It is October again. It has been a year since my mother was diagnosed with lung cancer; a year since she started her good, brave fight. It has been a year marked with so many milestones, so many shared smiles and secret fears.
Usually, children, with eyes that see all and minds that are still free to wonder, are extraordinarily accepting the changes in routine, the shift in seasons. This week, however, when I took my two younger boys with me for a visit to Mom’s without telling her in advance, Sean ran into her bedroom to greet her, then quickly returned to the living room to talk to me. “Mom,” my four-year-old whispered, careful not to be overheard or offending, “Grandma has no hair.”
Mom came through her surgery that removed the tumor (肿瘤) in her lung with faith and grace. She also came through thin and tired. And the side effect was total hair loss. It should grow back eventually, but my mother decided to have a wig (假发) to cover her head. She wears it mostly for the comfort of others. When she is alone, she usually leaves her head uncovered, finding the wig uncomfortable when unnecessary.
“Grandma has no hair,” Sean said, because we had caught her by surprise.
“I know, Sean. Isn’t it funny?” I asked him as my mom joined us in the living room. We explained to him that Grandma had to take medicine that made her hair go away, but it would come back.
“Would you like to touch my head, Sean?” my mother asked as my son stared at her, his blue eyes filled with questions and curiosity. It is surprising to see your mother—or anyone you love—without hair, but surprisingly it’s something that you can get used to quickly. We are, after all, not really these bodies—these are just the shells that transport who we are, and no matter what the physical changes, those connected by love seem to be able to recognize their own.
1. What has happened to Grandma over the year?| A．She has refused others’ visits. | B．She has pulled through the cancer. |
| C．She has lost her fight with the tumor. | D．She has recovered without side effects. |
| A．Because he found Grandma tired and thin. |
| B．Because just overheard Grandma’s cancer. |
| C．Because he couldn’t accept Grandma’s appearance. |
| D．Because he had never seen Grandma hairless before. |
| A．Loving and optimistic. | B．Loyal and honest. |
| C．Humble and committed. | D．Generous and humorous. |
| A．Every cloud has a silver lining. | B．Never judge a book by its cover. |
| C．Love goes beyond physical changes. | D．What doesn’t kill us makes us stronger. |
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【推荐1】My son has poliomyelitis（小儿麻痹）and he suffered from it a lot. When he was young, my wife and I took him to see so many doctors and got different kinds of treatments. But still, he couldn’t walk like a normal kid. So he was laughed at by his peers for his walking style. His tears burnt our eyes like sulphuric acid（硫酸）. Then, he became afraid of going to school. He wouldn’t go any more.
One night, my wife had a breakdown and shouted at him, “I tell you, my kid, you might be like this forever. you are a freak in other people’s eyes, and perhaps it would never change. But in my eyes, in your dad’s eyes, you are not a freak! You are not! Even if you are, we love you and we will love you forever!” My son spoke nothing for two days. He didn’t eat or sleep. We could read he was hurt. We hoped something wonderful would fall in our family. On the third morning, he struggled to walk to my car, with his school bad in his hand of course. He raised his head high and hugged me, saying “want to go to school. Nothing will beat me.”
You know, from then on, he was never afraid of being mocked or despised anymore. If he couldn’t avoid these looks, he chose to look at them in the eyes. Later, something nice really happened and me son went to MIT. When he was asked how he managed to bear the pressure, he said, “Because of my parents.”
My dear fellow, if you care too much about how other people look at you or what their opinions are, you will never become what you want to be.
1. What does the underlined phrase mean in paragraph 2?| A．a minor nervousness | B．a serious illness |
| C．a severe depression | D．an outburst anger |
| A．he was from a poor family | B．he didn’t do well in his lessons |
| C．he walked in a strange way | D．he often burst into tears |
| A．didn’t say anything without eating or sleeping for two days |
| B．went to school unwillingly without speaking anything |
| C．burst out crying complaining about his bad experience |
| D．quarreled with his mother and left home angrily |
| A．The boy owed his success to his parents and was grateful to them. |
| B．The boy was brave to face any difficulty after being encouraged by his mother. |
| C．The boy achieved success and admitted to a famous university. |
| D．The boy finally could walk like a normal child after some treatments. |
| A．brave and hard-working | B．determined and brave |
| C．wise and easy-going | D．confident and outgoing |
【推荐2】I’m a happy mother of two wonderful kids. My daughter is Blanca Ramirez. She’s 14 years old right now, but at the age of 11, she began to do long-distance running, she knew she could do more than just run, so she decided to run for a charity.
She ran for Operation Smile. It is a non-profit organization that helps children worldwide suffering from cleft lip or cleft palate (唇腭裂) at no charge. At Operation Smile they believe every such child deserves exceptional surgical (外科的) care.
My daughter believes that no child should be without a smile, so to help even more, she took her running even further. She went on a journey on becoming the youngest female in the world to run 7 marathons on 7 continents in the name of Operation Smile. She did so in order to raise money and awareness to this organization. And she completed her journey by age 12 on February 19, 2015.
But she’s not done. She now continues to help inspire others by running. One person she has inspired so much is her little brother Jordan. He is 7 years old and has run to this day, 105×5k’s, 11×10k’s & 4×half marathons. He will be running all 7 continents too along with Blanca, starting in November 2017 in Australia.
What makes me proud is that they both plan to continue to help others in this way, and maybe one day they’ll get an Olympic medal.
1. Why did Blanca run for Operation Smile?| A．Because her mother asked her to do so. |
| B．Because the organization required her to do so. |
| C．Because her brother invited her to do it together. |
| D．Because she could make contributions to the world. |
| A．It educates them for free. |
| B．It offers them food and clothes. |
| C．It looks after them at no charge. |
| D．It operates on them free of charge. |
| A．Warm-hearted and inspirational. |
| B．Humorous and clever. |
| C．Outgoing and helpful. |
| D．Gentle and kind. |
| A．Because they exercise regularly to keep fit. |
| B．Because they try to help others by running. |
| C．Because they’ve completed four full marathons. |
| D．Because they’ll continue running to win an Olympic medal. |
【推荐3】We buried one of my heroes on Friday. She was my mother-in-law. In the case of Helen Boyle, “hero” might be a form of understatement. Let me recite just a few facts about her 85 years on this earth.
She lost her father at age 5 and learned his death from a kid on the street while she was walking home. He looked at her and said, in that mean and matter-of-fact way, “Your father’s dead.” Helen was shocked and didn’t know what to say, so she replied, “I know,” even though she didn’t.
When she was 38, she gave birth to twins, Neil and Sharon, who died within days of being born. The pain meant for her must have been extreme, but she had little time to feel sad. More was waiting for her. Just a few weeks later her husband went in for an operation for what they thought was an ulcer (溃疡). The doctor came out of the operating room and said, “He’s got two weeks to two months.” Actually, it wasn’t an ulcer, it was stomach cancer. So the twins had just died, and now her husband was dying. Besides, there were six other kids at home. The oldest was just a sophomore in high school.
Her husband, Jimmy, worked in a boiler room. He was a good man and a good father, but not a man of money. He was part of that white working class pundits (学者) have been talking about so much. Helen raised those kids, ages 2 to 16 at the time of Jimmy’s death, on income from secretarial jobs, Social Security survivor benefits and, occasional “5-pound chunks of U.S. government-issued cheese given out of the backs of trucks.”
Yet this is not the beginning of a sad story. On the contrary, Helen’s son Chris says that his mother had the most successful life of anyone he has ever met. Many of us share this view.
My wife, Mary, says she never knew she was poor until she went to college. She came home at a break and said, “Mom, we’re poor.” And Helen replied with a smile, “We’re not poor, we are impoverished (穷困的) nobility.”
“Noble” is right. It was not just that Helen, in a neighborhood where most kids didn’t go to college, sent all six of hers through. Nor was it just the fact that with her meager (贫乏的) resources, Helen was the one who helped out other neighborhood kids.
She was a pillar (栋梁) of her church and committed to her union. She was the person her friends counted on for sound advice. She had a gentle manner that signaled she understood what they were going through, because she did.
Helen had an indescribable inner strength that was rooted in reflection, determination and a quiet confidence in resources beyond her own. She was a spiritual person, a Catholic to her bones without any illusions about the church itself, even though it was so central to her life.
My wife, however, objects to a word so many of her friends used about her, that Helen was “a saint.” Mary does not for a moment doubt her mother’s sainthood. She objects to the word because it implies a sanctimoniousness (伪善) that had nothing to do with a woman who had a sparkling sense of humor, who taught by example rather than judgment and who enjoyed a rich intellectual life that probed the human mysteries — scientific, religious and literary.
One of Helen’s spiritual heroes was St. Francis of Assisi, which is why she knew from the start that a priest who took the name Francis would be special. St. Francis taught us to confront hatred with love, injury with pardon, darkness with light, doubt with faith and sadness with joy.
The miracle of Helen is that in the face of all the trials she was asked to endure, she was one of the most genuinely joyful people I will ever encounter. She somehow knew she would always overcome. And she did.
1. Why does the author think “hero” inadequate to describe Helen?| A．She might as well be regarded as a saint. |
| B．She was well up to the standard of a hero. |
| C．She endured more than was expected of her. |
| D．She knew how to get through a difficult time. |
| A．reveal how poor Helen’s living conditions are |
| B．prove why “hero” is a form of understatement |
| C．show what boundaries Helen has gone beyond |
| D．indicate what suffering Helen has experienced |
| A．They are the targets of pundits. | B．They lead a relatively poor life. |
| C．They can hardly make ends meet. | D．They tend to talk more and do less. |
| A．She lived mainly on Social Security survivor benefits. |
| B．She had the ability to predict the future to live through. |
| C．She was a role model to touch hearts and change minds. |
| D．She was too dependent on St. Francis to share his ideas. |
| A．Selfless and lucky. | B．Generous and hesitant. |
| C．Sensitive and stubborn. | D．Strong-minded and reliable. |
| A．Losing my mother-in-law | B．My mother-in-law, my “hero” |
| C．The miracle of my mother-in-law | D．The making of a great mother-in-law |
【推荐1】When I was about twelve, I headed to a restaurant for dinner with my family. It was winter, and on that night, the wind was really blowing hard.
As my mom and I headed to the restaurant from our car, a girl about my age and her mother came up to us. They asked if we had any spare change. My mom right away asked where they lived. They pointed to an old car in a parking lot across the street. The girl said there were six of them living in that car.
My mom said she had something to do after handing the people a few dollars. She sent me inside the restaurant with my dad and my three siblings (兄弟姐妹). But she didn’t come. Later, I found out she had gone home and put all the food in our cupboards into a few bags. Then, she brought that food over to the car and handed the bags to the family. I wasn’t there when that happened, but I can only imagine the joy it brought to those people.
A few days later, when I actually found out about what she had done, I asked her why she helped those people. She told me that they were not lucky. I remember the face of that girl who had asked us for change. She was the same age as me, yet we looked so different.
Here I stood, dressed in almost new clothes, headed to eat in a restaurant and then back home to the bedroom I shared with my younger sister. I remember thinking that the other girl didn’t have any food to eat and she was heading back to a cold car shared with five other people.
After painting this picture in my mind, I understood why my mom had done what she did. I will never forget what she did that night, and how she taught me one of the best lessons I ever learned.
1. From the passage, we can know the writer’s mother was _________.| A．humorous | B．determined |
| C．kind-hearted | D．selfish |
| A．the poor family had no place to live |
| B．the poor girl was older than the author |
| C．the writer’s mother didn’t know how to cook |
| D．the poor girl lived near the restaurant |
| A．It was a winter morning when the story happened. |
| B．There were six people in the writer’s family. |
| C．A few months later the writer found out what her mother had done. |
| D．The writer couldn’t understand what her mother did. |
| A．To tell us why to help poor people. |
| B．To give an introduction to her mother. |
| C．To tell us to show love to others. |
| D．To talk about a social problem. |
【推荐2】Alexander Graham Bell was born in 1847 in Scotland, but when he was young his family moved to Boston, USA.
He believed that one should always be curious and his most famous saying was: Leave the beaten track occasionally and dive into the woods. Every time you do you will be certain to find something that you have never seen before. Follow it up, explore all around it, and before you know it, you will have something worth thinking about to occupy your mind. All really big discoveries are the result of thought.
It was this exploring around problems and his dynamic spirit that led to his most famous invention-the telephone in 1876. Bell never set out to invent the telephone and what he was trying to design was a multiple telegraph.
The original telegraph sent a message over distances using Morse code. But only one message could go at a time. Bell wanted to improve it so that it could send several messages at the same time. He designed a machine that would separate different sound waves and allow different conversations to be held at the same time. In searching to improve the telegraph, Bell had invented the first telephone!
The patent was given in 1876, but it was not until five days later that Bell sent his first telephone message to his assistant Watson. The words have now become famous:
“Mr Watson—come here—I want to see you.”
Alexander Graham Bell was not a man to rest and he interested himself in many other areas of invention. He experimented with helicopter designs and flying machines. While searching for a kite strong enough to carry a man into the air, Bell experimented putting triangles together and discovered the tetrahedron shape. Being very stable, it has proved invaluable in the design of bridges.
1. What does the author think is the key to Bell’s success as an inventor?| A．Curiosity. | B．Intelligence. | C．Good luck. | D．Inspiration. |
| A．In 1847. | B．In 1876. | C．In 1880. | D．In 1888. |
| A．kites | B．telephone | C．flying machines | D．tetrahedron shape |
| A．poor | B．rich | C．creative | D．kind |
【推荐3】When I first set foot in Western Australia’s Pilbara, a landscape holding 3.5-billion-year-old clues to the beginning of life, I was very disappointed. The year was 1994. I drove excitedly out of the west coast town of Port Hedland, but all I saw for the first 150 kilometers were a few dead trees and smoky dust across the burnt, flat plain. And the heat!! I’d never experienced anything this terrible before. Or breathed air so thick with biting flies.
But as we continued to head south on the highway to. Marble Bar—the hottest town in Australia—some low, broad hills started to rise from the horizon. As we continued down a dirt track into the hills, the burnt plains gave way to grass-covered hills. This grass is called spinifex, an amazing but cruel creation. It grows as bushes up to one meter in diameter (直径), with round, fine leaves with needle-sharp tips. The tips will go through just about any piece of cloth. My guide wore thick gaiters (护腿) to protect his legs. But he had failed to inform me of the risk. Without any gaiters, my skin was covered with needle tips that remained in my legs for months.
The land, ultimately, proved worth the discomfort. Here I was walking over some of Earth’s oldest, best-preserved rocks that contain evidence of life from almost the very beginnings of time on our planet.
This area had changed much from when it was first formed 3.5 billion years ago. Back then it would have been a black volcanic land, with no color from vegetation. Over the hills I might have seen a green, iron-rich sea under an orange sky heavy with carbon dioxide and without oxygen. Several billion years after that, the world would turn cold and become covered in a global ice sheet, destroying almost every living thing. When it melted away, oxygen levels rose again. Life really got going. Animals slowly occupied the land, so did new types of plants. The greening of our planet began, and a wide variety of organisms (有机体) appeared including. unfortunately for me, spinifex.
1. What was the author’s first reaction to the Pilbara landscape?| A．Dissatisfaction. | B．Excitement. | C．Amusement. | D．Confusion. |
| A．It was no easy task to set foot on the land. |
| B．He had never seen spinifex on any other land. |
| C．The trip was valuable despite all the suffering. |
| D．The tips remaining in his flesh were not that uncomfortable. |
| A．It is where life began. | B．It is still a black volcanic land. |
| C．It is home to many unique plants. | D．It contains almost no living things. |
| A．How Life Started on Earth | B．Pilbara: Rich in Organisms |
| C．An Abandoned but Lively Land | D．Journey to a Land across Time |
【推荐1】In Stornoway, the biggest town in Scotland’s Outer Hebrides islands, a yellow van (厢式货车) sits on a narrow, one - way street.Driver lain Mackenzie has loaded his books in the van, organized his customers’orders and is preparing for his last turn of the week on the island of Lewis and Harris. The 16-year-old van runs three days a week,covering more than 800 miles of rough roads to deliver books to more than 800 residents.
The Outer Hebrides are home to Scotland’s highest concentration of "very remote rural" residents.When mobile libraries began operating in 1952 as a local council service, they were the main source of books for residents there. Even now, mobile libraries still serve as a lifeline to many, residents. Without them, some residents would be more than an hour’s drive from their nearest library branch. Mobile Iibraries remain integral to these communities. Visits by drivers like Mackenzie are sometimes the only regular face - to - face contact customers can count on in any given week.
Still, there are worries about the mobile libraries' future. As many people have moved away, in search of greater opportunity, villages across the islands are facing depopulation and a decreesse in resources. As a result, services have declined. In more remote areas, when school is not in session, public transport is available only once a week. Budget - saving proposals have offered to substitute the mobile libraries with online books and volunteer - run community centers. But residents say theee don't come close to the personal experience of physically choosing books, and none offered access to the limited Gaelic(盖尔语) resources available.
When the mobile library service was at risk of being cut, the Outer Hebrides communities, which own Scotland’s highest density (密度) of Gaelic speakers, voted to save it. In December, the local council approved two new vans. For longtime drivers Mackenzie, the approval for replacement vans marks a victory.
1. Why does the author mention Driver Iain Mackenzie and his van?| A．To highlight the simple life on the island. |
| B．To show the traffic conditions on the island. |
| C．To describe how books reach residents on the island. |
| D．To introduce the function of mobile libraries on the island. |
| A．Essential. | B．Familiar. | C．Convenient. | D．Challenging. |
| A．Poor road conditions. | B．Insufficient vans. |
| C．A lack of offline books. | D．Budget - saving proposals. |
| A．They expect to move away from the islands. |
| B．They enjoy the traditional book delivery. |
| C．They are attached to online Gaelic books. |
| D．They volunteer to set up community libraries. |
【推荐2】The sun was setting and the farm would be closing. I dressed our three daughters quickly as my husband started the van. Cutting down our own Christmas tree had been a family tradition. As our family grew, so did our excitement for going out to find the perfect tree.
As we walked through the rows of trees, my youngest daughter Kimberly shouted excitedly, “There it is, the perfect tree!” The other two agreed. My husband and I looked at each other puzzled. We were surprised the girls thought that straggly (凌乱的) little tree was perfect. Its branches were misshapen (畸形的) and the trunk was visible through the spots where there were no pine needles.
We tried to persuade our daughters into changing their minds, but in vain. We had to tie the sad little tree to the roof of our van and headed home. As we reached our house, Heather jumped out first. Suddenly she shouted, “The tree isn’t there!” We thought she was kidding. However, it wasn’t there.
The girls were so disappointed. “We’ll get another tree tomorrow, ” I said, secretly hoping the new tree would be prettier. But the girls gave us the look that no parent can resist. We had no choice but to go back and find that tree.
About five minutes into our drive, we saw it on the side of the road. As we got closer, we found it had been run over by a truck. As we lifted the tree, we saw that a big part was ripped off, but we took it home anyway.
That night, as we decorated our tree, something magical happened. We didn’t realize it at the time but we were making a very special family memory. By the time we were done, I had to admit, it didn’t look sad after all. “This is the best tree we ever had. It’s perfect!” my second daughter Samantha said excitedly. My husband and I couldn’t have agreed more!
Now we always recall that little broken tree! Year by year, we tell the story of that very special Christmas almost twentyfive years ago.
1. How did the author feel when hearing the tree was missing?| A．Pleased. | B．Depressed. |
| C．Disappointed. | D．Worried. |
| A．They took turns telling stories at Christmas. |
| B．They spent a whole night decorating the tree. |
| C．They all felt satisfied with the tree at first sight. |
| D．They turned the tree into an unforgettable one. |
| A．A Perfect Christmas Day | B．The Sad Little Tree |
| C．A Magical Christmas Tale | D．Our Family Tradition at Christmas |
【推荐3】After the re-location for my husband’s career, making friends wasn’t simple for me. Our teenaged son and daughter immediately enjoyed school and social groups through sports and clubs. I wondered when I’d feel a sense of belonging. One day, I was invited to a monthly dinner for moms in my new neighborhood, being a substitute for a woman who couldn’t attend. When hiking came up, I just played along.
The next day, I got up early and styled my hair. I left it a little messy, so it didn’t look like I had tried too hard. When I arrived a little early, one of the other three women was standing there waiting. She hugged me cheerfully. When the others joined us, we naturally broke into two groups of two and walked rapidly along the sidewalk to the base of the mountain in North Glendale. I was a little out of breath before we even started going uphill.
We hiked and talked about our families, jobs, and dogs. They continued to invite me to hike on Saturday mornings and to join them for birthday lunches and couples’ nights. Over the years, we hugged and laughed over broken-down cars, broken hearts, and even the complexities of the worldwide situations, though they had nothing to do with our lives.
Recently, nine years after that first hike, my husband and daughter put together a surprise birthday dinner for me. My hiking friends were among the first invited. At the party, they sat close to me all evening, even though we’d been together twice in the previous week, on a hike and at another event.
By accepting the invitation to hike, I stretched myself, and made amazing new friends. I still enjoy hiking with them, and I imagine I will always remain connected to these lovely women who enveloped me in their circle. I also feel confident that there are some other hikers, who I’ll come to love simply by agreeing to try something new.
1. What made the author invited to the monthly dinner?| A．She was invited by the local charity. | B．Her kids were popular in the community. |
| C．She was asked to replace another woman. | D．She was thought to have the same interest. |
| A．She was scared of making friends. | B．She was busy with the housework. |
| C．She wanted to keep her hair in style. | D．She pretended not to care about it. |
| A．Time-consuming. | B．Fun-filled. | C．Far-reaching. | D．Eye-opening. |
| A．Keep an open mind for new friends and things. |
| B．Be willing to catch every chance to make friends. |
| C．Include new friends to expand one’s community. |
| D．Reach out to new friends about their difficulties. |
