【推荐2】One day when I was driving on the freeway, I noticed all the way there were large dividing walls, which had been built between it and the road running parallel to it, for noise reduction (减少) and a sense of separation. The purpose was to create a sense of privacy (隐私) for people on the other side.
This got me thinking: How often do we put up mental barriers that keep us distant from others? Lifting the artificial barriers that keep us apart can offer opportunities to express our goodwill and create better relationships. If we can do like this, maybe our life will be a little different.
There is a little post office in a nearby town, and since it is closer to me than the post office in my own town, I go there. One day, with many people jammed into the little building, a man came hurrying in to mail a letter, and the girl at the counter saw he had too little postage on it. She told him he needed 2 more cents. Obviously he was a little at a loss. He had hurried over from his office, and didn’t have any money on him or time to stand in line. He was going to run back to get the needed money and wait in line again, but he hurried to get the letter mailed in the first place.
As we were watching him, one woman volunteered a two-cent stamp, and the whole line became very quiet. It was a beautiful moment. The man hesitated for a little while and asked her if she was sure, and she assured him she was fine with giving him the stamp. He offered to go back to his office to get the two cents, and she told him not to bother.
It was a small thing, but it meant something to both of the people involved, and to the rest of us. We aren’t a yard that needs defining or a freeway that needs barriers. We are human beings who can contribute to each other’s wellbeing by taking time to pay attention and interact. After all, we are all parts of a whole living in society.
1. The purpose of the first paragraph is to __________.

A．summarize the main idea

B．give detailed information

C．tell readers the author’s opinion

D．introduce the topic

2. What happened after the man being told he needed two more cents?

A．The man went back to his office immediately.

B．The man turned to a lady for help.

C．A woman offered a stamp to the man.

D．The man waited in line patiently.

3. What can we learn about the author?

A．She pays too much attention to privacy.

B．She believes people should participate in the world around them.

C．She confuses real barriers with false ones.

D．She insists all small things always have the greatest meaning.

4. Which of the following would be the best title for the passage?

A．Artificial Barriers	B．Unnecessary Separation
C．An Unforgettable Experience	D．The Kindness of People

【推荐3】When I was a child, I stayed with my grandmother a lot of the time while my mother was at work. One day some money problems started to arise for my grandmother and the family. They needed a little more income so she decided to sing at the nearby retirement home (养老院).

So I had to go with her. I wasn’t sure about it at first, but as soon as my grandmother actually persuaded me to get on stage and start singing, I loved it. I just loved seeing that sparkle (光亮) in those people’s eyes. They would stand up and dance and clap to the beat of the music. Eventually, we were singing at many of the homes in the surrounding area 5 out of 7 days a week.

Making other people happy has always made me happy. And during that experience I even discovered my gift, singing. My grandma still sings to those people 15 years later, only for no charge now. I moved to North Carolina when I was 13, leaving my grandma in Florida, but I still carry on her effort and try and go out of my way to do something kind, even if very small, for at least one person every day. There is no better feeling in the world than the one you get when you hear appreciation in someone’s voice.

1. The author’s grandmother sang at the nearby retirement home probably to ________.

A．bring joy to the old people there	B．start a new career
C．make some money	D．satisfy her husband

2. The underlined “it” in Paragraph 2 probably refers to “________”.

A．how the author could please the old people

B．whether Grandmother could make money

C．whether the author could sing or not

D．what songs the author had to sing

3. We can infer from the second paragraph that ________.

A．the author had great confidence when she started to sing

B．the audience were surprised that the author could sing at such an early age

C．the audience didn’t like the author at first

D．the author was loved by the audience

4. What does the author intend to tell us in the passage?

A．One can find his gift only through failure.

B．Others’ appreciation can make one happy.

C．One can succeed if he doesn’t give up halfway.

D．It’s hard to win others appreciation.

【推荐2】According to a recent investigation conducted by the Associated Press(美联社), many Google services on both Android and iPhone devices store records of user location data, and the bad news is that they do it even if the users have turned off the Location History on devices.

Google replied to the study with the following statement, “There are a number of different ways that Google may use location to improve people’s experience, including Location History, Web and App Activity, and through device-level Location Services. We provide clear descriptions of these tools, and strong controls so people can turn them on or off, and delete their histories at any time.”

That isn’t true. Even with Location History paused, some Google apps automatically store time-stamped location data without asking. The Associated Press has used location data from an Android smartphone with Location History turned off to design a map of the movements of Princeton researcher Gunes Acar. The news agency was able to track his movements and identify visited locations, including his home address.

“The privacy issue affects some two billion users of devices that run Google’s Android operating software and hundreds of millions of worldwide iPhone users who rely on Google for maps or search.” continues the Associated Press. Jonathan Mayer, a Princeton researcher and former chief technologist with the FCC remarked that location history data should be deleted when the users switch off the Location History. “If you’re going to allow users to turn off something called Location History, then all the places where you keep location history should be turned off.” Mayer said, “That seems like a pretty straightforward position to have.”

1. What is the Associated Press really concerned about?

A．Google fails to improve users’ experience.

B．Google is able to record users’ location history.

C．Users can’t prevent their location data from being recorded.

D．Users are not informed of how to delete their location history.

2. How does the Associated Press prove that Google is lying?

A．By designing a map of Gunes Acar’s home.	B．By tracking the movement of Gunes Acar.
C．By checking Google’s operating software.	D．By comparing Google’s location history data.

3. The purpose of writing the passage is to           .

A．encourage the improvement of Google apps

B．warn the public of their over dependence on Google apps

C．raise public concern over privacy issue caused by Google apps

D．appreciate the Associated Press’s contributions to scientific research

4. Which section of a newspaper is the text probably from?

A．Culture.

B．Entertainment.

C．Finance.

D．Technology.

【推荐1】The most important life lesson I’ve learned from running is to run at my own pace. This lesson has guided me in many ways. In particular, it made me challenge the fixed expectations of retirement and aging.

Running is a metaphor (隐喻) for life. I realized this while training for a marathon to celebrate my 60th birthday. All the other runners being faster than me made me embarrassed, but my coach shared some valuable advice: run at your own best pace — setting a goal or target time could be a limitation. He was right. Over time I ran more easily and faster. I also enjoyed the experience much more.

I have applied this principle to other areas of my life. Finding a rhythm is not about efficiency or how many things I can get done in a day. It has more to do with what I decide to do at this stage in my life. Running carries its own set of expectations, including what people at certain life stage should be doing or not doing. Expectations at my age can center on how leisure time is spent, decisions about employment, and even the role of a grandparent.

I used to think it was young people who bore the impact of peer pressure, but older adults can experience it too. This is ironic, because often later in this life is a time when we tend to care less about the opinions of others.

I’m not suggesting we postpone dreams. Of course, we should do what matters to us, but it’s easy to view retirement as another occupation with benchmarks (基准) to be met. It’s a comparison trap that makes what someone else does the reference point.

Forget what others are doing. Their pace is not necessarily the pace you should run at. Run at your own way. Our bodies know what they need. Our hearts know what they need. In living life on our own terms, we will likely feel stronger in body, mind and spirit.

1. What motivated the author to participate in marathon?

A．Her eager interest in running.

B．Her strong curiosity for marathon.

C．Her keen wish to celebrate her birthday.

D．Her urgent need to enhance her strength.

2. What do the underlined words “this principle” in paragraph 3 probably refer to?

A．Setting a target time.

B．Finding your limitation.

C．Challenging fixed idcas.

D．Running at your own pace.

3. How does the author feel about being retired?

A．Nervous.

B．Confused.

C．Optimistic.

D．Grateful.

4. What can we know about the author?

A．She benefits from the coach’s words.

B．She used to be a professional runner.

C．She sees the value of a reference point.

D．She’s suffering a lot from peer pressure.

【推荐2】I am in seventh-grade language arts class in an upstairs room in the old red-brick junior high school building. The afternoon sun streams through high windows that face the playground. It is the day I remember hearing this phrase for the first time: “the little / lame balloonman.”

It’s from “in Just”, the E.E. Cummings poem we are reading. Mr. Katz is trying to loosen up our adolescent imaginations to the point where we might appreciate figurative language. There are phrases like Abe world is mud- / luscious,” and then “puddle-wonderful.” Something begins to grow in me as a reader: the mixture of descriptive words and words expressing action.

Words would be and do what they describe! I’d like to think Mr. Katz was conspiring with the poem, sun, spring and kid energy, not just a lesson plan. From then on, I was a new reader and writer. I look back on that poem as a starting line, I heard the call to poetry.

I would see “in Just-” in nearly every poem in my language arts life. It was in my very old “A Pocket Book of Modern Verse”, edited by Oscar Williams and in “An Approach to Poetry”, by X. J Kennedy. I began to understand that a poet is describing the world, experience, or concepts in a way that antidotes dullness, commonness, and indifference. “Poetry provides the one permissible way of saying one thing and meaning another,” Robert Frost explained.

Reading’ poems became a daily practice. I collect my own favorite expressions of life’s joys and sufferings. I’m fond of Billy Collins’ view: “The history of poetry is the only surviving history we have of human emotion. It is the history of the human heart. There is no other one.”

The special poems always lead me back to my memory of a sunny classroom, in junior high school when Mr. Katz carefully brought us into a new field—a moment that got me out of middle school mundanity. Even the dance on Friday and my drum lesson on Wednesday afternoon paled in comparison. I was addicted to poetry.

1. What is Mr. Katz trying to do in his class?

A．Fire up students’ interest in poetry.	B．Finish his lesson plan on time.
C．Teach students to write poems.	D．Use great words to express himself.

2. What does Robert Frost think of poetry?

A．It makes the theme obvious.	B．It talks about practical concepts.
C．It carries underlying meaning.	D．It allows dullness and commonness.

3. How did the author find his /her middle school?

A．The dance on Friday was quite boring.	B．The language arts lesson was incomparable.
C．The school life remained generally the same.	D．The drum lesson on Wednesday was a piece of cake.

4. What’s the best title bf the article?

A．My junior school life.	B．Mr. Katz’s arts language lessons.
C．My language arts life.	D．My love of poetry.

【推荐3】The key to happiness is how quickly you can get back your focus on what’s important.

—Anonymous

Sixteen years ago I learned this lesson in the back of a New York City taxi cab. Here’s what happened. I jumped in a taxi, and we took off for Grand Central Station. We were driving in the right lane when, all of a sudden, a black car jumped out of a parking space right in front of us. My taxi driver slammed on his brakes, skidded, and missed the other car’s back end by just inches!

The driver of the other car, who almost caused a big accident, started yelling bad words at us. My taxi driver just smiled and waved at the guy. I said, “Why did you just do that? This guy almost ruined your car and sent us to the hospital!” And this is when my taxi driver told me what I now call “The Law of the Garbage Truck.”

Many people are like garbage (rubbish) trucks. They run around full of garbage, full of anger and full of disappointment. As their garbage piles up, they need a place to throw it away. And if you let them, they’ll throw it away on you. When someone wants to throw their garbage away on you, don’t take it personally. You just smile, wave, wish them well, and move on. You’ll be happy with what you did.

I started thinking, how often do I let Garbage Trucks run right over me? And how often do I take their garbage and spread it to other people at work, at home, or on the streets? It was that day I said, “I’m not going to do any more.”

Successful people do not let Garbage Trucks take over their day. What about you? If you let more garbage trucks pass you by, you’ll be happier. Life’s too short to wake up in the morning with regrets. So, Love the people who treat you right. Forget about the ones who don’t.

1. What happened one day when the author was taking a taxi?

A．The taxi driver was injured.

B．The taxi almost hit another car.

C．The author scolded the driver of the other car.

D．The author learned a lesson from the driver of the garbage truck.

2. How did the taxi driver respond to the behaviour of the driver of the black car?

A．He yelled back at the driver.

B．He sent the driver to the hospital.

C．He dumped some garbage in front of his car.

D．He was friendly towards the driver.

3. What does the taxi driver think of people according to Paragraph 3?

A．Many people like to drive garbage trucks.

B．Many people throw garbage away wherever they like.

C．Many people tend to be very much depressed.

D．Many people are warm-hearted to make others happy.

4. According to the passage, what should you do if people “throw garbage away” on you?

A．Ignore them and go on with our own work.

B．Try our best to persuade them not to do that again.

C．Tell them to throw garbage away in the right place.

D．Take over their work and carry the garbage to somewhere else.