At the age of seven I started taking violin lessons. I practiced half an hour every day, went to lessons once a week, and played in a group concert from time to time. Like most kids, I’m not a big fan of practising. If my parents hadn’t been there to make me practice, I probably would have put down my violin and never have picked it up again.
I met Moira when I was 11 at an Irish music party. Moira hosted the party that night, playing the violin, singing and dancing. She made sure that everyone in the room got involved and had a great time. I immediately fell in love with the music she played and the energy that she brought to it. Just a few days after that party, I took my first lesson with Moira, and I continued taking lessons with Moira throughout middle school.
When I started playing the violin with Moira, playing music became something that I loved. She introduced me to so many types of music, from Irish to Old Time, to Cajun music. Moira also taught me to play the guitar. Soon we started performing together and were shocked to discover that people actually wanted to hear us! When I began to play the violin, practicing was something that I did at home in my living room, but under Moira’s influence it quickly became something that I did everywhere. I played on street corners, at festivals, at the beach, at parties, at weddings, and late at night in my friends’ kitchens.
Moira took the music out of the classroom and brought it to life. Her passion was not only for playing music, but also for sharing it. My time with Moira allowed me to grow both musically and personally. I have met so many special people and had so many memorable experiences. Moira has proven to be the most important influence in my musical development, and also my invaluable friend.
1. How did the author feel about violin practice at the beginning?| A．Interesting. | B．Challenging. | C．Inspiring. | D．Unexciting. |
| A．The writer was proud of Moira’s achievements in music. |
| B．The writer became a popular local violinist. |
| C．The writer spent all her spare time playing the violin. |
| D．The writer had more self-confidence in terms of performing. |
| A．Classroom was not a suitable place for Moira to practice any more. |
| B．Moira helped the writer a lot with her personal life experience. |
| C．Moira played a significant role in the writer’s musical progress. |
| D．Moira was very thankful for the writer’s musical support. |
| A．My Way to Success | B．My Invaluable Friend |
| C．Middle School Musical | D．How I Learned the Violin |
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【推荐1】It all happened one afternoon in Carl's backyard a few years ago. We had just finished playing stickball, and I was about to go home.
“Wait a minute,” Carl yelled. He ran into his house and came back with a book for me to take home and read. All he said was, “See if you like it.”
I said absolutely nothing. I kept the book for a couple of weeks and then returned it unread. Carl never asked me if I liked it or not. During the following two years Carl lent me three more books. Each time I returned them unread.
A few days after graduating from high school, Carl asked, “Benny, which college are you going to?”
“I'm not going to college.” I said.
“Why not?” he asked.
“Because my father can't afford the tuition (学费).” I answered.
“Is that it?” Carl asked. “Yes,” I said.
I lied. I had no intention of going back to school now that I was out. The following day, Carl knocked on my door and handed me a check for seventy-five dollars from his father along with the book Martin Eden. “I think that should do it.” he said.
Once again I was in shock. I was working full-time in my brother's bakery. I attended two classes at Wayne University part-time at night. Halfway through the semester, after receiving failing grades on exams and essays, I decided there was no way I would ever become a good student and get satisfactory grades. I dropped out of college.
One day, curious, I picked up the book, thinking Carl was trying to tell me something. Despite difficulty, I pressed on. By the time I finished the book, I understood why: the main character, Martin Eden, had my own poor educational background, but managed to educate himself and become a published author.
1. What do we know about the author?| A．He often told lies. |
| B．He quit school unwillingly. |
| C．He had thought little of education before. |
| D．He became a published author. |
| A．Caring. | B．Emotional. | C．Stubborn. | D．Cautious. |
| A．Reading makes a rich man. |
| B．Reading is the journey of the soul. |
| C．Reading makes a person better known. |
| D．Reading opens up new opportunities. |
| A．A strong desire for college | B．A wish for better education |
| C．A wise friend | D．A wise book |
【推荐2】Cala didn’t like us. Any of us. We didn’t do anything to offend her and she didn’t know us but that didn’t matter, she still didn’t like us.
As new teachers in the Emirati school, we Westerners greeted her every day. She ignored us. She came into our rooms and bypassed us as she shook hands with all the non-Westerners. Whenever we saw her, she avoided eye contact with us. Eventually, we stopped trying to befriend her.
I won’t say her nationality but her friends had been fired from the school, we had been employed in their places and that was enough for her to have nothing to do with us.
Well after 16 months in the school we had a secret-friend gifting. To my surprise, I drew her name from the glass jar and that meant she was my secret pal. My role was to buy her a gift and say something about her when we publicly acknowledged who our secret pal was.
I decided to gift her a coloured bangle(手镯). I added a postcard and wrote “Love and Blessings, Rose-Marie.”
Then came the day. We all gathered in the meeting room. When you received your gift, you said a few kind words about your secret friend and passed the gift to them. What could I say?Everyone knew she didn’t like the Westerners. She taught music in the school so I said “My secret pal is someone who brings music to our ears every day.” She came forward with a huge warm smile. She hugged me and kissed me on both cheeks and accepted my gift.
Since then, she smiles often. We hug and shake hands when we meet. I have seen her wear my gift several times and I am so pleased.
1. Why didn’t Cala like the Western teachers?| A．They stopped befriending her. |
| B．They were newcomers. |
| C．They replaced her friends’ position. |
| D．They had once offended her. |
| A．With the help of her friends. |
| B．Through her love and blessings. |
| C．By showing her talent in music. |
| D．Through her sincerity and wisdom. |
| A．Exciting. | B．Complex. |
| C．Beautiful. | D．Surprising. |
| A．Do nothing by halves. |
| B．A good act will be well rewarded. |
| C．Nothing is impossible to a willing heart. |
| D．Without confidence there is no friendship. |
【推荐3】Life is filled with challenges. As we get older, we come to realize that those challenges are the very things that shape us and make us who we are. It is the same with the challenges that come with friendship. When we are faced with a challenge, we usually have two choices. We can try to challenge it, or we can decide that the thing isn’t worth the trouble and call it quits. Although there are certainly times when calling it quits is the right thing to do, in most case what we needed is commitment (投入) and communication.
When we are committed to something, it means that no matter how painful or how uncomfortable something is, we will always choose to face it instead of running away from it. Communication is making space for discussion and talking about how you feel instead of just saying what the other person did wrong. If you can say to a friend, “I got my feelings hurt.” rather than “You hurt my feelings.” you are going to be able to solve the problem much faster.
In dealing with many challenges that friendship will bring to you, try to see them for what they are: small hurdles (栏杆) you need to jump or get through on your way through life. Nothing is so big that it is impossible to get over, and hurt only serves to make us stronger. It’s all part of growing up. It happens to everyone, and some day you will look back on all of this and say, “Hard as it was, it made me who I am today. And that is a good thing,”
1. What can we infer from the text?| A．Friendship needs challenges. |
| B．Challenges shape our challenges. |
| C．Small hurdles aren’t worth the trouble. |
| D．Commitment can form friendship. |
| A．One should call it quits. |
| B．One should temporarily run away from it. |
| C．One should be committed and communicable. |
| D．One should lay jt aside for a while and ask for others’ help. |
| A．Let go of it. | B．Get over it, |
| C．Forget about it. | D．Put it aside. |
| A．friendship and challenges | B．communication and friendship |
| C．commitment and communication | D．challenges and the ways to get through |
【推荐1】There’s one patient that Sarah Rose Black still thinks about. Back in 2019, the nursing team at Toronto’s Cancer Center called to ask if she could reach out to a patient who had been there for about a week. The man was struggling, and unwilling to communicate with the workers or be part of any activities.
Black isn’t a doctor or a nurse. Since 2013 she has played an important role for patients at the center as a music therapist (治疗专家). On any day, she might see one person who’s anxious about an operation, another who’s in need of a calm moment.
So, Black walked into the patient’s room and introduced herself. She asked if she could sit and offer to play some music. In an effort to persuade him, she said, “If you don’t like it, you can just tell me to leave.” After some gentle urging, the man in his 70s, who had lung cancer, told her a few musicians he liked and then turned away to look out the window. But as she started to play one of his favorites, a change came over him. He turned towards Black and started to cry.
She stopped playing. “Do you want me to continue?” “Certainly,” he said through tears. “It was as if the music reached places that nothing else could,” recalls Black. The music showed up at a moment when it felt like a hug.
As Sarah Rose Black says, people have been connecting with music for their whole lives— she is just helping them use it again at a time when they need it most.
“We have a heartbeat, so we have a drum (鼓) inside us; we are wired to be musical people,” she says. She smiles softly as she reflects back on the experience.
1. Why did the nursing team call Black?| A．They wanted her to help a patient. |
| B．She worked as a nurse in the center. |
| C．A struggling patient hoped to meet her. |
| D．They wanted to enjoy her music. |
| A．The patient was moved to tears. |
| B．She gave the patient a warm hug. |
| C．She was asked to stop playing. |
| D．The patient looked out of the window. |
| A．We can live without music. | B．We like playing the drum. |
| C．We are born to be musicians. | D．We need musical instruments. |
| A．Strong and talented. | B．Intelligent and honest. |
| C．Thoughtful and helpful. | D．Hardworking and humorous. |
【推荐2】Years ago, I appeared on stage with the Royal Melbourne Philharmonic Choir in the Town Hall. There I was, my feet in plain shoes, sweat dirtying my clean white shirt, singing my heart out in front of the big organ. I still have a tape recording of that performance somewhere, where I swear I can hear myself singing, high and thin and possibly off-key.
But life got in the way and I stopped singing. Then, in the summer of 2019, I found myself facing some gloom in my own life. It felt as if it had been a long time between songs, as if there was something unsung, some absent music in my ears. I began to fear I might be making myself ill and unable to breathe in a normal way.
Could singing help me reclaim my voice and calm my fast-beating heart? Research from the Royal Society noted that “group singing can improve physical and mental health, as well as promote social bonds”. So, rather than letting my unsung tunes strangle (扼杀) me, I decided to take on a new choral experience, one being in the Big Feminist Sing, a community choir.
“If you don’t know what to sing,” the choir director said, “find someone who looks confident and go and stand next to them.” Find a friend if you’re in trouble; take a risk; use your voice; be part of something bigger than yourself. I’ve been singing in the choir ever since, because group singing gives me a sense of safety — and each rehearsal (排练) is a lifeline, a connected thread, an intake of air working toward a collective voice. It doesn’t matter if I am a bit off-key to start with. Decades of unsung situations have changed, and I have flown.
1. How did the author feel during her performance in the Town Hall?| A．Excited. | B．Relaxed. | C．Nervous. | D．Curious. |
| A．Something unsung in the author’s life. |
| B．Some difficulty in the author’s life. |
| C．Some disease that stopped the author singing. |
| D．Something affecting the author’s voice. |
| A．Finding a true friend is never easy. |
| B．The choir director’s position counts. |
| C．Teamwork has benefited her a lot. |
| D．Singing alone improves her health. |
| A．To get a sense of safety out of singing. |
| B．To make changes from stage experiences. |
| C．To taste music in a choir. |
| D．To enjoy the amazing power of group singing. |
【推荐3】Most people recognise the music John Williams wrote for the film Jaws. As soon as you hear it, you begin thinking that a shark will attack.
A third, very different kind of film composer is Tan Dun.
Film scores are almost always form of classical music. However, unlike most classical music they have never been considered high art.
| A．They can never reach an agreement. |
| B．Of course, in many ways, that is not the point. |
| C．William is not alone in making audience feel so. |
| D．And that is exactly what you are meant to think. |
| E．Perhaps with Tan Dun, this will begin to change. |
| F．Unlike many film composers, he has classical music background. |
| G．No one can talk about film scores without talking about Hans Zimmer. |
【推荐1】I’m a standup comic. One day, a woman from The Daily News called and said she wanted to do an article on me. When she had finished interviewing me for the article, she asked, “What are you planning to do next?” Well, at the time, there was absolutely nothing I was planning on doing next, so I asked her what she meant, pausing for a moment. She told me she was interested in me! So I thought I’d better tell her something. What came out was, “I’m thinking about breaking the Guinness Book of World Records for Fastest-Talking Female.”
The newspaper article came out the next day, and the writer had included my parting remarks about trying to break the world’s Fastest-Talking Female record. At about 5: 00 p.m. that afternoon I got a call from Larry King Live, which I had never heard of, asking me to go on the show. They wanted me to try to break the record, and they told me they would pick me up at 8: 00---because they wanted me to do it that night!
Then I sat down to figure out what on earth I was going to do on the show. I called Guinness to find out how to break a fast-talking record. They told me I would have to recite something either Shakespeare or the Bible. Shakespeare and I had never really gotten along, so 1 figured the Bible was my only hope. I began practicing and practicing, over and over again. I was both nervous and excited at the same time.
Then I decided just to give it my best shot, and I did. I broke the record, becoming the World’s Fastest-talking Female by speaking 585 words in one minute in front of a national television audience. I broke it again two years later, with 603 words in a minute. My career took off.
People often ask me how I did that. I tell them I live my life by this simple philosophy: I always say yes first; then I ask, “Now, what do I have to do to accomplish that?” Then I ask myself, “What is the worst thing that can happen if I don’t succeed? The answer is, I simply don’t succeed! And what’s the best thing that can happen? I succeed!
What more can life ask of you? Be yourself, and have a good time!
1. Why did the author pause before telling her next plan?| A．She took little interest in the topic. |
| B．She refused to share it with others. |
| C．She didn’t have any plan in her mind. |
| D．She needed time to think over the plan. |
| A．She was persuaded to set a Guinness record. |
| B．She was invited to give comic performances. |
| C．She succeeded in making a fortune overnight. |
| D．She finally agreed to make her parting remarks. |
| A．She could recite the Bible. |
| B．She received an interview. |
| C．She broke the record twice. |
| D．She developed her philosophy. |
| A．Do nothing by halves |
| B．Practice for perfection |
| C．Just say yes to yourself |
| D．Always hope for the best |
【推荐2】Once upon a time a peacock and a tortoise became great friends. The peacock lived in a tree on the bank of the stream in which the tortoise had his home, and every day the peacock danced near the stream and displayed his gay plumage（羽毛）for the amusement of his friend.
Unfortunately, one day a bird-catcher caught the peacock and was about to take him away to the market. The unhappy bird begged his captor to allow him to say goodbye to his friend — the tortoise. The bird-catcher agreed and took the peacock to the tortoise, who was greatly astonished when he saw his friend become a captive. The tortoise asked the bird-catcher to let the peacock go, but the bird-catcher laughed at his request, saying that was his livelihood. The tortoise then said, “If I give you a handsome present, will you let my friend go?” “Certainly,” answered the bird-catcher. So the tortoise dived into the water and in a few seconds came up with a handsome pearl. To the bird-catcher’s astonishment, the tortoise handed it to him. This was beyond his expectation, and he let the peacock go immediately.
A short time later, the avaricious man came back and told the tortoise that he thought he had not been paid enough for the release of his friend, and threatened that unless he received another pearl which matched the first one, he would again catch the peacock. The tortoise, who had already advised his friend to go to a distant place on being set free, was greatly enraged（使发怒）at the greed of this man. “Well,” said the tortoise, “if you insist on having another pearl like that one, give it to me and I will fish you out an exact match for it.” The cupidity（贪婪）of the bird-catcher prevented his reasoning that “one in the hand is equal to two in the bed of the stream”, and he quickly gave the pearl to the wily tortoise, who swam out with it, saying, “I am no fool to take one and give two!” and disappeared immediately, leaving the bird-catcher to be sorry for his greed.
1. This passage is a _________.| A．joke | B．fable（寓言） |
| C．fairy tale | D．life story |
| A．cruel | B．pitiful |
| C．greedy | D．merciless |
| A．the tortoise was cleverer than the peacock | B．the peacock was very careless |
| C．a friend in need is a friend indeed | D．the tortoise was a fool |
| A．if we are too greedy, we may get nothing |
| B．human beings shouldn’t trust a tortoise |
| C．human beings shouldn’t catch animals |
| D．the bird-catcher shouldn’t have asked for another pearl |
【推荐3】I live in a very over populated beach area in Los Angeles, and I love the beautiful scenery! But because of many people, lots of things are easy to be out of order, and sometimes it’s also easy to lose your cool.Today was a day I wish I did not get out of bed. I mean that if I did not have to wake up and deal with all the things that I deal with on a daily basis, it would have been wonderful.
I had a cup of coffee this morning and that was my meal for breakfast, not healthy I know. Anyway, my stomach was sounding like a truck. So, I jumped in my car and decided to buy some food.
I was in line at Taco Bell(一家墨西哥风情餐厅) and the line was like a long snake! Finally I got to place my order, but a young girl in nice clothes pulled in and was stuck in such a way that unless I moved for her, she wouldn’t be able to get out. So I backed up and waved her into my place in the front of the line.
To my surprise, this young girl did not say thanks. I was cool with it because I thought that I had done something nice for a change. After the girl received her food and pulled away, I pulled into the ordering spot, not mad, but hungry, and the employee said,“Hi, that girl just paid for your food.”
That food was the most satisfying nourishment(营养品) my body had ever taken! If just by chance you are that person who bought my food, I should say “Thank you”.
1. The underlined part in the first paragraph probably means “________”.| A．be friendly to others | B．become angry |
| C．get warmer | D．remain calm |
| A．He remained lying in bed all the morning. |
| B．He didn’t feel well after drinking a cup of coffee. |
| C．He made room for a girl who jumped the queue. |
| D．He had a quarrel with a girl who didn’t stand in line. |
| A．She got out of her car and said thanks. |
| B．She drove away with her own food. |
| C．She received her food and waved goodbye. |
| D．She paid for the author’s food without him knowing. |
| A．Kindness is spreading |
| B．Being patient wins respect |
| C．Being calm is important in accidents |
| D．Being polite can change the world |
