【推荐1】A student was one day taking a walk with his teacher． As they went along， they saw a pair of old shoes lying in the path． They were a poor farmer's， who was working in the nearby field．

The student turned to the teacher， saying："we will hide his shoes， and hide ourselves behind those trees， and wait to see what he will do"

"My young friend，" answered the teacher， "we should never make fun of the poor． Why not put a coin in each shoe， and then we will hide ourselves and watch？" The student did so and they both hid themselves behind the trees． The poor man soon finished his work， and came across the field to the path where he had left his coat and shoes．

After putting on his coat， he put his foot into one of his shoes， and felt something hard． Then he bent down to feel what it was， and found the coin． Surprised， he looked at the coin， turned it around and looked at it again． He then looked around， but no person was seen． He put the money into his pocket， and continued to put on the other shoe． His surprise was doubled on finding the other coin．

He couldn't control his feelings and fell to his knees， looked up to the sky and expressed his thanks． Then he spoke of his wife， sick and helpless， and his children without food． He said the help would save them from dying．

The student there deeply moved， and his eyes filled tears．" Now，" said the teacher， "are you not much happier than if you had hidden the shoes？"

1. When the student saw the shoes， he wanted to ______ ．

A．steal them	B．play a joke on the owner
C．find their owner	D．give the owner some money

2. When the farmer saw the second coin， he ______ ．

A．was surprised and decided to find the owner

B．was worried and looked up at the sky

C．was very excited and grateful

D．spoke of his difficulties and asked for more help

3. At the end of the story， the student ______ ．

A．was very proud of himself

B．was very pleased with his life

C．felt sad for not taking his teacher's advice

D．felt very sorry about his first idea

【推荐2】任务型阅读

Eric was working in a selling business. He had been on the road visiting people for more than a month without going home. He couldn’t wait to get back to see his wife and children. It was coming up on Mother’s Day, and he usually tried to make it “back home”, but this year he was just too busy and too tired. The day when he was driving in a small town, he saw a flower shop. He said to himself, “I know what I will do. I’ll send my mother some roses.”

He stopped and went into the flower shop and saw a young man talking to the girl in it. “How many roses can I get for five dollars, Miss？” the young man asked. The girl was trying to explain that roses were expensive. Maybe the young man would be happy with something else.

“No. I have to have roses,” he said. “My mom was badly sick last year and I didn’t get to spend much time with her. I want to get something special. It has to be red roses, because that is her favorite.” He was stubborn.

The girl in the shop looked up at Eric and was just shaking her head. Something inside of Eric was touched by the boy’s voice. He wanted to get those roses so badly. Eric had been lucky in his business, and he looked at the girl and silently said that he would pay for the young man’s roses.

The girl looked at the young man and said, “OK, I will give you a dozen red roses for your dollars.” The young man almost jumped into the air. He took the flowers and ran down the store. It was worth more than fifty dollars just to see that kind of excitement.

Eric ordered his own flowers and asked the girl to have it delivered to his mother. After that, with a relief he drove down the road. Not long after his driving,he saw the young man walking to a graveyard (墓地)．

1. 根据文本内容从方框中选择恰当的词并用其正确形式填入文本图示中，每词仅用一次， 有两词为多余选项

try             favor          bad          touch               excite        deliver tiring        he            walk          special            drive             explain
Before stepping into the flower shop.	Eric was too busy and__________ to visit his mother on the coming Mother’ Day as he usually did in the past so he decided to buy and send____mother some roses.
In the flower shop	Eric saw a young man__________to buy roses with just five   dollars   and   the   girl tried____that roses were expensive and offered something else.
	The young man insisted on red roses which were her mother’s_________. He wanted to give her something special because   her mom was_________sick last year and he didn’t get to spend much time with her.
	Eric_________by the boy’s voice and offered to pay for the young man’s roses.
	The girl gave the young man a dozen red roses and he took the flowers and ran down the store in_______Eric ordered his own flowers and had it_____________to his mother.
After stepping out of the flower shop	With a relief, Eric__________down the road and saw the young man walking to a graveyard．

2. What did Mother’s Day mean to Eric?
___________________________________________________________________________________
3. How did Eric feel after helping the young man?
___________________________________________________________________________________
4. What might Eric do after he saw the young man walking to a graveyard?
_______________________________________________________________________________________________

【推荐3】Two summers ago I was about to turn fifty and wanted to do something I’d never done before. My daughter Bailey thought skydiving (跳伞) would be perfect for me. I can promise you that of all the things I was thinking of doing, jumping out of an airplane never came close to making the list. As I age, I seem to have developed a growing fear of heights.

After several requests from my daughter, I finally said yes and she looked almost shocked. I told a friend what we were doing, then we set off. We had a 3-hour drive to the jump site. We drove through some beautiful countryside, but then we passed a small cemetery (基地) Then we passed another cemetery and another one. I asked if so many people died jumping out of airplanes in this area that they needed to keep building more cemeteries to bury all the bodies!

As we squeezed into the little plane, I tightly held the right hand of my partner Ronnie. The short ride to altitude was cruel for me. As Bailey stepped to the door, she looked back at me and said “Dad, I’m sure you can do it!” I said yes as she rolled out, I immediately looked behind me and said “RONNIEI AM NOT FEELING GOOD” He said, “It’s going to be great. Besides, it’s too late now anyway”, any we jumped out.

The next five minutes were some of the most exciting of my life. It was so beautiful and peaceful—except for the parts where I was screaming. I prayed to God for the parachute(降落伞)to open, but mostly I told Him how thankful I was for my life and being with me through good and bad.

1. What’s the author’s main purpose of mentioning cemeteries in Paragraph 2?

A．To tell how determined he was.

B．To show how rough the trip was.

C．To express how scared he was then.

D．To prove how lonely the jump site was.

2. What did Bailey do for her father before skydived?

A．She played a joke with him.

B．She gave him encouragement.

C．She comforted him constantly.

D．She offered him useful guidance.

3. How did the author behave after jumping out of the airplane?

A．He enjoyed himself.

B．He stayed quite calm.

C．He breathed out in relief.

D．He kept fearing for safety.

4. What can be inferred about the author from the text?

A．He skydived for the first time at the age of 48.

B．He jumped at his daughter’s recommendation.

C．The older he gets, the less fearful of heights he is.

D．Never had he considered attempting to do skydiving.

【推荐1】In a long-sleeved shirt and jeans, Dieudonne Twahirwa looks nothing like the traditional African farmer. The 30-year-old owner of Gashora Farm knows what a difference that makes.

“You need more role models,” he said, standing among knee-high rows of chilli (辣椒) plants. “If you have young farmers, they have land and they drive to the farm, others may think, ‘Why can’t I do that?’”

Mr. Twahirwa, a university graduate, bought a friend’s tomato farm six years ago for $ 150. He made $ 1, 500 back in two months. “You have to link farming with entrepreneurship and real numbers,” he said.

Many young Africans are abandoning areas in the countryside, choosing not to work hard and for a long time in fields — a job made tougher by climate change.

But Twahirwa is one of the growing band of successful farmers working to make agriculture’s image on the continent more attractive. Some 1, 000 farmers now produce chillies for him. He is starting a fourth farm of his own, and exports fresh and dried chillies and oil to Britain, the United States, India and Kenya.

Africa has the world’s youngest population and 65 percent uncultivated arable land (耕地后备资源).Yet accessing land and loans is difficult, and African productivity is low with crop yields just 56 percent of the international average.

“Agriculture is mainly associated with suffering and no young person wants to suffer,” said Tamara Kaunda. She believes African agriculture needs a change to get rid of its old-fashioned image of very hard and tiring work with a hoe. “Show young people with tractors, green fields, nice irrigation systems smartphones,” she said.

Getting young people involved in agriculture does not mean they have to work on a farm. For example, in coffee production, the beans go from the farm to the washing station , then to be separated from the husks (外壳).

1. What does “Why can’t I do that?” in Paragraph 2 mean?

A．Why can’t I drive to the farm?

B．Why can’t they farm?

C．They follow the example of those farmers.

D．They bought a friend’s tomato farm.

2. What makes it harder for farmers to work?

A．Poor land.

B．Climate.

C．Low income.

D．Long working hours.

3. What can we learn about Twahirwa according to Paragraph 5 ?

A．He made a fortune by growing chillies.

B．His chillies are try growing chillies.

C．Farmers working for him live a simple life.

D．The locals aren't willing to buy his chillies.

4. When it comes to agriculture in Africa, what do people think about it?

A．Loans are difficult.

B．Most land is uncultivated.

C．Crop yields are rather low

D．Farming methods are out of date

【推荐2】It was Thanksgiving morning and in the crowded kitchen of my small home I was busy preparing the traditional Thanksgiving turkey when the doorbell rang. I opened the front door and saw two small children in rags huddling together. “Any old papers, lady?” asked one of them.
I was busy. I wanted to say “no” until I looked down at their feet. They were wearing thin little sandals, wet with heavy snow.
“Come in and I’ll make you a cup of hot cocoa.”
They walked over and sat down at the table. Their wet sandals left marks upon the floor. I served them cocoa and bread with jam to fight against the cold outside. Then I went back to the kitchen and started again on my household budget.
The silence in the front room struck me. I looked in. The girl held the empty cup in her hands, looking at it. The boy asked in a flat voice, “Lady, are you rich?”
I looked at my shabby slipcovers. The girl put her cup back in its saucer carefully and said, “Your cups match your saucers.” Her voice was hungry with a need that no amount of food could supply. They left after that, holding their bundles of papers against the wind. They hadn’t said “Thank you.” They didn’t need to. They had reminded me that I had so much for which to be grateful. Plain blue china cups and saucers were only worth five pence. But they matched.
I tasted the potatoes and stirred the meat soup. Potatoes and brown meat soup, a roof over our heads, my man with a good steady job—these matched, too.
I moved the chairs back from the fire and cleaned the living room. The muddy prints of small sandals were still wet upon my floor. Let them be for a while, I thought, just in case I should begin to forget how rich I am.
1. Two children came to the writer’s front door because _________________.

A．it was Thanksgiving Day	B．they were beggars
C．they wanted old papers	D．they wanted a cup of cocoa

2. Why did the writer let the children in?

A．She showed great pity on them

B．She had old papers to sell

C．She wanted to invite them to her Thanksgiving feast

D．She wanted them to see how rich she was

3. The girl thought the writer was rich perhaps because ________________.

A．she saw that the lady’s room was comfortable

B．she saw the cups matched the saucers

C．the writer’s slipcovers were very new

D．the writer was preparing a big meal while she was too hungry.

4. From the passage, we can infer that whether you are rich depends on ________.

A．how much money you have had

B．how you feel about your life

C．how you have helped others

D．what job your husband is doing

5. The writer left the muddy prints of small sandals on the floor for a while to ____________.

A．show her husband that someone had come

B．remind her that she had helped two children

C．remind her that she was very rich in the neighborhood

D．remind her how life should be

【推荐1】People in several American states may be surprised to see cars on city streets without a driver. Experimental driverless vehicles now are legal in Florida, Nevada and California. They are pointing the way to a future that is not far down the road. The high-tech company Google has a number of self-driving cars, which had covered 480,000 kilometers by August. Volvo is among the companies doing road tests and says it plans to sell driverless cars by 2020.
In September, California Governor Jerry Brown signed an act to allow autonomous vehicles on the roads of his state. “Today we’re looking at science fiction becoming tomorrow's reality-the driverless car. ” The technology for these cars includes cameras, radar and motion sensors. The systems have been improved through competitions sponsored by the U. S. government agency DARPA. Engineer Richard Mason of the Rand Corporation helped design driverless vehicles for DARPA challenge races.
Cars have become much more fuel-efficient, and new electronic features are' making Hondas safer, said Angie Nucci of Honda America.   “A camera on the passenger-side mirror actually engaged on your guiding screen so you can safely change lanes. ” Other safety features include warning systems on the front and the sides of the cars.   These systems help drivers , but don’t replace them. Curator Leslie Kendall of the Petersen Automotive Museum said autonomous cars will make the high ways safer．
“By taking out drivers, you also remove most risks of an accident, ”Kendall said. He said , “Consumers, however, may be unwilling to lose control. It may take them time to come to realize that the technology is indeed reliable, but it will have to prove itself first. ”
Mason said the technology already works and the biggest challenge now is getting down the cost for driverless vehicles from hundreds of thousands of dollars to something more affordable. He said this will happen as the technology is improved.
1. According to the passage, California Governor Jerry Brown ______________.

A．is for the idea of having driverless cars

B．sponsored the DARPA competition to improve the driverless system

C．has already bought a new autonomous car

D．thinks that driving safety is the most important issue in his state

2. What is the role of the systems mentioned in Paragraph 3?

A．They can help cars run much faster.

B．They can take the place of drivers now.

C．They can make cars run without fuel.

D．They can help people drive more safely.

3. In Kendall’s opinion, who probably don’t rely on the driverless cars at first?

A．managers in the high-tech company Google

B．officers from the U. S. government agency DARPA

C．car consumers

D．vehicle designers

4. According to Richard Mason, what is the biggest challenge for driverless cars?

A．They need to have more comfortable seats .

B．They are now too expensive for consumers.

C．They are travelling at a low speed.

D．They are not favored by car racers

【推荐2】A robot created by Washington State University (WSU) scientists could help elderly people with dementia and other limitations live independently in their own homes.

The Robot Activity Support System, or RAS, uses sensors (传感器) equipped in a WSU smart home to determine where its residents are, what they are doing and when they need assistance with daily activities. It navigates (定位) through rooms and around obstacles to find people on its own, provides video instruction on how to do simple tasks and can even lead its owners to objects like their medication or a snack in the kitchen.

“RAS combines the convenience of a mobile robot with the activity detection technology of a WSU smart home to provide assistance in the moment, as the need for help is detected,” said Bryan Minor, a postdoctoral researcher in the WSU School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.

Currently, about 50 percent adults over the age of 85 need assistance with everyday activities such as preparing meals and taking medication and the annual cost for this assistance in the US is nearby $2 trillion. With the number of adults over 85 expected to triple by 2050, researchers hope that technologies like RAS and the WSU smart home will relieve some of the financial pressure on the healthcare system by making it easier for older adults to live alone.

RAS is the first robot researchers have tried to apply to their smart home environment. They recently published a study in the journal Cognitive Systems Research that shown how RAS could make life easier for older adults struggling to live independently.

“While we are still in an early stage of development, our initial results with RAS have been promising,” Minor said. “The next step in the research will be to test RAS’s performance with a group of older adults to get a better data of what video reminders and other performances they have regarding the robot.”

1. What plays a key role in RAS serving the elderly?

A．Sensors

B．Videos.

C．Signal lights

D．Head size

2. What can we learn about RAS?

A．It is the first robot used in daily life.	B．Its function remains to be tested.
C．It can locate people and do any task.	D．It can cook for owners on its own.

3. What’s Minor’s attitude toward the future of RAS?

A．Doubtful

B．Negative

C．Optimistic

D．Uncertain

4. What would be a suitable title for the text?

A．Elderly People Leave the Nursing Home.

B．Smart Home Tests First Elder Care Robot

C．RAS, the First Robot to Make Home Smart.

D．Older Adults Have Benefited from RAS a Lot.

【推荐3】In an experiment to track the effects of insecticide (杀虫剂) on birds in the wild, scientists caught 24 sparrows as they migrated(迁徙) north from Mexico and the southern United States to Canada. The team fed half of those birds on a low amount of the commonly used agricultural insecticide and the other half with a slightly higher amount. An additional 12 birds were caught and fed on only sunflower oil. Within hours, the birds fed insecticide began to lose weight and ate less food. Birds given the higher amount lost 6 percent of their weight within six hours.

The findings suggest that insecticide, already effective in dropping bee populations, could also reduce bird populations. There is clear evidence that since 1966, the populations of nearly three-quarters of farmland birds have dropped.

The researchers fed the birds with carefully measured amounts of insecticide mixed with sunflower oil.   In the wild, birds might feed on seeds coated with insecticide. Christy Morris-sey, a biologist at the University of Saskatchewan, Canada says, "Though the birds fed with the insecticide continued their migration, there's still much we don't know about how repeated exposures to the insecticide might affect a bird. "

After observing the birds in the lab, Morrissey and colleagues tracked the birds with lightweight trackers and kept records as they continued their spring migration. The highest fed birds stayed 3. 5 days longer near the site where they were caught-possibly to recover and regain strength than birds that weren't fed with the insecticide. Birds given the lower amount of insecticide stuck around for three days, and those which weren't fed with insecticide flew away after half a day. Tracking the tested birds showed that they all fell behind the others in their migration.

1. Why did the researchers catch the birds?

A．To protect them from their enemies.

B．To study the rules of their migration.

C．To study how insecticide influences them.

D．To give them a complete medical examination.

2. How many birds were tested for the experiment?

A．12.

B．24.

C．36.

D．48.

3. Which of the following may Christy agree with?

A．People should be prevented from using insecticide.

B．Researchers should observe the migration of birds further.

C．More research is needed on the seeds coated with insecticide.

D．More research is needed on the ill effects of insecticide on birds.

4. What happened to the birds fed on the insecticide?

A．They lost the ability of flying.

B．Their desire for food all increased greatly.

C．They stayed 3 days where they were caught.

D．They arrived at their migration place later than usual.

【推荐1】Hundreds of years ago，news was carried from place to place by people on foot or by horse. It took days，weeks and sometimes months for people to receive news. Now it is possible to send words and pictures around the world in seconds. Billions of people learn about news stories of their own country and all over the world every day，either by watching TV or reading newspapers.

Newspapers have been an important part of everyday life since the 18th century. Many countries have hundreds of different newspapers. How do newspaper editors decide which news stories to print? Why do they print some stories and not others? What makes a good newspaper story?

Firstly，it is important to report news stories.TV stations can report news much faster than newspapers. Yet，newspapers give more about the same story. They may also look at the story in another way，or they may print completely different stories to those on TV.

Secondly，a news story has to be interesting and unusual. People don’t want to read stories about everyday life. As a result， many stories are about some kind of danger and seem to be “bad” news. For example，newspapers never print stories about planes landing safely；instead they print stories about plane accidents.

Another factor is also very important in many news stories. Many people are interested in news in foreign countries， but more prefer to read stories about people，places and events in their own country. So the stories on the front page in Chinese newspapers are usually very different from the ones in British，French and American newspapers.

1. The difference between newspaper stories and TV news reports it that________.

A．people can learn more about the same news story from a newspaper

B．people can read the news story more quickly in a newspaper

C．people can read news stories in other countries

D．people can read news stories about their own country

2. To make a good newspaper story，how many factors does the passage talk about?

A．Two.

B．Three.

C．Five.

D．Six.

3. According to the passage，which of the following can you most possibly watch on TV?

A．You often play football with your friends after school.

B．Your teacher has got a cold.

C．A tiger in the city zoo has run out and hasn’t been caught.

D．The bike in front of your house is lost.

4. Which of the following is Not true in this passage?

A．News stories on the front page of every country are always the same.

B．People like to read interesting and unusual news.

C．Not only TV but also newspapers can help people to learn what is happening around the world.

D．Newspapers have been an important part of everyday life for more than three hundred years.

【推荐2】Award winning film Ballad from Tibet by Chinese director Zhang Wei was screened in New York City in March.

The film tells the story of four visually impaired kids from China’s Tibet going on a journey for their dreams.

Based on a true story, Ballad from Tibet is about the four Tibetan kids — Thupten, Sonam, Kelsang and Droma — achieving their dreams against all odds.

Thupten is a 10-year-old boy partially sighted in one eye and blind in the other. His doctor says that there is a chance that he could completely lose his sight, but there is an operation that could offer a 50 percent of saving his vision.

His teacher firmly suggests that he should have the operation right away, but Thupten is afraid and wants to see the world before his life is plunged into total darkness.

Along with his three friends who also suffer from blindness, Thupten goes on an exciting adventure. Together they decide to go to Shenzhen in South China’s Guangdong Province, a city more than 37,000km away from Tibetan capital Lhasa.

The reason for the children’s decision to go to Shenzhen is their love of music. They are all talented and want to sing their hearts out in front of the national audience by participating in a Shenzhen - based reality show.

The foursome’s trip is indeed fun, but also turns out to be dangerous. Luckily, help is on hand along the way in the form of a wandering family, a shepherd, a motorcycle club, and a TV producer’s assistant.

Ballad from Tibet has won the award for Best Children’s Feature at the 13^th China International Children’s Film Festival in November 2017, and earned nominations at 17 different international children’s film festivals in Germany, Canada, Japan, Greece, Australia and India.

1. What does the underlined word “impaired” in Paragraph 2 mean?

A．Amazed.

B．Strengthened.

C．Shortsighted.

D．Damaged.

2. Why do the four children in Ballad from Tibet choose Shenzhen as their destination?

A．They want to take part in a Shenzhen - based reality show.

B．They long to earn money there to support themselves.

C．The teacher advises them to go there to pursue their dreams.

D．They want to look for their parents there.

3. Which of the following statements is true?

A．The operation can completely save Thupten’s vision.

B．Thupten’s teacher goes on the trip with them.

C．Thupten wants to realize his dream before he totally loses his vision.

D．The four kids get much help from Thupten’s teacher on the way to Shenzhen.

4. What does the author think of Ballad from Tibet?

A．Successful.

B．Negative.

C．Awful.

D．Surprising.

【推荐3】Most people know something about the greenhouse effect. Factories send gasses such as carbon dioxide, or CO₂, into the atmosphere, the air around the earth. In the past, this wasn’t a problem because trees absorbed the CO₂. But now people in many countries are cutting down billions of trees all around the world. At the same time, factories are sending more CO₂ into the atmosphere. It’s difficult to believe, but factories put billions of tons of CO₂ into the atmosphere every year. One ton is over 2000 pounds, so it is a lot of pollution. There is too much CO₂ and there aren’t enough trees, so the world is getting warmer. In other words, we have a greenhouse effect. This is terrible for the environment.

What can we do about this? Firsts we can stop using so much coal and oil. We can learn to use different kinds of energy: the sun, wind, steam from volcanoes，and heat from inside the earth. Second, instead of cutting down trees, we should plant more trees. One tree can absorb ten pounds of carbon dioxide every year.

The trees are good for the earth’s atmosphere and for Guatemala (拉丁美洲国家危地马拉).In small towns and villages in Guatemala, most women are poor and have hard lives. Trees help them in three ways. First, the Connecticut factories pay them to plant the trees. Their pay is com, not money. The com is good for their children. Second, these women know a lot about their environment. They know where to plant when to plant, and what kinds of trees to plant. For example，they plant many fruit trees. The fruit gives them vitamins for their families^’ s diets. Other trees are good for firewood. In a few years, the women won’t spend so much time looking for firewood. Third, all these trees are good for the soil. Now rain can’t wash the soil down from the mountains so easily.

This plan isn’t enough to stop the greenhouse effect. However, it’s a start. The woman of Guatemala are helping themselves and helping their environment.

1. Which of the following statement is NOT true?

A．Factories send more CO2 into the atmosphere.

B．Trees can’t absorb the same CO2 as they did in the past.

C．Billions of trees are being cut down throughout the world.

D．The greenhouse effect is extremely bad for the environment.

2. What’s the main idea of the second paragraph?

A．The reasons why we should plant more trees.

B．Ways we can adopt to take heat from volcanoes.

C．Measures to be taken to forbid the use of coal and oil.

D．Things we can do to stop or reduce the greenhouse effect.

3. How does planting trees help improve women’s lives in Guatemala?

A．By preventing the greenhouse effect.

B．By developing their skills of planting trees.

C．By enabling them to earn more money to support their family.

D．By making them get com and fruit to feed their family in return.

4. What’s the author’s attitude towards the plan of planting trees in Guatemala?

A．Critical.	B．Neutral.
C．Positive.	D．Doubtful.