【推荐1】A Student Profile

Name: Kristin Lacey

Hometown: Merced, California, USA

School & College: Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (GRS) at MIT

Major: English literature

Favorite book: Pachinko by Min Jin Lee

Favorite class: British Literature with Professor Anna Henchman

Favorite place to study on campus: Athan’s in Washington Square or Cafenation in Brighton Center

Favorite restaurant in Boston: Sweet Checks

Extra-curricular (课外的) activities: President of the Graduate Student Association; leading the Graduate Student Fiction (小说) Group; Volunteering at Gifford Homeless Cat Center in Brighton.

Study experience: I studied for four years and earned my undergraduate degree in English in 2020 at California State University, Fresno. I was the first in my family to attend graduate school and college.

When I graduate, I hope to teach literature at a local college and help the other first-generation college students to get higher education. It’s important to give a helping hand to those who need it.

Advice to other first-generation college students:

I know that being first-generation graduate means always pushing against your background and stepping out of your comfort zone. And it is important to take as many lectures as possible and be open-minded to good advice from your teachers, while know the line between helpful and bad recommendations. Be outgoing with your friends and build your support network by asking for help when you need it and giving help in return.

1. When did Kristin Lacey graduate from senior high school?

A．In 2016.	B．In 2017.
C．In 2019.	D．In 2020.

2. Which extra- curricular organization is helpful to Kristin Lacey’s major?

A．The Gifford Homeless Cat Center.

B．The British Literature Club.

C．The Graduate Student Association.

D．The Graduate Student Fiction Group.

3. What does Kristin Lacey want to do after her graduation?

A．Teach literature at a local college.

B．Work at a homeless animal center.

C．Build a support network for those in need.

D．Study British literature at a graduate school.

【推荐2】I was 16 years old the day I skipped school for the first time. It was easily done: Both my parents left for work before my school bus arrived on weekdays, so when it showed up at my house on that cold winter morning, I simply did not get on. The perfect crime!

And what did I do with myself on that glorious stolen day, with no adult in charge and no limits on my activities? Did I get high? Hit the mall for a shoplifting extravaganza (狂欢)?

Nope. I built a warm fire in the wood stove, prepared a bowl of popcorn, grabbed a blanket, and read. I was thrilled and transported by a book — it was Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises — and I just needed to be alone with it for a little while. I ached to know what would happen to Jake Barnes and Lady Brett Ashley and Robert Cohn. I couldn't bear the thought of sitting in a classroom taking another biology exam when I could be traveling through Spain in the 1920s with a bunch of expatriates(异乡客).

I spent that day lost in words. Time fell away, as the room around me turned to mist, and my role — as a daughter, sister, teenager, and student-in the world no longer had any meaning. I had accidentally come across the key to perfect happiness: I had become completely absorbed by something I loved.

Please note that absorption is not the same as distraction or obsession. To be absorbed by something is to become it and when we come out of it, we are richer for it. To be distracted by something is also to disappear, but not in a good way. We become nothing at all. We don't get enriched. And to be obsessed by something, finally, is to become consumed and destroyed by it. So the trick to happiness, then, is to find something that absorbs you and become that thing by pursuing it with devoted attention.

Looking back on it now, I can see that some subtle things were happening to my mind and to my life while I was in that state of absorption. Hemingway's language was quietly braiding itself into my imagination. I was downloading information about how to create simple and elegant sentences, a good and solid plot. In other words, I was learning how to write. Without realizing it, I was hot on the trail of my own fate. Writing now absorbs me the way reading once did and happiness is their generous side effect.

1. Why did the author skip school on that day?

A．Because her parents left home early.

B．Because she was eager to read a novel.

C．Because it was a cold winter morning.

D．Because she hated to have biology class.

2. What did the author think is the source of true joy?

A．Reading by the fire.	B．Travelling in Spain.
C．Breaking the regulations.	D．Being occupied by one's passion.

3. Which can best replace the underlined phrase "braiding itself into" in the last paragraph?

A．Maintaining.

B．Entering.

C．Mending.

D．Blocking.

4. According to the author, which of the following is an example of absorption?

A．You picture yourself as the characters in a book and live and breathe and love and die with them.

B．When you read a book, you frequently turn to your smartphones, checking WeChat messages,

C．You spend endless time and amounts of money on computer games without caring about anything else.

D．Your mind always wanders about various things and it takes you a lot of time.

5. What can we infer from the passage?

A．The author was tired of her real-life roles.

B．The author learned how to write through online courses.

C．Being fully engaged in writing now makes the author happy.

D．The author knew when she would be good at handling her life.

【推荐1】Emily Temple-Wood was 12 years old the first time she was bullied(欺凌) online. They left ugly comments on her Wikipedia and Facebook pages about her looks “that would make my mother’s hair curl.” says Temple-Wood, now 22 and in medical school. The reason? “I was a woman on the Internet,” she said.

Over the years, she considered how she might take revenge(复仇). Then, as a freshman in college, it hit her: “What do misogynists(men who hate women) hate most?” she asked herself. “Women who are productive!” Her solution: For every rude comment she received, Temple-Wood would post a biography(传记) of a woman scientist, and thus, in 2012, Wiki Project Women Scientists was born. She wrote about her heroes, like Barbara McClintock, who received the 1983 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, and Caroline Still Anderson, one of the first African American women to become a doctor in the United States, in the late 1800s. With help from other women, many of them scientists who have also been bullied online, Temple-Wood has published hundreds of these biographies and women of all ages have taken notice.

“When I was a kid, I could count the number of women scientists I knew about on one hand,” wrote Siko Bouterse, who used to work for the Wikimedia Foundation. “But our daughters have the chance to get much more knowledge about scientists who look like them because of Emily.

The ugly comments still come, says Temple-Wood. Being a strong woman online is not easy. “We all have days when we break down and need to have a glass of wine,” she says. “I tell people who are being bullied that it’s OK to be sad. But now you need to find a productive way to take revenge.”

1. The underlined part in Paragraph 1 shows a feeling of ______.

A．shock	B．disappointment
C．excitement	D．confidence

2. How did Emily react to the ugly comments about her?

A．She paid no attention to them.	B．She posted about great women.
C．She became a talkative woman.	D．She learned from women scientists.

3. What does Siko Bouterse think of Emily’s efforts?

A．They are helpful.	B．They are fruitless.
C．They are creative.	D．They are surprising.

4. What does Emily Temple-Wood advise people to do?

A．Sit down and have a glass of wine.	B．Try hard to be a productive person.
C．Never feel sad about ugly comments.	D．Fight ugly comments in a positive way.

【推荐2】“Don’t you have any toys you want to share?” I asked my son during our church’s Christmas toy drive. “What about all those things in your closet you haven’t used in years?”

"I don’t have anything,” he said. “We’re so poor.”

We’re only “poor” because we refuse to buy him the phone he wants for Christmas, which would also require a monthly texting charge.

“You’re not so poor you have nothing to give,” I found myself saying to him, a phrase my mother often used on me.

At work the next day, one of my students said, “I didn’t spell your name right,” as she handed me a Christmas gift—a box of chocolates. No wonder she hadn’t spelled it right—I had only worked at the center for a couple of months, and my name is not easy to pronounce, even in English, which is this woman’s second language.

I hadn’t expected a gift—I worked at an adult education center, where we dealt with people who struggle economically. When I was hired, my boss told me she tries to keep snacks around the center and cooks “stone soup” once a week, where whoever can bring something in does, because “You will hear growling bellies here. They give their food to the children before they themselves eat.”

And yet these people, so grateful for a second chance at getting an education, unable to sometimes even afford the gas money to come in, manage to do something for us nearly every week. Some bring in food; others do chores around the center. They help and encourage one another, and us. They give what they are able to give.

1. Who does the education center intend to help?

A．Local people out of work.

B．Adult students unable to spell.

C．Immigrants on empty stomachs.

D．Poor people eager for education.

2. What can we learn from the text?

A．Students learn to do chores at the center.

B．The boy was unwilling to share his toys.

C．The center offers chocolate as a Christmas gift.

D．The author has high expectations of her students.

3. What may be the best title for the text?

A．Never Too Poor to Give

B．Never Too Late to Learn

C．A Second Chance to Seize

D．An Unexpected Gift to Treasure

【推荐3】My husband and I recently went to Disney World with our children and grandchildren. Our grandchildren were excited about the attraction where they can drive the cars. Since our party was uneven in numbers and two people fit in each car, I sat out that one and headed down to take pictures of them.

As I waited for them to drive by, I noticed a car with a father and his son who looked to be about 7. They rolled down the hill, and then as they neared where I sat, the car shook a few times and then stopped.

The young driver looked frightened, “I can’t do it.”

His father quietly said, “Yes, you can.”

“No, I can’t!”

“Yes, you can.”

The little boy was almost in tears, “I CAN’T!”

With deep patience, the father said, “Son, you can do this. I’m going to help you.”

Then he talked him through starting the car. And moments later with the father helping his son, the two went smoothly on their way down the track.

The scene brought tears to my eyes because I couldn’t imagine how many times my father had to do that with me.Every time things got hard or when I had failures along the way, I’d say, “I can’t do it.” He’d reply, “You can.” Time and time again he patiently encouraged me on the journey. And just like that little boy’s dad, my sweet father would say, “Michelle, you can do this. I’m going to help you.”

That’s where the true strength comes in. I can’t do things under my own power, but when my father comes beside me and provides wisdom (智慧) and strength, there’s no way I can fail.

1. Why didn’t the author join others in driving the cars?

A．Her family could drive except her.

B．Her family fit in the cars without her.

C．She was attracted by something else.

D．She wanted to take photos of her family.

2. What made the 7-­year-­old son frightened?

A．He got the car to leave the track.

B．He failed to drive the car well.

C．He rolled too fast down the way.

D．He just couldn’t get the car started.

3. How did the father help his son?

A．By forcing him to drive bravely.

B．By praising him for his efforts.

C．By encouraging him patiently.

D．By starting the car himself.

4. What’s the author’s tone in writing the text?

A．Confused.	B．Humorous.
C．Concerned.	D．Grateful.