My name is Jaimic Eckert and I’ve been into volunteer work since childhood. As a girl, I volunteered at animal shelters, played music at nursing homes, and helped with community cleanup after disasters. In college, I volunteered heavily at a large yearly conference for young adults, which is where I fell in love with my husband-to-be, who was on my team of co-volunteers. Since getting married in 2013, we’ve been living in Beirut, Lebanon. I actually have an online coaching business but I’ve had many opportunities to volunteer with projects for Syrian refugees(难民) and youth education.
Volunteering has been a way of life for me for a very long time, and I wouldn’t do it if I didn’t enjoy it. Most of the time, you do feel that you’re making a difference. Once I was leading out a project that provided food boxes to Syrian refugee families. When it was nearing Ramadan, the biggest holiday season in Islam, I literally stuffed the food package with extra treats... dates, nuts, olive oil and sweets. We took the package unannounced and ended up arriving just as the Syrian family was sitting down on their floor for breakfast.They had nothing more than a few pieces of bread and a pot of tea. The mother was in tears as she received us. I’ll never forget their gratitude.
Another time, back when I was in college in the US, a group of friends and I volunteered to drive to a distant church that was way out in the suburb and had only a few elderly members. The building was in disrepair and the church yard needed attention. We stayed the weekend in the home of one of these old ladies so we could clean and repair the church. I’ll never forget how new life sparkled in her eyes. She couldn’t repair broken doors or pull weeds. but her love for us was unmatched. It breaks my heart to remember this old lady beaming with joy for such small efforts that we made. Sometimes, volunteer work is fulfilling not because of the actual job you get done, but because of how your presence impacts the people around you.
Volunteering makes me a better person because it gets me outside of myself. It puts my focus on others. It makes me grateful for what I have.
1. In writing Paragraph 1, the author aims to____.| A．provide an explanation | B．introduce a topic |
| C．reach a conclusion | D．propose a definition |
| A．We brought food to Syrian families. |
| B．Ramadan is the most important holiday season in Islam. |
| C．Volunteering affects people in some way. |
| D．Volunteering is a way of Eckert’s life. |
| A．Because finally someone came to comfort them in the church. |
| B．Because she could clean and repair the church with us. |
| C．Because of our presence and help. |
| D．Because we made efforts to entertain her. |
| A．Eckert’s volunteer dream. |
| B．What volunteering means to Eckert. |
| C．How volunteering has changed Eckert’s life. |
| D．Eckert volunteers for Syrian refugees. |
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【推荐1】On a hot summer afternoon along the Mandavi River, Shweta Hule wraps her sari around her ankles and bends to pick wild “weeds” from the river and drop them into a bowl. The plants will be made into fritters (炸果饼), to be served at the little restaurant attached to the B&B Hule manages in the Indian coastal town of Vengurla.
Wild edible (可食用的) plants are common in kitchens here. Hule’s weed is juicy, which is found in mangrove forests. Harvesting some of the plant is helping conserve the mangroves, a globally endangered ecosystem of salt-tolerant trees that stop coastal erosion (侵蚀) and absorb storm damage.
Hule is head of Swamini, a self-help group set up by nine women from a fishing community in Vengurla who started Mandavi Eco Tourism in 2017. Vengurla is known for its beautiful beaches and seafood, but the climate crisis has made fishing for a living unsustainable, so people are trying to find other sources of income. They came up with the idea of running mangrove safaris (观光游) for tourists in Vengurla’s Mandavi River.
The safaris offer visitors a unique hour-long tour of the mangroves. Food has also become a key attraction: local spicy coconut curries, with homegrown or wild vegetables. Tourists are encouraged to go crabbing, and their catch is cooked and served.
Hule only discovered recently that the weed was edible when she met tourists from another coastal city. She researched these leaves and learned that the salty plant is rich in vitamins. She made her own version of the fritters, with chickpea flour, and presented it at the wild vegetable festival. “It was an instant hit. This boosted the confidence to include these fritters in our restaurant menu,” says Hule.
Swamini’s lodging house also serves vegetarian meals and plates of fish and crab sourced from the river. “The satisfaction after the visitors enjoy our meal is the real currency. We had guests from London who were so happy with our food that they took down the recipe. Such people help our business grow. What more can we want?” says Hule.
1. Which of the following can best describe the example of Shweta Hule?| A．Do as the Romans do. |
| B．Strike while the iron is hot. |
| C．Kill two birds with one stone. |
| D．Bite off more than you can chew. |
| A．Eco-tours and accommodation. |
| B．Fishing guide service. |
| C．Vegetable growing techniques. |
| D．Hands-on cooking classes. |
| A．They were less expensive. |
| B．They were traditional. |
| C．They had their own features. |
| D．They got strongly promoted. |
| A．Lost. | B．Proud. | C．Worried. | D．Curious. |
Phil White has just returned from an 18,000mile, aroundtheworld bicycle trip. White had two reasons for making this epic journey. First of all, he wanted to use the trip to raise money for charity, which he did. He raised £70,000 for the British charity, Oxfam. White’s second reason for making the trip was to break the world record and become the fastest person to cycle around the world. He is still waiting to find out if he has broken the record or not.
White set off from Trafalgar Square, in London, on 19th June 2004 and was back 299 days later. He spent more than 1,300 hours in the saddle (车座) and destroyed four sets of tyres and three bike chains. He had the adventure of his life crossing Europe, the Middle East, India, Asia, Australia, New Zealand and the Americas. Amazingly, he did all of this with absolutely no support team. No jeep carrying food, water and medicine. No doctor. Nothing! Just a bike and a very, very long road.
The journey was lonely and desperate at times. He also had to fight his way across deserts, through jungles and over mountains. He cycled through heavy rains and temperatures of up to 45 degrees, all to help people in need. There were other dangers along the road. In Iran, he was chased by armed robbers and was lucky to escape with his life and the little money he had. The worst thing that happened to him was having to cycle into a headwind on a road that crosses the south of Australia. For 1,000 kilometres he battled against the wind that was constantly pushing him. This part of the trip was slow, hard work and depressing, but he made it in the end. Now Mr. White is back and intends to write a book about his adventures.
1. When Phil White returned from his trip, he ________.| A．broke the world record |
| B．collected money for Oxfam |
| C．destroyed several bikes |
| D．travelled about 1,300 hours |
| A．Very slow but exciting. |
| B．Very long and difficult. |
| C．Very smooth but tiring. |
| D．Very lonely and depressing. |
| A．fought heroically against robbers in Iran |
| B．experienced the extremes of heat and cold |
| C．managed to ride against the wind in Australia |
| D．had a team of people who travelled with him |
| A．Imaginative. | B．Patriotic. | C．Modest. | D．Determined. |
【推荐3】The first day of school our professor introduced himself and challenged us to get to know someone we hadn’t already known. I stood up to look around when a gentle hand touched my shoulder.I turned round to find a wrinkled, little old lady beaming up at me with a smile that lit up her entire being.
She said, “Hi handsome. My name is Rose. I’m eighty-seven years old. Can I give you a hug?”
I laughed and enthusiastically responded, “Of course you may!” and she gave me a giant squeeze.
“Why are you in college at such a young, innocent age?” I asked.
She jokingly replied, “I’m here to meet a rich husband, get married, and have a couple of kids...”
“No seriously,” I asked. I was curious about what may have motivated her to be taking on this challenge at her age.
“I always dreamed of having a college education and now I’m getting one!” she told me.
We became instant friends. Every day for the next three months we would leave class together and talk nonstop. I always enjoyed listening to this “time machine” as she shared her wisdom and experience with me.
Over the course of the year, Rose became a campus icon and she easily made friends wherever she went. She loved to dress up and took delight in the attention bestowed (授予) upon her from the other students. She was living it up.
At the end of the semester we invited Rose to speak at our football banquet.
I’ll never forget what she taught us.
“We do not stop playing because we are old; we grow old because we stop playing. There is a huge difference between growing older and growing up. If you are nineteen years old and lie in bed for one full year and don’t do one productive thing, you will turn twenty years old.”
At the end of that year, Rose finished the college degree she had begun all those years ago.
One week after graduation, Rose died peacefully in her sleep.
1. What motivated Rose to attend college at an elderly age?| A．To make friends. |
| B．To find a rich husband. |
| C．To fulfill her lifelong dream. |
| D．To speak at a football banquet. |
| A．Because she was a famous campus icon. |
| B．Because she was a person of many words. |
| C．Because she was an elderly person attending college. |
| D．Because she was an experienced and wise old woman. |
| A．The difference between aging and maturing. |
| B．The relationship between play and aging. |
| C．The tips to play football at an elderly age. |
| D．The ways to win friends on campus. |
| A．Ambitious and demanding. |
| B．Humorous and open-minded. |
| C．Wealthy and experienced. |
| D．Enthusiastic and innocent. |
【推荐1】At 19, determined not to spend my gap year stuck at home, I took off with a friend and we traveled around Europe for months. We stayed in the cheapest accommodation and lived on bread and cheese.
This was 1990, a time before mobile phones and the Internet, when the primary contact with home was mails from the post office. Before I left, Mom had made me a money bag and a sleeping sheet to avoid unclean bedding. She didn’t want me to go, and these gifts were her way of telling me to have a wonderful time.
It’s only now, as my 18-year-old daughter is preparing to leave on her own gap year trip, that I understand how Mom felt.
While working multiple jobs and saving money, my daughter has also researched where to stay, how to get around and what to do before setting off. She rarely asks for my opinion and I am unsure whether I should wade in (介入) or back off. I want to be supportive but not too involved. I want to be cool but not aloof (漠不关心的) . I want to be like the perfect travel guide.
After all, when she first mentioned gap year travel, I was encouraging, wanting her to have her own experiences that shape her. Though I’m not quite ready, this trip is about her. This is not 1990 and I am not stuck at home waiting for a letter. Therefore, I haven’t concentrated too long on the idea of her not being here. I have promised not to bother her with messages, but at least I know she can contact me when she wants to.
1. What do we know about the author’s travel in 1990?| A．She traveled around Europe alone. | B．She probably contacted home by letter. |
| C．She worked multiple jobs while traveling. | D．She booked her accommodations online. |
| A．She was worried about the cost of the trip. |
| B．She had little knowledge about the destination. |
| C．She was unsure of how involved she should be. |
| D．She doubted her daughter’s ability to look after herself. |
| A．Tum a blind eye to her daughter. | B．Take charge of her daughter’s trip. |
| C．Contact her daughter as often as possible. | D．Stay connected but not disturb too much. |
| A．To analyse parent-child relationship. |
| B．To suggest how to plan a gap year trip. |
| C．To compare different gap year travel experiences. |
| D．To share mixed feelings about her daughter’s trip. |
【推荐2】Living beyond limits
Growing up in the hot Las Vegas desert, all I wanted was to be free. I would daydream about traveling the world, living in a place where it snowed.
At the age of 19, the day after I graduated from high school, I moved to a place where it snowed and I found my dream job. For the first time in my life, I felt free, independent and completely in control of my life. That is, until my life took a detour (转折点) . I went home from work early one day with what I thought was the flu, and less than 24 hours later I was in the hospital on life support with less than a 2% chance of living.
Over the course of two and a half months I lost the hearing in my left ear and both of my legs below the knee. I thought the worst was over until weeks later when I saw my new artificial legs for the first time. They were so painful that all I could think was, how am I ever going to travel the world in these things? And how was I going to snowboard again?
But I knew that in order to move forward, I had to let go of the old Self and learn to embrace the new Self. And that is when it dawned on me that if I snowboarded again, my feet aren’t going to get cold.
Four months later I was back up on a snowboard, although things didn’t go quite as expected: My knees and my ankles wouldn’t bend. But I knew that I would be able to do this again if I could find the right pair of feet.
I did a year of research, still couldn’t figure out what kind of legs to use. So I decided to make a pair myself. My leg maker and I put random parts together and we made a pair of feet that I could snowboard in. Then in 2005 I cofounded a nonprofit organization for youth with physical disabilities so they could get involved with action sports.
Eleven years ago, when I lost my legs, I had no idea what to expect. But if you ask me today, if I would ever want to change my situation, I would have to say no. Because my legs haven’t disabled me. They’ve forced me to rely on my imagination and to believe in the possibilities.
1. How did the author feel when she saw her new legs for the first time?| A．Astonished. | B．Hopeful. | C．Desperate. | D．Delighted. |
| A．Her positive attitude. |
| B．Inspiration from research. |
| C．Her love for snowboard. |
| D．Help from a nonprofit organization. |
| A．travel around the world |
| B．take part in action sports |
| C．bend their knees and ankles |
| D．recover from their disabilities |
| A．Practice makes perfect. |
| B．Actions speak louder than words. |
| C．You can’t judge a book by its cover. |
| D．Nothing is impossible to a willing heart |
【推荐3】As a kid, I was always around animals and I always enjoyed it. After my senior year of high school, we started renting this farm. Then I went away to Rhode Island School of Design to become an architect. After about two years and a half, I found that was not quite what I wanted to do. I felt I wanted to be an architect and have a hobby farm. But why not just have a farm and make it my career?
It’s an exciting business. I think a lot of people don’t realize what’s involved with dairy farming (奶牛业). We took some trips to some progressive farms out in New York when we first started. And it really changed my attitude of what you can do. You can be a successful businessperson with a lot of challenges. And those challenges are part of what makes it very exciting — it’s not just milking cows. There’s nutrition and finances and a lot of big day-to-day decisions.
Well, land is the biggest obstacle. Securing enough land is important. We don’t just need the land for the animals; we also need it to distribute the manure from the cows. And there’s a real balance, a real recycling. You take the feed; you give it to the cows, and the cows give you milk, but they also give you a lot of manure. And the best thing to do is putting it back on the land. You need 2 acres per cow basically, a cow and its calf.
The land that we rent is beautiful and the land that we own is beautiful. If you get half a mile off the road and looking back at scenery across the valley, it’s impressive. You get the rows of grass and the cows in the distance.
1. Which of the following is included in the dairy farming according to the text?| A．Designing for the dairy farming. |
| B．Playing with the cows around the farm. |
| C．Taking trips around the farm to enjoy life. |
| D．Milking cows, nutrition, finances and decisions. |
| A．Huge amounts of money. | B．Securing enough land. |
| C．Highly qualified milk cows. | D．Quantities of workers. |
| A．Milk from the cows. | B．Chemical fertilizers. |
| C．Waste of the cows. | D．Food offered to cows. |
| A．Building a Successful Dairy Business |
| B．Famous Farmers Around the World |
| C．Highly Qualified Milk Cows |
| D．The Architecture Designer |
【推荐1】No one knows how much money Dr. Lyle Tullis gave away to students. I was his colleague for nearly a decade and I never stopped being amazed at his generosity. Our college has a program of providing cross-cultural experiences for students. Lots of students take advantage of summer experiences oversea. I discovered that no group left for overseas without some of its members receiving financial help from Dr. Tullis.
It wasn’t that he made a lot of money. For one thing, he taught in a church-run school. There, his salary (薪水) was half of what those people earned in a tax-supported school.
Other colleagues occasionally complained about the low pay. Not Lyle Tullis. Occasionally some professors would leave our campus for a better-paid position. They told me they did so because, with better pay, they could provide for their families.
The size of Lyle Tullis’ paycheck never seemed to be the most important thing to him. I realized that one day when I was thanking him for helping a student, his eyes shone as he said to me, “I’ve got so much money that I don’t know what to do with it. So, I just give it away.”
Most people wouldn’t have thought that way. Dr. Tullis drove one of the oldest cars on campus. It was even older than almost any of the students’ cars. His home, while comfortable, was not fancy at all. But Lyle Tullis lived with the feeling that he had so much money that he needed to give it away.
He was one of the favorite on campus. Cynics (愤世嫉俗) might say he bought fame. But they would misunderstand. Lyle wanted to devote his life, all of it, to helping others.
1. What does the first paragraph mainly talk about?| A．Dr. Tullis was very popular with his students. |
| B．The author was wondering why Dr. Tullis gave students money. |
| C．Dr. Tullis was generous in giving his students financial help. |
| D．The author had a program of providing cross-cultural experiences for students. |
| A．He had a good fortune. | B．He wanted to buy fame. |
| C．He was ready to help students in need. | D．He didn’t know where to put it away. |
| A．Dr. Tullis was very content with his low pay. |
| B．Dr. Tullis cared little about his family. |
| C．The author felt confused about Dr. Tullis’ generosity. |
| D．Many people would misunderstand Dr. Tullis |
| A．Honest. | B．Generous. | C．Friendly. | D．Conservative. |
【推荐2】For 20 years, two brothers living in the dirty neighborhood of Wazirabad in India’s capital, Delhi, have been treating wounded black kites (鸢) that fall from the city’s skies.
Mohammad Saud and Nadeem Shehzad rescue birds of prey — mostly injured by paper kite strings — and carry them to a basement garage at home. Here, they begin nursing them to health: cleaning and bandaging wounds, fixing wings and broken bones.
Small miracles happen in the basement. Here lives are saved, a living is made and there’s some happiness too. “You don’t care for things because they share the same country, religion or politics,” say the brothers. “Life itself is relationship. That’s why we can’t abandon the birds.”
The brothers talk about how a neighborhood bird hospital refused to treat the first kite they rescued because it was a “non-vegetarian bird”. At that time, they, were teenage bodybuilders and that’s how they “came to know about flesh and muscles”. They figured out ways to bandage the kites. They became passionate about birds. “We’d lie on the ground, watching the elegant flights in the sky,” they say. “The head would spin. Have you ever felt dizzy looking into the sky?”
The street outside the brothers’ home becomes a smelly pool of sewage water which comes into the basement during the rainy season. Pigs wander in a muddy channel. Air quality reaches dangerous peaks. Yet there’s life and hope. Monkeys climb playfully over some electric wires that hang unsteadily over narrow streets. An airplane in the sky is reflected in a pool of quiet water.
When the weather clears, skies are filled with paper kites. And then the birds begin dropping, and the brothers are back at their job. Sometimes the birds fall after bumping against buildings in the smog or getting entangled (缠住) in overhead wires. At one point, there were more than 100 wounded birds in the basement. The brothers once swam across the river to rescue a bird with a broken wing.
1. Why do the brothers treat wounded kites?| A．They believe they are interconnected. | B．They like to see miracles happen. |
| C．They are deeply religious people. | D．They do it for political reasons. |
| A．Kites are not protected birds. | B．Kites feed on other creatures. |
| C．Kites keep their heads spinning. | D．Kites are dangerous to human beings. |
| A．By listing some statistics. | B．By depicting a miserable scene. |
| C．By making an analysis. | D．By making comparisons. |
| A．Look at the positive side of a thing. | B．Start a great cause with small deeds. |
| C．Live in harmony with creatures around. | D．Lend a helping hand to people in need. |
【推荐3】Elizabeth Blackwell was born in England in 1821, and moved to New York City when she was ten years old. One day she decided that she wanted to become a doctor. That was nearly impossible for a woman in the middle of the nineteenth century. After writing many tellers asking for admission to medical schools, she was finally accepted by a doctor in Philadelphia. She was so determined that she taught school and gave music lessons to get money for the cost of schooling.
In 1849, after graduation from medical school, she decided to further her education in Paris. She wanted to be a surgeon, but a serious eye problem forced her to give up the idea.
Upon returning to the United States, she found it difficult to start her own practice because she was a woman. By 1857 Elizabeth and her sister, also a doctor, along with another woman doctor, managed to open a new hospital, the first for women and children. Besides being the first woman physician and founding her own hospital, she also set up the first medical school for women.
1. What main obstacle almost destroyed Elizabeth’s chances of becoming a doctor?| A．She was a woman. | B．She wrote too many letters. |
| C．She couldn’t graduate from medical school. | D．She couldn’t set up her hospital. |
| A．She couldn’t get admitted to medical school. |
| B．She decided to further her education in Paris. |
| C．A serious eye problem slopped her. |
| D．It was difficult for her to start a practice in the United States. |
| A．Eight years. | B．Ten years. |
| C．Nineteen years. | D．Thirty-six years. |
| A．Elizabeth Blackwell became the first woman nurse. |
| B．Elizabeth Blackwell set up the first medical school for women in England. |
| C．Elizabeth Blackwell founded the first hospital for women and children only by herself. |
| D．Elizabeth Blackwell was the first woman physician. |
| A．England | B．Paris | C．the United States | D．Sydney |
