【推荐2】Before he sailed round the world alone, Francis Chichester had already surprised his friends several times. He had tried to fly round the world but failed. That was in 1931.

The years passed. He gave up flying and began sailing. He enjoyed it greatly. Chichester was already 58 years old when he won the first solo transatlantic sailing race. His old dream of going round the world came back, but this time he would sail.His friends and doctors did not think he could do it, as he had lung cancer. But Chichester was determined to carry out his plan. In August 1966, at the age of nearly 65, an age when many men retire, he began the greatest voyage of his life.

Chichester covered 14100 miles before stopping in Sydney, Australia. This was more than twice the distance anyone had previously sailed alone. He arrived in Australia on 12 December, just 107 days out from England. He received a warm welcome from the Australians and from his family who had flown there to meet him. On shore, Chichester could not walk without help. Everybody said the same thing: he had done enough; he must not go any further. But he did not listen.

After resting in Sydney for a few weeks, Chichester set off once more in spite of his friends' attempts to dissuade him. The second half of his voyage was by far the more dangerous part, during which he sailed round the treacherous Cape Horn.After succeeding in sailing round Cape Horn, Chichester sent the following radio message to London: "I feel as if I had wakened from a nightmare. Wild horses could not drag me down to Cape Horn and that sinister Southern Ocean again."

Just before 9 o'clock on Sunday evening 28 May 1967, he arrived back in England, where a quarter of a million people were waiting to welcome him.Queen Elizabeth II knighted(授以爵位) him with the very sword that Queen Elizabeth I had used almost 400 years earlier to knight Sir Francis Drake after he had sailed round the world for the first time.The whole voyage from England and back had covered 28,500 miles. It had taken him nine months, of which the sailing time was 226 days. He had done what he wanted to accomplish.

1. What can we learn about Chichester?

A．He failed the solo transatlantic sailing race in 1959.

B．He was a brave and determined man.

C．The second half of his voyage was not as dangerous as the first half.

D．The radio message expressed his concern about the sailing.

2. What did Queen Elizabeth II do after Chichester arrived back in England?

A．She called on the English to learn form him.

B．She was waiting to congratulate on his success in sailing.

C．She thought poorly of his achievements.

D．She knighted him for praising him.

3. We can infer from the text that ____

A．Anyone who had sailed alone traveled less than 7050miles before 1966

B．Chichester sailed round the Atlantic in 1931

C．Most of the English retire at the age of 65

D．Chichester died of lung cancer in 1967 after he went back to England

【推荐3】I have a younger brother. To me, he is a fourteen-year-old kid named Joe, with blond hair and blue eyes. To others, he is different. Where I see a kid who just needs a lot more attention, others see a mentally disabled boy, a kid who cannot walk or talk or think for himself. I see someone who just makes daily routine a bit less routine. Others see an annoyance, I a bother.

This is not to say that I have never felt resentful (怨恨的) toward Joe. He is my brother, and with that comes responsibility. “Gina, could you stay in tonight and watch your brother?” “Gina, do me a favor and feed him dinner and change his diaper (尿布) later, please?” “Could you come home right after school today and get Joe off the bus?”

These are phrases that I have heard since I was twelve. And sure, they have made me resent my brother to a certain extent. I would think: that’s not fair! Everyone else can stay after and be a member of this club, or get extra help from that teacher. Or, all my friends are going out tonight, why can’t I? And, how come I have to feed him? He is not my son!

However, the small amount of resentment I feel toward my brother is erased a thousand times over by what I have learned from him. Besides making me responsible from a young age, and helping me be more accepting of all kinds of people, he has taught me to be thankful for what I have.

I know that there are moments in my life that I should cherish and that Joe will never experience. He will never laugh so hard that he cries. He will never feel the glory of a straight-A report card. He will never comfort a best friend crying on his shoulder. And he will never know how much his family love him.

Because he will never know, it is up to me to know, every second, how lucky I am. It is up to me to realize that life should be lived to its fullest, and that you should always, always be grateful that God, or whoever are the powers that be, gave you the ability to live your life the way you were meant to live it.

1. We know from the first paragraph that Gina’s brother __________.

A．causes trouble to neighbours	B．pays more attention to others
C．lives with mental disability	D．considers daily routine a bother

2. If Mother asks Gina to look after her brother now, what will she probably answer?

A．I'm afraid not.	B．No problem!
C．It depends.	D．It’s not fair!

3. The passage intends to tell us that we should _____________.

A．value the glory of success	B．appreciate what life gives us
C．comfort unfortunate people	D．treasure meaningful moments

【推荐1】Carpe diem—seize the day—is one of the oldest philosophical mottos in western history. First used by the Roman poet Horace more than 2,000 years ago, it still keeps an extraordinary resonance (共鸣) in popular culture.

It is unusual that an expression from a long-dead language generates more than 25 million online search results. Yet just as striking is the fact that there is not one carpe diem, but many. While usually translated as “seize” the day, the original Latin is sometimes interpreted as “harvest”, or “enjoy” the day. These variations (变化) tell us that carpe diem means different things to different people. For some it’s about taking a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, while for others it is about living calmly in the present moment. We might casually use the term carpe diem when chatting with a friend, but how many of us are aware of its many personalities hidden beneath the surface?

In our age of distraction, where we are checking our phones an average of 110 times a day, grasping these different meanings is more important than ever. They are an antidote (解毒药) to the reality that we are, as Shakespeare put it, “food for worms”. Life is short and our time is running out.

But here’s the problem: carpe diem has been hijacked (绑架). Who, or what, are the hijackers? First, the spirit of “seize the day” has been secretly hijacked by consumer culture, which has recast it as Black Friday shopping rushes and one-click buying: Just Do It has come to mean Just Buy It.

Alongside this is the growing fashionable belief of efficiency and time management that has driven us towards tight-scheduled living, turning the spontaneity (自然发生) of Just Do It into a culture of Just Plan It.

A third hijacker is digital entertainment that is replacing energetic life experiences with screen-based pleasures. Rather than Just Do It, we increasingly Just Watch It instead.

Finally, carpe diem has been hijacked by the mindfulness movement. While mindfulness has many proven benefits, from reducing stress to helping with depression, one of its unintended consequences has been to encourage the narrow idea that seizing the day is primarily about living in the here and now. Just Do It has become Just Breathe.

Challenged by these hijackers, the art of seizing the day is disappearing and we urgently need to do something about it, or else risk losing touch with the carpe diem wisdom of humanity that has accumulated over the past two thousand years.

1. What does the author intend to tell us in paragraph 2?

A．People often create different situations for carpe diem.

B．Carpe diem should be better interpreted than before.

C．People usually scratch the surface of carpe diem.

D．Carpe diem should be replaced with new terms.

2. By mentioning Shakespeare in Paragraph 3, the author wants to emphasize______.

A．we should try to expand the length of our life

B．we should treasure every moment of our life

C．we should use effective medicine to cure diseases

D．we should check our phones to avoid distraction

3. Which of the following can best prove carpe diem has been hijacked?

A．Just Do It has come to mean online shopping rushes.

B．Just Do It has come to mean a casual way of life.

C．Just Do It has come to mean workout in the gym.

D．Just Do It has come to mean a really relieved mind.

4. What is the author’s purpose in writing this passage?

A．To justify some different applications of carpe diem.

B．To explain the four hijackers of carpe diem nowadays.

C．To advocate returning to the original meaning of carpe diem.

D．To compare people’s different interpretations of carpe diem today.

【推荐2】Dear Santa Claus,
My name is Amy. I am 17 years old. I have a problem at school. Can you help me, Santa? Kids laugh at me because of the way I walk and run and talk. I have cerebral palsy. I just want one day when no one laughs at me or makes fun of me.
Love, Amy
At radio station WJLT in Fort Wayne, Indiana, letters poured in for the Christmas Wish Content. When Amy’s letter arrived at the radio station, Manager Lee Tobin read it carefully. He thought it wound be good for the people in Fort Wayne to hear about this special girl and her unusual wish. Mr. Tobin called up the local newspaper.
The next day, a picture of Amy and her letter to Santa made the front page of the “News Sentinel”. The story spread quickly. All across the country, newspapers and radio and television stations reported the story of the girl in Fort Wayne, Indiana, who asked for such a simple, yet remarkable Christmas gift—just one day without teasing.
Suddenly the postman was a regular at the Hagadorn house. Envelopes of all sizes addressed to Amy arrived daily from children and adults all across the nation. They came filled with holiday greetings and words of encouragement. Some of the writers had disabilities; some had been teased as children. Each writer had a special message for Amy. Through the cards and letters from strangers, Amy saw a world full of people who truly cared about each other.
Many people thanked Amy for being brave enough to speak up. Others encouraged her to ignore teasing and to hold her head high.
Amy did get her wish of a special day without teasing at South Wayne High School. Teachers and students talked together about how bad teasing can make others feel.
That year, the Fort Wayne mayor officially declared December 21^st as Amy Jo Hagadorn Day throughout the city. The mayor explained that by daring to make such a simple wish, Amy taught a universal lesson. “Everyone,” he said, “wants to and should be treated with respect, dignity and warmth.”
1. Amy’s letter showed that______.

A．she wanted to win Christmas Wish Contest

B．she is more independent than before

C．she is often ignored in and out of class

D．her schoolmates can’t understand her disability

2. The postman was a regular at the Hagadorn house because ____.

A．he went to encourage Amy frequently

B．he was quite curious about Amy

C．he had to send letters to Amy daily

D．he was moved by Amy’s story

3. We may infer from Amy’s story that_____.

A．the disabled hate those who laugh at them

B．the news media played a key role in helping Amy

C．Amy will still be made fun of by her classmates

D．there are few disabled people in Amy’s country

4. The mayor officially declared Amy Jo Hagadorn Day _______.

A．to tell how bad teasing can make others feel

B．to encourage people to hold their heads high

C．to explain how brave Amy was by making her wish

D．to call on the public to treat everyone properly

【推荐3】请认真阅读下列短文，并根据所读内容在文章后表格中的空格里填入一个最恰当的单词。注意：请将答案写在答题卡上相应题号的横线上。每个空格只填一个单词。

Goals are the guides all through our life. We all have goals that we are moving towards and making a great effort to achieve. This is a good thing. Or can it be bad? How many of us never reach our goals and yet we have tried so hard and really thought about nothing else? I believe the mistake most of us make is that we do not focus on our present situation.

Let me explain. Most of us see our present situation as a stepping stone that we use simply as a means of reaching our final destination. We don’t take time to truly appreciate where we are today and all the great things we already have in our lives. We should focus our attention on the journey and not on the destination, or we will miss the beautiful scenery along the way.

Let’s use our job as an example. Now most of us want a promotion. We have plans to become the manager or general manager in our companies. Unfortunately, most of us will never reach the goal, but will watch others achieve our goal instead.

What we should be doing is focusing on the job we are currently in now. Forget where we want to get to and just focus on the present. You see, what we can control is our performance in our current job. We can decide to be the best we possibly can in our current job. Now this may mean further education to have the skills we currently do not have. It may mean working harder to produce better results than our colleagues. It could simply be a change of attitude, such as stopping complaining and becoming a more devoted and supportive employee. By doing our current job to the best of our abilities, we in fact give ourselves the best chance of promotion.

So the best thing for all of us to do to achieve our goals is to just focus on what we have and where we are now. Do the best and be the best we possibly can in our current situations, and we will give ourselves the very best chance of reaching our goals in the future. We have heard the old sayings and they are true: “Rome wasn’t built in a day.”, “Patience is a virtue”, and so on.

Have patience, have appreciation of what we already have, and take time to help ourselves be the very best we can. Do these things and we will all reach our goals, but more importantly, we will enjoy our life every day.

Title	Focus on the present
1	To reach our goals, we should focus on what we have and where we are now.
Common     2	◆We do not focus on our present situations. ◆Most of us see our present situations as a stepping stone to our destination. ◆We do not spend the time truly     3     where we are today and what we already have in our lives.
Example—our job	◆Forget the thought of getting     4    . What we should do is     5    our best to do our current job. ◆To be the best in our current job, we should get further education, work harder than     6    , stop complaining and     7     ourselves to our job.
8	If we are     9    , grateful for what we have, and take time to help ourselves be the very best we can, we can not only    10    in the future, but also enjoy our life every day.