I had a quick short stay in Detroit Airport before heading home. Knowing my gate number, I got there with 5 minutes to spare and stood waiting for “Gate 3” to be called.
I was already very tired and had an important call scheduled for an hour after I was set to get home. But then I heard the announcement, “It seems we have overbooked the flight. Would anyone care to volunteer to stay for the later departure in 4 hours?” And the gate attendant was anxiously waiting for someone to volunteer.
I looked around and saw businessmen needing to work, moms needing to meet their kids, kids needing to see their friends. Even though I wanted to be home just as much as anyone, something inside me said that I should extend some kindness to this group of strangers.
I picked up my bag, approached the desk, and told the gate attendant my decision. Smile spread on the face of her. As she was processing my ticket, I was happy to see all the other passengers could now board their flight and I had been able to help. The attendant handed me my boarding pass for the later flight and another piece of paper, then said, “This is for your kindness.” I saw that it was a 700-dollar voucher to fly anywhere in the world during the next year!
I got to my new gate and took a seat next to a power outlet so that my laptop would make it through the extra four hours. 1 rescheduled that important call. And then I got a lot of work done, which was a wonderful silver lining.
When my flight started boarding, I was surprised to discover that my new boarding pass was for a seat in first class. I thought about how grateful I was for everything that had happened, and how it was all because of the chain effects of kindness. I gave with the intention to serve others, with no thought of reward, and that kindness was returned to me with an amazing upgrade.
1. The airport announcement was made to ______.| A．ask someone to take next flight |
| B．give information about a delayed flight |
| C．inform that the flight was about to take off |
| D．tell passengers the flight had been cancelled |
| A．A reward of 700 dollars | B．An offer of first-class seat. |
| C．The request of the attendant. | D．His concern about other passengers. |
| A．Boring but productive. | B．Challenging but acceptable. |
| C．Satisfying and efficient. | D．Relaxing and worthwhile. |
| A．Every Effort Counts | B．Time Is Treasure |
| C．Patience Is Appreciated | D．Kindness Gives Back |
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【推荐1】A bunch of brilliant yellow flowers was dedicated to my mother.She was amazed at its shape and something strange but eventually lost passion. It didn’t matter a lot that the stems felt sticky or that both my parents cursed（诅咒） the presence of these flowers in the lawn. I thought they were gorgeous!
And there were a ocean of them! We spent hours picking the flowers and then popping the blossoms off with a snap of our fingers. But the supply of dandelions (蒲公英) never ran out. My father or brothers would cut off all the heads with the lawnmower (割草机) at least once a week, but that didn't stop these hardy wonders.
And for those flowers that escaped the honor of being hand-delivered to my mother or the miserable destiny to be killed by the lawnmower, there was another level of existence. The soft roundness of a dandelion gone to seed caused endless laughter of delight as we unconsciously（无意识地） spread this flower across the yard.
As I worked in my garden last week, pulling unwanted weeds（野草）out of the space that would become a haven（避风港） for tomatoes, corn, peas and sunflowers, I again marveled at the flower that some call a weed.
And I thought, I hope I had the staying power of a dandelion. If only I could stretch my roots so deep and straight that something tugging on my stem couldn’t separate me completely from the source that feeds me life. If only I could come back to face the world with a bright, sunshiny face after someone has run me over with a lawnmower or worse, purposely attacked me in an attempt to destroy me. If only I could spread love and encouragement as freely and fully as this flower spreads seeds of itself.
The lawns at my parents' home are now beautiful green blankets. The only patches of color come from well-placed, well-controlled flowerbeds. Chemicals have managed to kill what human interference couldn’t. I hope you and I can be different. I hope that we can stretch our roots deep enough that the strongest poison can't reach our souls. I hope that we can overcome the poisons of anger, fear, hate, criticism and competitiveness.
1. The author’s parents probably viewed the dandelions in the lawn as ________.| A．supplies of seeds | B．beautiful wonders |
| C．unwanted weeds | D．inspiring colors |
| A．The flowers were meant as a joyful gift to her mother. |
| B．The flowers developed into a stronger species because of frequent mowing. |
| C．The flowers were tough enough to spread new lives themselves. |
| D．The flowers that some called a weed were difficult to recover. |
| A．The author’s family enjoyed the dandelions as much as she did. |
| B．The author purposefully replaced some dandelions with crops. |
| C．The dandelions were finally successfully removed from the lawn. |
| D．The author felt sorry but encouraged by the destiny of the dandelions. |
| A．share the inspirations she acquired from the plain dandelions |
| B．arouse public awareness to pay close attention to the beauty in life |
| C．show the importance of considering things from diverse angles |
| D．express the regret that few people could figure out the beauty of the dandelion |
【推荐2】“We regret to inform you…” These are the words from a publisher that every writer fears receiving, but the words every writer knows well, even after sacrificing their weekends and free time. It’s common knowledge that success rarely happens overnight, but what may not be as widely recognized is that many highly successful writers have also faced rejection in their careers.
Take for example J.K. Rowling. Upon receiving her first rejection letter, she stuck it on her kitchen wall, thinking she now shared the path with her favourite writers. After years of surviving on little money and dedicating all her time to writing, she finally completed her first book only to receive comments from publishers along the lines of “too difficult for children”, “too long”, and “uninteresting to children”. Nevertheless, she persevered (坚持). After twelve rejections, one publisher eventually agreed to print 500 copies of her first book, and Harry Potter became a global success, with over 400 million books sold and translated into more than seventy different languages.
Perhaps the overall prize for perseverance should go to three sisters from Victorian England dreaming of seeing their words in print. This, however, was a time when women were not encouraged to become writers. As the then Poet Laureate, Robert Southey, wrote to one of them: “Literature cannot be the business of a woman’s life, and it ought not to be.” Nevertheless, the sisters didn’t stop trying. Their response was to write a book of poems under male names. Even when the book sold only two copies, the sisters still persevered. They started writing novels, and today Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre, Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights and Anne Bronte’s Agnes Grey are regarded as classics of world literature.
So, it seems that talent alone isn’t enough to guarantee success. While a lot of hard work and a touch of luck play a part, perseverance is the key. Keep trying and eventually you will read the words “We are delighted to inform you...”
1. What is the common experience of many writers at the beginning of their careers?| A．Becoming famous overnight. | B．Knowing one another very well. |
| C．Facing rejection from publishers. | D．Feeling afraid of their weekends. |
| A．She was discouraged for quite a while. |
| B．She regarded it as a form of inspiration. |
| C．She immediately found another publisher. |
| D．She turned to her favourite writers for help. |
| A．Sympathetic. | B．Disapproving. | C．Supportive. | D．Neutral. |
| A．A job offer is provided for you. |
| B．You need to make further efforts. |
| C．Success or acceptance comes to you. |
| D．You win a literary award for your book. |
【推荐3】Friends should always be honest with you, right? So when they lie, it can be really hard to take. You want to trust your friends and that means knowing that they’ll tell it to you straight no matter what. But a friend who lies isn’t always trying to hurt you. Why does this happen?
Protect your feelings
One of the biggest reasons friends lie is simply to avoid hurting your feeling.
Some people don’t understand the difference between being gently honest with a friend and being so straightforward that they leave a verbal wound. They choose to avoid these two extremes in the form of a lie.
What you can do: Encourage your friends to be straight with you. No matter what their answer is, let them know you appreciate it. If you overreact or get angry with them, they won’t feel comfortable telling you the truth again.
They feel embarrassed
Sometimes friends will lie about things in their life because they are too embarrassed to admit the truth. Maybe they are going through a rough time and they just don’t want you to know about it.
What you can do: Avoid trying to badger(纠缠)your friend into telling you what’s wrong. Instead, make it clear that you are there for them when and if they are ready to talk. Make your friendship a safe place fro them where they can share their troubles with you without feeling judgment.
Avoid an argument with you
Perhaps your friend knows that if they tell you the truth, you’ll get angry with them. Avoiding conflict is not always healthy for a friendship because it allows problems to grow over time. If you have a bad temper, your friend might try and avoid getting into an argument with you and instead just tell you what you want to hear.
What you can do: Make sure that if a friend tells you something unpleasant, you don’t overreact. Consider what’s being said and why your friend is telling you this. If you do end up arguing, do it in a respectable way.
Exclude you
Lying isn’t always a sign that friends are trying to protect you, however. Sometimes they lie because they want to exclude you from their plans. If they tell you they are staying home some night when you want to go out, for example, and you find out later that they partied without you, it may mean they aren’t as good friends as you thought they were.
What you can do: When you find out with certainty that you friend was lying to you, try and confront them. Be forewarned, however, that if a friend lies to begin with, he/she may lie when asked a direct question about his/her dishonesty. Go with your guts on this. If you feel your friend is lying because he/her doesn’t want to be around you, that’s your wake-up call to move on.
1. Friends sometimes lie_____| A．out of respect | B．in a straight way |
| C．under social influences | D．because the truth hurts |
| A．let it go | B．take it personally |
| C．handle it respectably | D．break up with him/her |
【推荐1】After written art had to fight a tough battle for attraction during the first decade of social media, owing to a certain group of writers, it is now on a significant rise. How Instagram and Twitter have offered jumpstarts to careers of authors like Dean Cocozza sets a blueprint for thousands of ambitious writers.
Cocozza started writing lyrics for his music as a teenager. He immediately had to experience that translating art to social media is not as simple as posting whatever his pen put down.
“Anyone who uses the platform with an intent will quickly learn that you only have the glimpse of a moment to catch the viewer’s attention. So the work I shared shifted to be more to the point, often one-liners. Then stuff started to go viral.”
The success and demand for more poems resulted in his first book Zero Dark Thirty, which sold out quickly. Despite the book containing mostly short writings, even said one-liners, Cocozza emphasizes that he doesn’t write for social media. “It was a very personal project resulting from a certain period of time” in his life. There are much bigger things that he works on and plans to get involved in.
Dean Cocozza has brought back emotional depth. In-between monetized (货币化的) content, blatant (明目张胆的) advertising and “perfect lives”, social media holds a spot for a new generation of artists, including literature. Critical thinkers and authentic writers remind the app’s consumers of their emotional human nature. Art galleries and bookstores might have lost a big part of their audience to digital media — but the art itself will always find ways to survive.
1. What does the underlined word “it” in paragraph 1 refer to?| A．Written art. | B．A tough battle. | C．Social media. | D．A group of writers. |
| A．To earn a living. | B．To draw readers’ attention. |
| C．To protect his personal life. | D．To show emotional depth. |
| A．Works with emotional depth are widely accepted on social media. |
| B．People with perfect lives like social media better. |
| C．Art galleries and bookstores will soon disappear. |
| D．Arts of emotion depth still hold value on social media. |
| A．Positive. | B．Carefree. | C．Doubtful. | D．Disapproving. |
【推荐2】I first met Paul Newman in 1968, when George Roy Hill, the director of Butch Cassidy and the Sumndance Kid, introduced us in New York City. When the studio didn’t want me for the film-it wanted somebody as well-known as Paul-he stood up for me. I don’t know how many people would have done that. They would have listened to their agents or the studio powers.
The friendship that grew out of the experience of making that film and The Sting four years later had its root in the fact that although there was an age difference, we both came from a tradition of theater and live TV. We were respectful of craft(技艺) and focused on digging into the characters we were going to play. Both of us had the qualities and virtues that are typical of American actors: humorous, aggressive, and making fun of each other –but always with a feeling of fondness for each other,Those were also at the core(核心)of our relationship off the screen.
We shared the belief that if you’re fortunate enough to have success, you should give something back-he with his Newman’s Own food and his Hole-in-the-Wall camps for kids who are seriously ill, and me with Sundance and the institute and the festival. Paul and I didn’t see each other all that regularly, but sharing that brought us together. We supported each other financially and by showing up at events.
I last saw him a few months ago. He’d been in and out of the hospital. He and I both knew what the deal was, and we didn’t talk about it. Ours was a relationship that didn’t need a lot of words.
1. What brought Paul Newman and the author closer in the beginning?| A．Paul Newman offered him a lot of advice. |
| B．Paul Newman thought of the author as another well-known actor. |
| C．Paul Newman introduced the author to the director of a famous film. |
| D．Paul Newman supported the author when the studio didn’t want him for the film. |
| A．The reasons for the friendship between Paul and the author. |
| B．The activities Paul and the author participated in together. |
| C．The roles Paul and the author played in the films together. |
| D．The fun Paul and the author had together: |
| A．They were both strange and stubborn |
| B．They were both generous and helpful. |
| C．They were both selfish and inconsiderate. |
| D．They were both intelligent and adventurous. |
| A．A Shared Belief | B．A Mysterious Deal |
| C．A Lasting Friendship | D．A Strange Relationship |
【推荐3】About 30 years ago, an acoustic neuroma (听神经瘤) was found inside my body. The removal of the neuroma caused my temporary balance issues and permanent hearing loss in one ear. Apart from this, I was fine.
Unexpectedly, the neuroma came back years later. It had to be removed again. Otherwise it would threaten the rest of my brain. When I awoke from the second operation, I had stroke-like symptoms. The whole right side of my body almost stopped functioning, and still does.
Overnight my whole identity had changed. I used to effortlessly leap up the stairs two at a time, but now it takes fifteen minutes to struggle. Attempts at the recovery of the old me proved to be fruitless. My family role also shifted from a father to a dependent child, and coupled with my communication problems, this led to increased frustration (沮丧) and anger.
There were concerns too about whether I would ever be accepted again in the wider world. Soon after this I just managed to swim in a pool. A ten-year-old boy I didn’t know came up and asked me if I had been on the water slide yet. As politely as possible, I said no, and we struck up a conversation about it. For the first time a stranger was speaking to me as an equal like before. Though insignificant then, it opened doors to a whole new way of being seen, and seeing myself.
To make sure the neuroma did not reappear, I received radiation treatment for two hours regularly, during which I loved listening to music by Tom Waits, an eccentric (古 怪的) singer most people dislike, but I don’t care. For me, life after brain injury is like Waits’ odd works. Out of failure, ugliness, and horror-the most unpromising raw material-a beautiful diamond can be created that shines out even more brightly because of its dark surroundings.
1. What happened to the author after his single-sided deafness?| A．He lost the ability to keep balance. |
| B．His acoustic neuroma regrew. |
| C．He underwent two operations in a row. |
| D．His vision was accidentally damaged. |
| A．The author’s efforts to rebuild his disabled body. |
| B．The author’s self-reflection on his cultural identity. |
| C．The different attitudes of the author’s family to him. |
| D．The considerable impact of the author’s brain injury. |
| A．Reasonable. | B．Engaging. | C．Life-changing. | D．In-depth. |
| A．Music is the universal language of mankind. |
| B．Suffering often leads to new self-discovery. |
| C．Kindness is the language that the deaf can hear. |
| D．Live for yourself, not for the approval of others. |
【推荐1】Nyle DiMarco has some thoughts about inspirational viral Internet content specifically, videos showing kids who are deaf hearing for the first time. “The biggest problem is that it tends to highly praise those simple solutions and it’s a view of just a few seconds of a disabled person’s life,” DiMarco, a star model who is deaf, said.
Children with access to great measures that restore hearing, he noted, are “often from very wealthy families who are very fortunate to have the money to be able to purchase the technology needed and the training and spare the hours needed for it.” But that’s not the reality for many children who are deaf, let alone Americans of all ages who are hard of hearing.
More than 70 million deaf people worldwide use sign language, DiMarco pointed out, “but only 2 percent of them have access to education in sign language.” DiMarco, who grew up in an entirely deaf family and attended a school for the deaf, praises the benefits of learning and speaking sign language. “We had direct access to communication, to language and to love,” he said.
It was only after he persuaded his mother to allow him to attend public school in the fifth grade that he was deprived of ASL (American Sign Language) — and began to feel he was missing out. The feeling affected his self-worth, he said, and resurfaced when he joined the cast of “America’s Next Top Model!” in 2015. He said, “It was just me and a group of other models that I was competing against in the house. I tried to teach them sign, but many of them weren’t willing to learn it.”
There even came a point when DiMarco thought about giving up. But part of his mission is to make people who are deaf appear in the media more often, which didn’t happen when he was growing up. “I want to take the opportunity to work with ‘America’s Next Top Model’ to really pave a new road,” he said.
1. What’s DiMarco’s attitude towards the videos?| A．Ambiguous. | B．Appreciative. |
| C．Uninterested. | D．Disapproving. |
| A．They have wasted a lot of money on their hearing. |
| B．They are offered new technology to help them out. |
| C．They lack good measures to restore their hearing. |
| D．They are asked to spend time receiving training. |
| A．He was often made fun of at school. |
| B．He nearly couldn’t use sign language. |
| C．He couldn’t do as well in studies as others. |
| D．He had no opportunity to attend public school. |
| A．Learning to use sign language well. |
| B．Making models popular among people. |
| C．Drawing more attention to deaf people. |
| D．Winning the title of top model that season. |
【推荐2】On a July afternoon in 1937, 15-year-old Betty Brown was playing with her father’s shortwave radio and searching for her favorite songs when she casually turned the dial on the radio and heard something that made her stop. It was a voice that sounded familiar. Back in those days, news clips (新闻摘要) were played at movie theaters. Brown recognized the voice from one of the news films she had seen.
“I heard Amelia Earhart in a panicked voice, a heartbreaking voice,” Brown recalled in a 2007 interview. “She was saying, ‘This is Amelia Earhart Putnam, please help me. Please hear me.’”
Brown quickly began writing down what she heard --- parts of desperate conversations between the woman she believed was Earhart and an unknown man. Later, she decided that the man must have been Earhart’s navigator (领航员), Fred Noonan. As the signal faded in and out, Brown never left the radio. She scribbled (潦草地写) away as Earhart and Noonan struggled for control of the radio. Earhart tried to prevent Noonan from leaving the plane after they had apparently crash-landed. All the while, Earhart repeated strings of numbers and mentioned rising water. After about three hours, Earhart and Noonan were seemingly forced to abandon the plane as it was filled with water, and the distress calls (遇险呼救) stopped.
Brown and her father both tried to give her notes to the United States Coast Guard, but they were told the situation was under control. The search for Earhart was abandoned after a great effort was made. But Brown kept her notebook. In 2000, people from an organization researching Earhart’s disappearance asked to see it. The researchers were convinced that Brown’s notes were reliable. If the researchers are right, the notes are a priceless, yet sorrowful, record of the sad ending of an American hero.
1. Betty Brown stayed by the radio for so long because she________.| A．was waiting for her music to come back on |
| B．enjoyed recording people’s conversations |
| C．wanted to gather more information about Earhart’s situation |
| D．wanted to take notes for a book about Earhart |
| A．did not want to look for Earhart |
| B．did not believe Brown heard Earhart |
| C．wanted Brown to help them find Earhart |
| D．already knew where Earhart was |
| A．Determined. | B．Forgetful. | C．Independent. | D．Careless. |
【推荐3】When Ariel Cordova-Rojas rode her bike to Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge in Queens, New York, last November, she planned to go hiking and birdwatching. Bingo! A mile into her walk, she spotted a gorgeous female mute swan near the water's edge. Cordova-Rojas, 30, who had worked at the Wild Bird Fund rehabilitation center in Manhattan, knew that mute swans can be aggressive. But as she approached this one, it didn't move. She was certain that the bird needed medical attention. Cordova-Rojas draped her jacket over the bird's head to keep it calm, gingerly picked it up, and cradled it in her arms. And then a thought struck her: What do I do now?
Her best bet was the rehab center, but that was across the East River and clear on the other side of town. How was she going to transport a 17-pound swan on her bike all that way? Luckily, some bemused strangers driving by offered her, her bike, and the swan a lift to a nearby subway station.
On the subway, no one seemed particularly fazed by the feathered passenger. One guy, says Cordova-Rojas, was “sitting right in front of me on his phone. I don't know if he noticed there was a swan in front of him.”
Cordova-Rojas called the rehab center enroute, and Tristan Higginbotham, an animal-care man-ager, picked her up at the subway station and drove bird, bike, and rescuer to the facility. There, staff members determined that the swan might have lead poisoning, caused by ingesting weights used on fishing lines.
The staff got the swan back up on her webbed feet. She even made a boyfriend at the center—another injured swan. Sadly, even with all that 'TLC, the swan contracted a bacterial infection. Two months after Cordova-Rojas came to her rescue, she passed away.
It is a disappointing ending, but the real story is just how far some people are willing to go to save a swan in the big city—literally. In all, Cordova-Rojas traveled two hours by foot, car, and subway (while hauling her bike). Says Higginbotham, “That's the perfect summary of who she is.”
1. Which statement mentioned in the 1st paragraph is correct?| A．The mute swan was aggressive. |
| B．Ariel Cordova-Rojas had planned to save the swan. |
| C．The swan was dumb. |
| D．Ariel Cordova-Rojas worked in Wild Animal Fund rehabilitation center in Manhattan. |
| A．She was attacked by the hunter. | B．She swallowed some kind of metal. |
| C．She was hurt by her boyfriend. | D．She was poisoned by the fishman on purpose. |
| A．Honest and responsible. | B．Determined and caring. |
| C．Ambitious and sensitive. | D．Patient and single-minded. |
| A．To call on people to help the injured swan. |
| B．To show the importance of help. |
| C．To think highly of Cordova-Rojas. |
| D．To encourage people to share their stories with others. |
