【推荐2】When I lived in Spain, some Spanish friends of mine decided to visit England by car. Before they left, they asked me for advice about how to find accommodation. I suggested that they should stay at “bed and breakfast” houses, because this kind of accommodation gives a foreign visitor a good chance to speak English with the family. My friends listened to my advice, but they came back with some funny stories.

“We didn’t stay at “bed and breakfast” houses,” they said, “because we found that most families were away on holiday.”

I thought this was strange. Finally I understood what had happened. My friends spoke little English, and they thought “VACANCIES” meant “holidays”, because the Spanish word for “holidays” is “vacaciones”. So they did not go to house where the sign outside said “VACANCIES”, which in English means there are free rooms. Then my friends went to house where the sign said “NO VACANCIES”, because they thought this meant the people who owned the house were not away on holiday. But they found that these houses were all full. As a result, they stayed at hotels!

We laughed about this and about mistakes my friends made in reading other signs. In Spanish, the word “DIVERSION” means fun. In English, it means that workmen are repairing the road, and that you must take a different road. When my friends saw the word “DIVERSION” on a road sign, they thought they were going to have fun. Instead, the road ended in a large hole.

English people have problems too when they learn foreign languages. Once in Paris, when someone offered me some more coffee, I said “Thank you” in French. I meant that I would like some more. However, to my surprise, the coffeepot was taken away! Later I found out that “Thank you” in French means “No, thank you.”

1. The writer’s friends in Spain wanted to get advice about ________.

A．the chance of learning English	B．the way of going to England
C．the traffic rules in England	D．finding places to stay in England

2. The writer suggested that they stay at “bed and breakfast" houses because

A．it would be convenient for them to have dinner

B．it would be much cheaper than staying in hotels

C．they would be able to practise their English

D．there would be no problem about finding accommodation there

3. The writer’s friends stayed at hotels at last because ________.

A．they misunderstood the signs outside the door

B．there were no such “bed and breakfast” houses in England

C．they found there were no free rooms there

D．people there were away on holiday

4. If you see a road sign that says “DIVERSION” in England, you will ________.

A．fall into a hole

B．have to take a different road

C．find that the road is stopped by lots of people

D．have a lot of fun and enjoy yourself

5. When a Frenchman is offered more coffee and he says “Thank you”, he really means ________.

A．he doesn’t want any more coffee

B．he wants to show his amazement

C．he just wants to show his politeness

D．he wants to have some more coffee

【推荐3】I like writing; I like meeting people; I like discovering new things, then telling everyone about them; and I couldn’t keep a secret if you paid me. So I became a journalist.

I wrote for my school magazine, did unpaid work on my local paper, took a master’s degree, got a part-time job, and then became a full-time journalist.

Or at least that is what my resume would say; but the life of a journalist is more exciting than that---even if that excitement can come with a side of pain and frustration.

I have lost count of the numbers of e-mails I have had ignored. I have spent hours at meetings listening as hard as I could for a story——only to go home empty-handed.

Once I ran around knocking on doors in a dark, dangerous-looking street in the snow to find a woman who (my editor had told me) “woke at night to find water pouring on her head”. Somehow I found her. I took photos. I interviewed her, the building owner and the fireman. I wrote the story...then I opened the paper to find it at the back, which on name on it, only 100 words long.

Strangely, though, that challenge made me want to keep going. If you do succeed, the rewards of journalism are truly great.

I once wrote about an old people’s home where residents, including a 90-year-old blind man, were living in rooms that were full of fleas, and being told to do their own repairs. A week after the story was published, the residents phoned me, overjoyed. The managers had apologized and promised to change their ways.

Journalism can be dangerous and dull, and the pay (at least in the UK) is usually terrible. But it’s also one of the most thrilling, rewarding jobs around. For me, there is no better career than making a difference- and telling the world about it.

1. What is the article mainly about?

A．Getting started in a career in journalism

B．The author’s colorful experiences as a journalist.

C．How you can be a good journalist.

D．Why life is easier for male journalist.

2. According to the author, her frustration in her job often comes from_______.

A．unfair treatment

B．fruitless efforts

C．misunderstanding

D．danger and risks

3. What deeply attracts the author as a journalist is that _______.

A．she gets to see her name printed

B．she earns a lot through writing fun stories

C．she can meet different people and hear their stories

D．she can help others and bring about changes in people’s lives

4. From the article we can conclude that the author_______.

A．is not good at keeping secrets.

B．does not mind the challenges in her career.

C．is not appreciated by her editor.

D．is interested in exciting and dangerous work.

【推荐1】During the past few weekends, we held the first 24-Hour Play Festival on campus, the first event our school has held.

The event started in the Playhouse Theater at 8 p.m. on Friday with students who signed up to be either an actor, director or playwright (编剧).Then the chair announced the theme of the event from a pool of play themes. Playwrights had 12 hours to write a 10-miute play based on the theme, which meant that they had to work all night to get the scripts (剧本) ready before 8 a.m. on Saturday. Directors received scripts and had 12 hours with actors to start their rehearsals (排练). Everyone would perform at 8 p.m. on Saturday.

As a stage manager, I had to make sure everything went well. It was really exciting because this was our first time. The performers did an excellent job. I was amazed at the playwrights’ beautiful scripts and the ideas they represented. Among those stories, there were many themes including friendship, love and equality.

One of my favorite plays was about friendship. In the play, a girl and a boy haven’t seen each other for a long time. One day, they meet by accident. At first, they are nervous because they do not know where to start. It was so real that it reminded me of my friend and me. When they talked about good memories in the past and expectations of the future, I was moved. They moved like birds on the stage, and my heart followed.

The actors were amazing. They had to memorize all their lines in 12 hours. Directors also contributed great ideas in such a short time. I was really excited to watch the performance and be one of the staff. It was not easy starting from zero, but as long as there is a beginning, a story always forms.

1. What do we know about the 24-Hour Play Festival?

A．The play theme was decided by the playwrights.

B．Each student could be both an actor and a director.

C．Students were pressed for time to prepare for the play.

D．Actors had to work all night for the rehearsals.

2. How did the author feel about her job as a stage manager?

A．Nervous.

B．Disappointed.

C．Bored.

D．Excited.

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

A．She was absorbed in the play.	B．She expected a lot about the future.
C．The play was based on her real life.	D．The play reminded her of her love story.

4. What’s the author’s purpose in writing the text?

A．To share her special experience on campus.

B．To express her pride in being a stage manager.

C．To describe how to hold a 24-Hour Play Festival.

D．To encourage readers to watch and write plays.

【推荐2】Days after Argentina canceled all international passenger flights to protect the country from the new coronavirus, Juan Manuel Ballestero began his journey home the only way possible: He stepped aboard his small sailboat for an 85-day journey across the Atlantic.

The 47-year-old sailor could have stayed put on the tiny Portuguese island of Porto Santo, to ride out the times of lockdowns and social distancing in a beautiful place largely spared by the virus. But the idea of spending what he thought could be “the end of the world” away from his family, especially his father who was soon to turn 90, was unbearable. “I didn’t want to stay like a coward (懦夫) on an island where there were no cases,” Mr. Ballestero said. “I wanted to do everything possible to return home. The most important thing for me was to be with my family.”

He bought his sailboat in 2017, hoping to take it on a travel around the world. It proved up to the task of sailing across an ocean when the pandemic was spreading across the planet.

“I wasn’t afraid, but I did have a lot of uncertainty,” he said. “It was very strange to sail in the middle of a pandemic with humanity becoming increasingly less valued around me.” Sailing can be a lonely passion, and it was particularly so on this voyage for Mr. Ballestero.

Despite the expansiveness of the ocean, Mr. Ballestero felt he was in a quarantine (隔离) of sorts, imprisoned by a continuous stream of bad feelings about what the future held. “I was locked up in my own freedom,” he recalled.

When he made it to his hometown on June 17, he was startled by the hero’s welcome he received. “Entering my port where my father had his sailboat, where he taught me so many things and where I learned how to sail and where all this originated, gave me the taste of a mission accomplished,” he said.

1. What drove Mr. Ballestero eventually decide to sail back home?

A．Because he bought a sailboat.

B．Because he thought family came first.

C．Because he wanted to show his bravery.

D．Because all international flights were canceled.

2. What does the underlined word “it” in paragraph 3 refer to?

A．The sailboat.	B．The pandemic.
C．The travel around the world.	D．The task of sailing across the ocean.

3. How did Mr. Ballestero feel when he sailed across the ocean?

A．Afraid and sad.	B．Free and relaxed.
C．Lonely and strange.	D．Unsure and isolated.

4. What’s the best title for the passage?

A．A Mission Accomplished

B．A Travel across Atlantic

C．A Solo Sail towards Family

D．A Journey from Portuguese to Argentina

【推荐3】       Mark Twain left school when he was twelve. He had little school education but had to live. He made millions of dollars by writing whose real name was Samuel Langhorne Clemens, but he is better known all over the world as Mark Twain, his penname.
       Mark Twain was born in 1835 and he was not a healthy baby. In fact, he was not expected to live through the first winter. But with his mother’s tender care, he managed to survive. As a boy, he caused much trouble for his parents.
       After his father’s death in 1847, Mark Twain began to work for a printer, who only provided him with food and clothing. Then, he worked as a printer, a river-boat pilot(领航员) and later joined the army. But shortly after that he became a miner. During this period, he started to write short stories. Afterwards he became a full-time writer.
       In 1870, Mark Twain got married. In the years that followed he wrote many books including Tom Sawyer in 1876, and Huckleberry Finn in 1884, which made him famous, and brought him a great fortune.
       Unfortunately, Mark Twain got into debts in bad investments(投资) and he had to write large numbers of stories to pay these debts. In 1904, his wife died and then three of their children passed away.
       At the age of 70, his hair was completely white. He bought many white suits and neckties. He wore nothing but white from head to foot until his death on April 21, 1910.(260 words)
1. Mark Twain left school at 12 to ____________

A．write stories

B．make a living

C．join the army

D．work as a printer

2. What’s the right order of the following events about Mark Twain’s life?
a. working as a printer
b. working as a river-boat pilot
c. working as a miner
d. joining the army
e. working as a full-time writer

A．a,b,c,d,e

B．a,b,d,c,e

C．a,c,b,d,e

D．c,a,b,d,e

3. What brought Mark Twain fame and lots of money?

A．His works.

B．His investments.

C．His printing.

D．His family.

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

A．Mark Twain’s life

B．Mark Twain’s works

C．Mark Twain’s death

D．Mark Twain’s success

【推荐1】Some people say that the planet is getting smaller, that there are few places left to explore, and that the age of exploration will be over soon.

I would argue instead that there has never been a greater need to explore. That’s because the stage for all exploration is the natural world, and nature is experiencing a rapid decline. It is by exploring that we understand and when we understand we develop an appreciation for what is found. Ultimately, only the things we appreciate are worth protecting.

As the golden age of exploration weakens, so does the richness of life on Earth. It isn’t just that there are fewer blank areas on the map; it is that wild places and spaces have been progressively carved up (瓜分). Visiting the Okavango Delta or Kalahari Desert, for example, no longer implies a self-supported expedition. Field stations pop up in important national parks and remote sensing by satellite becomes commonplace.

In the next century, I believe we will need larger and wilder areas. We will need the wilderness, not just for the protection of it, but because it is an important part of the ecosystems from which we gain our necessities like clean water, food and materials. If we succeed, then expeditions — brief travels into the wild that seek to answer questions, monitor populations, and inspire action — will have a renewed sense of purpose. More importantly, they greatly help the public experience, understand and appreciate nature.

Based on my own research expedition which aims to understand “edge effects” — how the changes in temperature at forest edges impact animals, I find it important that today’s scientists continue to spend time in the field. It is here that they begin to understand how seemingly unrelated environmental interactions influence their study system. Sometimes, it’s difficult to know which is important to measure until you stand out there on the forest edge.

It is the young generation that is the main force to lead the next wave of expeditions. The measure of their success will be whether there are still well-preserved wild places for expeditions in the future. Their leadership is needed now, more than ever.

1. What’s the purpose of this text?

A．To suggest understanding nature by keeping exploring.

B．To advise people not to travel to unknown places.

C．To inform us about the reduced biodiversity.

D．To call on the public to support the study.

2. What can we know about the expedition in wild spaces from Paragraph 3?

A．It is difficult for explorers to make progress.

B．It is more accessible with the help of technology.

C．It promotes the development of satellite technology.

D．It requires explorers to take sufficient heavy equipment.

3. What does the underlined part “pop up” in Paragraph 3 probably mean?

A．Appear unexpectedly.	B．Close temporarily.
C．Develop quickly.	D．Differ greatly.

4. What does the author realize after his research expedition?

A．The significance of scientists’ field trip.

B．The difficulty of carrying out fieldwork.

C．The need to expand the edges of forests.

D．The influence of his study on the environment.

【推荐2】In the 1880s, long before she became her era’s greatest female explorer, eight-year-old Harriet Chalmers traveled through the Sierra Nevada on horseback with her father. When she was 24, Chalmers married Franklin Pierce Adams, and they set off for Latin America, where they covered 40,000 miles on a horse, by boat and on foot. When they returned nearly three years later, she gave a lecture at National Geographic and started a 30-year career as a contributor.

Adams made it her mission to visit every country that was or had been a Spanish colony, and revisited the places where Christopher Columbus had stayed from Europe to the Americas. She traveled around Asia and attended Haile Selassie’s Coronation(加冕礼) as the emperor of Ethiopia. During World War I, she was the first female journalist allowed to photograph the French trenches(战壕), where she stayed for months.

She wrote 21 articles detailing her experiences for National Geographic, more than any other woman published in the magazine’s first half century. In those pieces, she criticized(批评) the injustices that she had observed. “Where were the blessings the Europeans claimed they brought to millions of Latin Americans? I could hardly find them,” she wrote after a visit to Peru. “What have they not suffered under the control of the Europeans?”

Adams had no professional training as a geographer and had never been to college, but her color photo slides and adventurous travel style won her invitations to speak around the world, often from the organizations that had never invited a woman before. She was the third American woman asked to join the Royal Geographical Society in England. However, the New York-based Explorers Club gave her and other outstanding female adventurers the cold shoulder.

“Men have always been so afraid that some mere women might get into their discussion that they don’t even permit women in their clubhouses,” Adams once said, “Let alone allow them to attend any meetings for discussions that might be significantly helpful.”

Several female explorers decided to form their own club. In 1925, the Society of Woman Geographers started with Adams as president, and she served until moving to France in 1933, where she died four years later at 61.

1. What did Adams do during the first three years of her marriage?

A．She traveled through the Sierra Nevada.

B．She explored Latin America with her husband.

C．She contributed regularly to National Geographic.

D．She learned horse riding under her husband’s guidance.

2. What was Adams involved in during World War I?

A．Taking photographs on the front line.

B．Traveling around European countries.

C．Fighting together with French soldiers.

D．Doing research on Christopher Columbus.

3. What was Adams’ attitude to these Europeans in Paragraph 3?

A．Positive,	B．Carefree.
C．Grateful.	D．Negative.

4. How did Explorers Club treat Adams?

A．It refused her help coldly.

B．It paid no attention to her.

C．It invited her to join in their discussion.

D．It asked her to join the Royal Geographical Society.

【推荐3】 Exploring the North Pole

People have always had the desire to explore new places. Explorers throughout history have been motivated by the prospect of fame and fortune.     1    . The first North Pole explorers were in search of the Northwest Passage, a way through the Arctic that would make trade easier for the country that discovered it.     2    , the world started seeing the Arctic as a frozen treasure chest. In fact, a U.S. Geological Survey guesses that nearly 25 percent of the world’s undiscovered oil and gas are buried in the Arctic, which is a big reason for the disagreements among the countries that are claiming the region for themselves.  

There were occasional North Pole expeditions in the 18th century. In 1755, the British Parliament offered a reward to the first ship to go to the Pole.     3    . In 1908, American Frederick Albert Cook became the first person to claim to have reached the North Pole. But his countryman Robert Edwin Peary disputed the claim. Peary claimed that with a team of 24 men, 19 sleds and 133 sled dogs he made the first visit to the North Pole, on April 6, 1909.     4    . The doubt rests mostly on the length of Peary’s trip: 37 days.     5    . However, in April, 2005, explorer Tom Avery recreated Peary’s sled expedition with the same materials and supplies, and beat Peary’s time by five hours. Some still doubt whether Peary actually made it to the North Pole, but he’s now generally referred to be the first.

A．The North Pole isn’t the coldest place on Earth

B．Most expeditions of the era took months — at least

C．But there’s still some argument attached to the claim

D．However, it was until the early 1900s that things really got going

E．When these explorers came back with tales of diamonds and coal near the Pole

F．North Pole exploration is no exception

G．There continue to be many North Pole “firsts”