【推荐2】The first time I ever really noticed a disabled person, I was studying in the third grade.I saw some disabled people before, but I never really knew or cared about what those persons went through.

When a new student arrived in my third grade class, I thought it would just be a common student, but this student was different. His name was Derek and he had autism(孤独症). He sometimes had random outbursts(随意发作) during class and we would stand there, doing nothing because we didn't know why he was doing that.When he sat down at desk, we would try to get away from him.After class, we would play jokes on each other, imitating(模仿) Derek, and laughing about it.

Then one day, Derek's mom came to our class and talked with us.She told us that Derek wasn't just having random outbursts--he was trying to communicate.Then she chose a volunteer and filled that person's mouth with soft sweets.When we found the volunteer had great trouble in trying to speak, the mother explained that was what Derek was going through every day. We all understood her meaning.

After this talk, no one tried to make fun of Derek or run away from him.We accepted his outbursts in class and he became one of our friends.Having a class with Derek has taught me to have an open mind to those who are different from us.My experience in having an autistic classmate has provided me with a good lesson.

Now whenever I meet a family with a child who's behaving differently, I always remember what I have learned in my third grade class and go up to him or her.

1. What did the author think of the boy before the mother's talk?

A．Friendly.

B．Humorous.

C．Generous.

D．Strange.

2. Which order is RIGHT according to the passage?
①We got away from him.
②We got on well with Derek.
③Derek arrived in my class.
④Derek's mom talked to us.

A．③①②④

B．③①④②

C．①③②④

D．①④③②

3. According to Derek's mother,Derek________________.

A．was too shy to be with others

B．had problems in expressing himself

C．was good at communicating with others

D．didn't like the way others treated him

4. Which is the best title for the passage?

A．Living with an open mind	B．Believing in yourself
C．Behaving in different ways	D．Making friends with the disabled

【推荐3】Franz Kafka wrote that “a book must be the axe (斧子) for the frozen sea inside us. ” I once shared this sentence with a class of seventh graders, and it didn’t seem to require any explanation.

We’d just finished John Steinbeck’s novel Of Mice and Men. When we read the end together out loud in class, my toughest boy, a star basketball player, wept a little, and so did I. “Are you crying?” one girl asked, as she got out of her chair to take a closer look. “I am,” I told her, “and the funny thing is I’ve read it many times.”

But they understood. When George shoots Lennie, the tragedy is that we realize it was always going to happen. In my 14 years of teaching in a New York City public middle school, I’ve taught kids with imprisoned parents, abusive parents, irresponsible parents; kids who are parents themselves; kids who are homeless; kids who grew up in violent neighborhoods. They understand, more than I ever will, the novel’s terrible logic—the giving way of dreams to fate.

For the last seven years, I have worked as a reading enrichment teacher, reading classic works of literature with small groups of students from grades six to eight. I originally proposed this idea to my headmaster after learning that a former excellent student of mine had transferred out of a selective high school -- one that often attracts the literary-minded children of Manhattan’s upper classes -- into a less competitive setting. The daughter of immigrants, with a father in prison, she perhaps felt uncomfortable with her new classmates. I thought additional “cultural capital” could help students like her develop better in high school, where they would unavoidably meet, perhaps for the first time, students who came from homes lined with bookshelves, whose parents had earned Ph. D.’s.

Along with Of Mice and Men, my groups read: Sounder, The Red Pony, Lord of the Flies, Romeo and Juliet and Macbeth. The students didn’t always read from the expected point of view.

About The Red Pony, one student said, “it’s about being a man, it’s about manliness.” I had never before seen the parallels between Scar face and Macbeth, nor had I heard Lady Macbeth’s soliloquies (独白) read as raps (说唱), but both made sense; the interpretations were playful, but serious. Once introduced to Steinbeck’s writing, one boy went on to read The Grapes of Wrath and told me repeatedly how amazing it was that “all these people hate each other, and they’re all white.” His historical view was broadening, his sense of his own country deepening. Year after year, former students visited and told me how prepared they had felt in their first year in college as a result of the classes.

Year after year, however, we are increasing the number of practice tests. We are trying to teach students to read increasingly complex texts, not for emotional punch (碰撞) but for text complexity. Yet, we cannot enrich the minds of our students by testing them on texts that ignore their hearts. We are teaching them that words do not amaze but confuse. We may succeed in raising test scores, but we will fail to teach them that reading can be transformative and that it belongs to them.

1. Why were the students able to understand the novel Of Mice and Men?

A．Because they spent much time reading it.

B．Because they had read the novel before.

C．Because they came from a public school.

D．Because they had similar life experiences.

2. The girl left the selective high school possibly because ________.

A．she was a literary-minded girl	B．her parents were immigrants
C．she couldn’t fit in with her class	D．her father was then in prison

3. To the author’s surprise, the students read the novels ________.

A．creatively

B．passively

C．repeatedly

D．carelessly

4. The author writes the passage mainly to ________.

A．introduce classic works of literature

B．advocate teaching literature to touch the heart

C．argue for equality among high school students

D．defend the current testing system

【推荐1】TESCO has announced it is banning the sale of energy drinks to teenagers, and that the big move will begin in weeks. The supermarket has joined a host of major names banning teenagers from buying high caffeine, high-sugar drinks. The government indicates that the principal question to be determined is whether the purchasing restrictions will apply at the age of 16 or 18.

Theresa May said the consultation was linked to the government’s childhood obesity(肥胖)strategy and said it was necessary to examine the consumption of energy drinks “often because they are sold at cheaper prices than soft drinks”.

The principal reason for the ban is the high level of caffeine in the energy drinks, which has been linked to a string of health problems for children, including head and stomach aches as well as sleep problems.

Energy drinks often also have higher levels of sugar than soft drinks. According to government figures, sugared energy drinks have 60% more calories and 65% more sugar than normal soft drinks and sugar is one of the largest causes of obesity.

Jamie Oliver said he welcomed the ban on energy drink sales because “too many children are regularly using them to replace breakfast” and “teachers from across the country have told me how their lessons are disrupted because of these drinks”.

A Downing Street source added that there is no evidence that energy drinks have any nutritional value in children’s diet. That accounts for the government’s action on measures to tackle childhood obesity and improve children’s health.

The move is the latest step in an approach in relation to childhood obesity and health. According to European Food Safety Authority research, two-thirds of 10 to 16-year-olds regularly consume energy drinks, along with 18% of 3 to 10-year-olds.

1. What is the question to be decided for the government?

A．The effect of energy drinks on health.	B．The age limit for buying energy drinks.
C．A total rise in the price of energy drinks.	D．The time to carry out ban on energy drinks.

2. What problem may energy drinks lead to on children?

A．Headaches and sleep problems.	B．High blood pressure and stress.
C．Fight and bad social relationship.	D．Bad school academic performance.

3. What does the underlined word "That" refer to in Para.6?

A．Measures should be taken about children obesity.

B．Children have energy drinks instead of breakfast.

C．Energy drinks have no nutritional value on children.

D．We should limit the sugar content in energy drinks

4. Which of the following is the passage mainly about?

A．A move to prevent retailers from selling kids energy drinks.

B．Research on how children fail to stop taking energy drinks.

C．A good way to improve children's classroom performance.

D．A ban on the sale of energy drinks to children to fight obesity.

【推荐2】For centuries, people have kept large amounts of cash at home during difficult times. But during the coronavirus crisis, things are different. Metal coins and paper bills can be a source of worry rather than hope.

The fear is that these objects, possibly touched by thousands of people, could provide a way for the coronavirus to spread. Public officials and health experts have said that the risk is small. Still, some businesses refuse to accept cash and some countries have suggested that their citizens should stop using it altogether.

Zachary Cohle is an economics professor at Quinnipiac University in Connecticut. “In many areas, cash was already beginning to disappear due to the increased risk of robbery, the ease of Internet ordering, and the ubiquity of cell phones,” he said. “Sweden, Finland, Norway, Canada and others have slowly reduced cash use to the point where using it in large amounts seems unusual. Britain and Australia are expected to become cashless countries. And in China, cash use has dropped as electronic payment services have increased in popularity over the past decade.”

“Cash ist Fesch” is a common saying in Austria and southern Germany. The words mean cash is beautiful. But since the virus outbreak, shops that have remained open there, like grocery stores, have encouraged people to pay with cards. And Germany’s central bank said 43 percent of Germans recently paid for goods and services with a card. The Bank of Japan estimates that cash makes up for 53 percent of household assets. But the threat of the coronavirus could move the country toward going cashless, said Hiroki Maruyama, head of the nonprofit Fintech Association of Japan. He added, “The culture is slowly changing.”

However, cash use is still common in places like West and Central Africa. Some experts say that the world will not be cashless until everyone and every country has reliable access to the Internet.

1. Why is cash regarded as a source of worry?

A．Cash may carry viruses after being used.	B．Some countries refuse to accept cash.
C．It’s risky to keep a lot of cash at home.	D．Cash can’t be used during the crisis.

2. What is paragraph 3 mainly about?

A．The disadvantages of paying in cash.	B．The introduction to cashless countries.
C．The present situation of cash use worldwide.	D．The increasing popularity of electronic payment.

3. What do we know from the example of Germany and Japan?

A．Shops in Germany only take cash because it’s beautiful.

B．Less than half of the Germans still like to pay goods in cash.

C．More than half of the Japanese prefer to put cash in the bank.

D．The Japanese are changing their traditional attitudes to cash.

4. Why is it impossible for the world to be cashless according to the passage?

A．The virus crisis will last for a long time.

B．The habit of paying in cash is hard to change.

C．The Internet is not available in all the countries.

D．People in Africa can’t afford the banking services.

【推荐3】Every day we are exposed to images, videos, music and news．In this age of visual and aural hyper-stimulation, the medium of radio is making a great comeback.
“We’re at the beginning of a golden age of audio,” said US-based podcaster Alex Blumberg in an article in The Sydney Morning Herald． In the last month alone, 15 percent of US adults listened to a radio podcast (播客)．These statistics, released by Edison Research, show the successful evolution of traditional radio broadcasts to the present day’s digital podcast format．The term “podcast” was invented in 2004, but the trend only started gaining mainstream popularity in recent years．With the sharp increase in consumer demand for smartphones and tablets, podcast sales have jumped.
The appeal of the podcast partly lies in its multiplatform delivery and on-demand capabilities (功能)．You can listen during those extra minutes of the day when you’re walking to the shops, waiting in a queue or riding the subway．Similar to television shows, podcasts are generally free to download and most offer new content every week.
Donna Jackson, 22, Sydney University media graduate, listens to podcasts two or three times a week, via iTurns．“I listen while I’m wandering around the house doing something else．It makes completing a boring task much more enjoyable… And it’s an easy way of keeping in touch with what’s going on in the rest of the world,” she said, “I mainly listen to BBC podcasts, but recently I’ve also been listening to This American Life and Serial．They have a special skill to really draw you in.”
Unlike television and music, the audio format has the potential to create a deep impression on readers．Blumberg says this owes to the podcast’s ability “to create close relationship and emotional connection.” Sydney University undergraduate Hazel Proust, majoring in social work and arts, agrees．“When you’re listening, it feels as if the voice of the podcast’s storyteller is talking directly to you．It’s comforting, ” said Proust.
It seems the age-old tradition of verbal storytelling is very much alive and well.
1. From the first two paragraphs, we can learn that ________.

A．traditional broadcast has come back

B．Americans love listening to the radio

C．podcasts have become very popular today

D．smartphones sell well because of podcasts

2. The writer mentions Donna Jackson mainly to ________.

A．tell how young people relax themselves

B．explain why young people like podcasts

C．introduce what programs podcasts are presenting

D．show how popular podcasts are presenting

3. Paragraph 5 is mainly about ________.

A．the influence of radios

B．the advantage of podcasts

C．readers’ impression on radios

D．people’s reaction to the medium

4. What is probably the best title of the passage?

A．Return of Radio

B．Opinions of Podcast

C．Features of Radio

D．Technology of Podcast

【推荐1】In a natural disaster—a hurricane, flood, volcanic eruption, or other catastrophes—minutes and even seconds of warming can make the difference between life and death. Because of this, scientists are working to use the latest technological advances to predict when and where disasters will happen. They are also studying how best to analyze and communicate this information once it is obtained.

On September 29, 1998, Hurricane Georges made landfall in Bilxi, Mississippi, after damaging Haiti, Dominic Repubic, PueroRico, and several islands of the Caribbean badly with per hour. Few people lost their lives along the Gulf Coast of the United States, although hundreds died in the Caribbean.

This was a very different outcome from 1900, when a powerful Gulf Coast hurricane made an unexpected direct hit on Galveston, Texas, killing at east 6,000 people.

Vastly improved hurricane warnings explain the different circumstances at either end of the 20^th century-residents of Galveston had no advance warning that a storm was approaching, while residents of Biloxi had been warned days in advance, allowing for extensive safety precautions.

At the same time that people in Biloxi were thankful for the advance warning, some residents of New Orleans, Louisiana were less satisfied.A day before Georges made landfall, forecasters were predicting that the hurricane had a good chance of striking New Orleans. Because much of New Orleans lies below sea level, the city is at risk for flooding. Emergency management officials must begin evacuations well before a storm strikes. But evacuation costs money: businesses close, tourists leave, and citizens take precautionary measures.The mayor of New Orleans estimated that his city’s preparations for Georges cost more than 50 million. After Georges missed New Orleans, some residents questioned the value of the hurricane forecasts in the face of such high costs.

The different views on the early warnings for Hurricane Georges show some of the complexities related to predicting disasters. Disaster prediction is a process of providing scientific information to the government officials and other decision makers who must respond to those predictions.

1. What is the purpose of disaster prediction according to the passage?

A．To identify the cause of disasters.

B．To save people’s lives and property.

C．To prevent natural disasters from happening.

D．To apply advanced technology to disaster prediction.

2. The city residents of New Orleans were unsatisfied because ________ .

A．their preparations were made in vain

B．the hurricane warning arrived rather late

C．the forecast hurricane did not hit the city

D．they suffered from a heavy hurricane attack

3. What does the passage mainly talk about?

A．The different ways of disaster prediction.

B．Technological advances in disaster prediction.

C．The benefits and preparations of disaster prediction.

D．The importance and uncertainty of disaster prediction.

【推荐2】Self-driving cars (无人驾驶汽车)might make your future travel a lot more pleasant, but they won't reduce traffic.

Car producers (汽车生产商)have said that traffic reduction is one of the many advantages of having self-driving cars on the road. The idea is that self-driving cars will reduce accidents caused by human mistakes. But experts say self-driving cars' influence on traffic will probably be bad.

Lew Fulton, a professor of New York University, said that self-driving cars won't solve traffic problems unless a pricing system is put in place that discourages self-driving cars. For example, many companies are interested in developing self-driving cars to do something, which could increase traffic on the road, Fulton said.

Massachusetts lawyers (马萨诸塞州律师)have already suggested introducing a tax (税)on driver-less cars. It calls for at least $ 0.025 per mile.

Traffic jams could also worsen as companies like Lucid Motors try to produce self-driving cars with reclining seats (可躺座椅). People may choose to live farther outside of cities if they can travel in cars that allow them to sleep and relax. But that increases the number of people travelling in and out of cities during rush hour, Fulton said.

Some cities have already started to discourage people from taking car trips alone. For example, Chicago and New York City have set up lanes (车道)that single-passenger cars must pay some money to use. That money increases during rush hour.

1. What do car producers think of self-driving cars?

A．They save buyers' money.

B．They are fast.

C．They are safe.

D．They increase traffic slightly.

2. What do Massachusetts lawyers suggest?

A．Introducing a tax on car producers.

B．Pushing up the running costs of self-driving cars.

C．Increasing the selling price of self-driving cars.

D．Calling for drivers to avoid travelling during rush hour.

3. What will happen if there are self-driving cars with reclining seats?

A．People are likely to travel longer distances.

B．People will spend less money on transport.

C．More people will live in city centres.

D．There will be lighter traffic during rush hour.

4. What is the best title for the text?

A．What cars will we drive in the future?

B．Where will we travel with self-driving cars?

C．How can self-driving cars solve traffic problems?

D．Why self-driving cars could be terrible for traffic?

【推荐3】There is more of a connection between food and culture than you may think. On an individual level, we grow up eating the food of our culture. It becomes a part of who we are. Many associate food from our childhood with warm feelings and good memories and it ties us to our families, holding a special and personal value for us. Food from our families often becomes the comfort food we seek as adults in times of frustration and stress.

On a large scale, traditional food is an important part of culture. It also operates as an expression of cultural identity. Immigrants bring it wherever they go, and it is a symbol of pride in their culture and means of coping with homesickness.

Many immigrants open their own restaurants and serve traditional dishes. However, the food does not remain exactly the same. Some materials needed to make traditional dishes may not be readily available, so the taste and flavour can be different from what they would prepare in their home countries. Additionally, immigrants do not only sell dishes to people from the same countries as them, but to people from different countries. Therefore, they have to make small changes in the original dishes to cater to a wider range of customers. Those changes can create new flavours that still keep the cultural significance of the dishes.

We should not only embrace our heritage (传统) through our culture’s food, but also become more informed about other cultures by trying their food. It is important to remember that each dish has a special place in the culture to which it belongs, and is special to those who prepare it. Food is a window on culture, and it should be treated as such.

1. What’s the function of food mentioned in the text?

A．To help motivate homesickness.

B．To show cultural identity.

C．To reflect a country’s history.

D．To show a community’s superiority.

2. What does the underlined word “it” in Paragraph 2 refer to?

A．The specific traditional food.

B．The national culture.

C．A traditional expression of food.

D．The old-fashioned taste.

3. Why do some immigrants have to change the original dishes in their restaurants?

A．To attach cultural importance to their dishes.

B．To announce the beginning of their life on foreign soil.

C．To make the dishes popular among customers.

D．To present their own food culture in a new way.

4. What’s the author’s attitude towards different food cultures?

A．Negative.

B．Balanced.

C．Unfair.

D．Unchangeable.