What a day! I started at my new school this morning and had the best time. I made lots of new friends and really liked my teachers. I was nervous the night before, but I had no reason to be. Everyone was so friendly and polite. They made me feel at ease. It was like I’d been at the school for a hundred years!
The day started very early at 7:00 am.I had my breakfast downstairs with my mum. She could tell that I was very nervous. Mum kept asking me what was wrong. She told me l had nothing to worry about and that everyone was going to love me. If they didn't love me,Mum said she would send them her way for a good talking to, I couldn't stop laughing.
My mum dropped me off at the school gate about five minutes before the bell. A little blonde girl got dropped off at the same time and started waving at me. She ran over and told me her name was Abigail. She was very nice and we became close straight away. We spent all morning together and began to talk to another girl called Stacey. The three of us sat together in class all day and we even made our way home together! It went so quickly. Our teacher told us that tomorrow we would really start learning and developing new skills.
I couldn't wait until tomorrow and thought that I was really going to enjoy my time at my new school. I only hoped that my new friends would feel the same way too.
1. How did the author feel the night before her new school?| A．Tired. | B．Excited. | C．Worried. | D．Relaxed. |
| A．Clear. | B．Funny. | C．Reasonable. | D．Excellent. |
| A．She met many nice people. | B．She had a hurried breakfast. |
| C．She learned some new skills. | D．She arrived at school very early. |
| A．She disliked Stacey. | B．She was shy and quiet. |
| C．She got on well with the author. | D．She was an old friend of the author. |
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【推荐1】There is plenty of research showing that integration (融入) is decisive for a successful student life, both socially and academically, for the individual and for the university. Students who take part in activities and feel connected to their fellow students can get higher grades and are more likely to continue studying. But getting there is a challenge — especially when it comes to the international students. If they are allowed to choose freely, they tend to cooperate with people from the same national group as themselves. The interaction between the students is therefore borderline and reduces the feeling of participation and belonging. So as universities internationalize, the issue becomes increasingly pressing.
But what happens if the students are not allowed to decide for themselves, but instead the teacher provides circumstances for those who will cooperate? Well, then you see very positive effects. It became very clear that academic and social differences were bridged when the teacher decided the pairs, because the students were forced to deal with challenges together in a completely different way than when they chose their own partners or worked in larger groups. Working in pairs reduced the stress that the task brought in. They shared the tasks fairly and the way of working gave rise to new personal communication and in some cases even friendships.
A surprise was the result about communication. Unlike previous studies showing that communication in intercultural groups is a barrier, it was quite the opposite here. One of the factors that the students valued most was good communication. One explanation could be that previous studies were done in English-speaking countries, while in our study almost no one had English as their mother tongue. This means that everyone was used to speaking and understanding a second language.
Integration does not happen by itself, and we cannot put the responsibility on individual students. We need teacher guidance and structured action at all levels so that every single student can experience participation and belonging and can reach their full potential.
1. Which of the following is especially difficult for the international students?| A．Deciding whether to go on with their study. |
| B．Obtaining the qualification to study abroad. |
| C．Integrating with their fellow students completely. |
| D．Cooperating with people from the same country. |
| A．By getting them to cooperate with certain classmates. |
| B．By giving them more academic questions to discuss. |
| C．Through new education system to preferentially treat them. |
| D．By means of forming special groups with the same nationality. |
| A．Communication in intercultural groups is the biggest barrier. |
| B．Forced communication is not good for students’ integration. |
| C．English plays a decisive role in cross-cultural communication. |
| D．Communication between different languages becomes active. |
| A．International students are facing many challenges. |
| B．Pairing students supports integration at universities. |
| C．Students lack participation and a sense of belonging. |
| D．University internationalization becomes increasingly pressing. |
【推荐2】Natalie Hampton spent most of her 7th and 8th grade school years eating lunch alone. The new girl at an all-girls private school in Los Angeles. A group of “mean girls” excluded her from parties, called her names and even physically attacked her. They told her she was ugly and would never have any friends.
Once a kid who loved going to school, but Natalie now dreaded it. She stopped eating, she couldn’t sleep. The anxiety became so bad that she had to be hospitalized. Her mom calls it “the darkest period of our lives.”
Natalie’s mother sent her to another school for high school. Now a 16-year-old junior, she’s happy there, with a group of close friends and many after-school activities. But she’s never forgotten those two dark years, and she hates the idea of other kids going through what she did.
So Natalie came up with an idea that would allow students a judgment-free way to find lunch mates without the fear of being refused. She developed an app called “Sit With Us,” where students can sign up as “ambassadors” and post that there are open seats at their lunch table. (When signing up as ambassadors, the students make a promise that they’ll be kind and welcoming to whoever comes to sit with them). A student who doesn’t have a place to sit can look at the app and find an ambassador’s table and know they are invited to join it.
“Lunch might seem really small, but I think these are the small steps that make a school more inclusive,” she said. “It doesn’t seem like you’re asking that much, but, it starts to change the way students think about each other. It makes a huge difference in how they treat each other.”
1. How did Natalie feel during her 7th and 8th grade school years?| A．Helpless and angry. | B．Relaxed and confident. |
| C．Lonely and frightened. | D．Calm and unconcerned. |
| A．was fond of | B．was scared of | C．was shocked at | D．was excited about |
| A．It makes lonely students popular at school. |
| B．It teaches students to fight against those “mean girls”. |
| C．It encourages students to have lunch with new classmates. |
| D．It helps students locate a welcoming group in the lunchroom. |
| A．What students should do to find lunch mates. | B．How Natalie succeeded in becoming popular. |
| C．How the “Sit With Us” app came into being. | D．Why Natalie was unwelcome at school. |
【推荐3】The day finally came. I was very excited as I stood in line, waiting to receive my high school diploma. I looked around at the graduating class of our small Christian school and wondered how we had grown up so fast. After that weekend we would go our separate ways. Many planned on attending college far away, as I did. Others had jobs lined up and few were thinking about marriage.
Directly in front of me was a friend I’d known for six years; we had been on many adventures together. He grinned, looking a little smug(洋洋得意的). He and a couple of students had played one last triok before they graduated: The night before, they’d slipped into the principal’s home and used rolls of toilet paper to decorate his house and yard. I eyed the principal on the stage. He gave no indication that anything was wrong.
We moved slowly up in line. My friend walked across the stage and received his diploma. Then my name was called. I took a deep breath, nervously climbed the steps, crossed the stage under the hot lights and stopped in front of the principal. He gave me a big smile, shook my hand and handed me my diploma. I couldn’t wait to open the diploma case and find my name, certifying that I had graduated. However, when my friend opened his case, we all burst out laughing. Instead of a diploma, a single square of toilet paper was placed inside.
Our high school principal had a great sense of humor and took this opportunity to play a trick back on the boys. I thought they were required to clean his house and yard, but they got off easily. They were allowed to graduate.
Sometimes we get lucky when we do something wrong. However, sometimes we don’t. I often wonder how those who do wrong things get rid of troubles. We have decisions to make throughout our lives. The surest way to stay out of trouble is to avoid it in the first place.
1. What would the writer do after graduating from high school?| A．Get married. |
| B．Become a writer. |
| C．Find a regular job. |
| D．Continue his study. |
| A．Nobody had discovered his criminal behavior. |
| B．He had succeeded in play a trick on the principal. |
| C．He had been praised by the principal for his achievements. |
| D．He was about to graduate from high school with great honors. |
| A．Satisfied. |
| B．Touched. |
| C．Embarrassed. |
| D．Calm. |
| A．Keeping away from Wrong Choices. |
| B．Cherishing Every Opportunity in Life. |
| C．Avoiding Making One Mistake Twice. |
| D．Learning Valuable Lessons from Failure. |
【推荐1】Kajal moved to the United States in February 2017. Having previously volunteered for two years as an assistant yoga teacher in her home country, Kajal was enthusiastic about volunteering and began looking for volunteer opportunities that match her interests on VolunteerMatch. “I enjoy volunteering and it’s a way to make an impact in my new community,” says Kajal.
Kajal was drawn to a volunteer opportunity with the Meridian International Center to review applications on behalf of the Young Leaders of the Americas Initiative (YLAI). Kajal had previous experience, and the position also afforded her the opportunity to work remotely. After connecting with the opportunity on VolunteerMatch and successfully completing the application process, Kajal got to work. Her role involved reviewing applications from potential candidates for a four-week fellowship in the U.S. She was responsible for describing the business ideas presented by these candidates, assessing the social impact of their businesses, and determining the strength of candidates to carry out their plans.
With almost 4,000 applicants in 2017, Meridian International Center considers volunteers like Kajal to be integral (必要的) members of the team. With help from volunteers, 250 candidates have now been selected to take part in the program and will travel to the U.S. this fall.
Kajal says that this volunteer opportunity super-charged her existing skills, while helping her build new ones such as time management, business analysis, decision-making, planning, and presenting.
She is now looking for her next volunteer opportunity and reflects positively on her experience with Meridian International Center, “A new country brings in a lot of new experiences and volunteering helped me to settle into a new environment,” adds Kajal. “By helping others, I felt needed in society. Not only did it improve my self-esteem (自尊), other people benefited too. Volunteering is a great opportunity to improve yourself, others, and the whole society”.
1. Why did Kajal look for a volunteering opportunity in the U.S.?| A．She wanted to do something for her new community. |
| B．She needed a chance to meet new people. |
| C．She wanted to remember her yoga class. |
| D．She needed to improve her social skills. |
| A．raising the candidates’ self-esteem |
| B．building the candidates’ existing skills |
| C．helping the candidates do some volunteer work |
| D．judging the social impact of candidates’ businesses |
| A．Rewarding. | B．Tiring. | C．Relaxing. | D．Challenging. |
【推荐2】Gertrude was just an average kid with an average life. She lived in an average sized house in an average neighborhood. At home, she helped out just enough to get by. At school, she did just enough homework to stay out of trouble. She had straight Cs in all of her classes.
One day Gertrude's teacher, Mr. Mister, stopped her after class. "Gertrude," he said, "I know that you can do better. I've seen the work you do in class, and some of it is amazing... Way better than C work." Gertrude knew that there were moments when she tried a little harder than what everyone expected. But she just didn't have confidence in herself. She didn't really believe that she could change; in fact, she was scared by the thought of having the power to become whatever she wanted. She stopped listening to Mr. Mister about half way through his speech and just nodded her head until he stopped.
That night, Gertrude had a dream. It was ten years into the future and she was still living with her mom in her average neighborhood. A voice spoke in the dream: "The present is nothing more than the outcome of the choices made in the past. The future will be the results of the choices we make today." Gertrude started crying average sized tears, because she knew that she helped shape the world in which she lived, and the choices she made produced the options she had. She woke up with her pillow wet.
Gertrude was relieved to be back in middle school. She took a little more care in getting herself ready that morning, and she felt better than normal. She tried harder in school, and she felt smarter than usual. She helped more around the house, and it looked better. Sure, there were still lots of things that Gertrude struggled with, but just trying her best made her feel better when she didn't succeed. Gertrude even became great at failing by learning from her mistakes.
1. Which of the following words can best describe Gertrude in Paragraph 1?| A．Popular. | B．Optimistic. |
| C．Ordinary. | D．Modest. |
| A．In herself. | B．In her family. |
| C．In her teacher. | D．In her studies. |
| A．She suffered more. |
| B．She failed in her attempts. |
| C．She changed fundamentally. |
| D．She was glad about failures. |
【推荐3】I made an important decision when I was in Junior 3.
Before I made that decision, I was one of the boys who tried too hard to act as an adult. I didn't know that only kids want to show themselves as adults.
I didn't listen to my parents and teachers, and my grades became poor. Then came the high school entrance exam.
At the turning point of my life, my mom wanted to have a conversation with me. I wanted to turn it down but when I looked at her eyes, I felt I couldn't refuse. Instead of asking me to study hard, to my surprise, Mom just asked what I wanted to do in the future. Without thinking too much, I just said I would like to study hard.
Mom smiled and asked again: “I asked: what do you WANT to do？”
I never seriously thought about the question. So, I kept silent.
“Whether you want to go on studying or enter the society, ” she went on, “it is your own decision. Your life should be decided by you, not by anyone else, including me.” After saying that, she had tears in her eyes.
For the first time in my life, I was asked to make my own decision. I sat in my chair and thought about myself, my life and what kind of person I wanted to become.
It took me what seemed to be ages to make the biggest decision so far in my life—I wanted to be a man who makes a difference in the world. To achieve that, I needed to study hard.
The path to my future became clear to me. I didn't act rebelliously any more. With passion in my heart, I studied hard. Now, I'm one of the best students in the class.
Thanks to that decision, I have become what I am today.
1. When did the boy make an important decision?| A．When he was in Junior 3. | B．When he was in high school. |
| C．A year ago. | D．When he was 17. |
| A．乘客 | B．激情 | C．传递 | D．反对 |
| A．She taught the boy the importance of study. | B．She had a big fight with the boy. |
| C．She had a conversation with the boy. | D．She told the boy to study hard. |
| A．The boy's grades were poor before he made the decision. |
| B．The boy's mother didn't force him to study hard. |
| C．He wanted to make a difference in the world. |
| D．The boy's mother made a decision for the boy. |
