When I was growing up in America, I was ashamed of my mother’s Chinese English. Because of her English, she was often treated unfairly. People in department stores, at banks, and at restaurants did not take her seriously, did not give her good service, pretended not to understand her, or even acted as if they did not hear her.
My mother has realized the limitations of her English as well. When I was fifteen, she used to have me call people on phone to pretend I was her. I was forced to ask for information or even to yell at people who had been rude to her. One time I had to call her stockbroker (股票经纪人). I said in an adolescent voice that was not very convincing, “This is Mrs. Tan”.
And my mother was standing beside me, whispering loudly, “Why he doesn’t send me check, already two weeks late.” And then, in perfect English I said: “I’m getting rather concerned. You agreed to send the check two weeks ago, but it hasn’t arrived.”
Then she talked more loudly. “What he want? I come to New York tell him front of his boss.” And so I turned to the stockbroker again, “I can’t tolerate any more excuse. If I don’t receive the check immediately, I am going to have to speak to your manager when I am in New York next week.”
The next week we ended up in New York. While I was sitting there redfaced, my mother, the real Mrs. Tan, was shouting to his boss in her broken English.
When I was a teenager, my mother’s broken English embarrassed me. But now, I see it differently. To me, my mother’s English is perfectly clear, perfectly natural. It is my mother tongue. Her language, as I hear it, is vivid, direct, and full of observation and wisdom. It was the language that helped shape the way I saw things, expressed ideas, and made sense of the world.
1. From Paragraph 2, we know that the author was ________.| A．good at pretending |
| B．rude to the stockbroker |
| C．ready to help her mother |
| D．unwilling to phone for her mother |
| A．they forgave the stockbroker |
| B．they failed to get the check |
| C．they went to New York immediately |
| D．they spoke to their boss at once |
| A．It confuses her. |
| B．It embarrasses her. |
| C．It helps her understand the world. |
| D．It helps her tolerate rude people. |
| A．She was unable to speak good English. |
| B．She was often misunderstood. |
| C．She was not clearly heard. |
| D．She was not very polite. |
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【推荐1】From the day a person opens his or her eye in this world to the point when success surrounds them, curiosity is something that never leaves their sides. It stays with them and instills (灌输) in them a sense of exploration; it pushes them to take risks, and uncover the hidden mystery. It is a powerful quality as it helps people develop an understanding of different aspects of the world.
Many parents get annoyed when their children ask too many questions. They do not realize that by not responding (回应) to the questions and curiosity of these little ones, it might take away their chances to learn new things. Learning is every individual’s right, and no one can take away one’s eagerness to explore, discover, and learn new things.
The former president of the United States, Roosevelt, once said, “I think, at a child’s birth if a mother could ask a fairy godmother to give it the most useful gift, that gift would be curiosity.” If a child asks too many questions out of curiosity, parents must answer the questions with patience. The way they respond will determine(决定) whether a child grows up to be a smart learner and an explorer or not.
While some parents take these matters lightly, there are some who attend to the needs of their young ones’ hunger to learn smartly. Regina, a life coach and public speaker, instead of losing her calm on her daughter’s nature to frequently question everything, she tried to respond to her daughter with love and affection (关爱). Not only did she answer all her daughter’s questions, but she started thinking of other curious kids out there who were eager to discover the hidden secrets of this world.
1. What will happen if children get no response to their questions?| A．They’ll be less patient. |
| B．They’ll learn more smartly. |
| C．They’ll likely take adventures. |
| D．They’ll lose opportunities to learn new things. |
| A．To show children are gifted. |
| B．To state patience is necessary. |
| C．To stress curiosity is important. |
| D．To suggest parents be understanding. |
| A．Take care of | B．Give way to |
| C．Get tired of | D．Make use of |
| A．Regina became a life coach | B．Regina explored new things. |
| C．Regina helped other curious kids. | D．Regina answered her daughter’s questions. |
As a writer, I know about winning contests – and about losing them. I know what it is like to work hard on a story only to receive a rejection letter from the publisher. I also know the pressure of trying to live up to a reputation created by previous victories. What if she doesn’t win the contest again? That’s the strange thing about being a parent. So many of our own past scars and destroyed hopes can resurface in our children.
A revelation (启示) came last week when I asked her, “Don’t you want to win again?” “No,” she replied, “I just want to tell the story of an angel going to first grade.”
I had just spent weeks correcting her stories as she spontaneously (自发地) told them. Telling myself that I was merely an experienced writer guiding the young writer across the hall, I offered suggestions for characters, conflicts and endings for her tales. The story about a fearful angel starting first grade was quickly “guided” by me into the tale of a little girl with a wild imagination taking her first music lesson. I had turned her contest into my contest without even realizing it.
Staying back and giving kids space to grow is not as easy as it looks. Because I know very little about farm animals who use tools or angels who go to first grade, I had to accept the fact that I was co-opting my daughter’s experience.
While stepping back was difficult for me, it was certainly a good first step that I will quickly follow with more steps, putting myself far enough away to give her room but close enough to help if asked. All the while I will be reminding myself that children need room to experiment, grow and find their own voices.
1. What do we learn from the first paragraph?
| A．A lot of amusements compete for children’s time nowadays. |
| B．Children have lots of fun doing mindless activities. |
| C．Rebecca is much too busy to enjoy her leisure time. |
| D．Rebecca draws on a lot of online materials for her writing. |
| A．She was constantly under pressure to write more. |
| B．Most of her stories had been rejected by publishers. |
| C．She did not quite live up to her reputation as a writer. |
| D．Her road to success was full of pain and frustrations. |
| A．She believed she possessed real talent for writing. |
| B．She was sure of winning with her mother’s help. |
| C．She wanted to share her stories with readers. |
| D．She had won a prize in the previous contest. |
| A．trying not to let her daughter enjoy her own life |
| B．trying to get her daughter to do the thing as the author wished |
| C．making sure that her daughter would win the contest |
| D．helping her daughter develop real skills for writing |
【推荐3】Lucio Arreola is going to have a surprising Father's Day this year. He finds every day is surprising now. Arreola is 50 years old, the father of three daughters and a banking manager in Puerto Rico. On April 20, doctors performed a transplant to implant inside him the heart of a dead 25 year old man whose name he may never know, but to whom he and his family will always be grateful.
Arreola was told he had a heart muscle disease 15 years ago that weakened his breathing and circulation. He went on a series of medications. while he and his wife. Elena raised three daughters. They worried about their father's health. He worried about their happiness.
"I live for them."he said. "I worried if I could do what a father really should do for his children. But I knew if they were going to grow up, they had to treat me like a normal person, not a patient."
"One day up one day down." he said. "Some days dark, some light. But what hap-pens."he says."is that when the sun is out, you really feel it. Every breath is sweet. You see the trees people. You hear your daughters laugh and it's like birds singing. You tell yourself.‘There's no time in life for anything but love.'"
Liz Laguaite, a hospital music therapist(理疗师).told the Arreola family.“Why don't you try to write a song together about what you've been through and what you've learned?"They decided to try. Lucio Arreola had worried that illness might make his daughters see him their father. as weak. But instead of frailty, they mostly saw his courage to live on and positive attitude towards life. And he says their love was his powerful heart that gave him faith. hope and courage.
Arreola says he's learned that human hearts are weak. But a family's love is lasting for a long time. The Arreola family has recorded the song they ereated while Lucio recovers. It begins with the strong beat of a father's loving heart.
1. Why does Arreola feel surprised every day?| A．He gets promoted at bank. | B．He gets more confident. |
| C．He has a new heart now. | D．He has a big family. |
| A．Life is full of ups and downs. |
| B．Love is the only thing for life. |
| C．Light can drive away darkness. |
| D．His daughters have a gift for music. |
| A．Failure. | B．Anxiety. | C．Happiness. | D．Weakness. |
| A．The pain of being weak. |
| B．The suffering of a patient. |
| C． The courage to live on. |
| D．The strength of a heart. |
【推荐1】The moment that Jiang Mengnan received the Touching China Person of the Year Award for 2021, she said she most wanted to express her gratitude to her parents. Born in 1992 in Yizhang county, Hunan Province, Jiang’s world has been silent since she was 6 months old, when some drugs she was given damaged her hearing. So, Jiang’s parents, both middle school teachers, taught her to learn vocalization and lip reading.
Jiang put her hands on the throats of her parents when they talked and felt the vibration (震动) of the vocal cords (声带) to learn to speak. When reading Pinyin, she carefully looked at the lips of other people! s pronunciations to know the formation of each syllable. Mastering a single word can take at least 1000 practice attempts for Jiang. Furthermore, different people had different mouth movements, which added difficulty to her social contacts and school life when it came to lip reading.
Through lip reading and self-study, she was able to keep up with learning and was accepted by Jilin University School of Pharmacy with a high score of 615 on the college entrance examination. In 2018, she was accepted as a PhD candidate at Tsinghua University’s School of Life Sciences.
Jiang’s story is one of victory over adversity. More importantly, she is helping inspire disabled children in her native Hunan Province and beyond to struggle for success. Because of her hearing loss, she couldn’t be a doctor. Instead, she chose pharmacy (药剂学) to help reduce people’s pain and assist their recovery. Another crucial way she aims to contribute is by teaching children in similar situations not to be limited by their disability. As often as she can, Jiang visits special education schools and meets with students. She tells them to do their best to achieve as much as a so-called healthy person.
She stressed that people with disabilities have no need to feel discouraged, as they can do the same or even better than non-disabled people around them. When God closes a door, he opens a window, and this girl believes that all challenges are gifts.
1. What causes Jiang to lose her hearing?| A．She had a genetic disease. | B．She suffered from a high fever. |
| C．She was injured in a car accident. | D．She took a harmful medicine. |
| A．Jiang’s advice on mastering pronunciation skills. |
| B．Jiang’s experiences of language learning. |
| C．Jiang’s attempts to overcome social anxiety. |
| D．Jiang’s success in the college entrance examination. |
| A．By investing money in building schools for them. |
| B．By treating them with free medicine as a doctor. |
| C．By teaching them to learn lip reading. |
| D．By encouraging them to overcome difficulties. |
| A．Never judge a book by its cover. | B．Hard work pays off. |
| C．Practice makes perfect. | D．Actions speak louder than words. |
【推荐2】I moved from the busy downtown to the countryside around Shanghai when I started elementary school. At first, I thought I was going to hate it, but to my surprise, I found that I preferred the quiet country life to the noisy city life.
The next move was more of a surprise for me.I was having a good time with my friends at school. But all of a sudden, my mom told me that we were going to move to the United States. Can you imagine how I must have felt? My English wasn’t that good, though I did know the basics.
The day I arrived in the US was a snowy day. For a girl who grew up in Shanghai and hadn’t seen real thick snow on the ground, it was a big thing.Compared with my school in China, there were a lot more creative thinking questions, which I was better at anyway.
Time flew by and it had been almost four years since I moved there. Then again, I was told we were going to move to Singapore.
As I’m writing this article, I am still new here and have been going to school for about two and a half months.I found out that the education here is quite special. Different from AP system in the US, the Singapore CIS uses the IB system.
This switch drowned me in constant stress. I was confused about the new curriculum, and I knew it would take me a long time to adapt. But what I’ve gotten out of my experience over three countries is that no matter where you are studying, you are always learning. And a piece of advice to people who are going to move around the globe:It’s always best to just roll with the punches.
1. What did the writer think of life in the countryside?| A．It wasn’t as interesting as she expected. |
| B．It was no better than city life. |
| C．She wished she had moved to the countryside earlier. |
| D．She loved to live in the countryside. |
| A．It would be difficult to make new friends. |
| B．Language would be a big problem for her. |
| C．She wouldn’t get used to the weather there. |
| D．She wouldn’t like the schools there. |
| A．Positive. | B．Negative. |
| C．Critical. | D．Doubtful. |
【推荐3】Eleven-year-old Ruby Kate Chitsey loves asking the question “If you could have any three things, what would you want?” at nursing homes in Harrison. Even more amazing, she then sets out to make the residents who live in the nursing home realize their dreams.
Last May, Ruby Kate noticed a resident named Pearl staring out a window. She seemed sad. “What are you looking at?” Ruby Kate asked. Pearl said her dog was led away by his new owner because she couldn’t afford to raise it. Ruby Kate and her mother, Amanda, asked around and discovered that many nursing home residents are unable to afford even the smallest luxuries. So Ruby Kate decided to do something about it.
She started by asking residents what three things they wanted most in the world. Amanda worried that people would ask for cars and other things an 11-year-old wouldn’t be able to provide. Instead, they asked for chocolate bars, McDonald fries, pants that ft properly and even just prayer. Using heir own money, the Chitseys granted the wishes of about 100 people in three months. Then they started asking for donations.
The good people of Harrison responded enthusiastically, so much so hat Amanda set up a GoFundMe page, Three Wishes for Ruby’s Residents, hoping to collect %5,000. They hit their goal in a month. After GoFundMe named Ruby Kate a Kid Hero and promoted her story internationally this past January, Three Wishes raised $20,000 in 24 hours and more than $250,000 in five months.
Earlier this year, Three Wishes for Ruby’s Residents became a nonprofit and launched its first nationwide chapters. Ruby Kate doesn’t plan to stop there. “I consider kindness to be my hobby,” she says, “and I’m very good at it.”
1. What inspired Ruby Kate to help residents at nursing homes?| A．Pearl’s sadness for missing her dog. |
| B．The kindness of residents at nursing homes. |
| C．Many nursing home residents’ lack of luxuries. |
| D．Her experience of working in a nursing home. |
| A．Three Wishes has set up its worldwide branches. |
| B．The Chitseys helped satisfy the residents’ wishes. |
| C．The nursing home introduced Ruby’s story around the world. |
| D．The Chitseys are wealthy enough to afford all residents’ wishes. |
| A．People were supportive. | B．Ruby Kate was generous. |
| C．Raising money was quite easy. | D．The programme was profitable. |
| A．Proud and enthusiastic. | B．Creative and imaginative. |
| C．Warm-hearted and selfless. | D．Ambitious and modest. |
【推荐1】Jazmin Sanchez’s parents moved to Florida from Mexico shortly after they married in 1987. Over the years, they worked hard picking fruits and vegetables at farms and saved so they could provide Jazmin and her two sisters with opportunities.
“They told me that I could do anything I wanted in life, as long as I had an education and a passion,” said Jazmin, a student studying public health at the University of South Florida (USF). “I don’t want them to have to work as much as we do,” said Alida, Jazmin’s mother. “I want them to be able to choose careers that they love.”
Thousands of first-generation college students like Jazmin choose USF each year. While the definition (定义) of a first-generation student may vary nationally, at USF, they’re students whose parents or guardians did not complete a bachelor’s (学士) degree in the United States.
There are several programs to offer help to first-generation college students. Student Support Services created an online platform for them. The program teaches study skills and offers personalized advising, career exploration, and networking.
Jaelyn Wise, a first-generation USF graduate from Sanford, began her college journey with Student Support Services, and then later became a coach for the group, mentoring (辅导) younger first-generation students. “Student Support Services helps you through everything,” Jaelyn said. “I love what I do. I relate to where first generation students come from. I love telling them my story because it shows them that college isn’t easy, but it can be done.”
Support can begin in the summer to prepare first-generation students for fall classes. Through the summer program, students can learn about campus resources, skills needed to be successful and more.
“USF is important to first generation students because we are changing not only their lives, but the lives of their families,” said Rhea Law, president of USF. “We’re making a significant difference for them and for their communities for years to come.”
1. What can we learn about Jazmin’s parents?| A．They are always supportive of her. | B．They lead an easy life in Mexico. |
| C．They finished college in the US. | D．They teach agriculture in a school. |
| A．To apply for a new position. | B．To improve her writing skills. |
| C．To save money for further study. | D．To help more students like her. |
| A．To show students how to face facts. | B．To encourage students to read books. |
| C．To prepare students for college life. | D．To provide good jobs for students. |
| A．Short-lived. | B．Far-reaching. | C．Worrying. | D．Unchanged. |
I couldn’t help staring at him. I wondered what kind of person he had been ten or twenty years before, and what he would be like if luck had gone his way. I had a hurt in my heart for this kind of human soul, all alone in the world. I told him that I was sorry, but store rules didn’t allow me to do so. I felt stupid and unkind saying this, but I valued my job.
Just then, another man, standing behind the first, spoke up. If anything, he looked more pitiable. “Change it to me, ” was all he said.
What I had been feeling was pity. Pity is soft and safe and easy. Compassion, on the other hand, is caring in action. I thanked the second man but told him that was not allowed either. Then I reached into my pocket and paid for the biscuits myself. I reached into my pocket because these two men had reached into my heart and taught me compassion.
1. The aged gentleman who wanted to buy the biscuits_________ .
| A．hoped to have the food first and pay later |
| B．promised to obey the store rules |
| C．forgot to take any money with him |
| D．could not afford anything more expensive |
| A．kind and lucky | B．friendly and helpful |
| C．poor and lonely | D．hurt and disappointed |
| A．he felt no pity for the old gentleman |
| B．he considered the old man dishonest |
| C．he expected someone else to pay for the old man |
| D．he wanted to keep his present job |
| A．Wealth is more important than anything else |
| B．Experience is better gained through practice |
| C．Obeying the rules means more than compassion. |
| D．Helping others is easier said than done |
【推荐3】My name is Matthew. I’m not someone who has many secrets, because I’m a terrible liar. But there is one huge secret that I kept for years—I failed my driving test. I had never failed a test before, and had never even come close. Driving made me anxious, but my parents told me I had to. They signed me up for driving lessons. I had gotten a perfect score for my written permit exam, but getting behind the wheel was a different story.
But when October 30th rolled around, my pride set in. I wanted to be like everyone else at my school, showing off the brand new license they’d gotten. Looking back on that special day, I can’t remember if I was nervous. What I do remember is starting the test, pausing at a stop sign after a few seconds, and being asked by the instructor to pull over. I had received an auto-fail since my pause was indeed a pause and not a real stop. I wasn’t upset that I was leaving without a license, but I was scared everyone would know that I had failed. So when I got to class, I told everyone I didn’t want to take the test on my birthday.
One Friday a month later, I went to the test spot again and passed. Later that night I drove for the first time by myself, which brought to me an amazing feeling I’ve never experienced—but still, I couldn’t imagine ever telling anyone the truth. So I didn’t. It wasn’t until midway through college that I came clean. It turned out plenty of my college friends had failed too! And I gathered enough courage to speak the fact out. Yes, I had also failed.
Now I realize failure and imperfection are two things everyone has to experience, without which one couldn’t make a true man.
1. What can we learn about Matthew?| A．He was a slow learner of driving. | B．He relied heavily on his parents. |
| C．He was afraid of taking exams. | D．He was bored with telling lies. |
| A．To put an end to his test. | B．To check his parking skills. |
| C．To give him a second chance. | D．To show him a better way of driving. |
| A．Failing to get a driving license. | B．Missing his birthday celebration. |
| C．Making his parents disappointed. | D．Losing face before his classmates. |
| A．Matthew has many secrets. |
| B．Matthew didn’t want to take the test on his birthday. |
| C．Matthew kept the secret until he went to college. |
| D．Matthew’ friends all passed the driving test for the first time. |
| A．Honesty is the best policy. | B．Failure is a way to grow up. |
| C．Truth stands the test of time. | D．Imperfection is another form of perfection. |
