Unable to hold back my curiosity any longer, I opened the beautifully wrapped present. It was a shiny, new laptop. I had scored straight A’s for my examination and this was my reward. I had always envied (嫉妒) my friends who were always exchanging news about “chat rooms” or “e-mailing”, which I knew nothing about. Now I was going to find out.
It started out simply enough. I was searching for some information online when I came across a social networking site. Soon I became attached to my new-found electronic friend. I began to spend more and more time on YouTube and became controlled by Facebook and Twitter. Whenever I was not accessing these social networking sites, I would be going through gossip (八卦) or fashion websites.
As time passed, I would lock myself in my room during weekends, refusing to come out and take part in family discussions. I preferred to stay connected to the “friends” online whom I had never met. Soon I was spending the early hours of the morning surfing the Internet. Sleep became broken naps and my grades at school also began worsening.
It was about this time that my parents started voicing their disapproval. I was asked to reduce my usage of the Internet. Yet, however hard I tried, I was unable to pull myself away. I was thirsty for just another click, or just another look at message board. Then one day, my father took away my laptop. I cried, shouted and even begged but in vain. Dad had made up his mind.
Over time, I realized that Dad and Mum had always wanted the best for me. That was when I decided to take the big step—to quit my internet addiction. Quitting was harder than I expected. But with strong determination, I knew that I would be able to do it. I promised my parents that I would turn over a new leaf.
1. Why did the author’s parents buy her a laptop?| A．To reward her for her excellent grades. | B．To let her make more friends easily. |
| C．To meet her curiosity about chat rooms. | D．To help her set up a social networking site. |
| A．She went out with new friends a lot. | B．She suffered from sleeplessness. |
| C．She got anxious and lost her temper. | D．She ignored the people and things around her. |
| A．Her father’s demand. | B．Her boredom with the Internet. |
| C．Her worsening school grades. | D．Her parents’ love and expectations. |
| A．It’s never too late to mend. | B．Action speaks louder than words. |
| C．Behind bad luck comes good luck. | D．A bad beginning makes a bad ending. |
相似题推荐
【推荐1】We walked in so quietly that the nurse at the desk didn’t even lift her eyes from the book. Mum pointed to a big chair by the door and I knew she wanted me to sit down. While I watched mouth open in surprise, Mum took off her hat and coat and gave them to me to hold. She walked quietly to the small room by the lift and took out a wet mop. She pushed the mop past the desk and as the nurse looked up, Mum nodded and said, “Very dirty floor.”
“Yes. I’m glad they’ve finally decided to clean them,” the nurse answered. She looked at Mum strangely and said, “But aren’t you working later?”
Mum just pushed harder, each swipe(拖一下) of the mop taking her farther and farther down the hall. I watched until she was out of sight and the nurse had turned back to writing in the big book.
After a long time, Mum came back. Her eyes were shining. She quickly put the mop back and took my hand. As we turned to go out of the door, Mum bowed politely to the nurse and said, “Thank you.”
Outside, Mum told me, “Dagmar is fine. No fever.”
“You saw her, Mum?”
“Of course. I told her about the hospital rules, and she will not expect us until tomorrow. Dad will stop worrying as well. It’s a fine hospital. But such floors! A mop is no good. You need a brush.”
1. When she took a mop from the small room, what Mum really wanted to do was________.| A．to clean the floor |
| B．to please the nurse |
| C．to see a patient |
| D．to surprise the story-teller |
| A．It is a children’s hospital. |
| B．It has strict rules about visiting hours. |
| C．The conditions there aren’t very good. |
| D．The nurse and doctors there don’t work hard. |
| A．Strange. | B．Warm-hearted. | C．Clever. | D．Hard-working. |
【推荐2】There was a boy in India who was sent by his parents to a boarding school(寄宿学校)．Before being sent away this boy was the brightest student in his class．He was at the top in every competition．He was a champion．
But the boy changed after leaving home and attending the boarding school．His grades started dropping．He hated being in a group．He was lonely all the time．And there were especially dark times when he felt like killing himself．All of this was because he felt worthless and that no one loved him．
His parents started worrying about the boy．But they did not know what was wrong with him．So his dad decided to travel to the boarding school and talk with him．
They sat on the bank of the lake near the school．The father started asking him casual questions about his classes, teachers and sports．After some time his dad said, “Do you know son, why I am here today？”
The boy answered back, “To check my grades？”
“No, no, ”his dad replied．“I am here to tell you that you are the most important person for me．I want to see you happy．I don’t care about grades．I care about you．I care about your happiness．YOU ARE MY LIFE．”
These words caused the boy’s eyes to fill with tears．He hugged his dad．They didn’t say anything to each other for a long time．
Now the boy had everything he wanted．He knew there was someone on this earth who cared about him deeply．He meant the world to someone．And today this young man is in college at the top of his class and no one has ever seen him sad！
Thanks a lot, dad．YOU ARE MY LIFE．
1. The father went to the boarding school to ．| A．know if his son was still the best student |
| B．find out what was wrong with his son |
| C．ask some questions about his son’s classmates |
| D．talk with the boy’s teacher about his grades |
| A．unimportant | B．strange |
| C．special | D．difficult |
| A．Because his father didn’t care about his grades any more． |
| B．Because he hadn’t had a talk with his father for a long time． |
| C．Because he had a chance to say his worries． |
| D．Because he was deeply moved by his father’s words． |
| A．send a small boy to a boarding school |
| B．care too much about a student’s grades |
| C．pay no attention to the power of caring |
| D．miss the chance to say thanks to our fathers |
【推荐3】Dillon Doeden is not an athlete—and yet, he’s undertaking one of the toughest physical sports, climbing Mount Qomolangma. The dad from Omaha, Nebraska, is motivated (激励) by someone special: his 5-year-old son, Connor, who has a disease of muscular dystrophy (肌营养不良) called Duchenne.
Connor was said to have Duchenne when he was 2 years old. Duchenne is a disorder that causes muscle wasting of every muscle in the human body. And it finally leads to death. There is no cure. But people like Doeden are trying to change that.
The disease is rare, but Connor is not alone. Doeden met a fellow dad, Jim Raffone, on the Internet, who has a son with Duchenne. Jim Raffone also runs JAR of Hope, a charity to bring awareness and raise money for Duchenne research. Raffone said they were going to do a big fundraiser by climbing Qomolangma to help try and fund a clinical trial for Duchenne and asked whether Doeden would go. Doeden said he absolutely would go.
“I am so grateful another dad in the Duchenne community is coming on the Climb For The Cure,” Raffone said. “We need to work together to make Duchenne a household name.” That’s why they’re planning to climb Qomolangma—the world’s tallest mountain. “Why is it the Qomolangma? Well, I would do anything for my son and we chose Qomolangma because, well, quite frankly, it deserves some attention,” Doeden said.
Doeden said he’s been training for the climb—which is 80 miles round trip—and he feels confident that he can do it. For Doeden, the difficulty is worth it because of his son. “This isn’t necessarily something I would’ve done on my own. But because we’re doing it to help my son and others dealing with Duchenne, it’s easy to stay motivated in my book. Like, there’s nothing I wouldn’t do,” he said.
1. What made Doeden choose to climb Mount Qomolangma?| A．His love for his son. | B．His son’s encouragement. |
| C．His role as an athlete. | D．A wish to conquer Qomolangma. |
| A．It causes loss of blood. | B．It has no treatment. |
| C．It is a common disease. | D．It is deadly at early stage. |
| A．To call on more people to join charities. |
| B．To raise money for climbing Mount Qomolangma. |
| C．To raise the awareness of environmental protection. |
| D．To make Duchenne known to the public. |
| A．Attractive and responsible. | B．Courageous and determined. |
| C．Experienced and confident. | D．Athletic and professional. |
【推荐1】In the fall of 1985，I was a brighteyed girl heading off to Howard University, aiming at a legal career and dreaming of sitting on a Supreme Court bench somewhere. Twentyone years later I am later I am still a brighteyed dreamer and one with quite a different tale to tell.
My grandma, an amazing woman, graduated from college at the age of 65. She was the first in our family to reach that goal. But one year after I started college, she developed cancer. I made the choice to withdraw from college to care for her. It meant that school and my personal dream would have to wait.
Then I got married with another dream: building my family with a combination of adopt and biological children. In 1999, we adopted our first son. To lay eyes on him was fantastic...and very emotional. A year later came our second adopted boy. Then followed son No. 3. In 2003, I gave birth to another boy.
You can imagine how fully occupied I became, raising four boys under the age of 8!Our home was a complete zoo...a joyous zoo. Not surprising, I never did make it back to college fulltime. But I never gave up on the dream either. I had only one choice: to find a way. That meant talking as few as one class each semester.
The hardest part was feeling guilty about the time I spent away from the boys. They often wanted me to stay home with them. There certainly were times I wanted to quit.But I knew I should set an example for them to follow through the rest of their lives.
In 2007, I graduated from the University of North Carolina. It took me over 21 years to get my college degree!
I am not special, just singleminded. It always struck me that when you’re looking at a big challenge from the outside it looks huge, but when you’re in the midst of it, it just seems normal. Everything you want won’t arrive in your life on one day. It’s a process. Remember; little steps add up to big dreams.
1. When the author went to Howard University, her dream was to be ________.| A．a writer | B．a teacher | C．a judge | D．a doctor |
| A．She wanted to study by herself. |
| B．She fell in love and got married. |
| C．She suffered from a serious illness. |
| D．She decided to look after her grandma. |
| A．She was busy yet happy with her family life. |
| B．She ignored her guilty feeling for her sons. |
| C．She wanted to remain a fulltime housewife. |
| D．She was too confused to make a correct choice. |
| A．Failure is the mother of success. |
| B．Little by little，one goes far. |
| C．Every coin has two sides. |
| D．Well begun, half done. |
【推荐2】There is no way they just drove into that water, thought Corion Evans. The 16-year-old was hanging out with friends in a parking area underneath a Moss Point, highway in July when a car with three teenage girls inside fell into the Pascagoula River. It came to rest some 20 feet from land, then sank. The driver, Evans would learn, had blindly followed wrong directions from her GPS.
It was around 2:30 a. m. by the time Evans and brothers Karon and Caleh Bradley got to the river’s edge. In the darkness, they could barely make out the girls clinging to the roof, the only part of the car still, barely, above water. But they could hear screaming.
Evans took off his shirt and shoes, put his phone down, and then dived into the water, a river he knew alligators (鳄鱼) called home. He helped the first girl he saw and, keeping her head above water, led her ashore.
Just then, a man called out. Police Officer Garry Mercer had arrived. He dived into the river to help another of the girls. But halfway back to shore she panicked and went underwater, pulling Mercer down with her. Evans jumped back into the water and helped them until they could stand. “If he hadn’t been there, who knows?” Mercer told the Washington Post.
There was still one girl in the water. Cora Watson, 19, could not swim. She was gulping water, struggling to stay afloat. And scared.
“I heard Watson screaming ‘Help! And I thought she was done,” Caleh told WLOX in Biloxi.
“I just knew my last breath was coming,” Watson said. “My mind said, You’re slowly losing yourself.” She began to go under. Then, a surprise. “Corion had grabbed me.”
All of them were taken to the hospital and released. They’re alive because Corion Evans risked his life to save them. They’re alive, says his mother, Marquita Evans, because Corion Evans broke his curfew (宵禁). But she’s not mad, she told the Post, “He had a good reason.”
1. Why did the car fall into the river?| A．Because the driver was blind. |
| B．Because the driver was a teenager. |
| C．Because the GPS was not accurate. |
| D．Because the car broke down accidentally. |
| A．One | B．Two | C．Three | D．Four |
| A．Optimistic and honest | B．Skillful and brave |
| C．Humorous and kind | D．Responsible and creative |
| A．Police Officer Garry Mercer can’t swim. |
| B．The river that the car fell into is dangerous. |
| C．Evans and his friends saved the girls together . |
| D．Marquita was angry about Evan’s breaking his curfew. |
And why not？Society has always rewarded its top entertainers lavishly.The great days of Hollywood have become legendary：famous stars enjoyed fame，wealth and adulation(奉承)on an all time scale.By today's standards，the excesses of Hollywood do not seem quite so spectacular.A single gramopphone record nowadays may earn much more in royalties than the films of the past ever did.The competition for the title“Top of the Pops”is fierce，but the rewards are truly huge.
It is only right that the stars should be paid in this way.Don't the top men in industry earn enormous salaries for the service they perform to their companies and their countries？Pop stars earn vast sums in foreign currency—often more than large industrial companies—and the taxman can only be grateful for their massive annual contributions to the exchequer(国库)．So who would begrudge them their rewards?
It's all very well for people in boring jobs to complain about the successes and rewards of others.People who make envious remarks should remember that the most famous stars represent only the tip of the iceberg.For every famous star，there are hundreds of others struggling to earn a living.A man working in a steady job and looking forward to a pension at the end of it has no right to expect very high rewards.He has chosen security and peace of mind，so there will always be a limit to what he can earn.But a map who attempts to become a star is taking enormous risks.He knows at the outset that only a handful of competitors ever get to the very top.He knows that years of concentrated effort may be rewarded with complete failure.But he knows，too，that the rewards for success are very high indeed：they are the payback for the huge risks involved and once he makes it，he will certainly earn them.That's the essence of private enterprise.
1. The author develops the passage mainly by ________.
| A．comparing different ideas |
| B．giving explanations |
| C．inferring |
| D．listing typical examples |
| A．be jealous of | B．be satisfied with |
| C．be anxious about | D．be crazy about |
| A．He who laughs last laughs best. |
| B．If you venture nothing，you will gain nothing. |
| C．He who makes no mistakes makes nothing. |
| D．Success belongs to the persevering. |
| A．People are blind in idolizing stars. |
| B．There is fierce competition in becoming pop stars. |
| C．The government taxes pop stars very little. |
| D．Pop stars' life is more luxurious than that of royalty. |
【推荐1】I can proudly say that last year I broke the record for the oldest person in the world to ride a roller coaster. I'm 105, but I feel younger. Even the doctor agrees I'm in good condition. I'm a bit deaf and my legs feel weak, but they are the only issue.
I rode the Twistosaurus at Flamingo Land, which spins you round quite fast. I didn't choose to go on that. I'd have preferred a really fast one that went upside down. But I was told I couldn't ride something like that, because it would affect my blood pressure and I might have some danger.
I wasn't nervous—I don't get frightened of anything. I was securely fastened, so I knew I wouldn't fall out! The roller coaster ride went on for three or four minutes, and it couldn't be a better experience. And I raised a lot of money for the Derbyshire, Leicestershire &Rutland Air Ambulance fund, which was fantastic.
People were saying I'd got a place in the Guinness World Records. Later, someone came to present me with the certificate. I had it on the wall in my living room, with another one I got a year earlier.
My record-breaking ways really began a couple of years ago, with the ice bucket challenge. It turned out that I was probably the oldest person in the world to do it, and the video was very popular. After that, I started to think about what else I could do to raise money for different charities.
I'm not sure if anyone admires all the fun I'm having. They just say I'm daft and that's about it. But I've had many good days and many exciting times. I've had a really good life. I don't think I've wasted any of it.
1. Why didn't the author choose to go on riding the Twistosaurus?| A．Because he was told not to do so. | B．Because he considered it too gentle. |
| C．Because he thought it spun too fast. | D．Because he was in a bad physical condition. |
| A．He really enjoyed himself. | B．He was very worried at first. |
| C．He couldn't think much about it. | D．He got frightened as it started moving. |
| A．He was eager to get certificates. | B．He disliked showing off his success. |
| C．He was the oldest person in the world. | D．He set a record the year before last year. |
| A．Healthy. | B．Crazy. | C．Strong. | D．Funny. |
【推荐2】Jazmin Sanchez’s parents moved to Florida from Mexico shortly after they married in 1987. Over the years, they worked hard picking fruits and vegetables at farms and saved so they could provide Jazmin and her two sisters with opportunities.
“They told me that I could do anything I wanted in life, as long as I had an education and a passion,” said Jazmin, a student studying public health at the University of South Florida (USF). “I don’t want them to have to work as much as we do,” said Alida, Jazmin’s mother. “I want them to be able to choose careers that they love.”
Thousands of first-generation college students like Jazmin choose USF each year. While the definition (定义) of a first-generation student may vary nationally, at USF, they’re students whose parents or guardians did not complete a bachelor’s (学士) degree in the United States.
There are several programs to offer help to first-generation college students. Student Support Services created an online platform for them. The program teaches study skills and offers personalized advising, career exploration, and networking.
Jaelyn Wise, a first-generation USF graduate from Sanford, began her college journey with Student Support Services, and then later became a coach for the group, mentoring (辅导) younger first-generation students. “Student Support Services helps you through everything,” Jaelyn said. “I love what I do. I relate to where first generation students come from. I love telling them my story because it shows them that college isn’t easy, but it can be done.”
Support can begin in the summer to prepare first-generation students for fall classes. Through the summer program, students can learn about campus resources, skills needed to be successful and more.
“USF is important to first generation students because we are changing not only their lives, but the lives of their families,” said Rhea Law, president of USF. “We’re making a significant difference for them and for their communities for years to come.”
1. What can we learn about Jazmin’s parents?| A．They are always supportive of her. | B．They lead an easy life in Mexico. |
| C．They finished college in the US. | D．They teach agriculture in a school. |
| A．To apply for a new position. | B．To improve her writing skills. |
| C．To save money for further study. | D．To help more students like her. |
| A．To show students how to face facts. | B．To encourage students to read books. |
| C．To prepare students for college life. | D．To provide good jobs for students. |
| A．Short-lived. | B．Far-reaching. | C．Worrying. | D．Unchanged. |
【推荐3】When I moved to northern New Jersey in 2012 and took a software test engineering job in midtown Manhattan, I suddenly found myself with an hour-long bus commute. I’d solved newspaper crossword puzzles for many years, but I had little patience and wasn’t very good. So when I started my crosswording again during those long trips, I was determined to become a better solver. However, after noticing that all of The New York Times puzzles had bylines(署名行),I figured, “Why couldn’t one of them be mine?”
I bought crossword construction software and a dictionary of valid crossword puzzle entries. I started with a blank 15×15 grid (网格). After reading, rereading, and more rereading of my puzzle, I decided that it was as good as it was ever going to be. So I sent it off to The Times and anxiously waited for their response. Several weeks later, I received an email from a staffer writing on behalf of editor Will Shortz. His answer was basic,“Thanks, but no thanks.” What’s worse, I received nearly the same rejection from Shortz and his colleagues for the next several puzzles I submitted.
Then I found my way to the Crossword Puzzle Collaboration Directory group on Facebook.In the group I connected with Mark, a more experienced constructor who became my teacher. After making some edits for my 21×21 grid at Mark’s suggestion, I sent the puzzle off to The New York Times. A few months later, I got something new in my inbox: an actual acceptance message from The New York Times! They changed some of the clues to be more straightforward. Anyway, my hard work finally paid off. Naturally, I told all my friends and family to get a copy of the paper on the publication date, March 21,2021.
Now I’ve made a lot in my spare time. Even if constructing a puzzle feels like an impossible task from time to time, it’s probably not. Very few things in life are truly impossible.
1. What did the author intend to do after seeing the bylines?| A．Apply to be a crossword puzzle editor. |
| B．Create crossword puzzles by himself. |
| C．Solve some challenging word games. |
| D．Develop crossword construction software. |
| A．Grateful. | B．Hopeful. |
| C．Uninterested. | D．Disappointed. |
| A．It achieved great popularity. |
| B．It was changed into a smaller grid. |
| C．It was published after being made simpler. |
| D．It became something impossible to be outdone. |
| A．He wrote to Shortz frequently for advice. |
| B．He is a committed amateur puzzle builder. |
| C．He works full-time at The New York Times. |
| D．He started solving newspaper puzzles in 2012. |
