Simone was born in Ohio, but grew up in Texas. Early on, she and her siblings (兄妹) were adopted by her grandparents, who she says support her in everything. She first realized she wanted to be a gymnast at the age of 6 when she and her classmates went on a field trip to a local gym. A coach at the gym saw her natural talent and wrote a letter to her grandparents urging them to get her involved. The sport she signed up for “for fun” soon turned into her life’s enthusiasm.
Simone is energetic, so it’s no surprise that she’s got a few medals in her time. Her ten world gold medals are the most ever achieved by a woman in gymnastics history. She is also the first woman to win four medals at the same World Championships, which happened in her second year performing in 2014.
In 2015 Simone became the first gymnast to win three constant all-around titles at the World Gymnastic Championships. She even amazed herself, telling the interviewer “I blew my own mind.” and posting to social media “breaking history is kind of cool.”
What surprised everyone most though, was that she was performing perfectly as she usually does—her skill is so beyond everyone else that she can’t be beaten even when she trips up!
1. What does the first paragraph mainly talk about?| A．Simone’s early experience. | B．Simone’s sports life. |
| C．Simone’s gymnastics coach. | D．Simone’s family. |
| A．She got four gold medals at the Olympic Games. |
| B．She won the first woman championship in gymnastics. |
| C．She won ten world gold medals in gymnastics history. |
| D．She got the first gold medal at the World Championships. |
| A．I lost heart. | B．I was beaten. |
| C．I tried my best. | D．I surprised myself. |
| A．To make readers interested in great gym players. |
| B．To praise Simone for her skills and Olympic spirits. |
| C．To list Simone’s gold medals in the World Cups. |
| D．To give brief introduction to Simone’s achievements. |
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【推荐1】Saroo Brierley, a 4-year-old boy, lived in rural India. One day, he played with his brother along the rail line and fell asleep. When he woke up, he found himself alone. So he got on the train in front of him to search for his brother.
That train took him a thousand miles across the country to a totally strange city. He lived on the streets, and then in an orphanage (孤儿院), where he was adopted by an Australian family and taken to Tasmania.
Brierley is a famous writer now, and in his new book, A Long Way Home, he wrote he couldn’t help but wonder about his hometown back in India. He remembered landmarks, but since he didn’t know his town’s name, finding a small neighborhood in a vast country seemed impossible.
Then he found a digital mapping program. He spent years searching for his hometown in the program’s satellite pictures. In 2011, he came across something familiar. He studied it and realized he was looking at a town’s central business district from a bird’s-eye view. He thought, “On the right-hand side you should see the three-platform train station”—and there it was. “And on the left-hand side you should see a big fountain”—and there it was. Everything matched!
Standing in front of the house where he grew up as a child, he saw a lady standing at the entrance. It took him a few seconds but he finally remembered what she used to look like.
In an interview Brierley says, “My mother came forth and walked forward, and I walked forward, my eyes filled with tears and my brain blank. I just didn’t know what to say, because I never thought seeing my mother would ever come true. And here I am, standing in front of her.”
1. Why did Brierley get on the train when he was a little boy?| A．To go back to his home. |
| B．To look for his brother. |
| C．To travel to Tasmania. |
| D．To follow a stranger. |
| A．The vast area of India. |
| B．The fact that he was nobody then. |
| C．His not remembering the town’s name. |
| D．The distance between Australia and his hometown. |
| A．By studying digital maps. |
| B．By analyzing old pictures. |
| C．By travelling all around India. |
| D．By spreading his story via his book. |
| A．Love for Mother |
| B．Union with Brother |
| C．Memory of Hometown |
| D．Long Way back Home |
【推荐2】College professors these days face an ever-higher bar to grab the attention of their students, forced to compete with the stimuli of smartphones and laptops in large lecture halls. But when your professor is a social media star, it’s a little bit easier.
Tatiana Erukhimova, who teaches physics at Texas A&M University, has managed to get her students, as well as future generations, excited about the science. Known as “Dr. Tatiana” to her students and online fan base, the professor performs physics tricks with boundless energy and enthusiasm. Videos of her theatrical demonstrations have racked up hundreds of millions of views across TikTok and other social media platforms.
In the kid-friendly videos, Erukhimova uses a range of everyday objects in her experiments, from pingpong balls and toilet paper to marshmallows, bicycle wheels and hair dryers. She credits the university marketing team’s videos of her lessons for her social media success. “This is just one of our ways to connect with people to make physics accessible to people,” she tells NPR. As part of the physics department’s extensive outreach program, she also puts on shows almost every week teaching physics to K-12 students. “The sooner kids are taught physics and taught it well, the better,” she says.
It’s clear she knows what it takes to get young people excited about a hard science. But it wasn’t always that way. When she first started teaching college freshman classes almost two decades ago, she says she struggled to grab the attention of her younger students. She was used to teaching juniors, as she had for a few years prior to that. But when it comes to teaching a large lecture hall of 100-plus first-year students, first impressions are make or break.
“I did not grab their attention on the first day — that was my mistake,” she says. “I missed this opportunity to bond with them from the very beginning, and then it took me a while to find my voice.”
By the second semester, she found her footing, tweaking her approach to make her lecture halls feel smaller, and get her students engaged. The key, she says, has been to make herself approachable and her instruction personal.
1. What is the main challenge faced by college professors in large lecture halls?| A．Competition with smartphones and laptops. |
| B．Limited resources for·teaching materials. |
| C．Inadequate support from the university. |
| D．Lack of interest from students. |
| A．Encouraging students to use social media. |
| B．Creating TikTok accounts for professors. |
| C．Producing videos of her physics lessons. |
| D．Promoting weekly teaching program. |
| A．To review her teaching plans. |
| B．To show an application of her idea. |
| C．To highlight the differences of teaching. |
| D．To erase doubts about her approaches. |
| A．The importance of establishing a personal connection with students. |
| B．The significance of focusing on junior-level students. |
| C．The effectiveness of traditional teaching methods. |
| D．The need for advanced teaching materials. |
For years there was the worry that this might happen if I didn’t keep straining（尽力） to keep the business going. And my worries were right. What I worried about would happen did happen .But you know what? Going through that experience wasn’t really so bad. It was interesting. Some of it was actually pretty easy. Throughout most of it, I felt increasing relief and a renewed sense of freedom and possibility. All the old baggage was gone. No more office. Fewer possessions. Fewer obligations. No more debt. Most of all , no more straining. Life became a lot easier.
I got a cheaper and smaller apartment. I became debt-free. I learned to live within my means. Those were actually good things. The others were just feelings. The reality wasn’t actually painful. After that, I kept going with the same business but completely changed the business model. I avoided the earlier mistakes, and that business recovered just fine and worked great. It was profitable every year from then on. But I had to go through the collapse first to reach that point.
If you’ve been feeling out of control with your current work or lifestyle, and you’re currently straining to keep it going ,consider letting it go. Try allowing the old world to collapse, many or all of your fears and worries might actually come to pass, but that’s ok. You don’t have to keep the old world alive. If it keeps falling apart on you ,let it collapse. Experiencing the collapse isn’t as bad as fearing the collapse
1. The author regards the collapse of the old world as an opportunity to_____
| A．get a new world started in better ways |
| B．turn to others for help to save ourselves |
| C．sum up the failure and make up for the mistakes |
| D．bury ourselves in the disasters and then recover ourselves |
| A．the freedom and possibility of refreshing himself |
| B．the experience he learned from his former failure |
| C．the old possessions and the invisible pressure |
| D．the business knowledge and skills he got from various media |
| A．He cleverly transformed his business model. |
| B．He started another completely different business. |
| C．He received further training about doing business at college |
| D．He borrowed some money from his friends and relatives to pay off his debts. |
| A．prevent it from falling apart on us. |
| B．set it free or just let it completely break down |
| C．keep straining and go on with determination |
| D．keep it alive with the courage to change it again |
【推荐1】For a number of Indians who for over half a century have replayed a race again and again, Milkha Singh's 400 metres final run at the Rome Olympics should be among the greatest heartbreaks in global sporting history. In fact, they hoped it would throw up a different result.
However, continued praise for the man decades later is due to the effort by India's greatest track athlete on that September day in the Italian capital, though he still missed out on becoming India's first Olympic track medallist.
As he was growing up, he used to run barefoot daily on hot sand to school, which was situated 20 kilometres from his house. He thinks this was good training but knows it is not possible to ask children to do this today. However, he does feel that the early identification of talented athletes is also important for India's athletic teams to shine.
India has in the last few years judged success purely in terms of medals, but looking into the past reveals how a more generous generation saluted Milkha as a pioneer. Milkha is India's finest track athlete of all time. He remains the only Indian male to win an individual Commonwealth Games athletics gold—he won the 400 metres at Cardiff in 1958，the first athlete from independent India to do so.
Since retiring from athletics, the former champion athlete has set up the Milkha Singh Charitable Trust, which helps poorer families survive if an athlete in their family has died. A percentage of the profits from the film Bhaag Milkha Bhaag are going to his trust.
Finally, let's read a quote from Milkha himself: “There is no shortcut to success.” A scene in the film shows Milkha Singh running with injured feet—this actually happened. “I haven't found an alternative to hard work. You need to be patient, dedicated and true to yourself and your work.”
1. What has won Milkha Singh continued praise?| A．His early hard life experience. | B．His outstanding athletic talent. |
| C．His status in global sports history. | D．His effort to win an Olympic medal. |
| A．Exciting. | B．Unbearable. | C．Beneficial. | D．Useless. |
| A．He turned into a movie actor. | B．He learned to do business. |
| C．He became an athletic trainer. | D．He engaged in charity work. |
| A．Hard work leads to success. | B．Do something different. |
| C．Medals measure everything. | D．Stick to your dream. |
【推荐2】LOS ANGELES — Kobe Bryant is a winner in retirement, too. The former Los Angeles Lakers star won an Oscar in the animated short category for “Dear Basketball,” a poem he wrote after ending his 20-year career on the court in 2016.
He’ll add it to an already jammed trophy collection that includes five NBA championships with the Lakers, two Olympic gold medals, NBA Finals most valuable player awards, a league MVP award and four All-Star game MVP awards.
As executive producer, Bryant accepted his golden Oscar statue from “Star Wars” star Mark Hamill on Sunday night. He shared the award with Disney animator Glen Keane.
Among those offering their congratulations via Twitter were Hall of Famers Magic Johnson, Bill Russell and Shaquille O’Neal, Bryant’s former Lakers teammate who admitted, “I’m jealous!”
Since hanging up his basketball shoes, Bryant has thrown himself into business (a new Nike shoe) and various forms of storytelling.
“As basketball players, we’re told to shut up and dribble,” Bryant said on stage. “I’m glad we did a little bit more than that.”
He thanked his wife, Vanessa, and his three daughters, naming each of them. He spoke a few words of Italian — a language he learned as a child growing up in Italy — and closed by telling them, “You are my inspiration.”
1. According to the passage, Kobe Bryant won the Oscar because of_________.| A．his taking part in the animation movie |
| B．his famous reputation in basketball |
| C．his poem written after his former career |
| D．his winning in the animated short category |
| A．award |
| B．present |
| C．harvest |
| D．possession |
| A．A personal diary |
| B．A science report |
| C．A newspaper |
| D．A textbook |
【推荐3】Coco Gauff won the U.S. Open women’s title in 2023. Gauff became only the third American teenager to win the national women’s title four years after she rose to fame in the sport by beating Venus Williams, one of her childhood idols, at the Wimbledon Championships when Gaff was just 15 years old.
When Gauff was barely school age she held a tennis racket (球拍) and told her parents that she wanted to be the best player in the world. By the time Gauff was seven, she was training with a tennis professional two hours a day, several days a week. Her father suggested that the family move from Atlanta to Delray Beach, Florida, home to some of the best tennis training camps in the world. At 13, Gauff was the youngest U.S. Open junior girls finalist in history; at 14, she became one of the youngest winners of the French Open junior girls tournament.
The win against Venus Williams in the first round of Wimbledon was a bit of a dreamy moment for both players. Gauff was 15; Williams was 39. Gauff beat Williams in straight sets in a stunning upset. When the competitors met at the net for the traditional handshake, Gauff tried to make the moment special. “I was just telling her thank you for everything she’s done for the sport,” Gauff said at the time.
Despite her age, Gauff demonstrated skills that both set her apart and made her worthy of being mentioned with other tennis genius, including Tracy Austin, Jennifer Capriati, and Andrea Jaeger. Yet her professional career has not been without its setbacks. Since beating Williams in the first round at Wimbledon, she has found herself knocked out in the first round at the 2022 Australian Open and at Wimbledon in 2023. Still, Gauff has shown consistent improvement in her game on the world stage.
1. Why did Gauff’s family move to Delray Beach?| A．For comfortable life. | B．For stronger competitors. |
| C．For better training. | D．For further education. |
| A．By saying thanks. | B．By exchanging rackets. |
| C．By overcoming upset. | D．By asking for instructions. |
| A．Friendly and outgoing. | B．Selfless and determined. |
| C．Caring and competitive. | D．Hardworking and talented. |
| A．Friendship. | B．Sport. | C．Health. | D．Culture. |
