【推荐2】I am a good mother of three children. I have tried never to let my profession stand in the way of being a good parent.

I no longer consider myself the center of the universe. I show up. I listen. I try to laugh. I am a good friend to my husband. I have tried to make marriage vows (誓言) mean what they say. I am a good friend to my friends, and they to me. Without them, there would be nothing to say to you today.

So here’s what I want to tell you today: Get a life — a real life, not a desire of the next promotion (提升), the bigger paycheck, or the larger house. Get a life in which you are not alone. Find people you love, and who love you. And remember that love is not leisure (空闲), it is work. Pick up the phone. Send an e-mail. Write a letter. And realize that life is the best thing and that you have no business taking it for granted.

It’s so easy to waste our lives, our days, our hours, and our minutes. It’s so easy to exist instead of to live. I learned to live many years ago. Something really, really bad happened to me, something that changed my life in some ways that, if I had my choice, it would never have been changed at all. And what I learned from it is what, today, seems to be the hardest lesson of all.

I learned to love the journey, not the destination (目的地). I learned to look at all the good in the world and try to give some of it back because I believed in it, completely and totally. And I tried to do that, in part, by telling others what I had learned.

By telling them this: Read in the backyard with the sun on your face. Learn to be happy. And think of life as a deadly illness, because if you do, you will live it with joy and passion as it ought to be lived.

1. What can be inferred from the passage?

A．The author is a success in personal life.

B．The author didn’t try her best to work well.

C．The author spent all her time caring for her children.

D．The author likes traveling very much.

2. By the underlined sentence “It’s so easy to exist instead of to live.” in the fourth paragraph, the author really means that people tend to         .

A．make a living rather than live a real life

B．work rather than enjoy life

C．waste a lot in life

D．forget the most important lessons in life

3. How did the author form her view of life?

A．Through social experience.

B．By learning from her friends.

C．Through an unfortunate experience.

D．From her children and husband.

4. What’s the author’s attitude toward work?

A．Do it well to serve others.

B．Earn enough money to make life better.

C．Try your best to get a higher position and a pay raise.

D．Don’t let it affect your real life.

【推荐3】How to Be a Winner
Sir Steven Redgrave
Winner of 5 Olympic Gold Medals
“In 1997 I was found to have developed diabetes (糖尿病). Believing my career was over, I felt extremely low. Then one of the specialists said there was no reason why I should stop training and competing. That was it—the encouragement I needed. I could still be a winner if I believed in myself. I am not saying that it isn’t difficult sometimes. But I wanted to prove to myself that I wasn’t finished yet. Nothing is to stand in my way.”
Karen Pickering
Swimming World Champion
“I swim 4 hours a day, 6 days a week. I manage that sort of workload by putting it on top of my diary. This is the key to success—you can’t follow a career in any field without being well-organized. List what you believe you can achieve. “Trust yourself, write down your goals for the day, however small they are, and you’ll be a step closer to achieving them.”
Kirsten Best
Poet ＆ Writer
“When things are getting hard, a voice inside my head tells me that I can’t achieve something. Then, there are other distractions, such as family or hobbies. The key is to concentrate. When I feel tense, it helps a lot to repeat words such as ‘calm’, ‘peace’ or ‘focus’, either out loud or silently in my mind. It makes me feel more in control and increases my confidence. This is a habit that can become second nature quite easily and is a powerful psychological tool.”
1. What does Sir Steven Redgrave mainly talk about?

A．Difficulties influenced his career.

B．Specialists offered him medical advice.

C．Training helped him defeat his disease.

D．He overcame the shadow of illness to win.

2. What does Karen Pickering put on top of her diary?

A．Her training schedule.

B．Her daily happenings.

C．Her achievements.

D．Her sports career.

3. What does the underlined word “distractions” probably refer to?

A．Ways that help one to focus.

B．Words that help one to feel less tense.

C．Activities that turn one’s attention away.

D．Habits that make it hard for one to relax.

4. According to the passage, what do the three people have in common?

A．Courage.	B．Devotion.
C．Hard work.	D．Self-confidence.

【推荐3】Cosmetic surgery (整容手术) is not something to be entered into lightly. Unfortunately, in this modern world, we have become confused by very narrow standards of beauty. Images of stars who never seem to age are seen everywhere these days. We forget the fact that most of these images are the result of super photo manipulation (处理), driven by the extremely powerful beauty industry. We are all different — why should we all look the same? Isn’t there more to life than having surgery in order to have the same boring face that everybody else wants to have?

—Dr Elisabeth McKenna, Psychologist

Yes, it’s not real! That’s what I told my friends when they started asking me about my nose job. I’d always been sensitive to my nose, but it took me a long time before I decided to go for cosmetic surgery. I took advice from several doctors and after careful consideration I finally decided to have it done. I had been saving money from my part-time job and my parents helped me out with the rest. It was quite expensive but I don’t regret a penny of it. In fact I wish I’d had it done a few years ago. I’ m sure I wouldn’t have been laughed at so much at school.

—Debbie Caron, Student

It makes me really angry to think of the millions of people who spend much money on cosmetic surgery. Surgery should be carried out for medical purposes, not vanity (虚荣心). I would rather all the money spent on cosmetic surgery was used to treat people around the world who are in need but can’t get proper medical treatment. Furthermore, there are thousands of under-qualified doctors out there who only care about getting as rich as possible as quickly as possible. They don’t care about the psychological and physical damage they do. The whole industry makes me sick. We should do something to stop it.

—Danny Glass, Student

1. What does Dr Elisabeth McKenna suggest?

A．Don’t be fooled by “perfection”.

B．Cosmetic surgery often goes wrong.

C．The beauty industry needs improving.

D．It’s unnecessary to set new standards of beauty.

2. What did Debbie Caron’s cosmetic surgery bring to her?

A．More friends.	B．More worries.
C．More self-confidence.	D．More job opportunities.

3. How does Danny Glass feel about those who have cosmetic surgery?

A．They should be treated as patients.

B．They hurt themselves psychologically and physically.

C．They can have a new start.

D．They waste money and medical resources.

【推荐1】When I was seven years old, my family made me an ant farm. First, we put clean sand in a thin glass box. Then we waited for the ants to arrive. After the ants were in the glass farm, they started to make tunnels (地道). I was amazed that each one knew exactly what to do. Each had its own job.

On the fifth day a tragedy (悲剧) happened. I put my face so close to the glass farm that I knocked it over. All the tunnels fell down. Although the ants remained alive after their earthquake, one by one they began to die. I was scared as I watched them give up building their tunnels to carry the bodies to a corner of the farm. My mother said that the ants were dying of sadness. They simply could not stand that their tunnels were gone.

Although much time has passed, I still think of that ant farm. Mom had hoped it would teach me about the natural world, but it taught me much more.

Over the years, I came to realize the importance of teamwork. Working together, the ants were able to make an amazing world for themselves. I also learned that they should be admired for their hard work.

But there was an even larger lesson that I did not realize until recently: Adversity (逆境) is a natural part of life, and must be accepted. Unlike the ants, we cannot give up when we are sad. We have to realize that if a tunnel is gone, we must build another.

Giving up, I say, is not a good choice.

1. What did the writer’s family do for him when he was seven?

A．They built a farm of ants.	B．They bought a few ants.
C．They caught a lot of ants.	D．They found an ant city.

2. Which statement is TRUE according to the passage?

A．The writer broke the glass box because it made his face dirty.

B．The ants died one by one because the tunnels were destroyed.

C．Unlike people, teamwork is not so important for the ants.

D．Giving up is a good way when we meet trouble.

3. The underlined word “teamwork” in the passage means_____.

A．a series of work	B．a group of members work together
C．hard work	D．work for long hours

4. What did the writer learn from the ant tragedy a few years later?

A．Working together is useless.	B．Teamwork is important.
C．He can’t accept adversity.	D．Working alone is amazing.

5. What is the best title for the passage?

A．Ants Fear Adversity	B．My Family and Ants
C．Giving Up in Adversity	D．A Good Lesson from Ants

【推荐2】We’ve all heard the stories of an actor’s struggles before a career breakthrough: living a hard life, working part time, being a couch potato before getting that major role. Shelby, the star of “A Dog’s Way Home,” has a hard-luck tale that could top them all. Before her big break, she was living in a landfill, rooting through garbage for her next meal.

Shelby’s big break came in April 2017, when animal-control officer Megan Buhler was driving in Cheatham County, Tennessee. Out on an unrelated call, Buhler spotted and approached what she recalled was a noticeably scared puppy emerging from the dump. “I knelt down and just said, ‘Oh, come here, baby,’” said Buhler. “She was so scared, but she came right up to me, and I was able to put her in my truck.” The pair headed to the county animal shelter, where the staff began calling the new resident Baby Girl.

Buhler and others didn’t know that 3,200 kilometers away, Hollywood was looking for a dog to play Bella in a film written by Cathryn Michon. The find-a-Bella job went to freelance trainer Teresa Ann Miler. Her mission was to search shelters nationwide for a dog that could play Bella. One day, Miller spotted Baby Girl’s adoption photo. “Honestly, it was a really good picture, and she was flat-out smiling,” Miller said. Then she met Baby Girl, and assessed her on personality and the ability to respond to simple commands. After assessment, she adopted Baby Girl from the shelter, renamed her Shelby and took her to California for training. Miller and Shelby trained for just over three months before filming began. Then they were together each day on the set.

Most of the film’s reviews have praised Shelby’s performance. Variety made the comments “an amazing dog, perfect performance!”

Shelby has come a long way from the dump. But Buhler said she saw Shelby recently had needed only a second to compare the movie star with the dog she found from piles of trash. “She’s exactly the same,” Buhler said.

1. Why does the author mention an actor’s struggle before a career breakthrough at the very beginning?

A．To introduce a dog’s similar but even more striking experiences.

B．To make a sharp contrast between an actor’s struggle and a dog’s struggle.

C．To clearly point out the main idea of the passage.

D．To attract reader’s attention by giving dramatic examples.

2. What finally helped Baby Girl get the big role in the film?

A．Her flat-out smiling.	B．Her miserable experiences.
C．Her adoption picture.	D．Her personality and ability.

3. By saying “She is exactly the same” in the last paragraph, Buhler probably means ________.

A．the dog returned to the piles of trash where she found it

B．the dramatic change of the dog’s life hasn’t changed her inner quality

C．the dog looked exactly the same as before

D．the dog’s really excited to see the dog she helped live such a happy life

4. What do you think may serve as the best title of the passage?

A．From a Landfill Puppy to a Movie Star.

B．The Success of “A Dog’s Way Home”.

C．The Trainer and Her Star Dog.

D．Shelby’s Hard-luck Story.

【推荐3】I'm a New York City firefighter. Every day, I see terror — sometimes even death. But the day I found Scarlett was different. That day I saw life and love.

We got a call about a burning garage. Outside, I heard the sound of cats crying. I couldn't stop — I would have to look for the cats after the fire was put out. It took a long time to finally bring the big fire under control, but we did it. No one inside was hurt. There was still a lot of smoke and heat coming from the building. At that point I was free to follow the cat noises to a spot. There were five terrified kittens, crying and huddled together.

I wanted to find the mother. It was obvious that she had gone into the burning garage and carried out all of her babies, one by one — unbelievable.

We finally found her. She was badly burnt. She could hardly move. I picked her up and she felt relaxed in my arms. Sensing her trust, I shed a tear. I was determined to save this brave little cat and her family.

About a week later, I found out she was going to live. One of the technicians suggested we name her Scarlett, because of her reddened skin.

Knowing what Scarlett went through for her kittens, it melted my heart to see her reunited with them. She touched each of them again, nose to nose, to make sure they were all safe. She had risked her life five separate times — and it had paid off. All of her babies had survived.

As a freighter, I see heroism every day. But what Scarlett showed me that day was the kind of bravery that can only come from a mother's love.

1. What do we know about the author?

A．He found the cats before the smoke and heat were gone.

B．He put out the big fire quickly and no one was hurt.

C．He saved all of her five babies despite the fire.

D．He rescued the cats as soon as he heard them crying.

2. What does the underlined word “huddled” mean in paragraph 2?

A．Moving quickly.	B．Feeling excited.
C．Gathering closely.	D．Looking tired.

3. The cat was named Scarlett because of ________

A．her love for babies.

B．her brave behavior.

C．the colour of her skin.

D．her survival in the fire.

4. Which best describes the author's feeling when he found the mother cat?

A．Amused.	B．Touched.
C．Satisfied.	D．Disappointed.