When I was young, I lived on an island in the north of Scotland, but I went to school in Edinburgh. It was a music school, and I studied the violin. We practiced for six hours every day. Our school was a boarding school. At the end of the term, we all packed our bags and our instruments to go home for the holidays. Most kids went by train, or bus, or their parents took them home by car. Not me! I went home by ferry (渡船) —14 hours overnight on the open sea. I loved it!
One summer I packed my suitcase and violin and said goodbye to my friends. I took the train to the ferry station and then got on the ferry. When we started moving away, I remembered a terrible thing! I left my violin on the train! I went to ask one of the crew (船员) what to do, but he said he couldn’t stop the ferry for me.
What should I do? What would my dad say? He’d be really angry! I was worried, and didn’t sleep all night. The next morning I got off the ferry to meet my dad. I didn’t want to look at him. I told him what happened. He laughed. I looked at him and couldn’t believe it. Why was he laughing?
In my violin case, I always have a label with my address and a telephone number. My dad told me, “A cleaner found your violin by the label on the train in London and took it to the police. They called me. They put the violin on a plane and it arrived an hour before you did.” My dad had it in his car! Thanks to those people, my violin was safe home!
1. Where was the writer’s home?| A．On an island. | B．In London. |
| C．In Edinburgh. | D．In the south of Scotland. |
| A．模型 | B．标签 | C．绰号 | D．唱片公司 |
| A．His father. | B．The police. | C．A cleaner. | D．A crewman. |
| A．Travelling Violin | B．Boarding School |
| C．Unforgettable Train | D．Missing Suitcase |
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【推荐1】When man and nature try to co-exist, man usually wins out. But that wasn’t the case in a small town in southern India when a native Robin recently chose to build her nest in an extremely inconvenient location.
The village of Potthakudi contains only 120 homes and has a total of 35 streetlights. Unfortunately ,the misguided mama bird had decided to set up housekeeping in the town’s main lighting switchboard (配电板).
The nest and its inhabitants were first discovered by Karuppu Raja, the man tasked with turning on the streetlights each evening. A lifelong bird lover, Raja posted his find to local social media to warn the citizens of his discovery and ask for their cooperation in taking a hands-off approach to the unexpected guests.
“Switching off the lights is the only solution because the bird will fly once it realizes there is a human touch or contact near its nest,” Raja wrote on WhatsApp. “We should save the bird and its babies at any cost.”
While some initially voiced concerns that lack of nighttime illumination (照明) would be inconvenient ,Raja was eventually able to persuade his fellow villagers that any sacrifice would be worth it in the long run. “I explained that so many birds have died out and we should not let Indian Robin go the same way,” Raja recalled.
So, rather than ousted the bird, the villagers agreed to observe a blackout (断电) until the baby birds were old enough to fly away. The town spent a total of 45 days and nights in the dark, even disconnecting the switchboard from the power source to keep the mom and her chicks safe.
After mama Robin and her babies finally took off, the blackout was lifted, but the village’s extraordinary protection efforts for the sake of one lone bird and her babies didn’t go unnoticed.
A bird in the hand may be worth two in the bush, but a bird in the switchboard has earned Potthakudi a reputation for kindness that’s likely to light up smiles for quite some time to come.
1. What can we know about Karuppu Raja?| A．He does his job carelessly. | B．He loves birds all the time. |
| C．He argues with his villagers. | D．He is the leader of the village. |
| A．Protected. | B．Set free. | C．Killed. | D．Drove away. |
| A．The reasons why many birds have died out. |
| B．The kind villagers in Potthakudi. |
| C．What villagers do to help the birds. |
| D．How to protect Indian Robins. |
| A．Man will conquer nature. |
| B．Man and animals can live in harmony. |
| C．A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush. |
| D．A bird is known by its note and a man by his talk. |
【推荐2】Most parents fear getting letters home from their children's school. They are usually informing them that their child is in big trouble. But before the SATs exams next week,one school decided to send a letter of a different type.
Bosses at Buckton Vale Primary School in Stalybridge sent letter to all pupils in the sixth grade to tell them how special and unique they are. The letter highlights (强调) all the natural skills and abilities the pupils have and everything that makes them “smart” individuals.
They are told how their laughter can brighten the darkest day and that the examiners do not know the pupils are kind, trustworthy and thoughtful.
The letter, signed by the headmaster and two other teachers, has been put on the school's Face book page and shared more than 9,000 times with more than 7,000 likes.
The letter reads, “Next week you will sit your SATs tests for maths, reading, spelling, grammar and punctuation. We know how hard you have worked, but there is something very important you must know. The SATs test does not assess (评价) all that makes each of you special and unique. The people who create these tests and score them do not know each of you in the way that we do and certainty not in the way your families do.”
The letter goes on to say that the tests are not the most important thing in life, adding, “The scores you will get from this test will tell you something, but they will not tell you everything. There are many ways of being smart. You are smart!”
The letter has been welcomed by many parents on Face book. Lynn MePherson wrote, “That's great instilling (逐步灌输) hope, faith and belief.” And Mary Tilling said, “Every child in school receive one of these. Brilliant.”
1. What's the purpose of the letter sent before the SATs exams?| A．To stress the importance of the exams. |
| B．To help the students pass the exams. |
| C．To help the students to build confidence. |
| D．To inspire the students to achieve success. |
| A．Everyone can realize his dream. | B．Everyone has his unique value. |
| C．Exams are meaningless in our life. | D．Nothing is impossible to a willing heart. |
| A．the letter was well received | B．the letter was a failure |
| C．the parents are easy to please | D．the parents support their children |
【推荐3】Mr. Jafri is a 44-year-old artist from England. As the COVID-19 spread and many countries went into lockdown, Mr. Jafri was in Dubai. Rather than feeling stuck because he was unable to move on, Mr. Jafri decided to take on a huge project that could “make a really big difference.”
He decided to create the world’s largest painting in a way that would involve people from around the world. He asked children to send him pictures showing how they were feeling during the pandemic. He got artwork from kids in 140 different countries, some of which was included in his painting.
Using the children’s ideas as a starting point, Mr. Jafri began to paint. He created the painting in the dance hall of a closed hotel. The painting, called “The Journey of Humanity”, is over 1,600 square meters. It took Mr. Jafri seven months, up to 20 hours per day. He hurt his back by bending over so much while he painted. It took over 1,000 paintbrushes and 6,300 liters of paint to create the painting. When he finished last September, he had set a Guinness World Record for the world’s largest painting. The painting was roughly the size of four basketball courts.
Since Mr. Jafri’s goal was to raise money to help children, the painting was cut up into 70 large pieces. Mr. Jafri hoped that by selling the painting separately, he could raise $30 million. But when the sale ended on March 22, Mr. Jafri did much better than that. And he didn’t have to cut up the pieces. The whole artwork was sold for $62 million, the fourth highest price ever paid for a painting by a living artist.
Andre Abdoune, a French businessman, bought all 70 of the pieces. “The painting was very powerful when I saw it,” Mr. Abdoune said, “And for me, it would have been a mistake to separate the pieces.” Knowing that the money would go to charity also helped Mr. Abdoune decide to pay more. He plans to build a special building to show the artwork off.
1. Why did Mr. Jafri ask children to send him pictures?| A．Because he felt like breaking the old thinking pattern and creating something new. |
| B．Because he was unable to figure out what to paint, wanting to be inspired by kids. |
| C．Because kids felt stuck, for they were unable to move on during lockdown. |
| D．Because he wanted people worldwide to participate in expressing their feelings. |
| A．To criticize Mr. Jafri for overuse. | B．To show the massiveness of the artwork. |
| C．To make a comparison with other painters. | D．To explain what Mr. Jafri used for painting. |
| A．Because he has been fond of charity. |
| B．Because the painting impressed him. |
| C．Because he wanted to help more children. |
| D．Because he didn’t want to separate the pieces. |
| A．A New Guinness World Record |
| B．An England Artist Achieved His Dream |
| C．Pandemic Inspires People On Their Paintings |
| D．World’s Largest Painting Sells For $62 Million |
I am one of those unlucky people who have poor sense of direction and I may have visited a place time after time but I still get lost on my way there. When I was young I was so shy that I never dared ask complete strangers the way and so I used to wander round in circles and hope that by some chance I would get to the place I was heading for.
I am no longer too shy to ask people for direction, but I often receive replies that puzzle me. Often people do not like to admit (承认) that they didn’t know their hometown and will insist on telling you the way, even if they do not know it; others, who are anxious to prove that they know their hometown very well, will give you a long list of directions which you can not possibly hope to remember, and still others do not seem to be able to tell between their left and their right and you find in the end that you are going in the opposite (相反的) direction to that in which you should be going.
If anyone ever asks me the way to somewhere, I always tell them I am a stranger to the town in order to avoid giving them wrong direction but even this can have embarrassing results.
Once I was on my way to work when I was stopped by a man who asked me if I would direct him the way to the Sunlight Building. I gave my usual reply, but I had not walked on a few steps when I realized that he had asked for directions to my office building. However, at this point, I decide it was too late to turn back and search for him out of the crowd behind me as I was going to meet with someone at the office and I did not want to keep him waiting.
Imagine my embarrassment when my secretary showed in the very man who had asked for directions of my office and his astonishment when he recognized me as the person he had asked.
1. What is the writer going to do when someone asks him for direction?
| A．He will direct the right way to the person willingly. | B．He will reply to it by the means of being a stranger to the town. | C．He will give the very person long list of direction. | D．He is going to show the man an opposite direction. |
| A．Because of his poor sense of direction. |
| B．Because he always forget the way to home. |
| C．Because he did not have any friend. |
| D．Because he used to be shy and dared not ask others the way. |
| A．He felt strange. | B．He felt embarrassed. |
| C．He felt very sad. | D．He felt astonished. |
| A．Someone we don’t know. | B．The writer did it for himself. | C．The secretary did so. | D．A warm-hearted old lady did itI. |
【推荐2】There’s a man in the habit of hitting me on the head with an umbrella. At first I couldn’t stand it, now I’m used to it.
I don’t know his name. I know he’s average in appearance, wears a gray suit, and has a common face. I met him five years ago one hot morning when I was sitting on a tree-shaded bench in Palermo Park, reading the paper. Suddenly I felt something touch my head. It was the very same man who now, as I’m writing, keeps hitting me, mechanically (机械地) and impassively, with an umbrella.
On that occasion I turned around filled with anger. He just kept on hitting me. I asked him if he was crazy, he didn’t even seem to hear me. Then I threatened to call a policeman. Calmly, cool as a cucumber, he stuck with his task. After a few moments of hesitation, and seeing that he was not about to change his attitude, I stood up and hit him on the nose. The man fell down, but he immediately got back on his feet, obviously with great effort, and without a word again began hitting me on the head with the umbrella. His nose was bleeding and, at that moment, I felt sorry for him. I felt regret for having hit him so hard. After all, the man wasn’t exactly hitting me; he was merely tapping me lightly with his umbrella, not causing any pain at all. Of course, those taps were extremely bothersome. As we all know, when a fly lands on your forehead, you don’t feel any pain; what you feel is annoyance. Well then, that umbrella was one huge fly that kept landing on my head time after time.
Convinced that I was dealing with a madman, I tried to escape. But the man followed me, wordlessly continuing to hit me. So I began to run (I should point out that not many people run as fast as I do). He took off after me, trying to land a blow. The man was out of breath so that I thought, if I continued to force him to run at that speed, he would drop dead right then and there.
1. When the man began to strike the author with an umbrella, the author ________.| A．became angry |
| B．called the police |
| C．turned around and escaped |
| D．turned around and fought back |
| A．deaf | B．blind | C．dead | D．mad |
| A．the man formed a bad habit of beating others |
| B．he hit the man so hard that his nose bled |
| C．the man couldn’t catch up with him |
| D．there was a fly on the man’s head |
| A．shouted loudly while hitting the author |
| B．wanted to tell the author something |
| C．ran after the author breathlessly |
| D．acted as if he were a fly |
【推荐3】Growing pains and gains
It’s not easy to grow up. Actually it’s far from easy. Growing up can be a real “pain” for some of us. We are always doing things that someone else makes us do and aren’t allowed to do all the things we like. Sometimes we feel trapped, sometimes we are fearful, and sometimes we just don’t understand why we can’t stay young forever. When we look back on all the hardships in life with a positive attitude (态度), we realize that all of our growing pains actually turn into growing gains!
As a young girl my parents forced my sisters and me to do so many things that I never liked. They made me learn to play the violin and then the piano. At that time I hated music, just because it was what they wanted me to do. But looking back now, I am so glad that my parents encouraged me to take music lessons. Music has enriched my life in so many ways. I realize that my parents and teachers were always pushing me along, not because they wanted me to suffer but because they wanted me to succeed in life. They’ve always wanted me to have a better life than they did themselves.
Every moment of our lives we are either living or dying, so live life to its fullest! We are all going to experience growing pains, but they are just small pains in life. They might seem so huge at the time but we must be strong. Think about how we would feel if we had no fear and live life like that. The future is ours! A little hard work and sweat never hurt anyone! If we realize that these pains are just small bumps (凸块) on our road to success we will realize that our growing pains are actually growing gains!
1. What was the girl forced by her parents to do when she was young?| A．Take music lessons. |
| B．Turn gains into pains. |
| C．Take a look back on hardships. |
| D．Live a successful life by suffering a lot. |
| A．Concerned. | B．Thankful. | C．Passive. | D．Unfriendly. |
| A．Directly. | B．Terribly. | C．Carefully. | D．Completely. |
| A．Growing pains are necessary for us to grow up. |
| B．We all have to experience growing pains. |
| C．A little hard work and sweat are harmful to us. |
| D．Life without fear is a better choice for us. |
【推荐1】When Emma woke up, she knew it was going to be one of those days. She felt unwell — a cold had taken hold of her. Still, she needed to brave the storm of responsibilities at work. Emma dragged herself out of bed and got ready for work. Then she put on her raincoat and went out into the pouring rain. As she walked, she fought against the bad weather. Emma’s umbrella was almost useless as it was raining cats and dogs. Then like a bolt from the blue, the wind blew it inside out. She was immediately wet from head to toe. She said to herself in a quiet voice. “What a day to forget my rain boots!”
At the office, the day was as stormy as the weather. She had a mountain of tasks. Handling endless emails and phone calls should have been a light wind. But before long, she was desperate to take a break so she could get a second wind.
Then, at exactly the moment, her coworker Alex came to her rescue. Alex was not a fair-weather friend but was always ready to lend a hand. With a warm smile, he offered to help Emma. Having Alex assist her was like a ray of sunshine on a rainy day. Their laughter and good-fellowship as they completed their tasks made the hours pass quickly.
On her way home, Emma reflected on the day, which had ended up being surprisingly pleasant. She realized that every cloud did indeed have a silver lining. Today, that silver lining had been her wonderful colleague, Alex.
When Emma arrived home, she decided to send Alex a heartfelt message of appreciation. She wrote, “Thanks for being my ray of sunshine in this rainy day!” It was a simple message, but it carried a lot of meaning.
That night, listening to it rain cats and dogs outside, Emma couldn’t help but smile. She had weathered the storm with Alex’s help.
1. Why did Emma get totally wet?| A．Because she forgot to take her umbrella. |
| B．Because she didn’t wear her raincoat. |
| C．Because her rain boots were broken. |
| D．Because the wind was too strong. |
| A．They finished the assignments with joy. |
| B．They took a break to refresh themselves. |
| C．They talked about the weather while performing tasks. |
| D．Alex came to rescue Emma because she was in danger. |
| A．Grateful and warm. | B．Pleased and amused. |
| C．Shocked and confused. | D．Confident and determined. |
| A．Save for a rainy day. | B．Hard work pays off. |
| C．Actions speak louder than words. | D．A friend in need is a friend indeed. |
【推荐2】I was picking through coat pockets and madly shaking all my old purses and wallets. I was looking for pennies, quarters — anything that would help me make it to the end of the week. It sure was feeling heavy.
A hopeless girl in her twenties,I was a single parent, with a one-year-old son and a five-year-old daughter.
Life consisted of ups and downs. One year, I was having baby showers and taking vacations in the mountains of Tennessee. The next, I was searching around my small, two-bedroom apartment collecting loose change to buy food and gas. Suddenly, I found myself becoming poor, and it was hard.
I’ll never forget the joy of finding one penny during my hunt, then two, then fifteen, and then twenty-four, twenty-five, twenty-six. Every time I found one, I felt excited. Looking back now, I see that it was somewhat ironic (讽刺的) because I had looked down on pennies at one point in my life.
I sat in my bedroom that night and sorted all the change from my hour-long quest. I smiled and made jokes with my daughter while we packed our pennies. Her brother joyfully bounced up and down in his bouncer. They had no idea how many nights I would cry with my face buried in the pillows, wondering how I would keep a roof over their heads, lights on in the house, and food on the table.
I remember those days like they were yesterday, but I don’t remember them with sadness. I remember them intentionally because I promised myself that if I were ever to escape the pains of poverty, I would never forget the value of a penny.
I’ve kept that promise, too.
1. Why did the author shake her old purses?| A．To look for money to pay for their expense. | B．To purchase something for her children. |
| C．To make money at the end of the week. | D．To put them into her coat pockets. |
| A．She could make ends meet. | B．She often lived a hard life. |
| C．She was once living well. | D．She enjoyed her family life. |
| A．To help others little by little. | B．To find great value in little things. |
| C．To bring happiness to her children. | D．To forget the sad days intentionally. |
| A．It’s no use crying over spilt milk. |
| B．We should repair the house before it rains. |
| C．Each family has its own happiness and unhappiness. |
| D．One penny is the small seed from which fortunes spring. |
【推荐3】In 1955, at age 12, I became obsessed (着迷) with the idea of recording an album for our parents to do something in celebration of their wedding day. My sister, brother, and I would sing our favourite songs for them.
The recording was to be kept a secret from our parents. I found a local studio, Dunford Recordings, not too far from where we lived in Christchurch. I rang and asked the cost of making a record.
To pay for the recording, I saved the money I earned from helping my aunty Mae in the school holidays. I called a family friend and persuaded her to accompany us on the piano. We couldn’t practise with her for fear of being found out, so I got my sister and brother together and we worked out a routine.
I arranged with Aunty Mae, in strictest secrecy, to take us to the studio at the appointed time. We sang our first two songs a couple of times so they could select the best version, but by the time we got to the third song we were rather tired, so only recorded it once.
Outside the studio door, I had been holding the record very carefully but my sister snatched it from me and it rolled out of its jacket, down the stairs, bouncing onto the pavement and then onto the road. Gasp! Horror! Mercifully, it was undamaged.
The day came and we excitedly gave our precious present to our parents. They were surprised indeed. However, it never occurred to me that my parents bought a brand-new radiogram to play the record on.
My parents had been secretly warned by my aunt about our surprise, and unknown to us, they were downstairs in the appliance shop buying the radiogram while we were upstairs recording. They actually saw the record roll out onto the street.
Our recording has become a wonderful memory of the past.
1. Why did the author want to record an album at age 12?| A．To celebrate their parents’ wedding day. | B．To make money to support his family. |
| C．To found a local studio to play music. | D．To satisfy his curiosity about radiogram. |
| A．He got his sister and brother to earn money. |
| B．He borrowed money from a family friend. |
| C．He earned the money needed on his own. |
| D．He raised some money with his aunty Mae. |
| A．They were listening next to the door. |
| B．They were watching the record rolling. |
| C．They were playing in the appliance shop. |
| D．They were buying the radiogram downstairs. |
| A．Enthusiastic and generous. | B．Loving and considerate. |
| C．Hardworking and responsible. | D．Talented and fashionable. |
