【推荐1】In your life, you may have many unforgettable events like wining a prize, going aboard ……    1    

I was always dreaming of swimming like a fish! At that time, I was so jealous when I saw people swimming.     2    Later, one summer afternoon, I followed my school buddies to a river, accompanied by my brother. I remember how eagerly I kicked off my shoes and jumped into the cool water. Truthfully, I was not sure what to do but struggle in the water. Luckily, a young swimmer nearby happened to find me and soon I was pulled out. Being out of water, I felt I was transported to the wonder world. Realizing that I was safe and well, I burst into tears.

    3     I went for another try with my brother. But I feared that I would never become a good swimmer. I stepped carefully into the swimming pool but when the water came up to my stomach, I lost my balance again and fell into the water. I found myself further away from my brother than I thought. The king of Terror was approaching! Desperately, I kept my eyes wide open and tried to seize my brother by the arm, once, twice, three times….I was shouting and waving my arms exhaustedly. At last, my brother was able to reach out his hand to touch me. I got saved again.

    4     But motivated by the desire to swim, I made my third attempt. I felt my legs paralyzed(瘫痪) on the bank when I faced the big swimming pool. Watching the happy swimmers in the water, I was inspired. Why not have a last try? I took a deep breath and confidently went forward. As I was going deeper into the water, I made great efforts to control my thoughts, so I could keep the balance.     5    I was able to swim! Yes, I was able to swim! All of a sudden , a feeling of satisfaction was running high.

A．But for me, the most unusual event is learning how to swim.

B．I would never go swimming again after two unpleasant experiences.

C．Don’t be afraid of the hardships in front of you.

D．Anyway, my dream never ended.

E．I told myself that I would be one of them one day.

F．To my amazement, I made it!

G．I always believe “Where there is a will, there is a way”.

【推荐2】My family moved from Taiwan to a small town in central Georgia, where my dad got a visa for his family and a job, I had just learned English, and from what little I could gather from my classmates, Santa Claus would come down one’s chimney(烟囱)and put toys in one’s stocking on Christmas Eve! What a great country, I thought. After I looked up “stocking” in my Chinese-English dictionary, I knew what I had to do.

On that fateful night, after everyone went to bed, I took my longest, cleanest knee sock and attached it to a nail already on the mantel(壁炉). Obviously, the previous owners of this house were no strangers to this Santa character.

I woke up before everyone else on Christmas Day and ran to the fireplace. To make a sob story short, I was hit with the reality of an empty sock and the biggest lie ever told. I burst into tears, quickly took down the sock, and stuffed it in the back of a drawer. Santa was dead.

Every December since then, the topic of Christmas memories would unavoidably come up, and I would amuse my friends with my poor-little-me story. I had to make it as funny as possible, or else I would cry.

How could I know that Santa was just late? Nine years ago, on Christmas Eve, an older man with a white beard and a red cap knocked on my front door. He said “I’ve been looking for you for twenty-five years.” He handed me a bulging red stocking, winked, and left. On top of the stocking was a card. It read: “For Becky—I may have missed you in the second grade, but you’ve always lived in my heart. Santa.”

Through tear-blurred eyes, I recognized the handwriting of Jill, a friend I had met just two months before. I later discovered that the older man was her father. Jill had seen the hurt little girl underneath the thirty-something woman and decided to do something about it.

So now I believe that Santa is real. I don’t mean the twinkle-eyed character of children’s mythology(神话) or the creation of American holiday marketers. Those Santas annoy and sadden me. I believe in the Santa Claus that live inside good and thoughtful people. This Santa does not return to the North Pole after a crazy delivery but lives each day purposefully, really listens to friends, and then plans deliberate acts of kindness.

1. What does the underlined part “what I had to do” in Paragraph 1 refer to?

A．Waiting for Santa Claus.

B．Putting a stocking on the mantel.

C．Asking for gifts from her parents.

D．Looking up “stocking” in the dictionary

2. It can be inferred from the passage that the author’s parents ____.

A．didn’t love their child at all

B．didn’t know the previous owners of the house

C．didn’t know much about Christmas tradition

D．didn’t have enough money to buy the author Christmas presents

3. When the author told her friends about the story, she felt ______in her heart.

A．proud

B．amusing

C．hate

D．regret

4. By writing the passage, the author speaks highly of ________.

A．friendship

B．parenting

C．religion

D．culture

5. The author of the passage is probably ________.

A．a teenager

B．a primary school student

C．a middle-aged woman

D．a native American

【推荐3】Who's in control of your life? Who's pulling your strings? For the majority of us, it's other people-society, colleagues, friends, family or our community. We learned this way of operating when we were very young,of course. We were brainwashed. We discovered that feeling important and feeling accepted was a nice experience and so we learned to do everything we could to make other people like us. As Oscar Wilde puts it," Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else's opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation. "

So when people tell us how wonderful we are, it makes us feel good. We long for this good feeling like a drug-we are addicted to it and seek it out wherever we can. Therefore, we are so eager for the approval of others that we live unhappy and limited lives, failing to do the things we really want to. Just as drug addicts and alcoholics live worsened lives to keep getting their fix(成瘾物)we worsen our own existence to get our own constant fix of approval.

But, just as with any drug. there is a price to pay. The price of the approval drug is freedom-the freedom to be ourselves. The truth is that we cannot control what other people think. People have their own agenda, and they come with their own baggage and, in the end, they're more interested in themselves than in you. Furthermore, if we try to live by the opinions of others, we will build our life on sinking sand. Everyone has a different way of thinking, and people change their opinions all the time. The person who tries to please everyone will only end up getting exhausted (tired) and probably pleasing no one in the process.

So how can we take back control? I think there's only one way-make a conscious decision to stop caring what other people think. We should guide ourselves by means of a set of values- not values imposed from the outside by others. but innate values which come from within. If we are driven by these values and not by the changing opinions and value systems of others. we will live a more authentic, effective, purposeful and happy life.

1. What Oscar Wilde says implies that         .

A．most people have a variety of thoughts

B．we have thoughts similar to those of others

C．other people's thoughts are more important

D．most people's thoughts are affected by others

2. What does the author try to argue in the third paragraph?

A．The price of taking the drug is freedom.

B．We may lose ourselves to win the approval of others.

C．We need to pay for what we want to get.

D．Changing opinions may cost us our freedom.

3. It can be concluded from the passage that             .

A．it's better to follow others' opinions

B．it's important to accept others' comments

C．we shouldn't change our own decision

D．we shouldn't care too much what others think

4. The author tries to persuade the readers to accept his arguments mainly by         .

A．discussing questions	B．making suggestions
C．analyzing causes and effects	D．providing examples and facts

【推荐1】My mother had guest soaps in the bathroom. In a home with very few luxuries (奢侈品), those tiny roses of grape purple and lemon yellow represented something special to her; they were something she wanted to keep nice for our guests. So she kept them in a covered glass container, where they would be safe from the many sets of little fingers in our household that needed   washing. Those soaps decorated the shelf in the bathroom for as long as I can remember. There they stayed, displayed until dust caked in the container, and the roses lost their beauty. But they were never used.

Fast forward to my adult life. When we were visiting my in-laws, it was casually given. No big deal; everyone got one. It was just a bar of soap, wrapped in beautiful paper with a lovely label showing that this soap had been made not by machine but somebody who just happened to be my new brother-in-law. That soap was only a few dollars, but I carried the weight of it for years. It was guest soap.

It was too pretty to use. It was proudly set out to be looked at, but not used, for about a week. My practical husband did not see the point of it cluttеrіng up (胡乱填满) thе countertop. An empty childhood bedroom where there was a glassed-in display shelf was the new home for the soap.

I loved this room. Bright and sunny, it was filled with furnishings and things I loved. When I got sick, it became my recovery room. I could rest there surrounded by happy memories. As I got better, I took inventory (盘点) of my life, and of my surroundings. And, I saw the soap.

I saw something that was meant to be used, not admired. I took that carefully wrapped soap off the shelf and opened it with a sense of childish delight. Then I ran it under water. As I concentrated on the bubbles (气泡) building between my hands, I felt all my troubles washing away with those tiny bubbles. It became a moment of pure joy.

So, from now on, I will use the guest soap. And while I’m at it, I might as well use the good towels too.

1. What happened to the author’s mother’s soap in the end?

A．It was full of fingerprints.	B．It was kept well by the author.
C．It failed to win the author’s love.	D．It stopped serving its decorative purpose.

2. In what way was the author’s soap special?

A．It was a wedding gift.	B．It was made by hand.
C．It was a bit expensive.	D．It was bought by her husband.

3. Where can we find the reason why the author put her soap in another room?

A．In Paragraph 2.	B．In Paragraph 3.
C．In Paragraph 4.	D．In Paragraph 5.

4. How did the author feel while washing her hands with the soap?

A．Guilty.	B．Concerned.
C．Carefree.	D．Disappointed.

【推荐2】Dossantos grew up among the banana trees of East Timor, a state in Maritime Southeast Asia, and never imagined he would work on Australian farms.

Last week he was picking pumpkins (南瓜) out of the rich red Ord valley soils of Ivanhoe Farms in Western Australia’s far north, working with five other East Timorese employees in Kununurra’s 381℃heat.

Dossantos is part of a group of 30 East Timorese in the area for six months as seasonal workers, laboring (劳动) on smaller fruit and vegetable farms that were part of Ord stage one, developed in the 1970s. The men are employed by happy farmers across the Ord valley, many of whom have struggled, in the past with their dependence on not always reliable backpackers to plant their crops on time and pick full-grown I fruit and vegetables.

Dossantos is typical of the group; he speaks little English, has worked on farms in East Timor and wants to earn an Australian salary (工资) for four to six months before returning home late this month as the wet season arrives, to build a better life.

“It’s a good job; hard work and hot but with good money,” Dossantos says. “I work for four months, send my money back to Mom and Dad and then go home; it’s enough to last me for the next six months and then I hope to come back here again to work next year.”

Itis music to the ears of Matt and Melanie Gray, who have had up to 12 East Timorese workers picking pumpkins on their Ceres Farm for the past few months.

Like many growers in the Ord, the Grays welcomed the opportunity this year to employ full-time visiing East

Timorese employees to do most of their continuous crop picking. “It has been a win-win situation; they seem really happy with the work, the money and opportunities it provides them with back home, while for us they provide us with reliability through the season and the likelihood (可能性) that 80 percent will want to come back again next year,” Melanie Gray says.
1. What are farmers in the Ord valley happy with?

A．The good weather.	B．The dependable pickers.
C．The sale of their products.	D．The backpackers’ hard work.

2. What does Dossantos think of his job?

A．It should pay more.	B．It is progressing slowly.
C．It is not easy but worthwhile.	D．It lasts too long in the wet season.

3. What does the underlined word “It” in the text probably refer to?

A．The big harvest.	B．The good money.
C．The laborer’s positive opinion.	D．The laborer’s returning to East Timor-

4. Which of the following is part of the win-win situation?

A．The farmers can offer full-time jobs.

B．The laborers can stay in Australia all year long.

C．The farmers can grow high-quality fruit and vegetables.

D．The laborers can find satisfaction in working in Australia.

【推荐3】I was not organized, while my roommate Lucy was extremely neat. Each of her objects had its place, but mine always hid somewhere. She even labeled everything. I always looked for everything. Over time, Lucy got neater and I got messier. She would push my dirty clothing over, and I would lay my books on her tidy desk. We both got tired of each other.

War broke out one evening. Lucy came into the room. Soon, I heard her screaming, “Take your shoes away! Why under my bed!” Deafened, I saw my shoes flying at me. I jumped to my feet and started yelling. She yelled back louder.

The room was filled with anger. We could not have stayed together for a single minute but for a phone call. Lucy answered it. From her end of the conversation, I could tell right away her grandma was seriously ill. When she hung up, she quickly crawled under her covers, sobbing. Obviously, that was something she could not go through. All of a sudden, a warm feeling of sympathy rose up in my heart.

Slowly, I collected the pencils, took back the books, made my bed, cleaned the socks and swept the floor, even on her side. I got so into my work that I even didn’t notice Lucy had sat up. She was watching, her tears dried and her expression one of disbelief. Then, she reached out her hands to grasp mine. I looked up into her eyes. She smiled at me, “Thanks.”

Lucy and I stayed roommates for the rest of the year. We didn’t always agree, but we learned the key to living together: giving in, cleaning up and holding on.

1. How is Paragraph 1 mainly developed?

A．By analyzing causes.	B．By showing differences.
C．By describing a process.	D．By following time order.

2. What made Lucy angry one evening?

A．She couldn’t find her books.	B．She heard the author shouting loud.
C．She got the news that her grandma was ill.	D．She saw the author’s shoes under her bed.

3. The author tidied up the room most probably because _______.

A．she wanted to show her care	B．she was asked by Lucy to do so
C．she was scared by Lucy’s anger	D．she hated herself for being so messy

4. What might be the best title for the story?

A．My Friend Lucy	B．Hard Work Pays Off
C．Learning to Be Roommates	D．How to Be Organized

【推荐1】阅读表达

Before Hai started college, he weighed over 250 pounds. Healthy food choice was difficult for him. However, when he left home for college, he was able to start taking his life and weight into his own hands for the first time. He started by shopping at a local market, an experience that inspired him profoundly.

A farmer’s market represents local and healthy food, where you can meet those who grow your produce. He began to think about the food that people were eating at his university. From what he saw at farmer’s markets, Hai realized that dining hall food was not “real” food. A lot of it is frozen or processed and has unhealthy additives(添加剂).

His thoughts continued to develop as he started taking classes about food sustainability(持续性). At the summer of 2008 during which he worked with other students, he spent his senior year full farce in the Real Food Challenge (RFC) campaign. It was a project he co-founded that aims to re-invest university spending in food that is “real”, as opposed to those traditional purchases with those unhealthy additives and processed products.

Under Hai’s leadership, his university served as a pilot school for the RFC. His work has inspired dozens of other students and school administrators across California to become interested in a movement for real food. Hai and RFC have not only brought the issue of food sustainability to the table for the whole Californian system, but also to big food production corporations.

Not only has Hai started a movement of change across the dining system in the universities of California, but he has also grown greatly as an individual with strong leadership abilities and great vision. In addition, after he started learning about food sustainability and taking action at university, Hai has lost over 100 pounds and has been able to start enjoying activities such as backpacking and swimming that were now a possibility for him previously.

1. What did Hai try to control when he entered the college? (No more than 5 words)
___________________________________________________________________
2. What does the underlined word mean in paragraph 1? (1 word)
___________________________________________________________________
3. What inspired Hai to found the RFC campaign? (No more than 15 words)
___________________________________________________________________
4. What did Hai gain from the RFC campaign? (No more than 10 words)
___________________________________________________________________
5. What do you think of Hai? Why? (No more than20 words)
___________________________________________________________________

【推荐2】I confess I hesitated when the editor in chief of The New York Times Magazine told me in late 20l4 that I would be editing a new front-of-book column called Letter of Recommendation, about stuff people really like. The column was the brainchild of our staff writer, Sam Anderson, he explained. Sam figured that there was no shortage of places to find out what writers hate but few spaces for writers to talk about what they love.We would push against this trend, 900 words a week,40-something times per year.

The reason for my hesitation was a simple, unfortunate fact about writing. Writing about things you hate is easy: not just fun, but generative. The criticism tends to entertain, even if you disagree, but the ode doesn't. The writerly tone is well-suited to our age, but it's hard not to see it as a collective defense mechanism as if revealing your true feelings exposes your unmentionable secrets to the public. Obsessions, meanwhile, are inseparable from our peculiarities as people we come to love things for often weird reasons. When the column really works, it's as revealing about the author as it is its subject. One writer, a man in his late 30s, for example, recommended Pedialyte, which he drinks to balance the effects of both drinking and exercise, and to cheat his way back to youth.

I probably see somewhere between three and five Letter of Recommendation pitches a day. It's a great spot for trying out new writers in the magazine, so I try my best to keep up with all the email, but I often fail.（I feel genuinely terrible about this every day of my life.）Determining which to assign involves seeing how it meets the various criteria（评判标准）we've settled on over the years.We don't like the column to be timely---everything else in the world is timely. But on the other hand, we need to put a headline on the thing that people might reasonably recognize, stop and read about. There should be a personal angle to the recommendation, but also some universally recommendable aspect. But then again, it shouldn't be too recommendable: this isn't a column for life-hacks.The recommendation itself should be attractively unexpected "sideways", as editors are perhaps too fond of saying, but really, it's just an excuse to cut brilliant writers loose to amuse or inspire us.

1. Sam Anderson proposed a column Letter of Recommendation because he found ________ .

A．the fashion trend was not easy to push against

B．there was a shortage of good quality columns

C．writers could hardly find a place to share their likes

D．his brainchild could sometimes increase readership

2. The word“ode"（in paragraph2）is closest in meaning to ________ .

A．compliment

B．recommendation

C．hesitation

D．determination

3. Why is the writer in his late 30s mentioned in paragraph 2？

A．To give an example of the writerly tone.

B．To highlight the way that the column selects writers.

C．To show how a collective defense mechanism works.

D．To illustrate how writers reveal themselves in the column.

4. The writer hopes that in the column, ________ .

A．the recommended items are quite familiar to readers

B．the recommended items should follow the latest trend

C．readers can learn about life skills from the recommendations

D．readers will find the recommendations beyond their expectation

【推荐3】Maybe no one forgets their first bicycle and there is no exception to a woman like me. Mine was a Schwinn coaster bike, second-hand, painted a distinctive red and yellow by its previous owner. I remember riding too fast down the big hill on Springfield Avenue. I knew at once that the world was mine to explore.

A couple of years later, when I was 11, my grandmother visited from England, bringing me a bike. It was a shiny dark green, with three gears (齿轮) and hand brakes. As the owner of the first English bicycle my neighbors and classmates had ever seen, I was, for a time, almost a star.

Unlike my coaster bike, it was light and responsive - riding it felt like flying. I rode it past big stone houses with their huge yards and trees. I rode past brick row houses. I rode alone and with groups of friends.

That beloved bike went with me to college, carrying me to the library and to classes. Beyond transport, it was often a prop (道具): pushing it along as I walked the college paths made me feel less self-conscious. Somehow, conversations flowed more easily on either side of a bike.

After college, I lived abroad for a time. Returning from London, I discovered to my horror that my parents had sold my bike. For years after that, I didn’t have a bicycle that was specifically mine. But after a while I missed riding. Eventually, on a fall day, I bought a bicycle with wider tires than my old bike and seven gears.

Still, I was a bit apprehensive. I was out of practice and a lot older. I brought the bike home and put on my helmet - I’d never worn a helmet before. Then I got on the bike. After a hesitant, slightly shaky start, I felt exactly as I was on that long-ago day on Springfield Avenue: free. Soon I was riding along. It seemed that everyone I passed smiled and waved or called out, great day for a bike ride! And I knew they all remembered their first bike and how it had set them free. I wanted to call back to them, “I still can!”

1. According to the article, the author’s beloved bike ________.

A．made her the envy of her friends.

B．was a red and yellow coaster bike.

C．was her birthday gift from her grandmother.

D．made her shy and awkward at times at college.

2. While pushing the English bike along, the author ________.

A．felt bored	B．felt special
C．became talkative	D．became lost in thought

3. What does the underlined word “apprehensive” in Paragraph 6 mean?

A．Proud.

B．Excited.

C．Shocked.

D．Fearful.

4. What was the author’s main purpose in writing this article?

A．To describe the different bikes she has been riding alone.

B．To recall the joy and freedom she has enjoyed thanks to riding.

C．To inform us of the fun and benefits of riding bikes with others.

D．To tell us about how she grew up through her riding experiences.