【推荐2】British children generally learn how to ride a bike at a young age. I am an exception to that rule. It’s not my dad’s fault—he tried to teach me. I remember cycling around the neighbourhood. To be honest, though, I never saw the appeal. One of my earliest memories is falling from my bike and into some spiny (多刺的) plants. I definitely didn’t want to repeat that.

So I stopped learning. My dad wasn’t going to waste his time teaching someone who didn’t want to be taught. Time passed and I accepted that I couldn’t ride a bike. It never affected my life in high school because I lived close enough to walk.

I never felt like I was missing out until I couldn’t go on a bike ride with friends in Byron Bay because I was only confident that I could go on a flat surface in a generally straight line. So when the opportunity came up to bike the wall of Xi’an, I wanted to prove to myself that I could do it and make up for missed time. So, with a friend who is very patient, I got on the bike. Instantly nothing came flooding back to me, I had absolutely no idea how to start! “Push off with one foot hard” was my instruction. It sounded simple enough but it just would not happen. Until something clicked and suddenly I was off, going in a straight line on a flat surface and managing to avoid the Chinese tourists who obviously found exaltation my face.

At 22 years old, I finally learnt how to ride a bike, and nothing can hold me back.

1. Why didn’t the author learn to ride a bike as a child?

A．She was not brave enough.	B．There was no need to do so.
C．Her father was too busy to teach him.	D．Her father thought it a waste of time.

2. When was she determined to learn to ride?

A．When her friend offered to teach her how to ride.

B．When her friends went on a bike ride in Byron Bay.

C．When she wanted to ride a bike along Xi’an City Wall.

D．When she was travelling by bike in Byron Bay with her friend.

3. Which of the following can replace the underlined word “exaltation” in the Paragraph 3?

A．interest

B．shock

C．calmness

D．excitement

4. What can we conclude from the story?

A．Motivation (动机) is the best teacher.	B．Failure is the mother of success.
C．No rule has no exceptions.	D．It’s never too old to learn.

【推荐1】It has been a year since I found out my friend had passed away. I still store his phone number, even though I know calling the number will never reach him again. I feel like if I deleted (删除) his phone number, it would mean he was really gone.

Over the past few years, we have planned to travel together just to see the dolphins in the sea. However, for some reasons it didn’t happen, yet I always took his calls over the years. We shared a lot of interests.

When I knew that he had been diagnosed (诊断) with a very serious illness and was in hospital, I remembered sending messages to him. I did not receive a message back, so I left a voicemail. A week later, I sent him a message once again. However, I still didn’t get a reply. I thought he was busy. During the next several months I was very busy, too. Suddenly, in that mid-summer, I received a short message: “Sorry, Marlynn, He has passed away.”

I was vey sad and surprised at the words. I was very sad and regretful. I regretted that I let the months pass without trying again. I worked with many people who had also lost their best friends. The sadness is often unspeakable. There is guilt (内疚), helplessness and sadness that is difficult to put into words.

Now I try to be grateful for the times and memories we have. I realize the best thing that we can do is value the ones we love.

1. What do we know about the writer’s friend?

A．He lived by himself.

B．He deleted the writer’s phone number.

C．He has gone to a far-away city.

D．He has been dead for a year.

2. What did the writer do when he didn’t receive her friend’s message?

A．She telephoned him.

B．She left a voice message to him.

C．She wrote to him a week later.

D．She visited him right away.

3. What does the author want to express in paragraph 4?

A．Her hard working experience.

B．People’s attitude towards life.

C．Her sadness of losing friends.

D．Her surprise at her friend’s illness.

4. What can be the best title for the text?

A．Never Regret	B．Value the Ones We Love
C．A Friend with Illness	D．Be Grateful for the Future Time

【推荐2】My neighbour Orlando is a paramedic (护理人员). He and his wife are some of the nicest people I have ever met. A few years back we started this sort of “favor war”, where one of us would do something for the other, such as shoveling (铲) his driveway or helping him build a shed, and next time the other would try to top it with another favor.

Yesterday morning there was maybe 2 or 3 feet of snow on the ground and I remembered he shoveled my driveway for me last snowfall. So I took out my shovel and took care of both our sidewalks and driveways because it was my turn to do a favor back. It took a while but I finished and got into my car for work. What I did not realize was that Orlando had to work that day too.

Fast forward to this morning I got a knock on my door. It was him. He immediately shook my hand and informed me that because I shoveled his driveway and sidewalk for him, he was able to get to work earlier. As soon as he started his shift, a call came through that a young boy was in a medical emergency. Luckily he and his partner were only about 2 minutes away, but the next closest ambulance was in 10 minutes. This kid didn’t have 10 minutes. He barely had 2 minutes. Because my neighbour got to work sooner, the young boy got to live his life.

This isn’t a brag (吹嘘). This is to inform others that even the smallest favors can have the biggest impacts. It wasn’t too much of trouble to shovel his driveway for him, but because I did, the young kid got to see his family again, go back to school again, talk to his friends again and live his life.

1. What can we know about the writer and Orlando?

A．They once had a conflict.	B．They signed a favorable agreement.
C．They favor shoveling snow together.	D．They are always ready to help each other.

2. Who saved the boy before it was too late?

A．The writer.	B．The boy’s parents.
C．Orlando and his partner.	D．Orlando and his wife.

3. Why did Orlando knock on the author’s door in the morning?

A．To tell him to clear up the snow.	B．To tell him to do a favour back.
C．To express his thanks to him.	D．To say he started his shift.

4. What does the writer intend to tell us?

A．Never ask for trouble.	B．No favor is too small.
C．One cannot always be lucky.	D．Don’t lose heart in an emergency.

【推荐3】Mr. Bean is an internationally recognized comedy character on TV and in films. He constantly gets into awkward and absurd situations, which greatly amuses audiences regardless of their nationalities or culture. The humour is always made clear through a series of simple and funny acts that rely purely on body language, which is universal.

One of my favourite shows is that Mr. Bean has a meal in a fancy restaurant. After being seated at his table, Mr. Bean takes out a card, writes a few words on it, seals (密封) it in an envelope and places it on the table. After a moment, he looks back at the envelope but this time he looks surprised, as if he did not know it was there. He opens it to find a birthday card and delightedly puts it on the table for everyone to see.

When he looks at the menu, an astonished look swiftly appears on his face. He takes all the money out of his wallet, counts it and puts it in a saucer(茶托). He then looks from the menu to the money with concern until he finds one thing that makes him smile. Then he orders a dish called “steak tartare”. When the dish arrives, he is shocked to discover that “steak tartare” is actually raw hamburger. He makes an attempt to eat it, but it is clear from the look on his face that he finds the taste truly disgusting. He cannot hide his feelings, except when the waiter asks if everything is all right. When this happens, he smiles and nods, indicating that everything is fine. When the waiter is not looking, however, he busies himself hiding the raw meat anywhere he can reach — the sugar bowl, the tiny flower vase, inside a bun (小圆面包) and under a plate. He becomes so desperate in the end that he even hides some inside the purse of a woman sitting near him and throws some down the trousers of the restaurant’s violinist!

I like to watch Mr. Bean on TV, but I wouldn’t like to meet someone like him in real life and I certainly wouldn’t like to have dinner with him!

1. From the passage we know Mr. Bean is ________.

A．famous for directing films

B．famous for his spoken English

C．well known for making films

D．known for his body language and amusement in his comedies

2. Why is Mr. Bean famous all over the world?

A．He often eats in special restaurants.

B．He entertains the audience from different countries.

C．He only acts on TV.

D．He acts on body language and spoken language.

3. What does the underlined word “disgusting” in the third paragraph mean?

A．Tasting delicious.	B．Smelling good.
C．Feeling sick.	D．Looking fine.

4. Which of the following is the best title of this passage?

A．Mr. Bean — A Top Humour Actor

B．Raw Hamburger Tastes Disgusting

C．Being Mannered in a Restaurant

D．How to Pretend to Like Something Boring

【推荐1】It was June 14 and the last day of middle school had arrived.

I had spent the past couple of months trashing and treasuring all the things that I had accumulated in my classroom over the past 19 years. Looking into my classroom, you can see about two dozen boxes and bins inside, piled nearly three-quarters high to the ceiling, all packed and ready for the big move. The 22-million-dollar restoration work was only days away from starting and we were instructed that everything must go.

My parents Michael and Donna, wife Laura and newborn baby Summer had arrived that day. The students had heard so much about my daughter and were excited to meet her for the first time. My mother was there to help organize my classroom nearly 19 years ago and hadn’t seen it since. My father had visited on a few occasions, as had my wife. That day marked not only the end of an era for me, but the dawning of a new beginning.

The day before, I had thrown a party for my students. The feelings were mixed, as I knew that this would be the farewell (告别) party in my classroom of 19 years and the last time I would see all of these students together. I thought back to when they were all in middle school and would visit me in my classroom on my birthday. They made it an annual tradition. I will treasure these moments for the rest of my life.

Change, like sunshine, can be a friend or a foe (敌人), a blessing or a curse, a dawn or a dusk. I’ve learned over the years in working with over 2, 000 children that looking at things from an optimistic perspective and taking the time to foster relationships with people make the world a happier and safer place. No matter what a person’s life circumstances may be, you can be the change in their life that will bring them a sense of self-worth, which will ultimately provide them with the opportunity to become who they are meant to be. They might go on to change the world.

1. Why did the author pack his things in the classroom?

A．He was doing a cleaning.

B．He would quit his job as a teacher.

C．The classroom would soon be restored.

D．His students were graduating from middle school.

2. Why are the writer’s family members mentioned in paragraph 3?

A．To explain the family’s relations with his students.

B．To demonstrate the family’s involvement in his job.

C．To list the family’s contribution to the classroom.

D．To show the family’s expectations for a new beginning.

3. What does the writer intend to convey in the last paragraph?

A．Think of the end in every beginning.

B．Change happens for better or for worse.

C．It is no good feeling attached to a place.

D．A positive attitude brings forth good changes.

4. What’s the tone of the writer in writing the article?

A．Bittersweet.

B．Sad.

C．Excited.

D．Unconcemed.

【推荐2】My phone rang after I boarded a plane. It was my former PhD adviser calling to tell me a preprint had just been posted that identified imperfections in a paper we’d published in Nature. My stomach dropped as he told me the authors of the critique (评论) were demanding a retraction (撤回). I was overcome by a mix of emotions — disbelief, embarrassment, frustration — and wondering what this would mean for my career.

I took out my laptop and logged on the airport WiFi to read the critique myself. It was unpleasant and thorough, pointing out several fundamental imperfections in our methods and the underlying data, which we’d gathered from other studies.

The fallout was swift and intense. I received a flood of emails and messages. Some were from supportive colleagues, while others were critical of our work. As the first author of the paper and the person who had done all of the data analysis, I felt deeply embarrassed by the criticism.

We wrote a draft response, correcting the apparent errors in the data set and defending our methods. However, after receiving feedback from peer reviewers, we decided against publishing our response.

When it became clear that the retraction was unavoidable, I formally offered my resignation to my department head. He didn’t accept it, saying a resignation wasn’t needed considering the errors in the paper were honest mistakes.

The experience helped me grow as a scientist. I learned that it is better to be open and accountable, even if it means admitting mistakes. I can’t expect myself to know everything as a scientist and my work will be stronger if I seek out diverse expertise and opinions.

In the end, the reality is that retractions are a necessary part of the scientific process — and one that shouldn’t be viewed only through a negative lens. Retractions can also be an opportunity to learn and improve. Honest mistakes happen, and researchers should be encouraged, not punished, for doing the right thing and retracting imperfect work.

1. What news did the author get after boarding the plane?

A．His career might be influenced by his paper.

B．His research paper would be published soon.

C．Some mistakes were found in his published paper.

D．His adviser demanded that he should retract his paper.

2. What does the underlined word “fallout” in Para. 3 mean?

A．Consequence.

B．Answer.

C．Pain.

D．Shame.

3. Why was the author’s resignation refused?

A．He had a good reputation of honesty.

B．He didn’t make mistakes intentionally.

C．He had corrected his mistakes in the paper.

D．His response was against by peer reviewers.

4. What lesson did the author learn from his experience?

A．Retractions can be a chance to learn.

B．Scientists had better know everything.

C．Honest mistakes are necessary in science.

D．Admitting mistakes is really embarrassing.

【推荐3】The sun was rising as we drove across the Minnesota state line to New York for my new Ph.D. program. The move was good for me professionally, but I worried about my husband and daughters. I also feared that I wouldn’t be able to give my kids the childhood they deserved.

Anne, our first daughter, came into the world when I was a junior majoring in biology in college. It was challenging to balance classes, work schedules, and being a mom. But I got it through, finding moments of delight along the way. On the nights when I was at home, I’d read my class notes out loud with my daughter. She’d respond by asking questions, such as “Mom, what are bacteria?” It helped us both learn.

After I graduated, I knew that I would need a Ph.D. to land the kind of job I wanted. I arrived in New York feeling more than the usual new⁃grad⁃student anxiety. I also suffered from a more personal fear that I was selfish—my decision to invigorate my career was going to have long⁃term negative impacts on my kids.

Over the past year, though, I’ve started to let go of some of the worry. I’ve realized that not only have we adapted to our new situation, but things are getting better. My husband has landed a job that he is happy with. Anne has dreamed of becoming a marine biologist. Recently, while driving past the cancer institute I work at, Anne said, “Thinking about people having cancer is so sad, but I feel better knowing that you are researching it to help.”

Navigating academia as a young mother is hard, but it’s also rewarding. My kids are learning to look at the world through the lens of science, and watching their mom succeed inspires them. I look forward to seeing them follow in my footsteps, whatever path they choose.

1. How did the writer feel about the move for her Ph.D. program?

A．It was fruitful but exhausting.	B．It was the last thing she would do.
C．It was hopeful but challenging.	D．It was promising for the whole family.

2. Which can best replace the underlined word “invigorate” in Paragraph 3?

A．Promote.

B．Change.

C．Create.

D．Choose.

3. What could be inferred from Anne’s words in Paragraph 4?

A．People are afraid of having cancer.	B．Cancer is the No.1 enemy of health.
C．Her mother takes her job seriously.	D．Anne is proud of her mother.

4. What could be the best title of the text?

A．Onwards and Upwards	B．Double Gains of Mom’s Pursuit
C．Like Mother, Like Daughter	D．The Generation Gap Narrowed by Love