【推荐1】When my son, Tony, was 11 years old, he got a small job helping out with a traveling carnival (狂欢节) in our town. He didn’t come home at lunchtime and got back for supper as usual after he finished his work.

I asked him where he had lunch and he told me he made some new friends at the carnival, some young men who were twin brothers, and their mom and dad. They had paid him a few dollars and invited him for lunch in return for helping them with their chores (杂务).

I was glad Tony found new friends but a little worried about the type of people who might be traveling in a carnival. “Oh, Mom, they’re normal people like anyone else. They just work at a carnival instead of in a store or something”. “Come down tomorrow and meet them yourself,” he said.

So the next day I went to the carnival. The twin brothers turned out to be Siamese (连体的) twins, joined at the chest. Tony didn’t think this fact was noteworthy enough to mention. When I brought it to him, he said, “Yes, I noticed that too. Do you know that their mom has to make all their clothes because it's so difficult to find anything to fit them? They’re also really good cooks. Today, Joe,the one on the right, made me spaghetti (意大利面条) for lunch.”

What others see first in a person is not what a child considers important. Where I saw Siamese twins, he saw people having difficulty buying clothes that fit, and young men who were good cooks. It was a lesson I have thought about many times over the years.

1. Why didn’t Tony go home for lunch?

A．Because his mother hoped not.

B．Because he wanted to have a rest.

C．Because his friends invited him for lunch. .

D．Because he had to finish the work before noon.

2. The author was pleased that ________.

A．her son found a small job and made money

B．her son found new friends during the carnival

C．her son didn’t come back home for lunch

D．her son could do some help to their travelers

3. In the author’s opinion, the people who are traveling in a carnival are ________.

A．friendly.	B．rich.
C．normal.	D．unreliable.

4. From the text we may infer that ________.

A．Tony is a kind and honest boy

B．the author couldn't make clothes for her son

C．a child’s opinion is always different from his mother’s

D．the author and her son are not getting on well with each other

【推荐2】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3】When my daughter Sara was in the fifth grade, she came to me with a problem. “Marcy hates me!” she cried. “Because Kathy is my friend, too. She wants me to be her friend and nobody else’s. You talk to Marcy. You tell her that I want to be her friend, but I can have other friends, too!”

Oh! I looked at her for a few moments, wondering how I got into this mess, when suddenly an idea came to me.

Picking up two baskets from the living room, I explained, “When everyone is born, he or she has a little basket. This little one here is yours. The big one is mine. As you grow, so does the basket. You can see your little basket is inside mine because when you were born, there were too many things you couldn’t do for yourself. I did everything you couldn’t do on your own.”

She nodded.

“Well, as you grew older and began to do some things on your own, I began placing a few more things in your basket. When you learned to tie your shoes, that went in your basket.”

She said softly, “I can tie my own shoes.”

“Right. As you grow older, there will be more and more things you must do on your own.” As I spoke, I gradually took her basket out of mine and handed it to her. “You will finally carry your own basket with things only you can do.”

She looked up at me and said, “I understand. There are some things that I have to do for myself because they are in my basket.”

1. What was Sara’s problem?

A．She didn’t have a basket.	B．She didn’t want her own basket.
C．She couldn’t deal with her friendship.	D．Her mother was too hard on her.

2. We can infer that Sara ________.

A．would talk to Marcy herself

B．wouldn’t make friends with Kathy

C．was too young to deal with anything

D．managed to persuade her mother to help her

3. The baskets mentioned in the passage refer to ________.

A．gifts given by parents when everyone is born

B．something that people use to keep vegetables

C．growing abilities as you grow up

D．friendship that needs repairing

【推荐1】A young mother went into a small bedroom. Her baby was sleeping there. There was a cat near the baby. The mother took the cat away immediately,because the cat often lay on the baby. Then the baby couldn't breathe and it died by magic.In many countries, people are afraid of black cats because they bring bad luck. Napoleon didn't like black cats. He saw a black cat before the battle of Waterloo. He lost the battle and the British won.Therefore,on the Continent,the black cat is unlucky;in Britain it is lucky.In general,animals are lucky and birds are unlucky.In the British army,some have a goat for luck,and some have an Irish wolfhound(猎狼犬).When President of America Eisenhower died,there was a horse in the funeral(葬礼)procession.This was for luck.Several years ago in Britain,Prince Charles went fox-hunting.When they caught the first fox,they killed it. Then they put some of the blood on Prince Charles.They did the same thing two years later,when Princess Anne went fox­hunting for the first time. A lot of people don't like fox­hunting, and they were very angry when this happened. It is called“being blooded”;and fox-hunters think that is very necessary. It brings good luck to the new fox­hunter,when the blood of the first fox is put on him or her. In the country,it is very lucky when you see the first lamb in spring while birds are usually unlucky,but eagles are different. They are lucky,and the Romans have the eagle as their symbol. Also gulls are lucky. Sailors are very happy when gulls follow their ships.

1. According to the passage,Napoleon lost the battle in Waterloo because________.

A．he saw a black cat before it	B．the number of his soldiers was too small
C．the war broke out on the Continent	D．the British were too strong

2. Some of the blood of the fox was put on Charles and Anne because________.

A．they are prince and princess of Britain	B．they wanted to hunt more foxes
C．a lot of people liked fox-hunting	D．it could bring good luck to them

3. According to the passage,which of the following is NOT true?

A．In Britain,it is very lucky when you see the first lamb in spring

B．The Romans made the eagle their symbol.

C．In Britain,black cats are lucky

D．.In France,people have goats for luck.

4. What's the main idea of this passage?

A．People think an Irish wolfhound is lucky while a goat is unlucky.

B．People in different countries take different animals as their lucky ones.

C．How the baby died.

D．Gulls are lucky.

【推荐2】I grew up in Hastings, a small coastal town in East Sussex, famous for 1066 years of history and seaside charm. I have a memory as a boy, saving my pocket money by placing it in a special drawer, the golden pound coins collecting into a neat pile. When I was 14 in 2007, I saved up money for a gap year, by working at a bingo hall, and I put the money into a savings account. I remember getting £70 ($91) interest rates one year, which made me feel very rich indeed.

Skip forward to 2018 and I was living and working in Beijing, China, as a journalist. All around me Beijing residents were paying for everything using just their smart phones. They would walk up to a counter of a restaurant, shop, or convenience store, and offer up a QR code(二维码)for the cashier to scan. Once scanned, the online system would immediately deduct(扣除) the exact amount owed from the payer’s e-wallet. No reaching for cash and waiting for change. The transaction would take seconds.

But I was a stubborn holdout. My friends, both Western and Chinese, would make fun of me for being so traditional – for sticking to ―dirty cash. But there were a couple of reasons why I kept using physical money and avoided getting into e-payments and e-wallets. Firstly, it felt safer. I wasn’t really aware of how electronic money would work on my smart phone and I feared it would somehow get easily taken away. Secondly, I feared that by moving to e-payments, I would end up spending more. I would lose all sense of how much, day by day, I would be spending.

Were these fears justified? As more and more people across the world escape cash, these are essential issues for me to consider.

1. Which of the following made the writer feel very rich?

A．Saving £70 ($91) by placing it in a special drawer.

B．Collecting £70 ($91) coins into a neat pile.

C．Putting £70 ($91) into a savings account in bank.

D．Getting £70 ($91) interest rates from a bank.

2. Which’s not the advantage of e-payments?

A．No reaching for cash.	B．No waiting for change.
C．Taking only few seconds.	D．Spending more money.

3. Why didn’t the writer like to accept the e- payments at first?

A．Because he was too traditional to save money.

B．Because he liked the sense of paying in cash.

C．Because he thought e-payments would deduct more.

D．Because he knew how e-payments work on smartphones.

4. What can we infer about the writer from the last paragraph？

A．He accepted the idea that money is abstract.

B．He eventually turned to using e-payments.

C．He thought the pain of e-payment is delayed.

D．He insisted that having physical cash is safer.

【推荐3】The Collections of Chinese Ancient Cultural Relics Abroad: Volume Victoria and Albert Museum has just been published, the fruit of ten years' efforts by Chinese experts.
The book is the first of an upcoming series that centers on ancient cultural heritage(文化遗产) collections in different museums around the world. The book details 195 out of 18,000 items now in the Victoria and Albert Museum in England.
More than 1.64 million ancient Chinese artifacts have been transported out of China because of different reasons such as wars and smuggling(走私) since the mid 19th century. More than 200 museums in 47 countries hold such collections, according to a report from UNESCO.
"The information we now have about these pieces is still very patchy(不全面的)," said Lu Zhangshen, curator(馆长) of the National Museum of China. "In order to have a clearer picture about these items, National Museum of China decided to start the Chinese Ancient Cultural Relics Abroad book project in 2005. But after we began, we found it really difficult to collect information for every piece from each museum. That’s why the first volume took us ten years."
"The pieces in the book include 102 porcelains(瓷器), 31 bronzes(铜器), 22 lacquer(漆器), 10 enamel vessels(搪瓷器皿) and so on," Liu Mingqian from Victoria and Albert Museum said.
According to the National Museum of China, the volume of the Japanese museum Sen-oku Hakuko Kan is coming out soon and the museum will seek more cooperation from museums worldwide to accelerate(加速) the project.
1. Which of the following best describes Lu Zhangshen’s attitudes towards the Chinese Ancient Cultural Relics Abroad book project?

A．worthwhile but expensive

B．reasonable but worthless

C．meaningless but hard

D．meaningful but difficult

2. Which of the following statements is NOT True According to the text?

A．So far, Volumes Victoria, Albert Museum and the Japanese museum have been published.

B．A great many ancient Chinese artifacts have been distributed(分散) worldwide due mainly to wars and smuggling.

C．It is nearly ten years since the Chinese Ancient Cultural Relics Abroad book project was set up.

D．At present, collecting information for every piece from each museum is to some degree tough.

3. The main purpose of the passage is to ________.

A．compare and evaluate

B．inform and explain

C．argue and discuss

D．examine and explain