【推荐1】As a boy, I wanted to go to the South Pole. As a teenager, I decided I'd like to go to the North Pole too. And yet, I haven't done either. It had taken me 31 years to just make it to the Arctic.

I was traveling with a film crew from Northern Ireland, following the footsteps of Lord Dufferin who, in the 1850s, sailed from Scotland to the Arctic. As an early adventure tourist, he was driven by the desire to see what lay at the ends of the world.

As we sailed north, icebergs of the size of buses floated past our small boat. Finally, we reached our destination—English Bay, where Dufferin landed- and stepped off onto the horseshoe-shaped beach.

This was what I'd dreamt of: standing somewhere so pure and primitive. However, for many early polar explorers, the results were far less pleasant. The south, in particular, was source of extreme danger.

My childhood interest in the South Pole was fueled by the unsuccessful yet heroic adventures of Emest Shackleton. He died in 1922 while preparing for his fourth adventure. The stories of Robert Falcon Scott are also well-known: he and four companions died on their way back from the South Pole.

So why do explorers put themselves at such risk?

Much of it seems to lie in the purity of the challenge. Scott talked of the appeal of a place that had been “unreached and unseen by humans.” “With a view over shining lands covered by ice-sheets of inconceivable extent, you have the feeling of living over the control of death,” said Fridtjof Nansen, a Norwegian explorer.

On the homeward journey the weather turned and we were left for a few days at the mercy of a storm. We experienced a small taste of helplessness when faced with the raw power of nature. We should be grateful for the great explorers’ spirit and stories. I know I am.

1. Why did the author begin his adventure tour?

A．To assist a film crew	B．To realize a childhood dream
C．To memorize Lord Dufferin	D．To challenge a world record

2. Which of the following best explains "inconceivable" underlined in paragraph 7?

A．Hard to control	B．Too far to reach
C．Hard to imagine	D．Too bright to view

3. What happened during the writer's journey?

A．They were trapped in icebergs	B．They were kept off the destination
C．They were attacked by a storm	D．They were rescued by explorers

4. Which of the following is the best title for the text?

A．The Appeal of the Ends of the World	B．The Dream of Traveling to the Arctic
C．The Victory over the Control of Death	D．The Gratitude to Great Explorers Spirit

【推荐2】We live in a town with three beaches. There are two parts less than 10 minutes’ walk from home where neighborhood children gather to play. However, what my children want to do after school is pick up a screen — any screen — and stare at it for hours. They are not alone. Today’s children spend an average of four and a half hours a day looking at screens, split between watching television and using the Internet.

In the past few years, an increasing number of people and organisations have begun coming up with plans to counter this trend. A couple of years ago film-maker David Bond realised that his children, then aged five and three, were attached to screens to the point where he was able to say “chocolate” into his three-year-old son’s ear without getting a response. He realised that something needed to change, and, being a London media type, appointed himself “marketing director from Nature”. He documented his journey as he set about treating nature as a brand to be marketed to young people. The result was Project Wild Thing, a film which charts the birth of the World Network, a group of organisations with the common goal of getting children out into nature.

“Just five more minutes outdoors can make a difference,” David Bond says. “There is a lot of really interesting evidence which seems to be suggesting that if children are inspired up to the age of seven, then being outdoors will be on habit for life.” His own children have got into the habit of playing outside now: “We just send them out into the garden and tell them not to come back in for a while.”

Summer is upon us. There is an amazing world out there, and it needs our children as much as they need it. Let us get them out and let them play.

1. What is the problem with the author’s children?

A．They often annoy their neighbours.	B．They are tired of doing their homework.
C．They have no friends to play with	D．They stay in front of screens for too long.

2. How did David Bond advocate his idea?

A．By making a documentary film.	B．By organizing outdoor activities.
C．By advertising in London media.	D．By creating a network of friends.

3. Which of the following can replace the underlined word “charts” in paragraph 2?

A．records

B．predicts

C．delays

D．confirms

4. What can be a suitable title for the text?

A．Let Children Have Fun	B．Young Children Need More Free Time
C．Market Nature to Children	D．David Bond: A Role Model for Children

【推荐3】9 days after he was born, Zig Ziglar stopped breathing. Sadly, the doctor laid the lifeless body on the bed and then his grandmother held his body close and began whispering in his ear. Surprisingly, he came back to life in her arms.

He was 5 when his father died and 2 days later, his baby sister died too. He was raised the 10th out of 12 children by his widowed (寡妇的) mother during The Great Depression. At 7 he was already helping to support his family by selling their vegetables and milk. When he was 20, he married a woman called Jean. In order to support his new family, he quit school and sold pots and pans.

Life as a salesman was unpredictable and so for years, the couple struggled financially. Sometimes he could only afford a few gallons of gas, so wherever his car rolled to a stop was where he would start working door-to-door. But he maintained a positive attitude about everything.

Refusing to accept defeat, he began travelling to churches, schools and clubs, sharing lessons about the power of positive thinking. When the company he worked for broke up, he turned to full-time motivational speaking, helping countless people achieve their dreams.

By 1975 he had written See you at the top, a book of his most inspiring thoughts and stories. It was rejected by 30 different publishers before it was finally printed. It has now sold more than

2 million copies worldwide.

Zig Ziglar passed away in 2012, two days after celebrating his 66th wedding anniversary. In his 30 books that have been translated into more than 36 languages, his optimism and enthusiasm have impacted more than 250 million people around the world and continues to inspire more every day.

1. How old was Zig Ziglar when he finished See you at the top?

A．49.

B．46.

C．37.

D．66.

2. What can we learn about Zig Ziglar according to the text?

A．He wrote a book which was popular with publishers in the beginning.

B．He sold vegetables and milk to support his new family.

C．He grew up in a large family.

D．To earn a living, he would go to churches and schools to sell pots and pans.

3. What jobs has Zig Ziglar done throughout his life?

A．Writer, speechmaker and librarian.

B．Salesman, speechmaker and writer.

C．Salesman, writer and librarian.

D．Salesman, speechmaker and librarian.

4. Which of the following words can best describe Zig Ziglar?

A．Pitiful and positive.	B．Fortunate and motivational.
C．Ambitious and hard-working.	D．Energetic and generous.

【推荐1】Rudolph plays football for Florida State University. When he was visiting a middle school in Florida one Tuesday, he noticed sixth-grader Leo eating his lunch alone. Rudolph grabbed a couple pieces of pizza and joined Leo at his table.

Leo has autism, a condition that can make it hard to make friends and communicate with other people. His mother always worries about him. Two days later, she saw a picture of Rudolph and Leo eating together and it made her so happy that she cried. Then, she shared the picture on the Internet, along with a message about how thankful she was. The story became popular very quickly.

“We just had a great conversation. He started off telling me his name is Leo, telling me how much he loves Florida State. We went from there, ” said Rudolph. “It was really easy. He had a nice smile on his face. Just a really warm person.”

Leo’s mother said that middle school can be hard, and she worries about how other kids will treat her son. “Sometimes I’m thankful for his autism. That may sound like a terrible thing to say, but in some ways I think — I hope — it shields him, ” she said.

“He doesn’t seem to notice when people look at him when he flaps (拍打) his hands,” she said. “He doesn’t seem to notice that he doesn’t get invited to birthday parties. And he doesn’t seem to mind if he eats lunch alone.”

The mother said the photo of Rudolph and Leo’s lunch date helped teach people about autism. “The picture speaks more than a thousand words. You can see how far away the rest of the students are, but you can see how engaged Rudolph is with Leo,” she added.

“I just wanted to go say hi to the kid, because I saw him eating alone. I didn’t even know anybody took a photo of it.” Rudolph said he was glad that the story was helping others.

Leo is excited that Rudolph signed his lunch box, and is enjoying all of the attention. “It’s been awesome. Everyone was so proud of me,” Leo said.

Leo and his mother have been invited to dinner with the football team and possibly to a game.

1. Rudolph chose to eat with Leo because he _______________.

A．knew Leo suffered from autism	B．wanted to make friends with Leo
C．promised to sign Leo’s lunchbox	D．saw no one sitting at the table with Leo

2. Leo’s mother shared the picture on the Internet to ________________.

A．show her thankfulness	B．teach people about autism
C．help her son to become famous	D．make the other students feel ashamed

3. What did Leo’s mother mean by saying the sentence underlined in Paragraph 4?

A．Autism protects Leo from being treated badly at school.

B．Autism causes Leo to receive positive public attention.

C．Autism makes Leo not realize his social challenges.

D．Autism helps Leo escape from social activities.

4. What can we learn from this passage?

A．One good turn deserves another.	B．A loss may turn out to be a gain.
C．A little kindness goes a long way.	D．Chance favors the prepared mind.

【推荐2】Blake Mycoske set up his first business, EZ Laundry, a door-to-door laundry service for students, when he was still in college. Having grown the company to service seven colleges in the southwestern US, he sold his share to his business partner and moved on to a media advertising business in Nashville. This he sold to Clear Channel, one of the industry’s leading companies.

Three more businesses later, still only 29 years old, and feeling somewhat burned out, Mycoskie decided to give it a break for a while and head down to Argentina. But resting wasn’t really in his nature, and it wasn’t long before Mycoskie had hit upon an idea that would come to define him as a social entrepreneur (企业家).

On a visit to a village outside Buenos Aires, he was shocked to see that many of the children didn’t have any shoes or, if they did, the shoes were worn out and didn’t fit. Since shoes, particularly the local farmers’ canvas (帆布) shoe, the alpargata, can be bought relatively cheaply in Argentina, Mycoskie’s first instinct was to set up a charity to donate shoes to the children. But after giving it some thought, he realized that this was not a model that would work. One pair of shoes per child would not make that much difference because they wear out. And if he asked people to donate repeatedly, sympathy for the cause might also wear out pretty quickly.

Instead he came up with the idea of TOMS One for One Shoes. He would take the alpargata to America, manufacture it and sell it as a high-end fashion item at around $50 a pair. For each pair he sold, he would donate another to shoeless children, guaranteeing a continual supply. Also, rather than running a charity, something he had no real experience in, he could run the project as a business. Several years later, the business is booming, supplying shoes not only to children in Argentina but also other parts of the world where foot diseases are a problem.

Mycoskie had no manufacturing experience and understood that he had to learn fast. For the first eighteen months, by his own admission, he made “a poor job of making shoes,” but since then he has brought in help from experienced industry people. The vital element that Mycoskie added was his passion—a passion he wants others to share. One criticism of initiatives like TOMS is that the money spent by customers might otherwise have gone directly to charities. So Mycoskie encourages his customers to become more involved with TOMS by volunteering to hand-deliver the shoes to children in need. It’s a giving experience and he hopes it might inspire some of the volunteers to develop similar projects.

1. Why did Blake Mycoske go to Argentina?

A．To look for ideas.

B．To be close to nature.

C．To relax himself.

D．To start his new business.

2. Blake Mycoske gave up the idea of setting up a charity to donate shoes to the kids because ________.

A．he found it wasn’t a long-term solution

B．he found the shoes weren’t good in quality

C．he found people didn’t show enough sympathy

D．he found the kids didn’t like the traditional shoes

3. How did Mycoskie respond to the criticism of the projects like TOMS?

A．He inspired other similar projects.

B．He donated more money to charity.

C．He turned his customers into volunteers.

D．He hand-delivered shoes to the kids by himself.

4. Which of the following might be the best title of the passage?

A．The Future of Shoe Making	B．A New Business Model
C．An Experienced Entrepreneur	D．The Shoe Giver