Yesterday, I went to the bookstore to pick up a present for my mother’s upcoming birthday. I found one of the books I wanted, but not the other one my mother had discussed with me the other day. When I went to pay, I asked the clerk behind the counter if I could order the second book.
A lady was standing in line behind me at the checkout. The clerk said she could order the book, but asked if I would mind letting the lady behind me pay for her purchases first. The lady behind me said no and that it was fine to wait.
It took nearly 15 minutes to put my order through! The lady behind me chatted agreeably with us for the entire time. When it finally came time for me to pay, I placed two $ 10 off cards on the counter. The clerk informed me the offer was only valid for the book I was purchasing in-store and wouldn’t work for the book I’d ordered. This meant that I’d have one $10 card left.
“You can come back and purchase another book.” the clerk smiled. “The offer is valid until the end of the week.”
I thought about this for a millisecond and then turned around to face the lady behind me who’d been so patient, kind, and charming through the very long wait at the checkout. “Here.” I gave her the $10 off card. She was very surprised and said. “Really?”
The gift didn’t cost me anything. I knew I wouldn’t be back before the end of the week and it rewarded someone whose attitude left a smile in my heart. Most definitely a win-win moment.
1. What can we learn from the first paragraph?| A．The author couldn’t afford anything else but books as a birthday present. |
| B．The book store had no suitable books available as a birthday present. |
| C．Reading was probably appealing to the author and the mother alike. |
| D．The author was a regular customer of the book store. |
| A．Impolite. | B．Considerate. | C．Cold. | D．Easy-going. |
| A．The author was always very generous to strangers. |
| B．The $10 off card would become invalid next week. |
| C．The author believed the lady would smile at her/him. |
| D．The author wanted to thank the lady for her kindness. |
| A．Win-win Moment at the Bookstore | B．A Kind Lady |
| C．Lovely Delay at the Bookstore | D．Patience and Friendship Rewarded |
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【推荐1】Dossantos grew up among the banana trees of East Timor, a state in Maritime Southeast Asia, and never imagined he would work on Australian farms.
Last week he was picking pumpkins (南瓜) out of the rich red Ord valley soils of Ivanhoe Farms in Western Australia’s far north, working with five other East Timorese employees in Kununurra’s 381℃heat.
Dossantos is part of a group of 30 East Timorese in the area for six months as seasonal workers, laboring (劳动) on smaller fruit and vegetable farms that were part of Ord stage one, developed in the 1970s. The men are employed by happy farmers across the Ord valley, many of whom have struggled, in the past with their dependence on not always reliable backpackers to plant their crops on time and pick full-grown I fruit and vegetables.
Dossantos is typical of the group; he speaks little English, has worked on farms in East Timor and wants to earn an Australian salary (工资) for four to six months before returning home late this month as the wet season arrives, to build a better life.
“It’s a good job; hard work and hot but with good money,” Dossantos says. “I work for four months, send my money back to Mom and Dad and then go home; it’s enough to last me for the next six months and then I hope to come back here again to work next year.”
Itis music to the ears of Matt and Melanie Gray, who have had up to 12 East Timorese workers picking pumpkins on their Ceres Farm for the past few months.
Like many growers in the Ord, the Grays welcomed the opportunity this year to employ full-time visiing East
Timorese employees to do most of their continuous crop picking. “It has been a win-win situation; they seem really happy with the work, the money and opportunities it provides them with back home, while for us they provide us with reliability through the season and the likelihood (可能性) that 80 percent will want to come back again next year,” Melanie Gray says.
1. What are farmers in the Ord valley happy with?
| A．The good weather. | B．The dependable pickers. |
| C．The sale of their products. | D．The backpackers’ hard work. |
| A．It should pay more. | B．It is progressing slowly. |
| C．It is not easy but worthwhile. | D．It lasts too long in the wet season. |
| A．The big harvest. | B．The good money. |
| C．The laborer’s positive opinion. | D．The laborer’s returning to East Timor- |
| A．The farmers can offer full-time jobs. |
| B．The laborers can stay in Australia all year long. |
| C．The farmers can grow high-quality fruit and vegetables. |
| D．The laborers can find satisfaction in working in Australia. |
【推荐2】One day, while Will Allen was driving home from work, he spotted a For Sale sign on the last remaining farm in the city of Milwaukee. The place was small, only two acres (英亩), just a few greenhouses on a plot of land. An idea flashed through Will’s head. He could grow food here, without using chemical pesticides and fertilizers.
Will hired some neighborhood teenagers to help him get started. Their first job was to “grow” new soil by composting(堆肥).Will collected different kinds of food waste and piled it up until it rotted(腐烂) and turned into soil. Then he spread layers of worms between layers of compost. Amazingly, this worm poop(粪便) makes the best fertilizer in the world. With the preparations made, Will started growing food.
Today, years later, Growing Power Community Food Center becomes a strikingly productive model farm, growing enough food to feed 2,000 people on just two acres in the middle of a city. As Will’s organization, Growing Power, expands gradually, he hires more people and opens an office to manage three city farms. Will and his staff teach young people how to grow more than 150 varieties of vegetables. They also run garden projects in schools, where kids learn the basics of growing food and then get to farm their own plots. Will also travels across the world to help people grow food more efficiently.
“We’re in a worldwide food crisis right now,” Will says. “A lot of people are hungry. We need to grow food everywhere we can—in backyards, on rooftops, and even in buildings. Will’s vision for the city farm of the future is a multi-storied building, angled toward the sun. This idea, called” vertical farming”, is a new way to help feed more people.
“Growing food is powerful,” he says. “It can change the world!”
1. What inspired Will to grow food?| A．Being tired of his work. | B．Finding a farm for sale. |
| C．Being experienced at farming. | D．Visiting a greenhouse on site. |
| A．Hire local adult farmers. | B．Create soil with waste. D. Buy chemical fertilizers. |
| C．Deal with worms in soil. | |
| A．It grows the best organic food. |
| B．It owns the latest farming techniques. |
| C．It helps more farmers to get employed. |
| D．It produces more food in a limited area. |
| A．He who makes no mistakes makes nothing. |
| B．All things are difficult before they are easy. |
| C．From a single spark may burst a mighty flame. |
| D．Difficulties strengthen the mind, as labour does the body. |
【推荐3】After an evening of overtime work with her colleagues at the office, Jill Bien, 48, boarded a bus bound for Chicago, where she lived. About 35 miles into the 90-mile trip, Jill felt the bus drive away onto the right shoulder (路肩) of 1-94. The bus scraped (擦挂) a concrete barrier, and then turned back into traffic.
“Stop the bus!” Jill yelled to the driver from her seat just behind him. But then she saw his seat was empty. The driver, James Rogers, 68, lay unconscious in the buss step. “Call 911!” Jill screamed, and with the bus rushing in and out of traffic at about 60 mph in an uncontrollable way, she leaped into the driver’s seat and grabbed the wheel.
“My life flashed before my eyes,” Jill says now. “Everyone on the bus was bouncing around; they were lying in the aisle (过道). I thought, I don’t want anybody to get hurt.” Jill carefully turned the bus onto the shoulder, bringing it to a stop.
“Thank God she got that bus over to the side” says Marge Borkowski, who was a passenger that night. “She’s my hero.” Emergency personnel arrived a few minutes later and took 11 of the bus’s 34 passengers to the hospital, where doctors treated them for minor injuries. When Jill returned home after the accident, she “burst out crying” she says. “I kept visualizing (眼前浮现) it.”
Despite anxiety and injuries, Jill boarded a bus back to the office two days later. “I didn’t want my fear to build up,” she said. Kenosha County policeman Dan Ruth, who was at the scene of the accident, told reporters he hadn’t witnessed an act more heroic than Jill’s in his 18 years on the job. “It could have been much, much worse,” he says.
1. Where was Jill Bien going on the bus after overtime work?| A．To the airport. | B．To the police station. |
| C．To her home in Chicago. | D．To the hospital in Las Vegas. |
| A．Her own life. | B．The bus’s problem. |
| C．The passengers’ safety. | D．The driver’s condition. |
| A．She still felt frightened with worry. | B．She enjoyed the thrilling experience. |
| C．She was proud of what she had done. | D．She was relieved to get minor injuries. |
| A．overreacting to the accident | B．lucky to have survived the accident |
| C．a model of courage and selflessness | D．a troublemaker and causes the accident |
| A．Overcome Your Fears | B．Who’s About to Drive |
| C．Why Just Her | D．Stop the Bus |
【推荐1】Last winter, I visited my sister and brother-in-law’s house and had to park in a nearby parking lot because they didn’t have accessible parking. The snow was extremely heavy and there was lots of ice on the ground — not many people had ventured out that evening!
When I returned to my car around 11pm, I noticed that only my car was left there. Nervously, I quickly got into the car and let it warm up a bit. When I finally tried to drive away, my wheels began to spin. I was stuck! I spun and spun and wondered what to do.
All of a sudden, in my rear view mirror (后视镜), I saw four teen-aged boys approaching my car. They were walking side by side in a line and dressed a bit like gang members — at least I thought that’s what they looked like. My car was in a very isolated area and I began to panic. I was certain they were coming to my car to harm me. Terrified, I just froze. One of the young men tapped on my window and said “Excuse me, Ma’am, can we help you? You seem stuck.” Still afraid and fearing the worst, I said “I am stuck.” And the young man said “It’s okay, stay in your car and we’ll push you out of the snow.” And they did!
When they finally got me out of the snow, they smiled and waved. I rolled down my window and thanked them, embarrassed to have judged them so poorly.
1. What happened to the author when she wanted to drive home?| A．Her car wouldn’t start up. |
| B．Her car was stuck in the icy snow. |
| C．She was lost in the darkness. |
| D．She was too cold to drive away. |
| A．She was afraid of being harmed. |
| B．She sat in her car for too long. |
| C．She was cold on that freezing evening. |
| D．She knew they would rob her of the car. |
| A．One of the four teenagers was a gang member. |
| B．They were all from a military school. |
| C．They wanted to give the author a hand. |
| D．They enjoyed pushing cars out of the snow. |
| A．Terrified and upset. |
| B．Worried and hopeless. |
| C．Happy but sorry. |
| D．Thankful but ashamed. |
【推荐2】When I was a boy we used to live across the road from a big hill with huge oak trees growing out of it. When winter arrived, thick, heavy snow would fall, and my two brothers would grab their sleds (雪橇) heading over to the hill for a day of fun. I remember watching them with envy because I was still too small to go sledding. Finally, one winter I was considered big enough and joined my brothers as they carried their sleds up the long hill and prepared to ride down it.
The first few trips I rode with one of my brothers and had the time of my life. It was so exhilarating when the wind whipped across my face as I flew down the hillside on the wooden sled. Near the end of the day I was overjoyed too when my oldest brother decided to let me try riding the sled all by myself. I climbed on it full of excitement and lay on my stomach. Then with one big push my brother sent me down the snowy hillside. I was doing pretty well too until I hit an old stump hidden by the snow and went off course, straight towards one of those big oak trees. My heart pounded in my chest and I could hear myself screaming. At the last possible second I rolled off and the sled crashed into the tree. I could hear my brothers running down the hill yelling, “You have to steer (操控)! You have to steer!”
Sadly, that wasn’t the last time I failed to steer when some obstacle knocked me off course in my life. Many times problems, troubles, and my own failures have sent me crashing into the trees of anger, frustration, and despair. I am still learning that life isn’t always safe sledding. I am still learning that it is up to me to steer myself back to love, back to kindness, and back to goodness.
Life is a trip, but no one ever said it was a smooth ride. Steer well then. Steer straight. Steer your soul towards the light and the love we are all meant for.
1. What do we know about the author when he was very young?| A．He lived on a big hill with huge oak trees on it. |
| B．He was frightened to go sledding with his brothers. |
| C．He longed to go sledding with his brothers. |
| D．He carried his brothers’ sleds as they went sledding. |
| A．Delightful. | B．Terrifying. | C．Ordinary. | D．Violent. |
| A．Because his sled crashed in an oak tree. | B．Because he lost control of his sled. |
| C．Because his brother pushed it so hard. | D．Because the hillside was snowy. |
| A．A Life out of Control. | B．A Life with Courage and Determination. |
| C．A Life in My Hands. | D．A Life of Coincidences. |
【推荐3】The dog, named Lucy, made her daring escape from her owner’s eighth floor apartment at 10:00 on Saturday morning. She ran out of the apartment, took an elevator, went down to the hall, avoided the doorman and then made her way outside, where she ran across the West Side Highway and down into the Chambers Street subway station.
Lucy then spent hours wandering the tracks along the 1 train line, ducking under trains and walking on the platform edge as she made her way uptown on her daylong underground adventure.
Bonilla said Saturday started like any other Saturday, but when he reported for duty at 2 p.m. he was immediately briefed on the situation and then spent his whole shift （轮班）trying to track down Lucy. It wasn’t until 8 p.m. that word came in of a confirmed Lucy sighting. When he got to the location, he made his way onto the tracks to save the dog.
“I put myself in the path of Miss Lucy, who was at that time walking in a straight line," Bonilla said. "She basically came up to me, I called out her name, she laid down in front of me, I petted her, I picked her up, and I was able to put her on the 2 train right into Molly’s hands."
Molly, the daughter of Lucy’s owner, said she was relieved （放松的）when she was able to hold Lucy again all thanks to Bonilla’s quick thinking and action. "I spent time from station to station screaming her name like a crazy person until Bonilla managed to find her and get her back into my hands," Molly said. "Then she sat very nicely on the subway for the whole ride home as though she had never done anything else. She’s in good shape, reunited with my mom... and everybody’s happy."
The authority said Lucy was rescued from Puerto Rico about seven years ago and has been her owner’s only companion throughout the pandemic （疫情）.
1. Which word can be used to describe Lucy according to paragraph 1?| A．Fortunate. | B．Strong. | C．Modest. | D．Clever. |
| A．About 10 hours. | B．About 8 hours. |
| C．Exactly 6 hours. | D．Exactly 2 hours. |
| A．The dog is 7 years old. |
| B．The dog is very important to the family. |
| C．The authority calls the dog a hero. |
| D．Molly wants her mother to live a happy life. |
| A．Lucy’s One Day Underground Adventure |
| B．A Shift Worker Helped a Homeless Dog |
| C．Escape: To Find a Really Adventurous Life |
| D．A Shift Worker Rescued an Emotional Support Dog |
