Hundreds of years ago there was a king of Scotland whose name was Robert Bruce. The king of England was at war with him, and had led a great army into Scotland, Bruce led his people in the defense of their country.
Battle after battle he had fought with England. Six times Bruce had led his brave little army against his enemies. Six times his men had been beaten. At last the army of Scotland was entirely defeated, and the king was forced to hide in the woods and in lonely places among the mountains.
One rainy day, Bruce lay in a cave, tired and felt sick at heart, ready to give up all hope, seemed to him that there was no use for him to try to do anything more.
As he lay thinking, he noticed a spider over his head, getting ready to weave her web. He watched her as she worked slowly and with great care. Six times she tried to throw her in thread from one edge of the cave wall to another. Six times her thread fell short.
“Poor thing!” said Bruce. “You, too, know what it’s like to fail six times in a row.”
But the spider did not lose hope. With still more care, she was ready to try for a seventh time. Robert almost forgot his own trouble as he watched, fascinated. She swung herself out on the slender thread. Would she fail again? No! The thread was carried safely to the cave all, and fastened there.
“Yes!” cried Bruce, “I, too, will try a seventh time!”
So he got up and called his men together. He told them of his plans, and sent them out with hopeful messages to cheer the discouraged people. Soon there was an army of brave men around him. A seventh battle was fought, and this time the King of England was forced to retreat back to his own country.
1. How did King Bruce feel after his army was beaten six times?| A．Easy. | B．Cheerful. | C．Angry. | D．Hopeless. |
| A．Thick. | B．Thin. | C．Short. | D．Smooth. |
| A．His powerful army. |
| B．People’s service and support. |
| C．Aid from neighboring countries. |
| D．The spider’s efforts to weave the web. |
| A．Never give up. |
| B．Things of one kind come together. |
| C．As one door closes, another door opens. |
| D．All things in their being are good for something. |
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【推荐1】When Boris left school, he could not find a job. He tried hard and pestered (纠缠)his relatives, but they had problems of their own. He answered advertisements until he could not afford to buy any more stamps. Boris grew annoyed, then depressed, then a little hardened. Still he went on trying and still he failed. He began to think that he had no future at all.
“Why don't you start your own business?” one of his uncles told him. “The world is a money-locker. You'd better find a way of opening it.”
“But what can I do？”
“Get out and have a look round,” advised his uncle in a vague sort of way. “See what people want; then give it to them, and they will pay for it.”
Boris began to cycle around the town and found a suitable piece of a waste ground in the end. Then he set up his business as a cycle repairer. He worked hard, made friends with his customers and gradually managed to build up his goodwill and profit. A few months later, he found that he had more work than he could deal with by himself. He found a number of empty shops but they were all no good: in the wrong position, too expensive or with some other snag. But at long last, he managed to find an empty shop on a new estate where there were plenty of customers but no competition.
Boris and his assistant taught themselves how to repair scooters and motorcycles. Slowly but surely the profits increased and the business developed. At last
Boris had managed to open the money-locker and found bank notes and gold coins inside.
| A．cycling around the town | B．developing a waste ground |
| C．fixing cycles | D．buying empty shops |
| A．it was not so expensive | B．he had a lot of old customers there |
| C．he could make good use of his skills there | D．there were good opportunities there |
| A．still couldn't make good profits | B．set off in a successful career |
| C．found a lot of gold coins by accident | D．had great difficulty running his business |
| A．Goodwill is the key to success | B．The world is a money-locker |
| C．No education, no future | D．Difficulty of starting a small business |
【推荐2】My 12-year-old son Jack hit a milestone last summer. “Mom, I’m quitting the piano,” he said firmly.
Immediately, I said, “You can’t.” “Why?” he asked. “Because I said so.” And the battle followed. Many of you know the battle I am talking about. It’s the one where all of a sudden instrument that once filled the home with wonderful music are abandoned in favor of sports, games and all cool things. When Jack started piano lessons in the second grade, he took to music eagerly, displaying interest and talent. Over the next few years, he willingly entered competitions recommended by his teacher.
Much to our son’s sadness, my husband and I decided to stand firm. While parents allowed their children to win battles now and then, this was one that my husband and I were not willing to concede. We decided, however, to give him a choice of taking up another instrument. We suggested the guitar.
He was open to meeting a couple of instructors. “My hands are too small,” he complained. But the student who came after us was a 5-year-old girl.
I suggested changing teachers. He said he wanted a teacher who was “nice”. I understood that meant “no stress”. Finally, we found a male teacher with a gentle voice and a great sense of humor. He said that competitions were not his thing; playing music was.
After my son’s first lesson with his new teacher, I took a deep breath and braced myself for the usual negative complaints. “Mom, he makes me like the piano again,” my son announced as we headed to the car.
And then, cheerful piano music filled the house during the long winter evenings. The playing wasn’t as long as I would have liked or as frequent as it used to be. But it’s sweet, still the same.
1. What made Jack want to give up the piano?| A．Having no talent in music. |
| B．Having other cool things to do. |
| C．Failing in music competitions. |
| D．Being very busy with his lessons. |
| A．To remind his mom of his weakness. |
| B．To show his embarrassment in learning. |
| C．To find an excuse to quit learning the guitar. |
| D．To prove the difficulty of playing the guitar. |
| A．Play the guitar very well. |
| B．Not push him too much. |
| C．Help him win a competition. |
| D．Not report him to his parents. |
【推荐3】For ten years, Hingorani and I have shared a wall. In all these years, we shared nothing more than that wall.
Hingorani lost her husband around eight months ago. Now, the 82-year-old former headmaster of Mumbai’s Jai Hind College lives alone in the apartment next door.
Knowing it would be difficult for her to manage things without any help, I started dropping by. When I found out that she loves meat and chicken, I went with a plate of butter chicken and kulchas. And we started to talk of course.
As we started to talk, I realized how different she was from what I had thought. And that’s where our friendship really began. I found that she related to me in a lot of ways — both of us married of our own free will, and she, too, was a working mother, We spoke about her relationship with her two sisters who live abroad and how they connect with each other every day.
Her liberal thinking, the way she raised her daughter, her love for her culture and stories of her teaching days — including how the boys at her college gave her a hard time — all made for great conversation. I never felt we were generations apart. She, too, loves my company and looks forward to my crazy stories without judgment. I tell her about the challenges I face when raising a child. A chat with her is like a warm hug at the end of a bad day.
Hingorani has become part of my daily life. I look forward to either having a cup of tea with her on her balcony or enjoying a glass of wine on a Saturday night. Our connection is pure. Our friendship is not limited by age. Instead, it is strengthened by the circumstances.
1. Why did the author begin to visit Hingorani?| A．She felt lonely living alone. | B．She was curious about the neighbor. |
| C．She had extra food to share with the neighbor. | D．She wants to lend the neighbor a hand. |
| A．They had a lot in common. | B．They both had two sisters. |
| C．They had different thoughts. | D．They had known each other for years. |
| A．She lives a very relaxing life. | B．She is good at raising children. |
| C．She enjoys the old lady’s company. | D．She has no other friends except the old lady. |
| A．I Found a Great Friend Beyond Age | B．I Saw Cooking as a Useful Bonding Tool |
| C．A Great Conversation Saved My Life | D．My New Friend Taught Me to Cook |
【推荐1】When you need to find a solution to a design problem, you could ask yourself, “What animals or plants face a similar problem in their lives, and how do they handle it?”
Engineer Nakatsu also asked himself the same question.
Having a big picture of the world we live in also helps us understand how technology can be used to protect instead of destroy it.
| A．In nature, everything gets recycled. |
| B．To mimic (模仿) nature, we must be familiar with it. |
| C．It turns out that natural beauty often has a logical reason behind it. |
| D．Large cities full of people are often compared to ants’ colonies (群). |
| E．This idea was used to arrange hundreds of mirrors at a solar power plant. |
| F．It could be a good solution for the hot and crowded cities in Southeast Asia too. |
| G．His problem was that the pressure from a bullet train rushing into a tunnel at high speed caused loud noises. |
【推荐2】I decided at 10 that I was going to be a teacher because I had a burning desire for superpowers. As a boy, I could clearly see some of my teachers had extraordinary powers.
There was an English teacher in fifth grade who could magically transport us to different worlds every day by telling us stories and reading to us from books we would never pick up. This was our secret and fun time because fifth graders were considered too old to have stories read out to them.
It was even shocking that my teacher could see the invisible. I was one of those who lacked insight. Yet my teacher would notice me and the unspoken message in her eyes suggested that she could see me through. She had another superpower and even after four decades, I could still vividly remember her lessons about the great masters of art and great geographers, expanding our horizons. She did this even though her major was not art, nor geography. Her lessons went beyond the textbook. I knew I wanted to be one of those all-seeing ones with superpowers that made children feel safe and valued.
I know being a teacher isn’t the easiest or the most financially rewarding of jobs. And there are occupational risks--your knees can become worn out from years of carrying piles of notebooks up and down the school staircase, and your voice can give in from too much talking. But despite all that, there are those choosing this cause. To them, teaching is not just a job--it is a science, an art and a craft, and it demands emotional labour and investment.
All my life, for three decades now, I’ve gone to work early each day with a spring in my step. Occasionally, I meet my former students. Their obvious love for me and fond memories of our time together are my rewards. When I meet others who are thirsty for superpowers, like the brand new teacher struggling to perfect her skills with a brave face on, or the one in a remote, rural school travelling 70 kilometers each day just for his pupils, I feel proud to belong to the same group.
1. What can be inferred about the stories from paragraph 2?| A．They were told in a magic way. | B．They were written by the teacher. |
| C．They contained some students’ fun secrets. | D．They left the students with happy memories. |
| A．Ambitious and generous. | B．Determined and wealthy. |
| C．Caring and modest. | D．Knowledgeable and observant. |
| A．He suffered a lot in his knees and voice. |
| B．He thought teaching was more than spreading knowledge. |
| C．He had some ideas of how to be a teacher at a young age. |
| D．He was rewarded with much money for his devotion at school. |
| A．Learning without a teacher is hard to gain. |
| B．In scholarship there is no difference of age. |
| C．Teachers lead the door, progress in the individual. |
| D．With one thousand times for the peach garden sweet. |
【推荐3】In my mind, the effect that experience had on me lasted forever. I was determined to learn swimming at the age of ten. There was a pool, at the K.P.L.B., offering the opportunity. My mother constantly warned against it, and bore fresh in my mind the details of each drowning in the river. But the K.P.L. B. pool was safe.
My fear of water started from childhood. It began when I was four years old and father took me to the beach. There the huge waves knocked me down and swept over me.
The K.P.L.B. pool was quiet. I was afraid of going in all alone, so I sat on the side of the pool to wait for others. Then came a big boy. He yelled, “Hi, Skinny! How’d you like to be ducked?” With that he picked me up and threw me into the deep end. I landed in a sitting position, and swallowed water. But I was not frightened out of my wits—when my feet hit the bottom, I would make a big jump, come out of the surface. It seemed a long way down. I gathered all my strength when I landed and made what I thought was a great spring upwards. Then I opened my eyes and saw nothing but water. I tried to yell but no sound came out. I went down, down, endlessly. When I came to consciousness, I found myself on the bed in the hospital.
I never went back to the pool. I avoided water whenever I could. This misadventure stayed with me as the years rolled by. It deprived me of the joy of boating and swimming. Finally, I decided to get an instructor. Piece by piece, I practiced hard and finally he built a swimmer. Several months later, the instruction was finished, but I was not. Sometimes the terror would return.
This went on till July. I swam across the Lake Wentworth. Only once did the terror return. When I was in the middle of the lake, I put my face under and saw nothing but bottomless water. I laughed and said, “Well, Mr. Terror, what do you think you can do to me?”
I had conquered my fear of water.
1. Why was the author frightened of water originally?| A．His swimming skill was very poor. |
| B．An experience at the beach affected him. |
| C．He had an unpleasant memory of the pool at the age of four. |
| D．His mother warned him about the danger of being drowned. |
| A．The experience made him aware that the pool was safe. |
| B．The big boy eagerly helped him conquer the fear of water. |
| C．When thrown into water, he knew someone would save him |
| D．While he had no skill in swimming, he struggled to go upwards. |
| A．Diligent and cautious. | B．Determined and grateful. |
| C．Dependable and adaptable. | D．Humorous and courageous. |
| A．A fall into a pit, a gain in your wit. |
| B．Do one thing at a time, and do well. |
| C．Deed divides beings into lower and higher ones. |
| D．Success always comes from daring to challenge. |
【推荐1】Paul Farmer was born in Western Massachusetts, the second of six children. When he was seven, his father moved the family to Birmingham, Alabama, and five years later, to Brooksville, Florida. There his father housed the family in an old school bus, and in the bus, they moved from one trailer park to another. Years later he moved his family to a houseboat in the Gulf of Mexico. Both of his parents enjoyed reading serious literature (严肃文学) to their children and encouraged them to take an interest in the wider world.
Paul excelled in school. He went to Duke University in Durham, North Carolina. At Duke, he discovered the writings of Rudolf Virchow, the 19th-century German scientist who pioneered the practice of public health medicine. Paul’s attention also turned to the local migrant labor ( 流 动 劳 工) camps, where a friend from Belgium, Julianna De Wolf, was working to improve the living conditions of the laborers. Through Julianna he came to know many Haitian migrants. He was attracted by their stories and began to learn everything he could about Haiti, studying the Creole language and interviewing migrant workers.
After graduation, he traveled to Haiti, where he planned to spend a year working in public health clinics (诊所). From the capital of Port au Prince, he visited many village communities. The number of doctors, nurses and public health workers was far from meeting locals’ needs and very few organizations provided basic medical training. In the company of a Haitian humanitarian (人道主义者), Fritz Lafontant, Farmer traveled to the island’s central area, where Lafontant had set up a small clinic in the town of Mirabelais.
Then Farmer visited the village of Cange. People were living in dirty huts ( 简 陋 的 棚 屋), without clean drinking water or medical care. Diseases were spreading. In Cange, among the poorest and sickest of the poor, Farmer found his calling. He decided to build a clinic there, one that would treat all comers, and that would train local health care workers.
Along with Lafontant, Farmer set up a community-based health project, known as Zanmi Lasante. Today, it has become Haiti’s largest health care provider outside of the government.
1. What can we learn about Paul Farmer as a child?| A．He led a wealthy life. |
| B．He lived close to a school. |
| C．He disliked reading very much. |
| D．He moved from one place to another. |
| A．He was advised to study public health medicine. |
| B．He was encouraged to travel around the world. |
| C．He was first introduced to Haitian culture. |
| D．He was guided into literature. |
| A．Haitians were warm and friendly. |
| B．Many humanitarians worked in the clinics. |
| C．It was difficult for migrants to land a job there. |
| D．It was hard for villagers to get basic health care. |
| A．He had excellent social skills. |
| B．He was creative and imaginative. |
| C．He worked to help people in need. |
| D．He was a high achiever in foreign languages. |
【推荐2】When Lily Born was just 7, she noticed her grandfather, who has Parkinson’s disease, was knocking over his cup a lot. Lily felt bad her grandmother had to clean up spills(洒出物) so often.
Lily thought his cup would be less prone to spill if it had “legs”, so she drew a picture of such a cup for her dad, Joe Born. “He took it seriously and told me, ‘That’s your invention. Sign and date it’, which I did,” she said. “We went to Grandma and Grandpa’s house and made a prototype. This was just a plastic one, but it worked!” Later, Lily noticed her dad was always spilling coffee on his computer’s keyboard, so she made him a ceramic cup with legs. He loved it, too.
Though her family enjoyed using the cups, Lily didn’t see them as more than gifts and didn’t place much value on them. She was also struggling in school. “I was afraid of failing fourth grade. It had kind of destroyed my confidence, to be honest,” Lily said. “One day I asked my dad, ‘What am I good at?’ He asked me if I wanted to put the cups into production. It would make me see being an inventor was a real thing and something to be proud of.”
The Borns flew to Jingdezhen, China to find a factory that would produce the cups and make more prototypes. “We’ve sold something like 1,000 cups,” Lily said. “People are buying them for elderly relatives and people with mobility issues.”
As for Lily, doing business at such a young age helped her overcome her shyness. “Watching Lily blossom over this whole adventure has been an excitement for me as a dad,” Joe said. “I just can’t put into words how good it feels to see her have confidence.”
1. What does the underlined word “prone” in Paragraph 2 mean?| A．unlike. | B．eager. | C．difficult. | D．likely. |
| A．She wasn’t sure about her future career. |
| B．She was having trouble with her schoolwork. |
| C．She wasn’t confident about her cup business. |
| D．She was struggling to balance her life and hobbies. |
| A．Supportive and considerate. | B．Traditional and scholarly. |
| C．Strict and single-minded. | D．Generous and kind-hearted. |
| A．Success is easily achieved through teamwork. | B．It’s better to take action before it’s too late. |
| C．A good idea and action result in success. | D．A youth is to be regarded with respect. |
【推荐3】In my class in high school, there was a girl who was considered the most unpopular. No one actually knows how this exclusion (排挤) came from, but we all followed it for no reason at all. One day after lunch, we girls sat on the track field, talking about things that happened in our lives. Someone brought her up, and soon the topic transformed to laughing at the funny hairstyle of her, the stupid way she walked and.... I felt extremely uncomfortable but kept silent, because I didn’t want to be the one “supporting” the common enemy. After all, it’s just a short gossip time among a trusted group of friends; why should I bring unnecessary tension?
Suddenly, one of my friends pointed her finger towards somewhere behind me. All of us turned around and saw that exact girl, hand still in the air, with a twisted (扭曲的) look on her face. She lowered her hand in slow movement, then turned around and ran off. For a second, I wanted to stand up and chase her down to tell her that no one meant what they said, and that she is an amazing person being who she is. But my legs felt so heavy, I didn’t want to make a fool out of myself—why bother taking care of the class clown (小丑)? People would think that I was crazy as well!
A few weeks later, the teacher told us that a classmate dropped out of school—it was that girl. Her parents told the school that it was the peer pressure that made her want to leave. The teacher wanted to know who the bully (霸凌) was. Again, no one spoke a word. Perhaps it was exactly this cold, hard silence that drove her away. I certainly did not raise my hand. I had never even said anything bad about her; it was my friends who loved to make fun of her every day. Surely, I didn’t bully her physically or with my language, but I kept silent when others did. By failing to stand up for her and offering her support, I was giving agreement, which made others think that it was okay to mistreat her. Perhaps if I had realized I was wrong earlier---instead of convincing myself that I had nothing to do with her leaving, I wouldn't have to bear the burden of heavy shame on my shoulders.
1. How did the author feel when seeing the girl being bullied?| A．Cheerful. | B．Uncomfortable. |
| C．Frightened. | D．Amazed. |
| A．The girl heard what the author’s friends said about her. |
| B．The author’s leg was broken while chasing the girl. |
| C．The group friends think it crazy to be fooled. |
| D．The author was mad at her friends at that time. |
| A．she wanted to follow the flow. |
| B．she didn’t want to turn against friends. |
| C．she was prevented by the group friends. |
| D．she worried about others’ reaction. |
| A．She will keep silent and walk away. |
| B．She will stand up for her group friends. |
| C．She will make fun of the group. |
| D．She will not turn a blind eye to it. |
【推荐1】Compassion is a desire within us to help others. With effort, we can translate compassion into actions. An experience last weekend showed me this is true. I work part-time in a supermarket across from a building for the elderly. These old people are our main customers, and it’s easy to lose patience over their slowness. But last Sunday, one aged gentleman appeared to teach me a valuable lesson. This untidy man walked up to my register with a box of biscuits. He said he was out of cash, had just moved into his room, and had nothing in his cupboards. He asked if we could let him have the food on trust. He promised to repay me the next day.
I couldn’t help staring at him. I wondered what kind of person he had been ten or twenty years before, and what he would be like if luck had gone his way. I had a hurt in my heart for this kind of human soul, all alone in the world. I told him that I was sorry, and the store rules didn’t allow me to do so. I felt stupid and unkind saying this, but I valued my job.
Just then, another man, standing behind the first, spoke up. “If anything,” he looked more pitiable, “Charge it to me,” was all he said.
What I had been feeling was pity. Pity is soft, safe and easy. Compassion, on the other hand, is caring in action. I thanked the second man but told him that was not allowed, either. Then I reached into my pocket and paid for the biscuits myself. I reached into my pocket because these two men had reached into my heart and taught me compassion.
1. The aged gentleman who wanted to buy the biscuits________.| A．promised to obey the store rules | B．forgot to take any money with him |
| C．hoped to have the food first and pay later | D．could not afford anything more expensive |
| A．kind and lucky | B．poor and lonely |
| C．friendly and helpful | D．wise and disappointed |
| A．he wanted to keep his present job | B．he felt no pity for the old gentleman |
| C．he considered the old gentleman dishonest | D．he expected someone else to pay for the old gentleman |
| A．Wealth is more important than anything else. | B．Helping others is easier said than done. |
| C．Experience is better gained through practice. | D．Obeying the rules means more than compassion. |
【推荐2】The Christian Science Monitor is seeking editorial interns(实习生）with good journalism skills to write and edit in the Monitor’s various columns and online platforms. Applicants must be self-starters(做事主动的人)， and have great analytical skills， a basic understanding of world events, and an ability to write and edit with clarity and precision.
Duties will include making presentations, reporting, and writing stories with angles that could bring understanding to various topics, show new creative approaches to a wide range of problems, and highlight areas of progress.
Attention to detail is important in this job. Interns will stand out from their experience as excellent writers who are able to notice and analyze trends in addition to earning valuable day-to-day experience by working with first--rate editors in a dynamic newsroom.
Work Schedule: Paid and academic interns will work Monday through Friday, between 35 to 40 hours a week. The workplace is in Boston, Mass.
Spring internships run from January to the beginning of May. The application deadline is October 15.
Summer internships run from the end of May to mid August. The application deadline is a January 15
Fall internships run from September to December. The application deadline is July 15.
To apply, please contact the Internship Manager, and send a resume, a cover letter, and at least three writing clips( 片段)（If emailing, please attach clips as separate, printable documents and not as links）to：
Kendra Nordin Beato
Internship Manager
The Christian Science Monitor
210 Massachusetts Avenue, Po2- 20
Boston, MA02115 nordink@csmiomiror com
Run:经营；开办；使继续，使运转，参加竞选
1. What is required of the interns?| A．Having majored in journalism. |
| B．Having relevant work experience. |
| C．Having good problem-solving skills |
| D．Having unique insight into world events |
| A．About one month |
| B．About two months. |
| C．About three months. |
| D．About four months. |
| A．Internships should be applied for at least a month ahead |
| B．Interns are expected to work to 8 hours a day. |
| C．Interns must attach a reference when applying by letter. |
| D．The publishing house of the paper is located in New York. |
【推荐3】Bears can exactly make another bear’s facial expressions. Sun bears open their mouths to match their playmates (伙伴) when they are doing things with others face to face. Researchers believe that such facial mimicry (模仿) has not been seen outside humans and gorillas (大猩猩). In the behavioral study, they found that bears were able to use facial expressions to communicate with others in a similar way to humans and gorillas.
The researchers studied 22 sun bears in the wild for more than two years. In total, 21 matched the open-mouthed expressions of their playmates during face-to-face communications. When they were facing each other, 13 bears made expressions within one second of observing a similar expression from their playmates.
The bears, aged 2-12, were housed in a natural center in Malaysia in which the areas were large enough to allow bears to choose whether to communicate or not. Although they prefer to live alone in the wild, the bears in this study took part in hundreds of games. Among them there were more gentle plays than rough ones.
The research was done by Doctor Ross in the University of Portsmouth. She believes that copying other bears’ facial expressions plays a great part in sun bears’ daily life.
1. How do sun bears respond to others in face to face communication?| A．Touching. | B．Smiling. | C．Opening their mouths. | D．Kissing on the face. |
| A．2. | B．12. | C．21. | D．22. |
| A．Quiet. | B．Violent. | C．Soft. | D．Fair. |
| A．Important. | B．Interesting. | C．Simple. | D．Joyful. |
| A．Most bears can live up to twelve years. |
| B．Most bears prefer to live a social life in the forest. |
| C．Sun bears can copy other bears’ facial expressions to communicate. |
| D．Sun bears are among the animals acting out expressions of human beings. |
