Thirty-four years after graduating from high school, I found myself sitting with some of my former classmates for an all-school reunion.
Our conversation centered around funny things and what our classmates were up to now. Eventually, the conversation came to a classmate, Janelle. Jill said, “Has anyone been in touch with Janelle?” Diana said, “I tried to contact her for our last reunion. She never responded.” Jill said, “I’ve always felt bad about how she was treated.” There was a general murmur of agreement around the table.
It had started in elementary school when Danny, a popular kid who was always looking to be the center of attention, caught a glimpse of Janelle picking her nose. Unaware that she was being watched, she slipped her finger into her mouth. Immediately, Danny pointed at Janelle and exclaimed, “She ate her boogers (鼻屎)! THAT is SO disgusting.” The boys had a “grossed out”(恶心的) look on their faces and the taunt (嘲弄) was repeated by every boy. By the end of the next day, everyone in our class had known Janelle’s new nickname — “booger eater” and called it at least once. Reluctant to join in, somehow we did it anyway.
“Janelle never did anything. She just looked sad. Unfortunately, no one else did anything either. I wish any one of us had stood up for her,” said Jill. Everyone around the table agreed.
Each of us shared a time when we were reminded of Janelle over the years. Jill shared how her own daughter was bullied in school. Diana shared how her son came home from school and told her about his classmate being bullied, and they talked about how he could stand up for the child being bullied. I shared how we taught acceptance and kindness in my school. Several of us had tears in our eyes as we talked. We all regretted the part we played in the bullying.
When it was time to leave, Diana said, “I want to believe that, even though we cannot make amends (补偿) directly to Janelle, we can at least forgive ourselves. Let’s make an agreement going forward to do small acts of kindness in Janelle’s honor. We hugged each other tightly with damp eyes and agreed. I said, “I’m glad something good came out of that negative experience that happened so long ago.” Although forgiveness didn’t occur the way we wanted it to —with Janelle— forgiving ourselves feels good. We can’t change the past, but we can forgive and move forward.
1. Why did Jill feel bad about how Janelle was treated?| A．Jill was a close friend of Janelle’s. |
| B．Jill unwillingly called Janelle “booger eater”. |
| C．Jill regretted not standing up for Janelle. |
| D．Jill was the one who started the nickname. |
| A．They vowed to change the past. |
| B．They decided to contact Janelle again. |
| C．They determined to be kind to others. |
| D．They apologized to Janelle for their behavior. |
| A．Forgiving others is forgiving ourselves. |
| B．Demonstrating regret is of great importance. |
| C．Reunion with classmates helps reflect ourselves. |
| D．We should learn from the past and strive to be better. |
| A．No Bullying | B．Behaving Ourselves |
| C．Seeking Forgiveness | D．Bidding Farewell to the Past |
相似题推荐
【推荐1】College can be a challenging time for newcomers. For most students, it’s the first time they’ll be living alone and away from their parents. While students may face problems in university, there are solutions to these problems.
Balance academics (学业) and a social life. You will first need to put your classes, studies, projects and homework in order of importance. But you will need to find a way to balance academics with your social life, too.
Deal with financial problems.
Find time to eat healthily and exercise.
| A．Have classes on time. |
| B．Plan your class schedule. |
| C．Money is a big challenge for students. |
| D．More students tend to eat unhealthy food. |
| E．Visiting the gym every week is also important. |
| F．In high school, it’s often easier to balance these two. |
| G．“Freshman 15” is a popular expression commonly used in college. |
【推荐2】I’ve seen every shape, color and creative package of job application possible. But I’ve never seen one that actually scared me. But then recently, something happening shocked me.
“There was no return address. It was poorly written and poorly addressed to the university. There were misspellings,” school spokeswoman Vicki Woodard said on Saturday. “There was some tape over it.
It’s funny how a clean shirt and pair of pants, an enthusiastic smile and direct eye contact can change the economy immediately.
| A．If you dress well and behave politely |
| B．Just the whole appearance was rather strange |
| C．I wonder what you would think of that application |
| D．Good manners and politeness are usually ignored nowadays. |
| E．When I see people walking into business companies in torn shorts |
| F．After a doubtful looking package addressed to the college was discovered |
| G．It’s also funny how a well-prepared application will get you into your favorite university |
【推荐3】Are you interested in students in other countries: Do they also have so much homework like you? What do they do in their spare time?
On April8, a report came out on the lives of high school students in China, Japan, South Korea and the US. It surveyed around 6,200 students from the four countries last year. You will find the answers to many of your questions in this report.
Who study hardest?
Chinese students spend the most time studying. Nearly half of Chinese students(48.6%) spend more than two hours on their homework every day. That’s much more than students of the US(26.4%), Japan(8.2%) and South Korea (5.2%).
Who sleep most often in class?
Japanese students fall asleep in class most often. About 45% of them said they sometimes sleep in class. In South Korea, it’s 32%;in the US,21%;and 5% in China.
Who are the most distracted?
American students are the most active in class, but also the most distracted.64.2% said they chat with friends in class;46.9% said they eat snacks in class; and 38.9% said they send emails or read storybooks in class.
What do they do after school?
In their spare time, most Chinese students study or surf the Internet. Most American students go out to play with their friends. Most Japanese students do physical exercise. Most Korean students watch TV.
1. What is the text mainly about?| A．The lives of high school students. | B．The suggestions from teachers. |
| C．The education tips for parents. | D．The schools of different countries. |
| A．Chinese students. | B．South Korean students. |
| C．Japanese students. | D．American students. |
| A．Go shopping. | B．Sleep at home. |
| C．Surf the Internet. | D．Do physical exercise. |
【推荐1】Theodor Seuss Geisel was born in Springfield，Massachusetts in 1904.He was famous because of the books he wrote for children.They combine funny words，pictures，and social opinions.
Dr.Seuss wrote his first book for children in 1937.It is called And to Think I Saw It on Mulberry Street.A number of publishers refused to publish it.They said it was too different.A friend finally published it.Soon other successful books followed.Over the years he wrote more than forty children’s books.They were fun to read.Yet his books sometimes dealt with serious subjects.
By the middle 1940s，Dr. Seuss had become one of the best loved and most successful writers of children’s books.He had a strong desire to help children.In 1954，the Life magazine published a report about school children who could not read.The report said many children’s books were not interesting.Dr.Seuss decided to write books that were interesting and easy to read.
In 1957，Dr.Seuss wrote The Cat in the Hat.He used less than 225 words to write the book.This was about the number of words a sixyearold should be able to read.The story is about a cat who tries to entertain two children on a rainy day while their mother is away from home.The cat is not like normal cats.It talks.The book was an immediate success.It was an interesting story and was easy to read.Children loved it.Their parents loved it，too.Today many adults say it is still one of the stories they like best.
1. What’s the best title for this passage？| A．Some of Dr. Seuss’books for children |
| B．What are Dr.Seuss’books mainly about |
| C．Dr.Seuss—a famous writer of children’s books |
| D．Why are Dr.Seuss’ books different |
| A．It was Dr.Seuss’ worst book. |
| B．It dealt with a very serious subject. |
| C．Neither children nor adults like it. |
| D．Many publishers didn’t take it seriously at first. |
| A．By asking others to help them in magazines. |
| B．By writing interesting and simple books. |
| C．By changing his old books into simpler ones. |
| D．By giving them books for free. |
| A．Travel in America | B．This is America |
| C．People in America | D．American Stories |
【推荐2】That’s the norm at Green Bank, West Virginia, where its 143 residents can’t rely on their cellphones or tablets to connect with friends and loved ones because wireless devices are forbidden.
Located within a 13,000-square mile area known as the National Radio Quiet Zone, Green Bank houses the National Astronomy Observatory, which operates the world’s largest radio telescope.
There is a ban on Wi-Fi—wireless Internet service—in Green Bank, along with anything else that can create electromagnetic waves. Officials say the waves could interfere with signals the telescope receives. People can connect with the Internet through telephones or Ethernet cables, but wireless service is not permitted.
Residents say they are happy with their quiet unplugged lifestyle. It allows them to connect in ways that actually matter, said Shelly Chestnut. “You know what? Your cell phone isn’t looking at a person eye-to-eye, or going to their house and speaking and just shaking their hand or giving them a hug and saying ‘How are you today?’” she said.
Some people call the Green Bank Telescope “the GBT”. That is short for “Great Big Thing”. The telescope is searching for radio signals from other planets, among other things. Richard Lynch is one of the scientists who listen for signals from outer space. “All the signals that we find with the telescope so far are just generated by unintelligent stars, galaxies—you know, things in the universe. We haven’t ever found anything from an intelligent civilization.”
For the latest news, people in Green Bank read the local weekly newspaper. When Chestnut needs to look for a phone number, she looks in a phone book. And instead of sending messages on Facebook to her friends and neighbors, she talks to them. In Green Bank, everyone knows each other and communication is almost always face-to-face.
1. What is the main subject of the text?| A．Atown far away from the intelligent civilizations. |
| B．AGreat Big Thing in a small American village. |
| C．An American town without Wi-Fi or mobile phones. |
| D．An old-fashioned way of life in America. |
| A．Difficult. | B．Comfortable. |
| C．Dull. | D．Painful. |
| A．Receiving signals from other planets. |
| B．Communicating with other life in space. |
| C．Creating and sending electromagnetic waves. |
| D．Monitoring the zone of silence. |
| A．They connect with their friends on tablets. |
| B．They search for radio signals from outer space. |
| C．They read the latest news on Facebook. |
| D．They have access to the Internet. |
【推荐3】Sitting in the garden for my friend’s birthday, I felt a buzz (振动) in my pocket. My heart raced when I saw the email sender’s name. The email started off: “Dear Mr Green, thank you for your interest” and “the review process took longer than expected.” It ended with “We are sorry to inform you…” and my vision blurred (模糊). I had put so much time and emotional energy into applying for the programme, and I thought the rejection meant the end of the road for my science career.
So I was shocked when, not long after the email, Professor Mary Devon invited me to observe the work being done in her lab. I jumped at the chance, and a few weeks later I was equally shocked — and overjoyed — when she invited me to talk with her about potential projects I could pursue in her lab. I got it and decided I was going to give it my all.
I found myself working with a robotics professor on techniques for collecting data from the desert remotely. That project, which I could complete from my sofa instead of in the burning heat of the desert, not only survived the lockdown but worked where traditional methods didn’t. In the end, I had a new scientific interest to pursue.
When I applied to graduate school, I found three programmes promising to allow me to follow my desired research direction. This time I had the perspective (视角) to keep it from sending me into panic due to my being rejected. It helped that in the end I was accepted into one of the other programmes I was also excited about.
Rather than setting plans in stone, I’ve learned that sometimes I need to take the opportunities that are offered, even if they don’t sound perfect at the time, and make the most of them.
1. What do we know from Paragraph 1?| A．I was actually declined. |
| B．I was spending my birthday. |
| C．I felt peaceful receiving the email. |
| D．I had devoted little to my dream job. |
| A．Criticize the review process. | B．Stay longer in the Sahara Desert. |
| C．Apply to the original project again. | D．Put his heart and soul into the lab work. |
| A．Demanding. | B．Inspiring. | C．Misleading. | D．Amusing. |
| A．An invitation is a reward. | B．An innovation is a resolution. |
| C．A rejection can be a redirection. | D．A refusal can be a discouragement. |
【推荐1】When Meglan Larry was 10 years old, instead of putting up pictures of famous stars, she decorated her bedroom walls with posters, stickers, and pages torn from magazines of anything tied to the military. She couldn’t wait to be part of a world where it “was a big deal” for women to enlist.
Then one day there was a fire in her grandparents’ house on the family ranch in Hollister, California. Among the firefighting crew was a woman. Her head was covered with a helmet and sell-contained breathing apparatus. She carried a flat head axe and Halligan tool. Larry was stunned.
“They let you do that?” the young Larry asked as the female firefighter approached. “You’re actually a firelighter?” “Yes,” the firelighter responded. “And I hope one day, you’ll think about it because we need a lot more women in the fire service. And with that, the woman planted a seed in Larry’s young mind, inspiring her plans to join the military. Larry is now in her third season with CAL FIRE (California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection).
While statistics about the number of women in CAL FIRE only date back to 2019, they account for roughly 5.5 percent of the approximately 8,300 workforce. The job is rigorous for anyone male or female. Battling wildfires requires both physical and psychological strength. Climate change has created increasingly dry conditions and drought across California, which has led to a rise in the intensity and length of time fires rage across the state. Fire season now runs as long as 10 months out of the year—that’s up from three months a decade ago—with the occasional blaze erupting even in December and January.
Recently, Larry was coming off a fire line when she encountered a six year old girl, really excited over seeing a female firefighter. “This is so cool.” the girl said as she looked up at Larry. Larry choked up as she realized she had grown into that stranger who altered the course of her own life.
1. What was Larry’s dream when she was young?| A．Making a big career. | B．Making magazines. | C．Being a famous star. | D．Becoming a soldier. |
| A．tough | B．rewarding | C．ridiculous | D．attractive |
| A．She was tired after putting out a fire. | B．She felt sad because people didn’t understand her. |
| C．She felt proud because she became influential to others. | D．She felt regretful because she was influenced by a stranger. |
【推荐2】From a very early age, Ben Whishaw was happiest when he was pretending to be a different person. “Even at such a young age, my instinct was to be someone else,” he says, “I was pretty average academically and I didn’t really enjoy learning. Drama was my way of staying in touch with part of myself.” Thus, the teenage Whishaw became involved in a local youth drama group.
His career was launched straight out of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in 2004, when a British stage director cast him to play Hamlet at the Old Vic. Over the better part of a decade, Whishaw struggled from that doomed Danish prince to a wrongly sentenced prisoner, frustrated journalist and suicidal composer.
Though depressed at being characterized as a fragile role on-screen, Whishaw returned again and again to the stage where, he said, “typecasting isn’t such an issue.” Then, in 2011, another theater director came calling, this time with an offer that would change everything. Sam Mendes had hand-selected Whishaw for a film part: Doctor Q in Skyfall.
Soon, Whishaw started landing bigger projects -- playing survivors instead of victims. Part of that can be down to age; at 38, the actor is only just starting to get some wrinkles around his eyes. As he put it, “the kinds of stories people tell about people in their thirties and forties are different.” And though that handle-with-care quality still reflects everything Whishaw does, his characters on-screen are now more often men who should have been broken by circumstances, but nevertheless keep up, just like his roles in both 2015’s London Spy and 2018’s A Very English Scandal.
Ben Whishaw’s performances on stage and screen are fascinating colleagues, critics and audiences alike. Almost without exception, his performances have been defined by a certain flexible brilliance. His superb talent stands out among the more excellent performances of several better-known actors. “There is a fragility about Ben that is inspiring,” says the Oscar-winning director Jane Campion.
Now Whishaw’s at a point where roles come to him. He can afford to be selective and lately he’s been choosing optimism. “For myself, but also for the world, you want to maintain that balance,” he said. “It’s important that you can struggle and you can come through and you can carry on and things will get better. I’ve done a lot of very doomy things. Then this came along.”
1. Ben Whishaw started out on his acting career in his teens because .| A．He wasn’t very academic and hated school. |
| B．He had an inborn fascination for role-play. |
| C．He got into acting career merely by accident. |
| D．He enjoyed socializing with different people. |
| A．His early performances featured comic characters on-screen. |
| B．His on-screen images have consistently remained unchanged. |
| C．He bore a similarity to his on-screen characters in personality. |
| D．It was in 2011 that he was caught in a dilemma in performance. |
| A．His genius and persistence. | B．His brilliance and curiosity. |
| C．His vision and humility. | D．His ambition and commitment. |
| A．Talented actor, twisted fate | B．Ben Whishaw: Act his way up |
| C．Tragic role, tragic character | D．Ben Whishaw: Shoot to fame |
【推荐3】When milk arrived on the doorstep
When I was a boy growing up in New Jersey in the 1960s, we had a milkman delivering milk to our doorstep. His name was Mr. Basille. He wore a white cap and drove a white truck. As a 5-year-old boy, I couldn’t take my eyes off the coin changer fixed to his belt. He noticed this one day during a delivery and gave me a quarter out of his coin changer.
Of course, he delivered more than milk. There was cheese, eggs and so on. If we needed to change our order, my mother would pen a note----“Please add a bottle of buttermilk next delivery”----and place it in the box along with the empty bottles. And then, the buttermilk would magically appear.
All of this was about more than convenience. There existed a close relationship between families and their milkmen. Mr. Basille even had a key to our house, for those times when it was so cold outside that we put the box indoors, so that the milk wouldn’t freeze. And I remember Mr. Basille from time to time taking a break at our kitchen table, having a cup of tea and telling stories about his delivery.
There is sadly no home milk delivery today. Big companies allowed the production of cheaper milk, thus making it difficult for milkmen to compete. Besides, milk is for sale everywhere, and it may just not have been practical to have a delivery service.
Recently, I saw an old milk box in the countryside. I took it home and planted it on the back porch（门廊）. Every so often my son’s friends will ask what it is. So I start telling stories of my boyhood, and of the milkman who brought us friendship along with his milk.
1. Mr. Basille gave the boy a quarter out of his coin changer _______.| A．to show his magical power | B．to pay for the delivery |
| C．to satisfy his curiosity | D．to please his mother |
| A．The milkman’s magic power. | B．The milkman’s kindness to me. |
| C．The note to change an order. | D．The home delivery service. |
| A．He wanted to have tea there. | B．He was a respectable person. |
| C．He was treated as a family member. | D．He was fully trusted by the family. |
| A．Nobody wants to be a milkman now. | B．It has been driven out of the market. |
| C．Its service is getting poor. | D．It is forbidden by law. |
| A．He missed the good old days. | B．He wanted to tell interesting stories. |
| C．He missed it for his milk bottles. | D．He planted flowers in it. |
