When I was young, I wondered why neighborhoods didn’t plant fruit trees to build community Later, my husband and I decided the right way to answer this question was to do it ourselves, so we began to fill our front yard with fruit trees, such as strawberries, pomegranates (石榴) and oranges.
Every crop (庄稼) brought us closer to neighbors and strangers. The food was an excuse to communicate. Kids in the neighborhood, including our sons, learned patience and gentle timing. When we had extra, we’d share it. Then, we received a powerful lesson:a gift hidden as a loss. Our first-ever crop of pomegranates had ripened (成熟), but at harvest (丰收), they were all gone, stolen in the middle of the night.
We were shocked, sad and angry. One of my friends had fun suggesting we post a sign to curse (诅咒) thieves who stole our fruit.
And suddenly, the lesson was clear. We did need a sign, but our sign would encourage sharing and community. Last fall, we had a larger crop of pomegranates. We posted a sign that read, “If you’d like one, please knock and introduce yourself and we’d be happy to cut one off the tree for you. Cutting saves the branches (枝条) and is good for future growth so we can continue to share with new friends like you. Thanks, the Green Family.” Out of eight pieces of fruit, one pomegranate was taken, and most others gifted to new friends.
This year, we planted three new fruit trees — a peach, a pear and a plum. Today, I am happy to role model generosity (慷慨，大方) for my young sons and to have been blessed (祈福) with the chance to provide an edible (可食的) front yard (院子) for others.
1. What was the author and her husband’s decision?| A．To plant fruit trees in their front yard. |
| B．To invite their neighbors to share fruits. |
| C．To help their neighbors by planting fruit trees. |
| D．To find the right answer to their neighbor’s question. |
| A．provided food for the whole family |
| B．satisfied the needs of her neighbors |
| C．made her family lead a happier life |
| D．offered a chance to get close to others |
| A．was made at the request of her friends |
| B．was quite effective in stopping thieves |
| C．didn’t bring the author any new friends |
| D．contained information about the Green Family |
| A．Prevention is better than cure. |
| B．Learning to share is important. |
| C．Never judge a book by its cover. |
| D．Good fences make good neighbors. |
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【推荐1】Although many years have passed, I still remember the last year of my junior school. I had to prepare for the entrance test, which made me stressed (有压力的). I cried several nights.
When we are feeling very stressed, many of us may feel like crying. Shedding tears is a good way to deal with our “dark” emotions (情绪). When we cry, we are letting go of our stress, I certainly felt better after I had cried. After I had calmed myself down, I reached out to some friends and teachers who encouraged me. I managed to get an offer from a qualified senior school.
With increased competition, it isn’t surprising that many students today are feeling stressed out. Many of us think of our “dark” emotions to be our enemies (敌人). It appears silly for us to be so easily beaten by them. That’s why we might feel too shy to cry. When we are feeling sad, we may also have difficulty asking for help or talking to others.
“Dark” emotions are not in themselves a bad thing. Just like happiness, they are common. But you should certainly find ways to manage them. Try to take part in social events. Eat healthy, balanced meals. Find people who can support you. Exercise regularly. These things can all help. The most important thing, though, is to accept your feelings. They are nothing to be ashamed of.
1. Why did the writer cry when preparing the entrance test?| A．The time passed quickly. | B．He felt worried. |
| C．He missed his junior school. | D．He got little help. |
| A．By crying all the time. | B．By reaching out to family. |
| C．By entering a qualified senior school. | D．By asking friends and teachers for help. |
| A．We are not brave enough to ask for help. |
| B．We are not strong enough and look foolish. |
| C．We are not wise enough to hide our feelings. |
| D．We are not confident enough to talk to others. |
| A．Silly. | B．Useful. | C．Natural. | D．Unsatisfying. |
| A．To offer us some ways to eat healthy. |
| B．To help us to stay away from dark emotions |
| C．To tell us to prepare for the entrance test well. |
| D．To encourage us to accept our feelings, no matter good or bad. |
【推荐2】Have you ever felt like others don’t understand your pain when they seem to be living a happy life? You’re not alone in feeling this way, but the truth is that happiness takes work.
Live in the present moment
Your past is important to learn from.
Be kind to others
Keep your mind open
Having an open mind is important for your growth. You may be right about something, but it doesn’t mean there aren’t other ways to look at it.
You’ll hear people say “I had that idea” every time you see someone create something great. Everyone had the idea for Facebook first. The reason Mark Zuckerberg got rich off it is that he went out and did it, while everyone else was talking about it. Ideas are useless if you don’t act on them. Less thinking, more doing.
| A．Decide what’s important to you. |
| B．Here are several ways you can try. |
| C．Take action for what matters to you. |
| D．Your future is important to work towards. |
| E．Every day you see someone who needs help. |
| F．Listening to ideas you don’t agree with keeps your mind open. |
| G．So find something new and set goals beyond what you believe possible. |
【推荐3】When we choose to worry over what we don’t possess, we actually stand at a risk of losing whatever we already have.
Choose to be grateful. Well, whether to complain about what you don’t have or to be thankful for what you have is a conscious choice you make yourself. Treasure what you have and strive for what you need next. Some are always worrying over what they don’t have or can’t achieve in the present.
Look around you. When in fear or frustration, look around yourself for examples of patience and gratitude.
Think positive to achieve positive.
| A．Your thoughts can shape your life. |
| B．Look for hidden ways to be thankful. |
| C．Think about why you should be grateful. |
| D．After all, it is our mind that rules our body. |
| E．Helping others is just one of such examples! |
| F．Learn to observe how birds are grateful to nature for their food. |
| G．Actually, it is merely a way to waste the precious present moments. |
【推荐1】Not all classrooms are in school buildings. As we have learned, classrooms can be created almost anywhere that teachers and learners are able to connect, in person or virtually.
For Danielle Zelin, who teaches on the island of Mauritius, the classroom is in her home, and all around it. Danielle runs her own school the Language Mood English Club and as a result as freedom to take the curriculum（课程）in many directions, and sometimes that means looking right outside. Danielle’s school started as a club on Saturday mornings, with a focus on storytelling, but she now teaches classes to individuals and groups, mainly in the afternoons and evenings after school.
“I always know I want to teach,” she said, but it wasn’t always clear that English would be her area of expertise（专业知识）. As a teenager growing up in Mauritius, she struggled to see the point of reading Shakespeare in her English classes. “That English is old,” she told her mother; “I will not use it in my daily life.” At the time, she much preferred reading French literature.
Years later, though, Danielle saw a performance of The Merchant of Venice, which she had studied in secondary school, and its power became clear to her. She didn’t have to memorize lines, answer questions, or analyze for a test; she just enjoyed the play and the performance.
In a sense, that is the spirit that she carries into her current teaching. Her students arrive after a day of school, often tired, “So my place is more like a fun place to do like an English Adventure - I like to call it that. We do so many different things together,” she said. She and the students sometimes brainstorm things they want to study or discuss, and often her students tell her, “We want to connect to the world.” As a result, they frequently study current events and local issues.
1. What is the function of the first paragraph?| A．To lead in the story |
| B．To arouse reader’s interest |
| C．To show the author’s attitude |
| D．To indicate the background of the story |
| A．She once taught students for free |
| B．She used to have classes on weekdays |
| C．She set her classroom only at home years ago |
| D．She focused on storytelling in her class before |
| A．Shakespeare’s books. |
| B．Her mother’s influence |
| C．A show of The Merchant of Venice |
| D．Her inner eager to read literature |
| A．Her students want to brainstorm |
| B．Her students want to contact the world. |
| C．Danielle wants to make her class adventurous |
| D．Danielle wants to carry out her teaching spirits. |
【推荐2】I just counted how many foreign languages: it’s been twelve!
I always follow my interests and find ways to put my language learning into things I’m already interested in. I like to read blogs in other languages. I found them the perfect learning tool because they’re usually written in oral language, so I don’t have to worry much about adopting strange terms that are only used in writing.
Movies are also a really good tool, especially if you can find subtitles in the language you’re learning. Though they don’t always exactly match what’s being said, they will still keep your brain listening and reading in the same language. Music is another way to start listening to things in your new language. Personally, this doesn’t really work for me, but I have friends who learn a language through lyrics. Games are also an excellent way of studying a new language. A lot of language learning computer programs include games. I’m super competitive and if I play any of them, I can be hooked for hours.
When the initial excitement of learning a new language begins to fade, it can be hard to stick with it. Ideally I will sign up to take a big language exam because then I’ll have to keep studying, and work to master the details that seem unimportant enough in everyday usage that I tend to just ignore them. Each time I start getting complacent, it’s time to take a new course or sign up for online lessons, or take up some sort of challenge that will require me to level up my skills.
I also try to think in the language I’m learning. The best language class I’ve ever taken was my beginner’s Russian course at university where my professor never used any English. It got to the point where I would kind of just forget about English while in Russian class, which helped me to really immerse myself in the Russian language and do a lot with the limited Russian I had.
1. Why are blogs perfect learning tool according to the author?| A．Because they only use oral language. |
| B．Because they don’t use professional terms. |
| C．Because they often use several languages. |
| D．Because their language is usually informal. |
| A．Take an exam. | B．Stick with it. |
| C．Sign up for online lessons. | D．Choose a new course. |
| A．bored | B．discouraged | C．self-satisfied | D．self-disciplined |
| A．To call on readers to learn new languages. |
| B．To share personal language learning tips. |
| C．To recommend some blogs and movies to language learners. |
| D．To help deal with common problems in learning new languages. |
【推荐3】A few years ago, I stood in a small classroom just outside of New York City, watching a high schooler named Serena Stevenson answer math questions. An instructor read outnumbers — 74,470, 70,809, 98,402 — and Stevenson added them in her head. For each question, she closed her eyes, and then the fingers of her right hand began to move. She answered most of the problems correctly.
The key to her success was an ancient technology called the abacus (珠算). Stevenson used a practice called “mental abacus”, imagining the abacus in her mind and then using her fingers to work through the problems.
From watching Stevenson, I knew that gaining skill at the abacus was more than a matter of counting beads, so I decided to sign up for an abacus course with my two daughters to see if we could also improve our math skills. I was one of the many who had some math doubts and I felt a touch of fear. My typical solution was avoidance, and if I had to calculate something like a percentage change, I would go online.
Then after a few abacus classes and a good amount of practice, math seemed a little less frightening. I didn’t become Euclid, the founder of geometry. But the practice brought my numerical fears down. This is a time-tested power of the abacus. Confidence grows easily in the device, and abacus students are less likely to be nervous about an upcoming math test, according to one study. Part of the reason, it seems, is that practice and outcomes appear to move in step.
My kids gained much as well. My youngest daughter could work out those math problems that once baffled her, while my older child brought her abacus to school to show it to her classmates and teacher. These were just small successes for them, but that was how they finally developed confidence.
1. What is the main purpose of the first paragraph?| A．To prove the difficulty of math. |
| B．To introduce the topic of the abacus. |
| C．To show the high intelligence of Stevenson. |
| D．To stress the importance of abacus learning. |
| A．He was weak in math. | B．He was good at computer. |
| C．He regarded math as useful. | D．He had a close relationship with kids. |
| A．Knowledge starts with practice. | B．It’s never too late to learn. |
| C．Faith can move mountains. | D．Practice makes perfect. |
| A．bored | B．inspired | C．confused | D．interested |
【推荐1】We greet people we know and people we don’t know. Doctor Aka stopped and gave greetings to the men sitting along the way. Ayah and I came to a little store to buy bread and candies. It wouldn’t do, to arrive at the joy empty-handed.
It’s the end of my 7-month stay in an Uzbek village teaching English and I was walking down the dirt roads with my host parents — Doctor Aka and Nurse Ayah. We drew close to a relative’s house, Shakhnoza Sister’s, whose children we love. “Let’s see the baby. We can’t just go by without seeing the little Kyrgyz (吉尔吉斯人),” laughed the Doctor. It’s his personal joke to call the lovely baby a Kyrgyz.
We then continued our joy. There are endless occasions to throw party in this village. Birthdays, weddings, buying a car, a holiday — all call for throwing a party. The occasion in this evening was the return of a relative and his wife from working in Russa. Ayah and I joined the women in their separate pace. All the aunts were present. We enjoyed Russian chocolate, drank green tea, told stories, tasted Osh — a rice dish of Central Asia.
My departure (离开) in a few weeks was now a main topic: we were planning to have a good-bye party, to cry, to keep in touch by Skype, and for me to invite them to my wedding. The last blessing was given by the oldest person present. We headed out the gate amid “Bye, Cathy! Come again!” “Okay! Come to our house next time!” …
Seven months ago I didn’t know these people or their language. I didn’t know that I would visit from place to place and find them just that joy.
1. What can we know about Doctor Aka?| A．He is kind and humorous. | B．He is head of the village. |
| C．He never greets others. | D．He works in Russia. |
| A．To sell bread. | B．To teach English. | C．To build roads. | D．To visit a relative. |
| A．It’s for a couple’s returning from abroad. | B．It’s hosted by Shakhnoza Sister. |
| C．It pushed the author to buy a car. | D．It only served green tea to the guests. |
| A．She is planning to comeback. | B．She wants to become a nurse. |
| C．She is unwilling to have a wedding. | D．She misses her days in the village. |
【推荐2】I really hadn’t meant to yell at them. But that grey afternoon saw it just as my son and daughter were making a terrible mess on the floor in the kitchen.
With a tiresome report to write, I felt bothered at my desk. Suddenly, it occurred to me that my kids were at fault. A voice inside me insisted that I do something quickly.
“Ok, you two here, what an awful thing you are attempting!” I was shouting angrily. I made for them, while it became evident that the boy wanted no part of me. “Get away from us!” he shouted back, there being an expression of support from his sister.
All of a sudden, I found the fault in myself. Quickly I shaped my hands into pincers(钳子) and crawled towards them, “Crabby（暴躁的） Daddy is here. Ha, Ha, Ha, he likes to yell at children, and then eat them!” My son continued to keep me away, but now he was laughing and crying at the same time. My mission to repair the damage caused by my yelling seemed to work well. Still, I regretted not having controlled myself first in a right way.
Need I let them know how badly they were acting by blaming? This is a lesson that serves myself. It only shows just how to get rid of something (ill-feelings, responsibility…) by blaming others. It’s not my “best self”.
We have to search for our “best self” when with our children. They don’t need perfect parents, but they do need parents who are always trying to get better. Here, I am reminded of the words of a great thinker. “When a man lives with God, his voice shall be as sweet as the murmur of the brook (stream)…” Then, in our lifetime, couldn’t we always speak to our kids in such a sweet voice since most of us consider them as the most precious in the world? And before we reach this level, what should we do when we come across various difficult cases with our children?
1. Which of the following made the author aware of his fault?| A．No obvious reason. | B．The boy’s yelling back. |
| C．His self-awareness. | D．The girl’s shouting back. |
| A．play a crab again like this time | B．apologize to kids in a sincere way |
| C．avoid blaming kids in a hurry | D．beat them up about such things |
| A．How to behave ourselves properly when kids are at fault. |
| B．How to play with our children in a more interesting way. |
| C．How to deal with the housework with children around us. |
| D．How to persuade children to do what they are told to. |
| A．The boy was happy because I loved them. |
| B．The boy was curious because I wanted to help them. |
| C．The boy was very happy for I was angry. |
| D．The boy didn’t want me to join them. |
【推荐3】It warmed my heart today to walk into the Thirsty Camel downtown on the Thanksgiving Day, for a quick lunch before a haircut and library trip. Ilan, a food shop owner, said that he was refusing to take money today because it was Buy Nothing Day. To increase awareness(意识) of the strangers’ overspending nature of our society, Ilan suggested trade(交易) for food today. He simply asked that you offer something of equal personal value for the meal you received.
At first I was really uncomfortable, wondering if it would be fair(公平的) to exchange a yet to be determined “I Owe You”(IOU) for food? What could I give him of equal value? After all, his food is the best in the town!
We ended up writing our IOU’s with promises in a lot of ways if he needed it, such as a book, some paintings and the offer of work. I think the idea isn’t that the trade is “equal” so much as the importance of the kind of transaction. We put thought into our offers and we had an even greater understanding for the meals we ate.
We don’t buy a lot, especially at this upcoming time of year. We don’t give gifts at all in fact. The holiday time is spent enjoying each other’s company and doing things together with family and friends. This is what seems most sensible(明智的). Ilan is a good person. We are all lucky to have someone like this in our community.
1. Ilan did not take any money that day in order to_________.| A．increase awareness of people’s overspending |
| B．have a quick lunch before a haircut and library trip |
| C．trade for something for nothing |
| D．buy nothing that day to save some money |
| A．some promises | B．a book | C．some paintings | D．work |
| A．Transport. | B．Trade. | C．Meal. | D．Giving. |
| A．Disagreeable. | B．Meaningless. | C．Doubtful. | D．Supportive. |
