Have you ever heard of King Charles the Twelfth of Sweden? He was born in 1682. When he was only three or four years old, he was able to speak German as well as Swedish. He became a good horse rider at the age of eight. As a king, he was famous for his courage in defending his country.
One day he was working in a small house. The house was almost between two armies. He asked one of his officers to sit down and write a short order for him.
The officer began to write, but jus as he finished the first word, a bomb came through the roof of the house and struck the floor close by him. He dropped the pen and sprang to his feet. He was pale with fear. “What is the matter?” asked the king .
“Oh, sir. The bomb! The bomb!” he answered.
“Yes, I see,” said the king. But what has the bomb to do with what I wish you to write? Sit down, and take your pen. When your country is in danger, you should forget your own safety.”
1. From the first paragraph we can infer that_________.| A．Charles was clever as a child | B．Charles dreamed to be a ride |
| C．German was kind of difficult for Charles | D．Charles preferred riding to languages |
| A．His kindness. | B．His knowledge. |
| C．His learning skills. | D．His courage. |
| A．Far from the enemy. | B．In a small house by a river. |
| C．Between two armies. | D．In an old house in a city. |
| A．a bomb struck near him | B．he was very excited |
| C．he was afraid of the king | D．his pen was broken |
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【推荐1】My best friends travelled to stay with my family last weekend. When she arrived, she went straight to the kitchen and, without asking, ate some dried fruit. She wasn’t being rude. I knew she would do this. We’ve known each other for almost 20 years. She can eat anything she wants from my kitchen. Indeed, I bought her favorite fruits and snacks that morning.
Our long weekend together was simple. I was recovering from surgery and couldn’t go to shopping malls. We passed the time running errands (做杂事), but there was never a quiet moment. We’ve lived in different cities for almost a decade. Reunions demand conversation.
Our personalities are matched, to be sure, and a shared history is indescribably (难以形容地) valuable. We were competitors at high school before bonding. Then we discovered many interests that we had in common. Our friendship developed itself quickly. We stayed companions and supported each other through law school and through our first jobs. Ours is a friendship for the ages.
There is something special about friends who know everything about you. They are rare. They have seen your bright lights of achievements, the depths of desperation and the boring routine of the in-between. It’s special to unpack feelings without wasting time filling in the blanks. As my long weekend shows, with such friends we don’t have to “do”, but we simply have to “be”. We drop the act, the performance, the public version of ourselves. The special friendships are those which never fail to delight us, whose continuation is worth the extra effort, despite distance and difference in our separate lives. I had the very great joy of this reminder last weekend. I’m lucky to have found this friend, and to see a future where her companionship remains. Being together is perfection.
1. What can we learn about the author and her best friend from paragraph 2?| A．They talked constantly about their lives. |
| B．They enjoyed running around. |
| C．They had a noisy weekend. |
| D．They quarreled at times. |
| A．They remind each other not to waste time. |
| B．They’re comfortable with being themselves. |
| C．They’re best friends despite different hobbies. |
| D．They help each other achieve in their study and careers. |
| A．Good friendships are worth more effort. |
| B．Special friendships may fail to delight us. |
| C．Real friends help each other achieve success. |
| D．Distance and difference strengthen friendship. |
| A．To make more friends. |
| B．To share the friendship she treasures. |
| C．To describe what her best friend is like. |
| D．To explain how she offers help to her friend. |
【推荐2】When I lived in Spain, some Spanish friends of mine decided to visit England by car. Before they left, they asked me for advice about how to find accommodation. I suggested that they should stay at “bed and breakfast” houses, because this kind of accommodation gives a foreign visitor a good chance to speak English with the family. My friends listened to my advice, but they came back with some funny stories.
“We didn’t stay at bed and breakfast houses,” they said, “because we found that most families were away on holiday.”
I thought this was strange. Finally I understood what had happened. My friends spoke little English, and they thought “VACANCIES” meant “holidays”, because the Spanish word for “holidays” is “vacaciones”. So they did not go to house where the sign outside said “VACANCIES”, which in English means there are free rooms. Then my friends went to house where the sign said “NO VACANCLES”, because they thought this meant the people who owned the house were not away on holiday. But they found that these houses were all full. As a result, they stayed at hotels!
We laughed about this and about mistakes my friends made in reading other signs. In Spanish, the word “DIVERSION” means fun. In English, it means that workmen are repairing the road, and that you must take a different road. When my friends saw the word “DIVERSION” on a road sign, they thought they were going to have fun. Instead, the road ended in a large hole.
English people have problems too when they learn foreign languages. Once in Paris, when someone offered me some more coffee, I said “Thank you” in French. I meant that I would like some more. However, to my surprise the coffee pot was taken away! Later I found out that “Thank you” in French means “No, thank you.”
1. My Spanish friends wanted advice about ______.| A．learning English | B．finding places to stay in England |
| C．driving their car on English roads | D．going to England by car |
| A．they would be able to practise their English |
| B．it would be much cheaper than staying in hotels |
| C．it would be convenient for them to have dinner |
| D．there would be no problem about finding accommodation there |
| A．fall into a hole |
| B．have a lot of fun and enjoy yourself |
| C．find that the road is blocked by crowds of people |
| D．have to take a different road |
| A．didn’t really want any more coffee |
| B．wanted them to take the coffee pot away |
| C．really wanted some more coffee |
| D．wanted to express my politeness |
【推荐3】Charlie Jeffers, 17, a senior at Redwood High School in Marin County, Calif., has loved Lego since age 4. His room is full of Lego bricks. Noticing his friends start throwing away their old Lego collections, he hatched a plan. “Legos are pricey,” he noted. “Many can’t afford them.” He started collecting unwanted Lego parts from friends and neighbors, spreading the word through community notices and door-to-door visits.
The response was surprising. Donations of old Lego sets poured in, propelling Jeffers to formalize his efforts under the banner of Pass the Bricks. Together with a dedicated team of volunteers, Jeffers and his teammates carefully clean, sort, and repurpose collected Lego pieces into imaginative sets. These sets, each with roughly 20 to 60 pieces, are carefully made to create scenes such as blind dates or family photoshoots. Since its start in 2020, Pass the Bricks has made a significant success. With over 3,000 sets donated to date, Jeffers and his team are driven by two purposes: to reduce landfill waste and to provide Legos to children who might otherwise go without. Jeffers stresses the educational value of Lego, emphasizing its capacity to inspire creativity and learning.
Pass the Bricks has since expanded its reach nationwide, with volunteers in several states distributing sets to local charities. To ensure each set is presented with care, Jeffers uses donations and personal funds from his job at a gym to purchase affordable cardboard gift boxes online. These sets, accompanied by instructions and a photo of the finished product, are distributed to various organizations and directly to children at local schools.
Despite his approaching to college, Jeffers remains devoted to his commitment to Pass the Bricks. He plans to continue and expand the initiative, driven by a desire to share the joy and educational benefits of Lego with as many children as possible. “We’re grateful to share them with the kids and families we serve,” Jeffers expresses. Reflecting on his own Lego-filled childhood, he acknowledges its profound influence. “I aim to provide others with the same chance,” he emphasizes, echoing his ongoing commitment to sharing the joy of Lego with all.
1. What is the primary purpose of Pass the Bricks?| A．To generate profit from selling Lego sets. |
| B．To recycle old Lego pieces and reduce waste. |
| C．To compete with other Lego manufacturers. |
| D．To promote the use of Legos in professional settings. |
| A．Forcing. | B．Preventing. | C．Urging. | D．Expecting. |
| A．By relying on community contributions. |
| B．By investing in appropriate packaging materials. |
| C．By securing financial support through various means. |
| D．By distributing with charitable organizations nationwide. |
| A．Establishing a sustainable company. |
| B．Earning recognition for his dedication. |
| C．Enhancing personal satisfaction and growth. |
| D．Sharing Lego joy with many children and families. |
【推荐1】In America, we often regard Sally Ride as the first female astronaut (宇航员). But the first woman in space is actually a Soviet astronaut who beat out 400 applicants to pilot the Vostok 6 spacecraft in 1963—twenty years before Ride took her historic spaceflight.
There was nothing in Valentina Tereshkova’s early life that showed she would become a space pioneer. Tereshkova finished school at age 16 and went to work to help support her family. She seemed to follow her mother’s footsteps as a textile factory worker, except one interest: skydiving. By the time she was 22, she was jumping out of a plane pretty regularly. And then came the space race.
By 1962, the competition to get into space had been starting between the Soviet Union and the United States for about seven years. The two countries, in an effort to do better than the other in exploring space, had each launched men into space.
During the space race, the Soviet Union and the U. S. constantly tried to be better. After putting a man in space, the obvious next step was to send a woman into space. The Soviet Union’s lead spacecraft designer, Sergey Korolyov, is said to have been helpful in the decision. There are rumors (传言) that the Soviet Union knew that the U. S. was planning to send a woman to space and wanted to beat the Americans.
Inspired by Gagarin’s flight, Tereshkova wrote to the Soviet authorities (当局) hoping for any future training program for female astronauts. The authorities answered and in early 1962 she became one of just five women accepted for astronaut training. On June 16, 1963, Tereshkova took off, eventually circling the Earth 48 times over the course of almost three days and securing her place in history as the first woman to leave the Earth’s atmosphere.
1. When did Sally Ride go into space?| A．In 1963. | B．In 1973. | C．In 1983. | D．In 1993. |
| A．Because she thought highly of her mother. |
| B．Because she had to give a hand to her family. |
| C．Because she wanted to save money for the space race. |
| D．Because she was allowed to do skydiving. |
| A．She suggested some training program for women. |
| B．She refused the Soviet authorities’ invitation. |
| C．She introduced herself to the training program. |
| D．She announced she would be the first woman in space. |
【推荐2】You probably know who Marie Curie was, but you may not have heard of Rachel Carson. Of the outstanding ladies listed below, who do you think was the most important woman of the past 100 years?
Jane Addams (1860-1935)
Anyone who has ever been helped by a social worker has Jane Addams to thank. Addams helped the poor and worked for peace. She encouraged a sense of community (社区) by creating shelters and promoting education and services for people in need. In 1931, Addams became the first American woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize.
Sandra Day O’Connor (1930-present)
When Sandra Day O’Connor finished third in her class at Stanford Law School, in 1952, she could not find work at a law firm because she was woman. She became an Arizona state senator ( 参 议 员 ) and, in 1981, the first woman to join the U.S. Supreme Court. O’Connor gave the deciding vote in many important cases during her 24 years on the top court.
Rose Parks (1913-2005)
On December 1, 1955, in Montgomery, Alabama, Rosa Parks would not give up her seat on a bus to a while passenger. Her simple act landed Parks in prison. But it also set off the Montgomery bus boycott ( 联 合 抵 制 ). It lasted for more than a year, and kicked off the civil-rights movement. “The only tired I was, was the tired of giving in,” said Parks.
1. Who made a great contribution to the civil-rights movement in the U.S.?| A．Jane Addams | B．Rachel Carson |
| C．Sandra Day O’Connor | D．Rose Parks |
| A．They are highly educated | B．They are truly creative. |
| C．They are pioneers. | D．They are peace-lovers. |
【推荐3】 There is a famous story about how Walt Disney was inspired to build Disneyland. The story goes that during an afternoon visit to Griffith Pack located near the Burbank Studios, Walt took a scat while his two young daughters rode the merry-go-round. Walt thought there should be a place where both children and their parents could enjoy spending some time together in an environment that would be both entertaining and pleasing to the eye, so with this thought came the idea for Disneyland.
Walt’s original plan was to build an eight-acre park located near the Burbank Studios that would be a place for his employees and their families. Those plans were put on hold because of the start of World War Ⅱ. By 1952, Walt had created a special department to build the park.
Finally in 1953, the first steps in building the park happened when Walt hired the Stanford Research Institute to make a survey to determine the best possible location for the future park. Considering population growth and the future freeway construction, they finally found a location in Anaheim and 160 acres of land were bought for the site of the new park.
The building of the park was very expensive and to create funding for the project Walt developed the idea of the “Walt Disney’s Disneyland” television show. It turned out to be a marvelous idea — not only gaining the money to build the park but also presenting the park to the American public.
Construction officially began on July 21, 1954, and it was an ambitious (野心勃勃的) building schedule of less than one year to complete the new park for the projected opening day. Walt watched over the park’s construction and progress continued with just a few minor hold-ups. Finally, the park was ready for the Opening Day on July 17, 1955.
1. What inspired Walt Disney to build Disneyland?| A．The special design of Griffith Park. | B．Requests from his family and employees. |
| C．A trip to a park with his daughters. | D．The idea to build a park for his daughters. |
| A．Local traffic. | B．The natural environment. |
| C．The advice of the public. | D．Walt Disney’s personal preference. |
| A．It was influenced by a shortage of money. | B．It was affected by World War Ⅱ. |
| C．It was completed later than expected. | D．It was smooth generally. |
