Centenarian
C．hero	D．entirety

3. What do we know about Tom Brokaw?

A．He is one of the author's parents' friends.

B．He likes talking with the author's parents.

C．He takes up a position as a writer.

D．He is good at managing a home.

4. How does the author find his parents?

A．Brave and hardworking.

B．Modest and warmhearted.

C．Economical and independent.

D．Respective and satisfied.

【推荐2】It took place at the Biltmore Hotel. My grandmother, my mother, and I were having lunch after a morning spent shopping. I gladly ordered a Salisbury steak. When brought to the table, it was accompanied by a plate of peas. I do not like peas now. I did not like peas then. I have always hated peas.

“Eat your peas,” my grandmother said.

“Mother,” said my mother in her warning voice. “He doesn't like peas. Leave him alone.”

My grandmother did not reply, but leaned in my direction, looked me in the eye, and spoke out the fateful words that changed my life, “I’ll pay you five dollars if you eat those peas.”

I only knew that five dollars was a huge, nearly unimaginable amount of money, and awful as peas were, only one plate of them stood between me and the possession of that five dollars. I began to force them down my throat.

My mother looked livid (铁青色的). My grandmother had a self-satisfied look and said, “I can do what I want, Ellen, and you can't stop me.” My mother glared at her mother. She glared at me. No one can glare like my mother. If there were a glaring Olympics, she would undoubtedly win the gold medal.

I, of course, kept shoving peas down my throat, and every single pea made me want to throw up, but the magical image of the five dollars floated before me, and I finally swallowed every last one of them. My grandmother handed me the five dollars with satisfaction. My mother continued to glare in silence.

That night, at dinner, my mother served two of my all-time favorite foods, meatloaf and mashed potatoes. Along with them came a big, steaming bowl of peas. She offered me some peas, and of course I declined. My mother fixed me with a cold eye as she heaped（堆积) a huge pile of peas onto my plate. Then came the words that were to haunt (萦绕) me for years. “You ate them for money,” she said, “You can eat them for love.”

1. From the passage, we can conclude the mother’s attitude towards the author is         .

A．sympathetic but disappointed	B．annoyed but satisfied
C．sympathetic and scared	D．scared and disappointed

2. The author uses “fateful words” in Paragraph 4 to show that he         .

A．regarded these words as dangerous

B．didn't expect it to be so influential

C．believed in the existence of fate (命运)

D．knew they would change his life

3. The mother looked livid because she thought          .

A．the way her son ate the peas was harmful to his health

B．she had lost face for losing the competition of glaring

C．her son shouldn’t have had peas because of money

D．her mother shouldn’t have been so kind to her son

4. Which of the following can be the best title of the passage?

A．A powerful mother and a more powerful grandmother.

B．An argument caused by a plate of peas.

C．A choice between money and love.

D．The haunting of a plate of peas.

【推荐3】Developing healthy eating habits starts from childhood, therefore it is important for parents to teach and provide children with a healthy diet. DPHSS administrator of the Bureau of Nutrition Services, Charlie Morris told KUAM News, “A healthy diet for a child consists of a lot of fruits and vegetables in the diet limiting the amount of simple sugars in the diet and high fat food and highly processed food.”

This means staying away as much as possible from food such as chips, cookies, candies and sugary drinks, as all children need to have meals which involve a well-balanced diet. Community nutritionist Thelma Romoso said, “The fruit, the vegetable, the grain, the protein, and also the milk, the diary product, so for the fruits it’s easy for a mother to go into the two plus three concept of fruits and vegetables or five a day.”

This concept means that there are at least two servings of fruits a day, three servings of vegetables a day which can be served for lunch and dinner. As for protein parents can make a variety of dishes from chicken, beef, fish or even dried beans to pledge the child gets three servings a day.

Morris said that the child’s hunger level controls how much is eaten and the parent controls what and when the meal is offered, saying, “Mom needs to ensure that the food offered is good food for the child to eat and throughout the day depending on how active they are, snacks are not a bad thing, so the mom should offer good kinds of snacks.”

When it comes to preparing your child’s lunch and snacks for school, make sure to keep in mind that the food you provide should not only be a source of energy but also be nutritionally beneficial such as fresh fruits, and whole grain bread. But parents must be sure to remember that a good nutritional diet must be balanced with physical activity, namely it is important that children get outside and run around and play and get activity in addition to eating a good diet.

1. What does the author intend to tell us in the passage?

A．Choose healthy food and snacks for your child.

B．Fruits and vegetables are good for your child.

C．Take steps to provide a good lunch for your child.

D．Make various and delicious dishes for your child.

2. According to Charlie Morris we can know that_________.

A．mothers should prepare delicious food by themselves

B．sugars and high fat exist in few kinds of food

C．highly processed food should be reduced in daily life

D．active children prefer more and more snacks

3. What food can make children more active during the day?

A．Fruits

B．Snacks

C．Milk

D．Chicken

4. It can be inferred from the passage that _________.

A．fresh fruits are often ignored by children

B．a good nutritional diet may cost too much

C．choosing healthy food is linked with income

D．parents play a very important role in children’s healthy diet

【推荐2】What I learned watching dentist at work

I would like to be a dentist in the future.     1     The patient, tender dentist comforted me, a 7-year-old girl at the time, and persuaded me to stop crying and to accept my treatment.

    2     Recently, our teacher gave us the homework of experiencing a kind of job on the weekend. I chose without hesitation to live a day as a dentist at my friend’s older brother’s workplace.

I got to Dr Tan’s clinic at 7:45 am, 15 minutes before office hours began on Saturday. Dr Tan, who has been a dentist for five years, sat in his consulting room with a mask on his face and waited for his patients. I didn’t really understand his diagnoses or treatments, but I could see that Dr Tan was a responsible doctor. He explained conditions and therapies (治疗方案) to patients at length to remove their doubts. He paused operations to let patients rest if the treatment was taking too much time.     3     Dr Tan worked for almost the whole morning without a break. He only made a phone call to his wife to remind her to have an antenatal (产前) examination. Yes, he will be a father in five months, but he still cannot keep his wife company at the weekend.     4       They try to ease others’ pain anytime and anywhere, despite the cost to their own time and life.

As the last patient said goodbye to Dr Tan in the afternoon, my visit came to an end. I now feel that I understand more about doctors.     5    

A．My dream has finally come true.

B．They are the heroes I admire most.

C．Doctors are ordinary people, yet they are also angels.

D．It helps me to reduce stress, find friends and learn new skills.

E．I thought it was a dream that was almost impossible to fulfill

F．That’s all because of a dentist I came across during my childhood.

G．He also gave a doctor’s advice to his patients carefully before they went out the door.

【推荐3】I moved to the Phoenix area in my early twenties, and to expand my social life I joined a young adult group at a church. Because I love music, I started singing in the choir (合唱队), where I met Lisa. We were about the same age. Finding people with similar interests helped reduce my feelings of loneliness after moving to a new city.

“Are you going to go on the retreat (静修)?” Lisa asked. Once or twice a year, the young adult group put on a retreat. I hesitated. I had little experience with retreats and I still felt like an outsider. “Come on,” Lisa said. “Everyone goes.” “Okay.” I agreed. After all, some cute guys were in the group. As the retreat weekend approached, I learned that the theme was forgiveness.

In my twenties, the world revolved(旋转)around me and what I wanted. And, as most people do, I learned how to be pleasant enough without giving in and having to apologize any more than necessary. In short, the forgiveness theme made me uncomfortable. I would attend the retreat, but I planned to sit quietly in the background and watch.

The retreat was held at a camp in Prescott, Arizona. The first night we gathered in the common room where we also ate our meals. According to the plan, I found a spot in the back where I could watch, unnoticed. The leader got up and spoke about the healing power of forgiveness. His words were touching. “Now comes the hard part,” he said. “I want to invite you to look into your hearts and if you feel moved to do so, go to a person here in the room and ask to be forgiven for something you’ve done.”

At the beginning, there was total silence. Was he kidding? Then Lisa stood up and made her way through the crowd toward me. Lisa planted her feet firmly in front of me. “Kathleen, I’d like to ask your forgiveness.” I shook my head. Then nodded, not sure how to respond. I felt the heat rise into my cheeks. I could hardly breathe knowing that everyone could hear and see all this. I had no idea what I was forgiving her for. I wanted her to just go away.

“I have been angry at how easily you joined our group. Even though you became my friend when we worked on music together, I still thought you were doing it for yourself. I’ve held that against you and I’m sorry.” “It’s okay,” I choked out. Stunned, I stood up, gave her an awkward hug and then sat back down. Lisa turned and went back to her seat. Lisa’s bravery broke the ice and everyone started to ask forgiveness for various injuries, some big, some small.

The world began to change for me. I learned empathy the day that Lisa asked my forgiveness. I had read To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee several times. But I realized that I had never understood the message Atticus Finch taught his children: “You never really know a man until you stand in his shoes and walk around in them.” Through the years my friendships were better, stronger and deeper. I apologized and forgave quickly. Lisa allowed me the gift of friendship because her example taught me to forgive.

1. The author joined the adult group because she wanted to         .

A．have a better social life	B．practice singing with her friends
C．learn the importance of forgiveness	D．get to know more about her neighbors

2. Which of the following can describe the writer before she attended the retreat?

A．Self-confident.	B．Dishonest.
C．Responsible.	D．Self-centered.

3. Which of the following statements is TRUE?

A．The writer didn’t want to join the retreat at first.

B．The writer thought Lisa should say sorry to her.

C．The writer thought the leader of the retreat was funny.

D．The writer knew Lisa before she moved to the new city.

4. According to Paragraph 5, how did the writer feel when Lisa asked for forgiveness?

A．Scared.	B．Curious.
C．Stressed.	D．Satisfied.

5. What did Lisa apologize to the writer for?

A．That she made the writer feel lonely.

B．That she was envious of the writer.

C．That she once took advantage of the writer.

D．That she refused to make friends with the writer.

6. What does the underlined phrase “stand in his shoes” probably mean in the last paragraph?

A．try to apologize and forgive others	B．get to know people’s true face
C．value the friendship with others	D．place oneself in others’ position

【推荐1】Sometimes, the simplest ideas are the best. For example, to absorb heat from the sun to heat water,you need large, flat, black surfaces. One way to do that is to build those surfaces specially, on the roofs of buildings. But why go to all that trouble when cities are full of black surfaces already, in the form of asphalt (柏油) roads?
Ten years ago, this thought came into the mind of Arian de Bondt, a Dutch engineer. He finally persuaded his boss to follow it up. The result is that their building is now heated in winter and cooled in summer by a system that relies on the surface of the road outside.
The heat-collector is a system of connected water pipes. Most of them run from one side of the street to the other, just under the asphalt road. Some, however, dive deep into the ground.
When the street surface gets hot in summer, water pumped through the pipes picks up this heat and takes it underground through one of the diving pipes. At a depth of 100 metres lies a natural aquifer(蓄水层) into which heat several heat exchangers (交换器) have been built. The hot water from the street runs through these exchangers, warming the ground-water, before returning to the surface through another pipe. The aquifer is thus used as a heat store.
In winter, the working system is changed slightly. Water is pumped through the heat exchangers to pick up the heat stored during summer. This water goes into the building and is used to warm the place up. After performing that task, it is pumped under the asphalt and its remaining heat keeps the road free of snow and ice.
1. Which of the following is true according to the first two paragraphs?

A．Arian de Bondt got his idea from his boss.

B．Large, flat, black surfaces need to be built in cities.

C．The Dutch engineer's system has been widely used.

D．Heat can also be collected from asphalt roads.

2. For what purpose are the diving pipes used?

A．To absorb heat from the sun.

B．To store heat for future use.

C．To turn solar energy into heat energy.

D．To carry heat down below the surface.

3. From the last paragraph we can learn that __

A．some pipes have to be re-arranged in winter

B．the system can do more than warming up the building

C．the exchangers will pick up heat from the street surface

D．less heat may be collected in winter than in summer

4. What is most likely to be discussed in the paragraph that follows?

A．What we shall do if the system goes wrong .

B．What shall we do if there are no asphalt roads

C．How the system cools the building in summer .

D．How the system collects heat in spring and autumn.

【推荐2】I moved to the United States as a teenager. The adjustment to a new place was difficult. But there was major stress in my life at that time: I was the only member of my family who spoke English, meaning I had to step up when we dealt with a shop assistant, a waiter and so on. However, there was another universal language I loved to learn as a child: art.

Although I connected myself with drawing and painting while in school, I mostly dismissed art as a path to a career. Since my dad always said "Think about the future", I did not think he would support the study of art once I went to college. But, to my surprise, it was my parents who suggested just that and urged me to apply to technical and liberal arts schools.

I was admitted into industrial design. It's basically to design products and services. I could be doing something more technical or something more related to problem-solving. It was no easy task to do the course including metalworking, woodworking and model making. In one class I just drew cubes for an entire month, which led me to a question："Wow! Do I really want to do this? "But I finally survived the course.

Now I am a design strategist for Marshall Moya Design, a famous architecture and interior design company. I have experience in exhibit design, product design and website design, apart from which I enjoy developing public art in my free time.

Throughout my career，I've picked up different things along the way. The best way to learn in my opinion is through working, therefore, get as many projects as you can. Industrial design kind of makes you an all-round person.

1. What was the author's biggest problem when first moving to America?

A．The adaption to a new environment.	B．Difficulty in learning a new language.
C．Fathers disapproval of her studying art.	D．The burden of being a communicator.

2. What made the author choose to study art?

A．Her deep love for art.	B．The suggestion of her family.
C．Her potential in design.	D．The need of a good job.

3. Why was the author's experience of drawing cubes mentioned?

A．To emphasize her effort at study.	B．To express the regret at her choice.
C．To prove the course was difficult.	D．To show the basic content of the course.

4. How did the author feel when she mentioned her career?

A．Surprised.	B．Stressed.
C．Eager.	D．Proud.

【推荐3】Charities

These days there are thousands of charities around the world and it is possible to donate money to help people, animals and places.

Mencap is a charity which is intended to fight against prejudice against those people who suffer from any kind of learning disability. Most of Mencap's work is campaigning. People with learning disabilities are disadvantaged because of prejudice and lack of funding for community care. Mencap raised awareness by working at local, national and European levels to deal with those issues that affect people with learning disabilities. It also provides services of education, housing and employment as well as support and advice for families and carers of sufferers.

EveryChild is a relatively new charity which was created in 1983. Every Child identifies the needs of a particular community and then sets up projects to make sure that children in these communities have basic rights such as healthcare. education, social services and community development. Every Child sets up the projects so that they are self running. The organization then moves on to new projects, leaving things in the hands of locals.

The RSPCA( Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals) is the first organization meant for the well-being of animals anywhere in the world. The SPCA was set up in London in 1824 .At that time it was considered strange that people should care about cruelty to animals. In 1840 Queen Victoria gave the organization permission to be called a royal society The RSPCA. These days there are almost two hundred branches in the UK.

The TBG(Tidy Britain Group) is an independent national charity fighting to improve the quality of the local environment. They aim to get everyone involved in doing their bit to keep Britain clean. The work of the TBG is done mainly hrough campaigning. Volunteers work closely with governments and businesses to organize educational programs designed to raise awareness of the problems. The TBG's sister organization, Going for Green,concentrates on pollution issues. The two groups have the same chief executive.

1. What's the main purpose of Mencap?

A．To improve community care.	B．To provide educational services.
C．To fight against any kind of prejudice.	D．To help people with learning disabilities.

2. What was Queen Victoria's attitude towards the SPCA?

A．Approving.	B．Doubtful.
C．Tolerant.	D．Casual.

3. Going for Green shares a similar goal with__________.

A．Mencap.	B．Every Child
C．the RSPCA	D．the TBG