【推荐1】The Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu once said, “If you are depressed you are living in the past. If you are anxious you are living in the future.     1    ”

After centuries, this statement is still true. People are filled with anxiety, as they struggle to make a living, or to keep up with society’s standards.    2     They are stressed because of what awaits, yet ignoring what they must do at the moment to establish a better-future for themselves. Sadly nearly one in 33 children and one in eight adolescents have clinical depression. In my view the encouragement of unhealthy competition and perfectionism has led to this problem.

    3     From an early age, my parents taught me to settle for nothing less than an A on my tests and papers, I was persuaded that my grades would determine my worth. Therefore, I denied all my friends’ invitations to their parties and practiced math over the weekend. I was embarrassed at the sight of a low A and felt pressured to keep an outward image of perfection. One day, my friend Neha said, “    4     You’re president of orchestra, an All-State violist (中提琴演奏手), an amazing tennis player, a straight A student, I mean, you’re perfect.” I smiled at Neha, though I knew that I wasn’t really perfect.    5     Preoccupied with viola, tennis, and keeping my high grades, I hadn’t given enough attention to my health. I didn’t experience depression or anxiety during this time, but I wanted to lie on the grass, on a summer day, just watching the clouds move and to walk by the shore, watching the waves lap at the sand. I wanted to live in the present.

A．Michelle, I wish I were you.

B．I avoided pleasures and studied hard.

C．On the inside, I was stressed and anxious.

D．Anxiety problems affect one in eight children.

E．If you are at peace you are living in the present.

F．Certainly, I have experienced both the guilt and anxiety that Lao Tzu described.

G．They regret their past decisions, though they cannot change what has already occurred.

【推荐2】When Wilbur and Orville Wright finished their flight at Kitty Hawk, Americans celebrated the brotherly bond. The brothers had grown up playing together, they had been in the newspaper business together, and they had built an airplane together. They even said they "thought together." However, when the Wright brothers said they thought together, what they really meant is that they argued together. After long arguments we often found ourselves in the position of each having been pulled to the other's side,"

Orville reflected. I don't think they really got mad," their mechanic (机械师) remembered, but they sure got awfully hot."

The skill to get hot without getting mad is critical in life. But it’s one that few parents teach to their kids. We want to give kids a stable home, so we ѕtор ѕіblіngѕ (兄弟姐妹) from quаrrеlіng and we have our own arguments behind closed doors. Yet if kids never get exposed to disagreement, we’ll end up limiting their creativity. As the psychologist Robert Albert put it, the creative person-to-be comes from a family that is anything but harmonious, one with a “wobble (摇晃).”Orville Wright came from a wobbly family. The brothers often watched their father Milton Wright fight with school authorities who weren't fond of his decision to let his kids miss a half-day of school from time to time to learn on their own.

The Wright brothers weren't t alone. The Beatles fought over instruments and tunes. Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak argued constantly while designing the first Apple computer. Brainstorming groups generate16 percent more ideas when the members are encouraged to criticize one another. The most creative ideas in Chinese technology companies come from teams that have real disagreement early on.

Children need to learn the value of thoughtful disagreement. We should teach kids that silence is bad manners. It disrespects the value of your own view point and your own voice. It's a sign of respect to care enough about someone's opinion that you’re willing to challenge it. Good arguments are wobbly: a team or family might rock back and forth but it never tips over. If kids don't learn to wobble, they never learn to walk; they end up standing still.

1. What does the author say about the Wright brothers?

A．They always took advice from their mechanic.

B．They knew little about the newspaper business.

C．They often held conflicting opinions.

D．They kept a very tense relationship.

2. What sort of father was Milton Wright?

A．Untraditional.	B．Generous.
C．Scholarly.	D．Sensitive.

3. What does the author intend to do in Paragraph 3?

A．Summarize the previous paragraphs.	B．Add some background information.
C．Introduce a new topic for discussion.	D．Provide more examples to support his idea.

4. What is the best title for the text?

A．Conversation matter in a family kids	B．Uncomfortable silence harms Kids.
C．Kids, would you please start fighting:	D．Parents, would you please stop arguing?

【推荐1】In November 2019, Luke Summerscales and Jessica Jacobs were in a remote mountain range of New South Wales, fighting some of the worst bush-fires on record in Australia, when another disaster struck: a fellow firefighter collapsed from a heart attack. The nearest ambulance was more than an hour away and the terrain（地形）was too steep for a rescue helicopter to land, so the pair started doing CPR on 53-year-old John Kennedy until he was able to breathe on his own.

In November 2020, the Country Fire Authority recognized their actions by giving them both Chief Officer Commendation awards. But they're volunteers. Summerscales builds houses for a living; Jacobs works as a university lab technician. Starting in late 2019, as record fires spread fast across their nation during its summer season, they joined tens of thousands of Australians who set aside their usual lives to help stop the spread of the fires.

As climate change heightens both the frequency and intensity（强度）of bushfires, firefighters are being tested to new extremes. Australia unusually relies on volunteer labor in the state of New South Wales, which suffered some of the country's most severe fires during the 2019-2020 bushfire season, close to 90% of the men and women fighting fires were volunteers. It's been this way for more than a century in Australia, with ordinary citizens working together to protect the land.

2019 was Australia's hottest and driest on record, and the resulting fires all but exhausted the men and women constantly called to battle them. Peter Holding, 66, who has been a volunteer firefighter for 43 years, says he's never seen anything as severe as last summer's bushfire season. Still, as Australia's fire season intensifies in late 2020, its volunteer firefighters are preparing to do battle again.

1. What can we know from Paragraph 1?

A．Australia keeps a world record of the worst bush fire.

B．Kennedy has been a volunteer firefighter for a long time.

C．Australia can't provide search and rescue for remote areas.

D．Summerscales and Jacobs know how to perform first aid.

2. What can we infer about Summerscales and Jacobs?

A．They used to work in a hospital.

B．They once suffered from heart attack.

C．They are not professional firefighters.

D．They don't deserve to get the award.

3. What does the underlined phrase “this way” in paragraph 3 refer to?

A．Volunteers are the main force in fighting fires in New South Wales.

B．Ordinary citizens are unwilling to be professional firefighters.

C．New South Wales always suffers the most severe bush-fire.

D．Firefighters in New South Wales bear great pressure in summer.

4. What is the text mainly about?

A．Australia's forest fires.	B．Fire management in Australia.
C．Australia's volunteer firefighters.	D．The climate change in Australia.

【推荐2】Artie Shaw was born in New York City in 1910. His parents were poor persons who had come to the United States from Eastern Europe. At the age of fourteen, he began to play the saxophone(萨克斯管) and then the clarinet(竖笛). From very young age, Artie Shaw wanted to play his clarinet better than anyone. He wanted his sound and music to be perfect, so he began working as a professional musician when he was fifteen, and he left home and began playing in bands across the United States.

In 1927, young Artie Shaw traveled to Chicago, Illinois to hear the great trumpet (小号) player, Louis Armstrong. He immediately understood that Armstrong’s great jazz sound was the beginning of something new and exciting. Artie left Chicago with a growing interest in jazz music. Soon after, he moved to New York City. He got work playing the clarinet for the Columbia Broadcast System radio network in1936. He was given chance to found his band and play at New York’s famous Imperial Theater on Broadway. His group was not the top band in the show. But the crowd loved his music. This proved to be a major step in his career.

In 1938, Artie Shaw and his band recorded what would be one of their most popular songs. It sold millions of records. It still sells several thousand each year. Shaw was surprised that it became so popular. The song is "Begin the Beguine" written by Cole Porter. However, the fame caused problems for Shaw. He could not go anywhere without being recognized. He no longer had a private life.

On Dec. 13th, 2004, Artie Shaw died after a long sickness. He was ninety-four years old. He was the last great musician and bandleader of what has been called the “Big Band Era”.

1. When was Artie Shaw born?

A．In 1936.

B．In1927.

C．In 1938

D．In 1910.

2. How old was Artie Shaw when he founded his own band?

A．Twenty-six.

B．Twenty-seven.

C．Seventeen.

D．Twenty-eight.

3. What can we infer from paragraph 3?

A．Artie Shaw knew his records would be popular.

B．Artie Shaw wanted the fans to recognize him.

C．Artie Shaw's records sold well.

D．Artie Shaw recorded his first record in 1938.

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

A．Artie Shaw-a Famous Musician	B．Artie Shaw Made Band Famous
C．Artie Shaw and His Bands	D．Artie Shaw Recorded Many Songs

【推荐3】It was an autumn morning shortly after my husband and I moved into our first house. Our children were upstairs unpacking, and I was looking out of the window at my father moving around mysteriously on the front lawn. My parents lived nearby, and Dad had visited us several times already. “What are you doing out there?” I called to him.
He looked up, smiling. “I’m making you a surprise.” Knowing my father, I thought it could be just about anything. A self-employed jobber, he was always building things out of odds and ends. When we were kids, he always created something surprising for us.
Today, however, Dad would say no more, and caught ups in the busyness of our new life, I eventually forgot about his surprise.
Until one gloomy day the following March when I glanced out of the window. Any yet… I saw a dot of blue across the yard. I headed outside for a closer look. They were crocuses (番红花), throughout the front lawn. Lavender, blue, yellow and my favorite pink --- little faces moved up and down in the cold wind.
Dad! I smiled, remembering the things he had secretly planted last autumn. He knew how the darkness and dullness of winter always got me down. What could have been more perfectly timely to my needs?
My father’s crocuses bloomed each spring for the next four or five seasons, bringing the same assurance every time they arrived: hard times was almost over. Hold on, keep going, light is coming soon.
Then a spring came with only half the usual blooms. The next spring there were none. I missed the crocuses. I would ask Dad to come over and plant new bulbs. But I never did.
He died suddenly one October day. My family was in deep sorrow, leaning on our faith. I missed him terribly.
Four years passed, and on a dismal spring afternoon I was driving back when I found myself feeling depressed. “You’ve got the winter depression again and you get them every year.” I told myself.
It was Dad’s birthday, and I found myself thinking about him. This was not unusual --- my family often talked about him, remembering how he lived his faith. Once I saw him give his coat to a homeless man.
Suddenly I slowed as I turned into our driveway. I stopped and stared at the lawn. And there on the muddy grass and small gray piles of melting snow, bravely waving in the wind, was one pink crocus.
How could a flower bloom from a bulb more than 18 years old, one that had not blossomed in over a decade? But there was the crocus. Tears filled my eyes as I realized its significance.
Hold on, keep going, light is coming soon. The pink crocus bloomed for only a day. But it built my faith for a lifetime.
1. According to the first three paragraphs, we learn that _________.

A．the writer was unpacking when her father was making the surprise

B．the writer knew what the surprise was because she knew her father

C．it was not the first time that the writer’s father had made a surprise

D．it kept bothering the writer not knowing what the surprise was

2. Which of the following would most probably be the worst time of the year as seen by the writer?

A．Spring.

B．Summer.

C．Autumn.

D．Winter.

3. The writer’s father should be best described as_________.

A．a full-time gardener with skillful hands

B．a part-time jobber who loved flowers

C．a kind-hearted man who lived with faith

D．an ordinary man with doubts in his life

4. At the end of the passage, crocus was viewed as the symbol of _________ by the writer.

A．faith

B．family

C．love

D．friendship

【推荐2】The World Is Our Classroom

Tonight, our family was going out to play under the full moon.

We first started going on full moon walks for ourselves, because my husband Todd and I, loved them and we needed these little doses of moonlight to stay happy and to function in society. But after we became parents, we did this for Sierra and Bryce. We wanted the kids to see that there is much magic in the natural world, most of which is accessible to anyone. We also wanted to show them it was not necessary to travel far from home to have an adventure, learn, and experience something new. Nearly every month, our family went into the night to “play” by the full moon.

Once we arrived at our location that evening, Sierra and I stood holding hands, waiting to cheer the full moon in its rising. A thin sliver of the apricot (杏黄色) moon poked above the Blue Mountain Ridge. Everyone stood up, witnessing its rising. More of the moon came out until it turned into a brilliant orange sphere. Todd explained to the children that the moon makes no light of its own, but simply acts like a mirror, reflecting the sun light back to us. “Does the moon’s face change?” Bryce asked. I told him that the moon rotates with the earth and the same side of the moon is always facing earth. We never see the other side, the far side of the moon. Sierra remarked that the moon looked larger when it was rising. I explained that it is an optical illusion (视错觉) because it is so close to the horizon that the moon tricks our eyes.

Much of the knowledge that Todd and I shared with them had been learned from our past life experiences. If we did not have the knowledge to explain and educate, we looked it up, either beforehand to enhance the experience, or afterwards, together, after we wondered and came up with a list of questions.

Sometimes all it takes is going outdoors and gazing up at the heavens.

1. What does the underlined word “this” in paragraph 2 refer to?

A．Going outdoors to watch full moon.	B．Going on a hike through the forest.
C．Visiting a museum to learn about space.	D．Traveling far from home to have an adventure.

2. Which of the following statements is true about the children on the family outing?

A．It was a rare chance for them to play under the full moon.

B．They felt forced to watch the moon coming out with their parents.

C．They remained curious and kept digging deeper about the moon.

D．They knew the answers to all the questions put up by their parents.

3. What can we learn from paragraph 4 about the author and her husband?

A．They did not make much effort to teach their children.

B．They gained all the knowledge from their past experiences.

C．They left some questions for the kids to get them thinking after each trip.

D．They sometimes looked up information in advance to better educate their children.

4. Choose the best sentence to complete the last paragraph.

A．As we stared up at the sky, a brilliant shooting star raced across the sky.

B．Families have to spend a ton of money to have fun and learn.

C．Opportunities to seek magical experiences and learning is right around us.

D．Wonder often occurs when you don’t quite understand what something is.

【推荐3】On one of her trips to New York several years ago, Eudora Welty decided to take a couple of New York friends out to dinner. They settled in at a comfortable East Side cafe and within minutes, another customer was approaching their table.

“Hey, aren’t you from Mississippi?” the elegant, white-haired writer remembered being asked by the stranger. “I’m from Mississippi too.”

Without a second thought, the woman joined the Welty party. When her dinner partner showed up, she also pulled up a chair.

“They began telling me all the news of Mississippi,” Welty said. “I didn’t know what my New York friends were thinking.”

Taxis on a rainy New York night are rarer than sunshine. By the time the group got up to leave, it was pouring outside. Welty’s new friends immediately sent a waiter to find a cab. Heading back downtown toward her hotel, her big-city friends were amazed at the turn of events that had changed their Big Apple dinner into a Mississippi state reunion (团聚).

“My friends said: ‘Now we believe your stories,’” Welty added. “And I said: ‘Now you know. These are the people that make me write them.’”

Sitting on a sofa in her room, Welty, a slim figure in a simple gray dress, looked pleased with this explanation.

“I don’t make them up,” she said of the characters in her fiction these last 50 or so years. “I don’t have to.”

Beauticians, bartenders, piano players and people with purple hats, Welty’s people come from afternoons spent visiting with old friends, from walks through the streets of her native Jackson, Miss., from conversations overheard on a bus. It annoys Welty that, at 78, her left ear has now given out. Sometimes, sitting on a bus or a train, she hears only a fragment (片段) of a particularly interesting story.

1. What happened when Welty was with her friends at the cafe?

A．Two strangers joined her.	B．Her childhood friends came in.
C．A heavy rain ruined the dinner.	D．Some people held a party there.

2. Why the the stranger told Welty stories?

A．They were friends.	B．They wanted her to write them into books.
C．They wanted to know the famous writer.	D．They just wanted to share.

3. The underlined word “them” in Paragraph 6 refers to Welty’s ________.

A．readers

B．parties

C．friends

D．stories

4. What can we learn about the characters in Welty’s fiction?

A．They live in big cities.	B．They are mostly women.
C．They come from real life.	D．They are pleasure seekers.