I’ve worked in the factories surrounding my hometown every summer since I graduated from high school, but making the transition between school and full-time blue-collar work during the break never gets any easier. For a student like me who considers any class before noon to be uncivilized, getting to a factory by 6 o’clock each morning is torture. My friends never seem to understand why I’m so relieved to be back at school or that my summer vacation has been anything but a vacation.
There’re few people as self-confident as a college student who has never been out in the real world. People of my age always seem to overestimate the value of their time and knowledge. In fact, all the classes did not prepare me for my battles with the machine I ran in the plant, which would jam whenever I absent-mindedly put in a part backward or upside down.
The most stressful thing about blue-collar life is knowing your job could disappear overnight. Issues like downsizing and overseas relocation had always seemed distant to me until my co-workers told me that the unit I was working in would shut down within six months and move to Mexico, where people would work for 60 cents an hour.
After working 12-hour shifts in a factory, the other options have become only too clear. When I’m back at the university, skipping classes and turning in lazy re-writes seems too irresponsible after seeing what I would be doing without school. All the advice and public-service announcements about the value of an education that used to sound stale (老掉牙的) now ring true.
These lessons I’m learning, however valuable, are always tinged (带有) with sense of guilt. Many people pass their lives in the places I briefly work, spending 30 years where I spend only two months at a time. “This job pays well, but it’s hell on the body,” said one co-worker. “Study hard and keep reading,” she added.
My experiences in the factories have inspired me to make the most of my college years before I enter the real world for good.
1. Which of the following is closest to the underlined word “torture” in the first paragraph?A.Misery | B.Fortune | C.Anxiety | D.Availability |
A.They expect too much from the real world. | B.They have little interest in blue-collar life. |
C.They think too highly of themselves. | D.They are confident of their future. |
A.They do not get decent pay. | B.They do not have job security. |
C.They have to work 12-hour shifts. | D.They have to move from place to place. |
A.He learned to be more practical. | B.He acquired a sense of urgency. |
C.He came to respect blue-collar workers. | D.He came to appreciate his college education. |
A.He realizes there is a great divide between his life and that of blue-collar workers. |
B.He looks down upon the mechanical work at the assembly life. |
C.He has not done much to help his co-workers at the factory. |
D.He has stayed at school just for the purpose of escaping from the real world. |
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【推荐1】I tend to go slowly when I drive in the mountains of my home, because the forest scenery is beautiful no matter what the season. This morning I was driving slower than usual because an early March snow had turned the roads slippery. Going up a mountain road, at a sharp, snowy curve, I saw a big buck deer standing in the middle of the road. I came to a full stop and for a few seconds we just stared at each other. His eyes seemed wise and he stood still there. Finally, he nodded his head at me. I nodded in return and motioned with my hand for him to go on. He then jumped across the road, up the hill, and back into the woods. I drove on smiling at the magic of this moment and thanked that I had been going slowly enough not to hit this beautiful creature.
Most of us rush through this life not knowing what we are missing. We rarely get to enjoy what each day brings us. Life is meant to be savored. Days are meant to be lived in love and joy not flown through at a crazy speed.
The next time you find yourself going too fast, slow down. Take the time to watch the sunrise and fill the world with light. Take the time to look your children in their eyes, hug them, and tell them that you love them. Take the time to live your life with love and delight in all the miracles each day brings you. And you might even end up not hitting a deer on your way home.
1. What can we infer about the author from Paragraph1?A.He lives a busy life. | B.He knows the deer well. |
C.He’s particular about nature. | D.He’s kind of good at observing. |
A.Grateful. | B.Proud. | C.Confident. | D.Puzzled. |
A.Controlled totally. | B.Enjoyed completely. | C.Spent together. | D.Led crazily. |
A.Give children more love. | B.Pay more attention to the deer. |
C.Get close to nature and live a happier life. | D.Take things slowly and appreciate life more fully. |
【推荐2】I was shocked at the news that Daisy-May Demetre, 9, became the first child double amputee(截肢)to walk on the runway at New York Fashion Week in September on the top of the Eiffel Tower.
Daisy-May, of Birmingham, was born with fibular hemimelia (腓骨半肢畸形).The condition is rare, occurring in 1 in 50,000 births. When she was 18 months old, Daisy-May's parents chose to have both of the young girl's legs amputated-the right above the knee and the left below the knee-in the hopes of giving her a better quality of life with prosthetics(假肢).Later on, she used prosthetic legs to help her walk and move.
“We had the choice for her to live like that or to go for the operation,” Alex, Daisy- May's father, said. “We didn't know at the time that Daisy-May would be as good as she is now. Instead of being discouraged by prosthetic legs, she is inspiring everyone by showing them who she is.”
She is, in many ways, just like any fifth-grader.、In school, she prefers English over math, and loves gymnastics. She is a gymnast as well as a model. But it's her moves on the runway that shed the most confidence.
She's been modeling for 18 months and has already dominated London Fashion Week, having worked. for Nike, River Island and several other high street brands in the UK. She was even named Child of Courage in the Pride of Birmingham Awards for inspiring other children to dream big in the face of immense challenges.
In the opinion of Daisy-May's father, modeling doesn't define Daisy-May. Rather, it's a small part of who she is. She just does Daisy. It is the way she goes about life with a smile on her face. Whether it's dancing, singing-she is a very special little girl.
1. What caused Daisy-May to miss her both legs while still a baby?A.A rare birth illness. |
B.An expected accident. |
C.A Paris Fashion Show. |
D.An unsuccessful operation. |
A.Daisy-May was unwilling to go to operation. |
B.Daisy-May was disappointed by her missing legs. |
C.Daisy-May's father thinks Daisy-May is amazing. |
D.Daisy-May's father considers Daisy-May is modest. |
A.Speaking English fluently. |
B.Working out math problems. |
C.Doing graceful(优雅的)gymnastics. |
D.Walking on the runway as a model. |
A.Singing and dancing in a special way. |
B.Taking on life with a smile on her face. |
C.Pursuing to become a global inspiration. |
D.Being determined to be a world-famous model. |
As my kids' summer vacation comes to an end, I find myself wanting to spend every moment with them. This past week I've been feeling guilty every time I schedule something that doesn't involve them, so I haven’t been doing much for myself. But the other day, I had a beauty treatment that I'd scheduled for over a month. I was so looking forward to it when I scheduled it, but as it approached I thought about cancelling it.
As I was leaving home, I told my kids how I was going to miss them and that I would hurry back. My daughter stopped her game, looked up at me and said, ''Oh, Mother, just go. You need to get your mood up again. '' '' Getting your mood up again'' is my daughter's way of telling me to leave home and come back with a better version of myself because it was taking a heavy toll on her too.
In that one sentence, she was telling me that she noticed I’d been running on fumes(烦恼). She was letting me know she could feel my moodiness and irritation that stemmed from not taking the time for me because I was trying to so hard to be present for her and her brothers.
It occurred to me that I'd been neglecting care for myself because I thought my kids should come first. However, in reality, my kids just want me to be happy, even if that happiness means I'm not with them all the time. Our kids would rather have parents who are smiling and feel somewhat rested than spend their days listening to their parents sigh and complain.
1. Why did the author consider cancelling the beauty treatment? (no more than 12 words)2. How do you understand the underlined part in paragraph 2? (no more than 10words)
3. What was the author's problem originally caused by? (no more than 10 words)
4. What did the author finally realize? (no more than 10 words)
5. What do you learn from the author's story? (no more than 20 words)
【推荐1】Smoking is even a tradition in Chinese celebrations. At my wedding, we handed out the traditional candies to people who came. I had said to my wife, Ellen, that handing out packets of cigarettes was wrong, as it just encouraged people to continue a deadly habit. “But it’s traditional,” she replied, “People would think we were mean if we don’t!”
Over the years I’ve been given cigarettes as gifts and have always handed them straight back. This might make me look ungrateful in Chinese eyes, but I can’t understand the logic behind handing someone a gift that will cause them to smell terrible, have awful breath, and even worse, kill them.
This year the university I work at has taken the bold step of making the entire campus “smoke free”. As my students are either doctors doing postgraduates studies, or medical students on their way to being doctors, I thought they would be in favor of such a move, but I was wrong. Many of them have complained to me that they see this as depriving them of their civil rights and that they should be allowed to smoke when and where they like.
When I pointed out to them that cigarettes do harm not only to those smoking themselves, but even to those breathing in second hand smoke, the argument was dismissed with a wave. “Those studies aren’t conclusive”, one doctor replied. “Besides, my grandmother told me that smoking is manly.” Tempting(诱人的) as it was to ask if she was also a doctor, I let the argument go and went off in search of some fresh air.
1. Which of the following is a consequence of smoking according to the author?A.It will leave you breathless. | B.People believe you are mean. |
C.People think you are ungrateful. | D.It will make your smell unpleasant. |
A.Objective. | B.Unconcerned. | C.Negative. | D.Positive. |
A.Robbing. | B.Accusing. | C.Informing. | D.Reminding. |
A.Technology. | B.Entertainment. | C.Art. | D.Life. |
【推荐2】Just about 50 years ago, needing money to support my family—my novels weren’t bestsellers—I had the idea of taking the longest train trip imaginable and writing a travel book about it. The trip was improvisational (即兴的). I didn’t have a credit card. I had no idea where I’d be staying nor how long this trip would take. And I’d never written a travel book before. I hoped my trip wouldn’t suffer a lot, though it was obviously a leap in the dark.
I set off with one small bag containing clothes, a map of Asia, a travel guidebook and some travelers’ cheques. I was often inconvenienced, sometimes threatened, now and then disturbed for bribes, occasionally laid up with food poisoning—all this vivid detail for my narrative.
What I repeated in the more than four-month trip was the pleasure of the sleeping car. Writing on board the Khyber Mail to Lahore in Pakistan, “The romance associated with the sleeping car comes from the fact that it is extremely private, combining the best features of a cupboard with forward movement. Whatever drama is being shown in this moving bedroom is heightened by the landscape passing the window...” A train is a carrier that allows residence.
I wrote The Great Railway Bazaar on my return in 1974, and it appeared to good reviews and quick sales. That’s the past. Nothing is the same. All travel is time-related. All such trips are singular and unrepeatable. It’s not just that the steam trains of Asia are gone, but much of the peace and order is gone. Who’d risk an Iranian train now or take a bus through Afghanistan?
But I’ve been surprised by some of the more recent developments in travel. I rode on Chinese trains for a year and wrote Riding the Iron Rooster, but now China has much cleaner and swifter trains and modernized destinations. A traveler today could take the same trip I took in 1986—1987 and produce a completely different book.
All travel books are dated. That’s their fault that they’re outdated, and it’s their virtue that they preserve something of the past that would otherwise be lost.
1. What happened at the beginning of the author’s trip to Asia?A.He made full preparations for the trip. |
B.He had expected the journey to be rough. |
C.He organized the trip with his family’s support. |
D.He started the trip out of his passion for traveling. |
A.For its romantic scenery. | B.For its reassuring privacy. |
C.For its full equipment. | D.For its long distance. |
A.The landscape in Asia was gone. | B.Train trip was no longer popular. |
C.He couldn’t write another bestseller. | D.Transportation and travel had changed a lot. |
A.Practice makes perfect. | B.Sharp tools make good work. |
C.Travel, truth is not the arrival card. | D.The journey, not the arrival matters. |
【推荐3】Thanks to a rereading of Jane Austen’s fiction, I have experienced a rejuvenation (恢复) of spirit and energy that has transformed my life. Rereading for the sheer pleasure of Austen’s language and characters when I experienced some depression in my 60s initiated a process that became more serious as I continued to reread the novels in my 70s and became more and more curious about the relationship between reading, learning and the imagination.
Now I find that the processes of rereading, investigation and reflection have led me to the best time in my life. It raised issues in my mind about memory, truth telling and art. In weaving together these aspects of my own reading experiences, I discovered parts of myself that I had not previously explored.
On the one hand I felt removed sufficiently to evaluate the best and worst of times in my own life. And on the other hand, I became so deeply immersed in the reflective process that I surprisedly realized the longstanding dissatisfactions were evaporating around me.
Of course, to be worth rereading, novels must have the potential to yield new insights. For this reason, I have reread Austen’s same six novels many times. They have offered me the richness and complexity required to help me reassess where I am in my life, the quality of my relationships past and present, and the values at stake in my life choices.
When I read Pride and Prejudice at the age of 15, I read it as a domestic comedy. I loved the Bennet sisters because they were lively and, for all their bickering, they were having fun. Rereading the same novel in my 30s I put my attention elsewhere. I paid serious attention to whether I could reconcile (和解) myself to Charlotte Lucas !s view that happiness in marriage is a matter of chance.
At the age of 90, I reread, reflect and comfort myself with Elizabeth Bennet’s words, “till this moment I never knew myself’. This is the moment I have been waiting for.
1. Why did the writer begin to reread Jane Austen’s novel?A.To deal with depression and seek joy. |
B.To revive her love for literature. |
C.To evaluate the process of rereading. |
D.To dig deeper into literature study. |
A.Books themed on life choices. | B.Books with attractive characters. |
C.Books that inspire new thinking. | D.Books that recall the best moments of life. |
A.By analyzing the novel from different aspects. |
B.By comparing her reflections at different ages. |
C.By quoting speeches from the main characters. |
D.By describing the perspectives of different characters. |
A.Every Jane Austen’s fiction deserves rereading. |
B.Reading books does good to depressed people. |
C.Rereading novels sharpens people’s reading skills. |
D.Rereading great books is a rewarding experience. |
【推荐1】Choice, we are given to believe, is a right. But for a good many people, choice gives birth to anxiety. Interested in the idea “too many choices are dizzy”. I have been conducting an experiment.
When presented with a menu in a restaurant, I’ll only consider the first few options on each page. I know, it sounds crazy.
This devotion to a simpler set of possibilities came in handy when our summer holiday to America was COVID-canceled. I didn’t go through a million TripAdvisor reviews for the best replacements. I simply went on Airbnb, saw what in England was still available and immediately booked the one I could afford.
A.It was delicious. |
B.It never proved worth a try. |
C.But it’s actually quite liberating. |
D.It interprets a lifestyle: less is more. |
E.The same applies to home entertainment. |
F.In doing so, I saved myself days of travel anxiety. |
G.I’ve been expanding the choices I allow myself to have. |
【推荐2】As I grew up, my grandma, who I have been told that I am so very much like, would say things such as, “that is not a ladylike way to sit”, or “that is not a word that ladies use”. My grandma is one of the classiest, most genuine, and most gentle women that I know. I try to be half the person she is.
I have always considered myself a “lady”. I pay close attention to my manners. I smile at strangers, offer my seat to the elderly, and hold the door open for the person behind me. However, I recently met a woman in passing that made me question what I have been taught for the last 21 years. The conversation we had was about “girls these days” and how they differ from the way girls were in the past. She said that there was a big difference between a “lady” and a “woman”. I looked at her curiously.
“A real lady does not give her opinions or feelings: those are women. And women these days always make the mistake of offering their opinions, and feelings, and talking out of turn,” I smiled at her politely, wished her a pleasant evening.
Unlike most conversations one would have with a stranger, this one stuck with me. It turns out that I am not a “lady”. But I have accepted that truth with my whole heart. I take great pride in my opinions, my brain, and the bravery in which I can stand up for myself and the things that I believe in. I am this way, because I am a young version of my grandma. And I know that she would express that she is “ladylike”. But, in reality, she is a strong, independent and smart woman.
With this, I would like to remind young women that it is not wrong to voice your opinions, embrace your beliefs, and be independent. Throughout your life, if someone comes along and quiets your voice, makes your opinions feel wrong, or take no notice of your feelings: smile, nod politely, and keep doing what you were doing anyway.
1. Which of the following words can best describe the author’s grandma?A.Caring and sensitive. | B.Determined and talkative. |
C.Ladylike and strong-minded. | D.Humorous and outgoing. |
A.Taking turns to talk. | B.Making few mistakes. |
C.Reserving her viewpoints. | D.Listening to others’ opinions. |
A.Because it hurt her pride in herself. |
B.Because it shook her belief in her grandma. |
C.Because it confused her about her identity. |
D.Because it made her understand herself better. |
A.To reason with others. | B.To put up with others. |
C.To insist on their own way. | D.To turn their back on others. |
【推荐3】I was very disappointed not to be able to go to the concert last Friday. The advertisement in the paper said you could buy tickets at the theatre box any day between 10:00 and 4:00. Since I work from 9:00 to 5:30, the only time I could go to the theatre was during my 45-minute lunch break. Unfortunately, the theatre is on the other side of the town, and the bus service between my office and the theatre is not good. But if you are lucky, you can make the round trip in 45 minutes. Last Monday, I stood at the bus stop for 15 minutes. By the time I saw one come, there was not enough time left to make the trip. So I gave up and went back to the office. The same thing happened on Tuesday, and again next day. On Thursday, my luck changed. I got on a bus right away and arrived at the theatre in 20 minutes. When I got there, however, I found a long line at the box office, and I heard one man say he had been waiting for over an hour. Realizing I would not have enough time to wait in line, I caught the next bus and headed back. By Friday I realized my only hope was to make the trip by taxi. It was expensive, but it would be worth it to hear the concert. The trip by taxi only took 10 minutes, but felt like an hour to me. When I got to the theatre, I was relieved to see that nobody was waiting in line. The reason, however, I quickly discovered, was that they had already sold all the tickets.
1. The man learned from _______ that there would be a concert on Friday.A.the bus stop | B.the theatre box |
C.one man in line | D.the newspaper |
A.once | B.three times |
C.twice | D.four times |
A.forty-five minutes | B.twenty minutes |
C.fifteen minutes | D.ten minutes |
A.pleased | B.surprised |
C.puzzled | D.sorry |