【推荐3】“Hey, how are you doing? I’m Courtney. What grade are you in? What’s your favorite book? Elephant and Piggy? Yeah, I got it.”

If you thought you’d walked into a library with a greeting like that, you wouldn’t be too far off. In fact, you’ve entered the workplace of Courtney Holmes, the Storybook Barber.

Two years ago, Dubuque, Iowa, held its first yearly Back to School Bash, offering needy families an opportunity to learn about free resources in the community. Holmes agreed to participate. Saturday was his busiest haircutting day, but he chose to donate his time and give free haircuts to underprivileged kids so they’d look sharp on that first day of classes. But then he had a lightbulb moment(突然醒悟的一瞬): “The kids should earn their free haircut by having to read a book to me,” Holmes said.

The idea was so popular that he continued it for the next two years. Five-to ten-year-old boys would grab a favorite book, settle into the barber chair, and read aloud while Holmes cut their hair. If they stuttered(结结巴巴) over a word, Holmes was there to help.

After the haircut, they’d review the book, from the characters and vocabulary to the themes --- just like in school, only more fun.

Holmes admits he, too, benefits from the free snip-and-reads.

“There was this seven-year-old Bob, who struggled through his book, stuttering over words even though he didn’t have a stutter,” said Holmes. He had the boy take the book home and practice. When the child came back a few days later, “He read it with no problems. That inspires me.”

Holmes and his family have recently moved from Dubuque to a Chicago suburb. When they get settled, he plans to continue his role as the Storybook Barber. “The way the world is today is with guns and violence,” he says, “it’s a safe haven for the kids, to come to the barbershop and read books.”

1. What does the underlined word “underprivileged” in Paragraph 3 mean?

A．Unruly.

B．Poor.

C．Intelligent.

D．Unusual.

2. What did Holmes say about Bob?

A．He fired his enthusiasm.	B．He gifted him a new book.
C．He preferred to read alone.	D．He had a language disability.

3. What can we infer about Holmes from the last paragraph?

A．He showed great concern for kids.	B．He faced serious money problems.
C．He had an excellent sense of humor.	D．He built a shelter for homeless kids.

【推荐1】It was dawn of March 21, 2018. Gary Messina was on his morning run along New York City’s East River. Suddenly something caught his eye – a large 60-year-old man balancing on the four-foot-high fence that guarded the path from the water. As Messina got closer to the scene, the man took a step forward and slipped into the dark river below.

When Messina reached nearer, the man was struggling in the water, clearly unable to swim. Other joggers also heard the man’s cry. David Blauzvern and John Green dropped their phones and keys on land and jumped in. “People had called the police, but it was unclear when they’d get there.” says Green. “We just reacted.” Messina joined them in the river. Just as the jumper was losing strength, Blauzvern take hold of him. The pair were about 30 yards from the seawall when Messina and Green caught up to them. They seized the man, with Blauzvern supporting his back and Messina and Green holding him up from either side. As the men made their toward the concrete seawall that stretched (延伸) for blocks in each direction, Blauzvern had an awful realization: there was no way out of the river.

By now, a crowd had gathered on land. “A rescue boat is on its way,” someone yelled to them. Swimming forward was getting tougher by the minute. The jumper, who was six foot two and weighed around 260 pounds, was heavy in his rescuers’ arms. After ten minutes, they managed to get to the river’s edge. “I’ve never been so out of breath,” says Blauzvern.

Fifteen minutes after the men had jumped into the river, the two-man rescue boat appeared. But because it couldn’t risk getting too close to the seawall, the men had to swim out to it. “I was completely out of energy at this point,” says Blauzvern. The men in the water pushed the jumper while the men in the boat pulled him up and, finally, to safety. The man they had saved was taken to the hospital for evaluation(评估). Details on his condition have not been known. As for the rescuers, each of them was at work by 10:30 a.m. “I was a bit late,” admits Blauzvern, smiling. “But I had a good excuse.”

1. The story mainly centers around ________.

A．why the old man slipped into the river

B．who saved the old man

C．how the old man was rescued

D．when and where the accident happened

2. Who was the third to jump into the water and join the rescue?

A．Gary Messina.	B．David Blauzvern.
C．John Green.	D．An unknown jogger.

3. Of the following statements, which one sounds reasonable based on the passage?

A．The rescued man is rather tall and fat.

B．Police would never be found on the spot of rescue.

C．The process of rescuing the man took up the whole morning/

D．The man was actually saved by the two-man rescue boat.

4. Which of the following can be inferred from the passage?

A．The man wanted to kill himself in the river.

B．The men is the river were all good swimmers.

C．The man was taken home immediately he was saved.

D．Blauzvern felt at ease even if he was late for work that day.

【推荐2】She was sitting up at four months, walking at eight months and completing 100-piece jigsaw puzzles (拼图玩具) at 15 months. So it is no surprise that Abigail Wilson, 15, from Connecticut, USA, recently made history when she became the youngest black girl ever accepted into an American university! “I’m proud of myself for getting in, but I usually find it hard to get excited. It’s pretty cool, I guess,” said Abigail.

Her mother, Nancy, said that Abigail was a quiet baby. She didn’t speak her first words until she was 22 months old! Her parents thought something must be wrong, but when she started to talk, her speech was perfect. She already knew colors, letters and was able to read. Her parents read her normal bedtime stories and they didn’t know she was learning all of it.

Abigail has always been the youngest person in her class. At six she was in the fourth grade, at ten she took her first high school class in Maths. She has studied several languages, including Spanish, French, Chinese, Russian, Arabic and German.

Abigail says that she doesn’t usually plan when she studies, she calls herself scatterbrained (浮躁的) and she always delays things up to the last minute. This gives her the motivation to really do something.

In her free time, Abigail plays basketball, surfs the Internet, reads, cooks and hangs out with her friends. She has also studied music. Her mother says that Abigail’s music lessons helped her to be a normal teen. She believed that Abigail needed to be in a situation where she had to fail in order to learn. “She found playing the piano very difficult, but it made her learn better,” said Nancy. “She can’t always be successful, she won’t be able to learn anything! People always learn more from their failures than from their successes.”

1. Why is it not surprising that Abigail went to university at 15?

A．Because she was hard-working.

B．Because she was always ahead of other kids.

C．Because she was brought up in a special way.

D．Because she was not different from other black girls.

2. What can we learn about Abigail?

A．She is crazy about sports.	B．She has a gift for language.
C．Her favorite subject is math.	D．Her success is due to good habits.

3. When it comes to studies, Abigail _________.

A．has perfect plans	B．has no desire to study hard
C．won’t finish things ahead of time	D．prefers to finish things in advance

4. What can we infer from Nancy’s words?

A．Abigail failed to have a normal life.	B．Abigail was good at playing the piano.
C．Abigail needed to learn from failures.	D．Abigail always wanted to be successful.

5. What’s the best title of this passage?

A．The wonderful life of a talented girl.	B．A mother bringing up a wonderful girl.
C．A black girl wanting to live a normal life.	D．A gifted girl being admitted into university.

【推荐3】In 2003, Mary Marggraff was a 47-year-old California mother, devoted to school committees and car pool schedules. But after losing her trusty notebook and buying a new one, she had an inspiration. “It was blank,” says Marggraff, now 64. “What else could I fill it with?” Soon she was thinking about her childhood love of flying, and next thing she knew, she determined to register in flight school. “In my first class, all the students were single men half my age. I felt like a housemother attending a fraternity (兄弟会), but I loved it too much to walk away.” she says.

Marggraff earned her first pilot’s license in 2005. Six years and four additional licenses later, her addiction to being in the air changed into something grander: a desire to go to space. To move closer to her starry dreams, Marggraff got a part-time job as a mission support representative at Virgin Galactic, Richard Branson’s commercial space line. In that role, she attended space-related gatherings where she educated people about the future of universe voyages. Though space tourism isn’t quite a reality yet, Marggraff has already begun space training in expectation of being on one of Virgin’s early flights. “I’ve completed acceleration force exercises,” she says, “which require getting inside a machine, spinning around at 2,500 miles per hour, and trying not to black out.”

Marggraff’s training has meant more than getting her wings — it’s expanded her sense of what the future may hold. “It turns out I’m capable of much more than I imagined,” she says. “I used to think it’d be a miracle if I got my first license. Now I’ve completed nearly 1,000 hours of flight! I'm rotten in the kitchen and I burn anything I iron, but if you need someone to land a plane, call me.”

1. Marggraff registered in flight school in order to __________.

A．break away from car pool schedules

B．make her new blank notebook popular

C．prove women are equal to men in flying

D．pursue her childhood dream of flying

2. What did Marggraff do after earning five licenses?

A．She got into space on one of Virgin’s early flights.

B．She instructed people in how to make universe voyages.

C．She received space training in preparation for space tourism.

D．She tried in vain to overcome faintness from high speed.

3. What does Marggraff benefit from her space training besides getting a license?

A．It proves her a miracle.	B．It increases her self-confidence.
C．It wins her a qualification.	D．It improves her imagination.

4. Which of the following words can best describe Marggraff?

A．Aggressive and hopeful.	B．Creative and fragile.
C．Energetic and sensitive.	D．Considerate and persistent.