【推荐1】After years of observing human nature, I have decided that two qualities make the difference between men of great achievement and men of average performance: curiosity and discontent. I have never known an outstanding man who lacked either. And I have never known an average man who had both. The two belong together.

Together, these deep human urges (驱策力) count for much more than ambition. Galileo was not merely ambitious when he dropped objects of varying weights from the Leaning Tower at Pisa and timed their fall to the ground. Like Galileo, all the great names in history were curious and asked in discontent, "Why? Why? Why? "

Fortunately, curiosity and discontent don't have to be learned. We are born with them and need only recapture them.

＂The great man, "said Mencius (孟子)，is he who does not lose his child's heart. "Yet most of us do lose it. We stop asking questions. We stop challenging custom. We just follow the crowd.   And the crowd desires only the calm and restful average. It encourages us to occupy our own little corner, to avoid foolish leaps into the dark, to be satisfied.

Most of us meet new people, and new ideas, with hesitation. But once having met and liked them, we think how terrible it would have been, had we missed the chance. We will probably have to force ourselves to waken our curiosity and discontent and keep them awake.

How should you start so as not to become discouraged? I think of one friend who couldn't arrange flowers to satisfy herself. She was curious about how the experts did it. Now she is one of the experts, writing books on flower arrangement.

One way to begin is to answer your own excuses. You haven't any special ability? Most people don't; there are only a few geniuses. You haven't any time? That's good, because it's always the people with no time who get things done. Harriet Stowe, mother of six, wrote parts of Uncle Tom's Cabin while cooking. You're too old? Remember that Thomas Costain was 57 when he published his first novel, and that Grandma Moses showed her first pictures when she was 78.

However you start, remember there is no better time to start than right now, for you'll never be more alive than you are at this moment.

1. In writing Paragraph 1, the author aims to

A．propose a definition

B．make a comparison

C．reach a conclusion

D．present an argument

2. What does the example of Galileo tell us?

A．Trial and error leads to the finding of truth.

B．Scientists tend to be curious and ambitious.

C．Creativity results from challenging authority.

D．Greatness comes from a lasting desire to explore.

3. What can we learn from Paragraphs 6 and 7?

A．Gaining success helps you become an expert.

B．The genius tends to get things done creatively.

C．Lack of talent and time is no reason for taking no action.

D．You should remain modest when approaching perfection.

4. What could be the best title of the passage?

A．Curious Minds Never Feel Contented.

B．Reflections on Human Nature.

C．The keys to Achievement.

D．Never too Late to Learn.

【推荐3】根据短文内容，从短文后的选项中选出能填入空白处的最佳选项。选项中有两项为多余选项。You fall down on the road and a kid you barely know rushes over to help. You come home after a long day to find your dad has prepared your favorite meal. Just before lunch in social studies class, you learn about places where people don’t have clean water or enough food.     1     They’re likely to make you feel grateful.Gratitude (感恩) is one of many positive emotions. It’s about focusing on what’s good in our lives and being thankful for the things we have.     2     It’s taking a moment to reflect on how fortunate we are when something good happens — whether it’s a small thing or a big thing.

    3     Making a habit of gratitude can also be good for us. Like other positive emotions, feeling grateful on a regular basis can have a big effect on our lives. Brain research shows that positive emotions are good for our bodies, minds, and brains.Positive emotions open us up to see more possibilities and take in more information. They improve our ability to develop skills, learn, and make good decisions.

    4     When we feel grateful for someone’s kindness toward us, we may be more likely to do a kindness in return. Thanking people can make it more likely they’ll do a kindness again.

    5     When we feel and express heartfelt gratitude and appreciation to people in our lives, it creates loving bonds, builds trust, and helps you feel closer.

A．Gratitude doesn’t just feel good.

B．What do these have in common?

C．Gratitude can lead to positive actions.

D．Gratitude helps us build better relationships.

E．Such kind of people are more likely to succeed.

F．We can use lots of words to describe feelings of gratitude.

G．Gratitude is stopping to notice and appreciate the things that we often take for granted.

【推荐1】In 2009, Dan Black was hit by a car in his hometown of Chepstow, Wales, as he was biking to his job at a grocery store. The accident left him unable to move from the chest down. During his recovery, he suffered a stroke that made his right arm useless. Once a promising guitarist, Dan, now 25, lives with his parents and requires around-the-clock care that costs nearly $ 300,000 a year. After the accident, a friend of his started the Help Dan Black Fund to cover some of Dan’s medical expenses. Dan learned about an experimental stem cell(干细胞) treatment in China that could enable him to walk again. After four years, donations to help Dan Black totaled nearly $ 30,000.

One day, in 2013, a news story caught the eye of Dan’s mother, Michacla, who then shared the story with her son. The story featured a five-year-old boy named Brecon Vaughan. He had a rare form of disease and never walked by himself. The boy’s family had created a website with which to raise nearly $ 100,000 needed for a trip to the St. Louis Children’s Hospital, where treatment was offered that could help Brecon walk. Only half the amount had been raised, said the report.

Dan deliberated. Then, after considering that his own dream of walking could be years away, he donated his $30,000 to Brecon’s cause. “I know how it feels to walk. Brecon doesn’t. He needs it much more than I do.” Dan told a newspaper.

Dan’s generosity received a great deal of attention, and contributions started pouring in to the Vaughan website. The family soon exceeded their fund-raising goal. They’ve promised to give the extra funds, about $17,000, to the Tree of Hope charity, which helps sick children in the United Kingdom find specialized medical help. In October, Brecon and his family travelled to St. Louis to begin treatment. “What Dan did is great.” Brecon’s mother said, “It is an extraordinary gift.”

1. What do we know about Dan Black?

A．He promised to be a guitarist.

B．He donated his money from his need.

C．He created a website to collect money.

D．He lost his right arm in an accident.

2. What does the underlined word “exceeded ” mean?

A．Achieved.	B．Brought up.
C．Went beyond.	D．Set.

3. What helped the donation flood into the Vaughan website?

A．Dan Black’s example.	B．Brecon’s story
C．Michaela’s suggestion.	D．The Vaughans’promise

4. How will Vaughan’s family deal with the extra funds?

A．Support Dan Black’s treatment.	B．Fund Brecon’s trip to St. Louis.
C．Help sick children in the UK.	D．Give away to the Tree of Hope charity.

【推荐2】As the former great employee of NASA, Katherine Johnson, whose life was described in the movie Hidden Figures, died on February 24, 2020, aged 101.

“NASA is deeply saddened by the loss of a leader from our pioneering days,” said NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine on the webpage of NASA. “Ms. Johnson helped our nation push the boundaries of space and she also played an important role in opening doors for women and people of color to explore space. At NASA we will never forget her courage and leadership and the achievements we could not have reached without her.”

Johnson was born in West Virginia in 1918. She graduated from West Virginia State University with a major in mathematics and became a teacher at a public school. She was also the first African-American woman to attend graduate school in mathematics at West Virginia University until she left school to focus on raising children.

Her life changed in 1952 after a long career break. A relative told her about open positions at the all-black West Area Computing section at the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics’s Langley laboratory, and she began to work for the aerospace (航空航天) industry at Langley the next year. NASA depended on humans for complicated aerospace calculation as there was no high-functioning electronic computer. Female mathematicians usually took the job as their salary was lower. Johnson was one of those African-American human computers.

Johnson was initially in charge of aerospace analysis and then a space development mission when NASA was launched in 1958. Then she worked for the 1961 suborbital (亚轨道的) flight of astronaut Alan Shepard.   Johnson continued to sit for missions after she retired in 1986. Her hidden achievements were finally publicized when Barack Obama awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2015 and her dramatic life was made into a movie.

1. What did Bridenstine’s words in the second paragraph mainly want to tell us?

A．To show NASA’s appreciation for Johnson’s leadership.

B．To show Johnson’s contributions to space exploration.

C．To express all Americans’ regret over Johnson’s death.

D．To emphasize NASA’s achievements in space exploration.

2. Why did NASA depend on humans for complex aerospace calculation?

A．It was cheaper to hire humans.

B．NASA couldn’t afford electronic computers then.

C．The computers at that time weren’t advanced enough.

D．Humans were more accurate than computers in calculation.

3. What can be inferred from the passage?

A．Johnson used to work in a private school.

B．Johnson worked for the aerospace industry for at least thirty-three years.

C．Johnson starred in the movie Hidden Figures.

D．Johnson was the first woman to attend graduate school in the United States.

4. What is the possible meaning of the underlined words?

A．connect with.	B．involve in
C．part with	D．turn in

【推荐3】Tam the aunt, granddaughter, daughter ,and sister of Baptist ministers. Service was as essential a part of my upbringing as eating and sleeping and going to school. The church was a center of Black children's social existence,and Black adults were buffers(缓冲）against the segregated(种族隔离的）outside world that told us we weren't important. But our parents said it wasn't so.

We couldn't play in public playgrounds or sit at drugstore lunch counters and order a Coke, so Daddy built a playground and canteen behind the church. There were no Black homes for the aged in Bennettsville, so he began one across the street for which he and Mama and we children cooked and served. And we children learned that it was our responsibility to take care of elderly family members and neighbors.

We learned early what our parents and extended community “parents” valued. Children were

taught-not by teaching, but by personal example-that no kindness, however small, was ever wasted. I remember a debate my parents had when I was eight or nine as to whether I was too young to go to help clean the bed of a very sick, poor woman. I went and learned just how much the smallest helping hands could mean to a person in need.

The adults in our community made children feel valued and important. They struggled to find ways to keep us busy. And while life was often hard and resources scarce, we always knew who we were and that the measure of our worth was inside our heads and hearts. We were told that the world had a lot of problems, that Black people had an extra lot of problems, but that we ought to and were able to struggle and change them, that being poor was no excuse for not achieving, and that we had the responsibility of sharing with the less fortunate.

1. What does the underlined word "it" in paragraph 1 refer to?

A．Service was very important.

B．Church was where blacks could stay.

C．Blacks were not as important as others.

D．Black adults were protectors against the outside world.

2. Why did the author mention the example of the poor woman in paragraph 3?

A．To call on others to help the woman.

B．To prove children learn by personal example

C．To stress the influence of parents on children.

D．To indicate even the smallest good deed counts

3. Black children learned from their parents that       .

A．they had to struggle and share

B．they had little chance of success

C．they were too young to help others.

D．they caused extra problems to the world