We took a rare family road trip to the Adirondacks in late August,and it was as refreshing and exhausting as family vacations tend to be.Toward the end of our long drive home, even the kids were leaning forward in their seats urging my lead foot on.At that point in a road trip, even sixty-five miles per hour feels slow. We have become numb to our speed and numb to the road signs flashing by.
My family lives on the edge of Lancaster County. Only thirty miles from home,I hit the brakes, and we began to roll, slowly, behind a horse-drawn carriage.We began to open our eyes again. We saw familiar green hills and the farm with the best watermelons. I rolled down the windows, and we breathed again. Just-cut hay and a barn full of dairy cattle.
At five miles per hour,you remember what you forget at sixty-five.You are thinking about a place,even when you are moving from place to place.
I am a placemaker. A homemaker, too. I am a mother of a young kid at home, and also a writer and a gardener. But, for me, those roles are wrapped up with the one big thing I want to do with the rest of my life: I want to cultivate a place and share it with others.
The place I make with my family is a red-brick farmhouse built in l880. It has quite a few nineteenth-century bedrooms and a few acres of land, and we love nothing more than to fill them with neighbors and friends. We grow vegetables and flowers,keep a baker’s dozen of egg—laying chickens, and, since we moved in three years ago, we have planted many, many trees.
Living with my life’s purpose does not allow for much travel. I need to be here,feeding the chickens and watering the tomatoes. Any extra in the budget,and we spend it on trees.
But I learned something at the end of our family road trip.Travel can help me in the task of caring for my own place.When I slow down and pay attention to the road between here and there,travel tells me the connections between my place and all the other places.
1. What does the author try to express in the first paragraph?| A．The tiredness of her past family life. |
| B．Her disappointment at the family road trip. |
| C．The family’s eagerness to return home. |
| D．Kids’excitement at driving fast on the road. |
| A．Because she made a way for a horse-drawn carriage. |
| B．Because she enjoyed the scenery along the road. |
| C．Because she needed a break after the long drive. |
| D．Because she wanted to get rid of a fast-paced life. |
| A．devotes most of his energy and time to building his house |
| B．is ready to help anyone in need in the community |
| C．makes a creative design for others’houses |
| D．is good at cultivating a place and sharing it with others |
| A．On the Way Home | B．Never Travel again |
| C．Escape from a Family Life | D．Life on the Farm |
相似题推荐
【推荐1】I wouldn’t be the person I am today if I never traveled. Traveling has given me tons of great lessons that I’ll never forget.
1. Appreciating another culture
Learning about another culture in school is one thing，but actually experiencing it is another.
2. The pleasure of unplugging from social media
Social media takes up a lot of our time and it's really distracting and even damaging.So for me，when I travel I love the fact that I'm often cut off from any Internet.I stop caring about what others are doing and instead focus on having fun.
3. Exploring your capability(能力)
4. Patience
I have never taken a vacation where nothing goes wrong.I ever lost my luggage，got hopelessly confused with directions，and waited 5 hours on a train that broke down mid journey.
5. The world isn’t as scary as you think
If you watch the news as much as I do, it's easy to start thinking that the entire world is a scary，dangerous place.
| A．Travelling is a transforming experience. |
| B．Life doesn’t always go according to plan. |
| C．Travelling，however，let’s us stop and enjoy the moment. |
| D．The world is a giant place，and we each just make up a tiny part of it. |
| E．I find a life behind a screen can never compare with a life being lived fully. |
| F．It’s important when travelling to keep your wisdom and take special precautions. |
| G．Traveling exposes you to people and lifestyles quite different from those back at home. |
【推荐2】Growing up, I always heard people say work hard pays. I never really understood these words until I reached the age where my parents stopped giving me my monthly allowance and asked me to look for a job.
New Year is a season of good news for merrymakers and entrepreneurial (企业家的) characters. My childhood friend was one of the latter. Mike and I were two sides of the same coin. I was an introvert and a bookworm, while Mike was outgoing and a merrymaker. His added advantage over me was that he came from a family of entrepreneurs. Therefore, while I saw the festive season as another time to enjoy, he saw it as a perfect time to make money. Ironically, I needed this side of him, given my present predicament (困境).
Mike was not of the “work hard pays” school of thought but the “work smart” school. When I told him about my predicament, he saw a business partner. He confided ( 吐 露 ) in me about his business idea — making and selling festive decorations. Having noticed my disbelieving look, he told me he had researched and realized that only one shop sold festive decorations with exorbitant ( 过 高 的 ) price, which meant that there was room for competition. However, I reminded him starting a business, let alone competing with an established enterprise, required capital. He told me, “Not really. All we had to do was make some decorations ourselves.” Upon that, we made some special designs and hit the ground running.
News about our selling decorations spread like wildfire. Mike’s decision to publish brochures advertising our products was a genius marketing trick. Within three days, we had sold about 50 sets of decorations, and as they say, the rest is history.
My parents’ decision to stop my monthly allowance served to teach me the value of work. However, it was my entrepreneurial adventure with Mike that taught me that working smart is better than working hard.
1. What was the author’s present predicament?| A．Weak reading skills. | B．Lack of financial support. |
| C．Poor communication ability. | D．Awful relationship with parents. |
| A．Set off immediately. | B．Collected money eagerly. |
| C．Imagined the future merrily. | D．Started the business successfully. |
| A．Advertising their products widely. |
| B．Doing research in advance. |
| C．Designing delicate decorations. |
| D．Making decorations on their own. |
| A．Smart work outweighs hard work. |
| B．Wisdom comes from hard work. |
| C．Working hard pays off. |
| D．Working smart starts with working hard. |
【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。
A young lady was standing on the corner with a map in her hand. She looked puzzled.
As I crossed the street and came closer to her I asked if she wanted help.
Many times in these situations I end up walking a person to where he or she is going when giving directions would be too complicated.
| A．Although we could not communicate through words, we communicated through the heart. |
| B．They already have done something for me by giving me the opportunity to help them. |
| C．I like helping people this way due to my own experience. |
| D．Several people passed by, looked at her but did not stop. |
| E．It is never too late to do others a favor. |
| F．These words made me feel quite warm. |
| G．She thanked me and smiled in relief. |
【推荐1】After bouncing my rental car across several miles of red-dirt roads I walked for nearly another mile down the beach to a deserted valley. It was comforting to think that at the very least I was finally out of cell-phone range.
However, even on Kauai, Hawaii’s ‘Garden Island’, complete escape wasn’t all that easy to achieve. Noisy helicopters full of tourists flew overhead like so many dragonflies. Every 20 minutes or so the comforting sounds of wind and water were broken by the noise of a speeding tour boat racing to complete another lap around the island. Worst of all, not more than five minutes by car from the resort where I was staying, the Atomic Clock Internet Café signaled with promises of instant email.
I felt uncomfortable every time I drove by the Atomic Clock Café. I am a technology reporter for an online magazine—my life is driven and dominated by email. I’m drowned in it, usually 400 or 500 messages a day. The main reason for my visit to Kauai was to unplug, disconnect, log off, and get away from it all. No cell phone, no electronic organiser, no laptop. And definitely, no email.
Yes, my plan was to lie on the beach and not check my email. My friends and family were outraged as they could not understand how I could bear to live without email. But they didn’t understand. In my job, I am online, permanently. Cyberspace is more familiar to me than my backyard. While I am awake, my email is always on. I don’t like to be without it for too long. A few hours away from it, and I start to tremble. I am, however, no stranger to beaches and their relaxing qualities and so I knew, even when arriving well after dark at the comfortable cottage in the town of Waimea, that the island of Kauai gave me a good chance of beating my addiction to electronic devices.
Maybe it was full moon lighting the black-sand beach not 10 metres from my door. Or the mango trees casting shadows across the veranda ( 阳 台 ). Or the driftwood piled in loose heaps for as far as I could see along the shore. Without question, the long, slow sound of the waves rolling in calmed my restless soul, and I found I could, in fact, log off.
1. Why did the writer come to Kauai?| A．To get away from the modern technology. |
| B．To work for the Atomic Clock Internet Café. |
| C．To write reports on technological development. |
| D．To find whether there is an alternative to email. |
| A．He wrote articles about resorts around the world. |
| B．He enjoyed beach activities like boat racing. |
| C．He was eager to work in his backyard. |
| D．He spent much time working online. |
| A．relieved | B．shocked |
| C．amused | D．offended |
| A．argue against his friends’ doubt of Kauai |
| B．propose a possible destination of his trip |
| C．highlight the beauty of the beach of Kauai |
| D．show Kauai produced a relaxing atmosphere |
【推荐2】Katharine Meyer Graham was once described as "the most powerful woman in America." She was not a government official or elected representative, but she owned The Washington Post newspaper. Under her leadership, it became one of the most important newspapers in the country.
Katharine Meyer was born in a rich family in New York City in 1917. In 1933, her father had bought a failing newspaper, The Washington Post. Her marriage was a tragedy. Her husband treated her badly and suffered from mental illness, killing himself in 1963.
With no training or experience in business, she was insecure and she did not think she had the ability to do an important job. But Katharine Graham didn’t give up. In 1969, Missus Graham became publisher as well as president of The Washington Post Company.
In the 1970s, The Washington Post became famous around the world because of two major successes. In 1971, an order from a federal judge stopped The New York Times from publishing the Pentagon（五角大楼）Papers, because President Richard Nixon believed publication would endanger national security. Yet Katharine Graham ruled against the judge’s order and decided to publish the Pentagon Papers in The Washington Post, which was considered a major success for freedom of the press.
In 1972, The Washington Post had another major success. Through the long Watergate （水门事件）investigation, despite government’s threat, Missus Graham supported her reporters and editors. The newspaper was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for public service in 1973 for its Watergate reporting. The next year, President Nixon resigned from office.
Katharine Graham died of head injuries when she was eighty-four. She used her intelligence and bravery to improve the American media. After her death, the employees of The Washington Post wrote: "A world without Katharine Graham will not be the same at all."
1. What is Katharine Graham remembered for?| A．Her struggling with her unfortunate marriage. |
| B．Her success in running The Washington Post. |
| C．Her bravery in competing with other newspapers. |
| D．Her close relationship with her reporters and editors. |
| A．Excited and overjoyed. | B．Curious and eager. |
| C．Unconfident and unsure. | D．Annoyed and upset. |
| A．The government had more control over newspapers. |
| B．The press had more freedom from the government. |
| C．The Washington Post got the Pulitzer Prize. |
| D．Richard Nixon resigned from his office. |
| A．Her determination and bravery led to the success of the newspaper. |
| B．Her father laid a solid foundation for her success. |
| C．She was good at working with the government. |
| D．She was born a great leader. |
| A．The Rise of The Washington Post |
| B．The Making of a Great Newspaper |
| C．Great Newspapers of the United States |
| D．A Powerful Media Leader in America |
【推荐3】A former teacher who went on to join the navy discovered the influence his small act of kindness had on one student thanks to a chance meeting years later.
Sharing the story online, the man said while teaching science in 2014 and 2015, there was one girl who sat at the front of the class and was “filled with typical middle school anxiety”. She was quiet and “kept to herself”, but was always writing in a notebook during lessons.
He said, “I decided to look over her shoulder and see what she was writing.” I suck. I’m ugly. I’m stupid. No one likes me. I hate me. etc. ‟Without thinking, I took the notebook from her and started writing in it.” You’re great; you’re beautiful; you’re intelligent; you’re loved, “the opposite of everything she wrote, then handed it back.” He said neither of them made a big deal of it at the time, but she slowly started opening up to him, talking more and coming out of her shell in class.
Fast forward a few years, the teacher was in the navy, serving on the other side of the country. One day when he talked to a woman they discovered they were from the same area. They realized he had taught at the same school her cousin attended and she asked if he remembered teaching her. After telling the story about the notebook, the woman replied, “It is you. She still has that notebook. She looks at it time to time to get her through the tough times.”
In the story he wrote, “I was amazed. I almost started crying right there. Teachers always talk about how rare it is to hear from students in the future about how they influenced them. I only taught for a few years but I really tried and really cared. Even though that path didn’t turn out how I had planned, it’s comforting to know that I did some good in that time.”
1. What attracted the attention of the teacher?| A．The girl was ugly and no one liked her. |
| B．The girl didn’t speak to her classmates in class. |
| C．The girl sitting at the front of the class was active. |
| D．The girl kept quiet and writing in her notebook during lessons. |
| A．No longer feeling inspired. | B．No longer keeping silent. |
| C．No longer hiding in the shell. | D．No longer writing in a notebook. |
| A．Because his former job did not meet his expectation. |
| B．Because he only taught for a few years but he succeeded. |
| C．Because he learned how he had influenced a former student. |
| D．Because he met the cousin of a student he taught a few years ago. |
| A．Encouragement can make a great difference. |
| B．It’s unusual that a student lacks confidence. |
| C．Students usually don’t communicate with their teachers. |
| D．Almost all students have experienced middle school anxiety. |
【推荐1】On a Sunday morning in 2008. Vic Gundotra received a call during a religious (宗教的) service. It was from Steve Jobs, Apple’s former CEO. He didn’t answer, but Jobs left a message saying he had something important to discuss. Gundotra returned his call almost immediately.
“Hey Steve, this is Vic,” he said. “I’m sorry I didn’t answer your call earlier I was in religious services, and the caller ID said ‘unknown’, so I didn’t pick up.”
Steve laughed, saying, “Vic, unless the caller ID said ‘God’, you should never pick up during services.” Vic Gundotra laughed nervously. Although Steve used to call him during the week when he was upset about something, it was unusual for him to call on Sunday and ask him to call his home. He was worried what had happened.
“Vic, we have an urgent (急迫的) problem. I’ve already asked someone from my team to help you and I hope you can fix this tomorrow, ”said Steve.“ I’ve been looking at the Google logo on the iPhone and I’m not happy with the icon (图标). The second O in Google doesn’t have the proper yellow color. It’s just wrong and I’m going to have Greg fix it tomorrow. Is that OK with you?”
The CEO of Apple, who revolutionized (革新) personal computers, the way we listen to music and the way we think of mobile devices, was worried about the yellow in the second “O” in Google!
Needless to say the problem was fixed, and Vic Gundotra says it taught him a lesson on leadership and attention to detail. “It was a lesson I’ll never forget,” said Gundotra. “CEOs should care about details. Even shades of yellow. On a Sunday.”
1. Where was Vic Gundotra when Steve Jobs called him?| A．At home. | B．In his office. | C．In a church. | D．In a gym. |
| A．A secretary of Steve Jobs. |
| B．A manager responsible for mobile applications at google. |
| C．A mechanic who fixes mobile phones. |
| D．Steve Jobs’ driver. |
| A．He found the second letter missing in an icon. |
| B．He was not happy with the design of Apple’s icons. |
| C．A letter in an icon didn’t appear in the right color. |
| D．He was worried about Google’s unfavorable reaction |
| A．One should not miss the phone call in any case. |
| B．One should put his heart into work. |
| C．One should be responsible for the mistake he made. |
| D．One should care about details. |
【推荐2】It may sound like the plot of a Disney movie, but Todd, a fox, really does think he’s a dog. The animal was tamed after being rescued as a 4-month-old baby and was raised as a pet by owner Emma D’ Sylva. Since then the lovable fox has picked up a number of dog characteristics such as tail wagging (摇尾巴), playing with toys and even walking on a lead.
The 11-month-old animal accompanies Emma’s pets Sky and Oakley on walks, drawing double attention from other dog-walkers when they see Todd moving quickly through the local park with Sky and Oakley. They thought as a fox, he has too many dog characteristics. He also sleeps and plays with the other dogs and even wags his tail during its feeding time.
“I’ve had Todd since he was about 4 months old because his previous owners couldn’t look after him anymore. He was a bit crazy when he first came to me last year, but now he has a really strong bond with me. He will run up to me wagging his tail when I go to feed him,” Emma, 25, from Stanfield, said.
“Sometimes he comes into my room, but he prefers being outside. He gets on well with my two dogs, and wants to play with them all the time. If people or dogs come up to him in the park, he will lie down at first and freeze but after a few seconds he will sniff around the dogs or sit patiently.”
Emma takes some of her 40 pets into schools and care homes to enable children and the elderly to interact with a range of animals. Emma’s husband, Steve Johnson, added, “Todd went out on his first school visit the other week and the children really enjoyed playing with him.”
1. The author mentions “like the plot of a Disney movie” in Paragraph 1 to ________.| A．attract readers to know more about Todd |
| B．introduce a Disney movie’s actor |
| C．inspire people to treat foxes more friendly |
| D．share his favorite movie with readers |
| A．he’s considerate and warmhearted | B．he’s successful and patient |
| C．he acts like a dog instead of a fox | D．he gets along well with dogs |
| A．He is very aggressive in public. |
| B．He misses his previous owners. |
| C．He used to sleep in Emma’s room. |
| D．He leads a happy life at Emma’s home. |
| A．How to raise dogs and foxes | B．A lovely dog-like fox |
| C．Emma and her pets | D．To be a good pet owner |
【推荐3】Almost eight years ago, Al Nixon decided to begin each day from a bench (长凳) with a wonderful view of the beach in St. Petersburg, Florida. “I call it ‘life rising’ because watching a sunrise clears my head and keeps me centered before starting my day,” says Nixon, who works for the city’s water department. It’s Nixon’s own way to get inspired and started.
A year later, a woman stopped and said, “You know, every morning when I see you sitting here, I know that everything is going to be OK.” That’s when he realized people mattered to each other. He decided to reconsider the role of his daily practice and pay attention to the people walking past.
Instead of looking straight ahead at the beach, Nixon started smiling at people and striking up conversations. Pretty soon, more than a few early risers began joining him on the bench. Every morning, Nixon drives seven miles to the beach, where he’ll stay for two hours. His presence, his openness to listen and his kindness toward strangers have led some to call him the Sunshine Mayor. Nixon is this calm, constant presence. His unique gift is that he listens to everyone. He listens without judgment and without any kind of return expected.
No matter what problem a person wants to air, Nixon lends an ear, even developing some unlikely friendships.
He remembers the day when a couple came by to talk about problems in their relationship. “The husband was always working, rarely home,” Nixon says. “It was ruining their marriage. I told him, ‘My friend, if your wife’s words didn’t scare you, then maybe the possibility of losing her will.’” Nixon was right, the man admitted. “He started to cry and agreed that he needed to slow down,” says Nixon. “We all hugged each other, and we became friends after that. I still see them every now and then over lunch.”
1. Why did Nixon start his day from a bench at first?| A．To inspire others. | B．To wait for a woman. |
| C．To get peace and energy. | D．To improve physical health. |
| A．He likes to express himself. | B．He gets up early every morning. |
| C．He looks at the better side of life. | D．He shines his inner light on others. |
| A．The Power of Listening | B．The Kindness of Friends |
| C．The Making of a Great Man | D．The Value of Determination |
