【推荐1】Natalie Doan, 14, has always felt lucky to live in Rockaway, New York. Living just a few blocks from the beach, Natalie can see the ocean and hear the waves from her house. “It’s the ocean that makes Rockaway so special.” she says.

On October 29, 2012, that ocean turned violent. That night, Hurricane Sandy struck the East Coast, and Rockaway was hit especially hard. Fortunately, Natalie’s family escaped to Brooklyn shortly before the city’s bridges closed.

When they returned to Rockaway the next day, they found their neighborhood in ruins. Many of Natalie’s friends had lost their homes and were living far away. All around her, people were suffering, especially the elderly. Natalie’s school was so damaged that she had to temporarily attend a school in Brooklyn.

In the following few days, the men and women helping Rockaway recover inspired Natalie. Volunteers came with carloads of donated(捐献的)clothing and toys. Neighbors devoted their spare time to helping others rebuild. Teenagers climbed dozens of flights of stairs to deliver water and food to elderly people trapped in powerless high-rise buildings.

“My mom tells me that I can’t control what happens to me,” Natalie says, “but I can always choose how I deal with it.”Natalie’s choice was to help. She created a website page, matching survivors in need with donors who wanted to help. Natalie posted information about a boy named Patrick, who lost his baseball and collection when his house burned down. Within days, Patrick’s collection was replaced.

In the coming months, her website page helped lots of kids: Christopher, who received a new basketball; Charlie, who got a new keyboard. Natalie also worked with other organizations to bring much-needed supplies to Rockaway. Her efforts made her a famous person. Last April, she was invited to the White House and honored as a Hurricane Sandy Champion of Change.

Today, the scars(创痕) of destruction are still seen in Rockaway, but hope is in the air. The streets are clear, and many homes have been rebuilt. “I can’t imagine living anywhere but Rockaway,” Natalie declares. “My neighborhood will be back, even stronger than before.”

1. When Natalie returned to Rockaway after the hurricane, she found _______.

A．some friends had lost their lives

B．her neighborhood was destroyed

C．her school had moved to Brooklyn

D．the elderly were free from suffering

2. According to Paragraph 4, who inspired Natalie most?

A．The people helping Rockaway rebuild.

B．The people trapped in high-rise buildings.

C．The volunteers donating money to survivors.

D．Local teenagers bringing clothing to elderly people.

3. How did Natalie help the survivors?

A．She gave her toys to other kids.

B．She took care of younger children.

C．She called on the White House to help.

D．She built an information sharing platform.

4. What do you think is the best title of the passage?

A．A Girl Helps Make a Difference

B．A Hurricane Disaster.

C．Home is Best.

D．Technology is Power.

【推荐2】We get it: You’re tired. You’re busy. And your shoes are away over there. Excuses are OK sometimes, but not every day—and especially not today. So put on your sneakers, get up off the couch, and let us kick your excuses to the curb (路边).
“I…dislike…panting !”
Being really out of breath may mean you’re trying too much too soon, which will kill your confidence. But you don’t have to be _________ to get a workout. Being active doesn't have to mean high-intensity. It’s just about moving.
“I hate exercise.”
It may seem unbearable, but you just have to get started. Exercise releases endorphins (your brain’s own feel-good chemicals), which can be habit-forming. What’ s the best exercise? The one you’ll do regularly. So you may hate running. Don’t run! Ride your bike or just dance. Even cleaning your room is active. As long as you’re moving and getting your blood pumping, it counts. So get creative.
“I don’t have time.”
You may not have lots of time to spare when you’re busy with schoolwork, but we bet you can find 10 minutes. Bonus: An activity break will send oxygen to your brain, making you super-alert and more creative too. Famous thinkers like Aristotle and Steve Jobs liked “walking meetings," and you can follow in their footsteps by moving around while you brainstorm about a tough task or memorize your English vocabulary.
“I never see results!”
Even if you train with the help of a professional, you won’t see results right away. But you will feel them almost immediately. Don’t focus on how your body looks—focus on how you feel. Keep a journal of when you exercise (or don’t) and how you feel that day: Stressed? Focused? Tired? When you start noticing the amazing effects of exercise, you’ll have no excuses.
1. The underlined part “huffing and puffing” in Paragraph 2 can be replaced by “_________”.

A．moving around	B．breathing heavily
C．feeling confident	D．wearing nice shoes

2. In the author’s eyes, the best exercise is the one that _________.

A．is very relaxing	B．you will stick to
C．produces good results	D．you can spare time on

3. Steve Jobs is mentioned to prove that doing exercise__________.

A．is good for one’s figure

B．is good for one’s health

C．makes one much happier

D．makes one more productive

【推荐3】Sorry seems to be the hardest word. So sang Elton John on one of his biggest 1970s hits——but not every public figure seems to find it so tough to let out that powerful five-letter word.

In recent months varieties of public figures, from politicians, to Hollywood actors and You Tube stars have all publicly expressed regrets.

But with floods of regrets on the airwaves, just how can we tell a forced apology from a heartfelt expression?

In its purest form, saying sorry should be an “act of regrets, a realization that something you have said or done has hurt someone and you want to repair it”, says psychologist Geraldine Joaquim.

Made early, a sincere apology can be hugely beneficial and can “relieve the tension and takes the wind out of an accusers sails”, she says.

A need to say sorry can arise in someone’s public life and equally at home with their family and friends but, whatever the environment, how well it is received depends on how personalized it feels.

From businesses, governments and organizations, a scripted response will fail to resonate (引起共鸣) as it will not convey empathy (同理心) and sympathy.

Whether online or in person, the timing and choice of language in an apology are decisive factors.

“It is important to show that you understand and sympathize,” says Martin Stone, of PR agency Tank, “It is vital that any business or individual making an apology understands the focus- is it sorry for the way it’s acted or is it sorry that the complainant feels the way they do?” Performed apologies always have a sense of being “acted out, and are often accompanied by too many theatrical gestures. If sincere, the person making the apology will be looking for listening clues to see if they are being understood, such as eye contact and facial expressions. They will provide “humbling (谦卑的) signals”, such as a lowered head, to indicate regrets.

It is also important to avoid irresponsible statements or promises that can’t be kept. “Don’t say that you’ll ensure that this will not happen again if you’re not confident it won’t. It could come back to bite you,” Stone explains.

Equally, the use of “but” can hugely change the tone of an apology.

As Stone points out. ‘I’m sorry but... It sounds like you are making excuses and aren’t actually taking any form of responsibility. It may be three letters but it can instantly make an apology seem hollow,”

Passage outline	Detailed information
Does sorry seem to be the most difficult word?	For some, it seems to be a     1     nut to crack while for others, it is just a piece of cake.
Is it a heartfelt apology?	• There being a storm of regrets on the airwaves, it is hard to make a     2     between a sincere apology or a forced one. • In its purest form, apology means offering regrets, which can be hugely beneficial if     3     early. • A scripted apology from business, governments and organizations doesn’t resonate, thus being     4     to convey empathy and sympathy. • Whatever the environment is, the     5     to which an apology is received depends on how personalized it feels.
How can we make a heartfelt apology?	•     6     you say sorry is one decisive factor. The earlier you say sorry, the sooner the complainant will feel it. • The choice of your     7     language is the other decisive factor. You’re not     8     out the apology. You should provide humbling signals to indicate regrets. • Be     9     for the statements or promises you make. Don’t say anything that can’t be kept. • Never find     10     for your wrong behaviors with “but”.

【推荐1】For centuries, Central America’s Garifuna people have kept the culture’s spoken history alive through their ancestors’ native language. But decades of modernization, random native-language training in Garifuna schools, intermarriage between cultures, and the ridicule (嘲笑) of young people who speak the language, together led to Garifuna being listed on the UNESCO Atlas (地图集) of Endangered Languages in 2001.

The threat of language extinction isn’t new. Some linguists estimate that a language dies every two weeks, as some languages become important tools for social and economic exchange, while others are pushed to the margins (边缘). But there are ways to save at-risk languages as well. The key is that the language needs to be thought of less as preserved, “but indeed part of their present and future life,” says Liliana Sanchez, a linguist and professor at the University of Illinois.

That’s exactly what the Garinagu (Garifuna people) are doing. For the past two decades, Garifuna artists have used a cultural cornerstone—spirited dance music—to inspire young Garinagu to learn and share their native language. Now, with a new Garifuna Tourism Trail project in Belize, travelers can experience and support the cultural revival, too.

Palacio, a leader in the cultural revival, gathered Garifuna musicians across Central America to form a band named the Garifuna Collective in 2007. Their Garifuna lyrics sent a powerful message: It’s time to defend our culture. With multiple world tours and international music awards later, the Garifuna Collective put Garifuna on the international map and took Belize along with it. Although Palacio passed away in 2008, his lyrics and the work of Garifuna musicians lit a cultural flame for Garinagu worldwide.

Will music save the Garifuna language? Time will tell. Garifuna remains on UNESCO’s endangered-language list, last updated in 2010. And, as the Hawaiians just learned from revitalizing (使恢复生机) their own language, this kind of revival is a long, multi-generational road.

1. What is Liliana Sanchez’s opinion on saving at-risk languages?

A．They should be protected by singing songs.

B．They should be preserved as much as possible.

C．They should be made use of in everyday life.

D．They should be advertised by tourists.

2. What can we learn from the last paragraph?

A．Garifuna has been removed from the list.

B．Music is sure to save the Garifuna language.

C．It’ll take great efforts to preserve Garifuna.

D．Hawaiians are better at protecting their culture.

【推荐2】Language is a major problem for the European Union (EU) . The Treaty (条约) of Rome ,which created the organization that finally became the EU, stated that each country’s language must be treated equally. The original six countries had only three languages between them: French, German and Dutch/Flemish. However, there are now 15 countries in the EU, with a total of 12 languages. EU documents must be translated into all these languages, and at official meetings the speeches must be translated into all the languages by interpreters.

All this translating is very expensive and time-consuming. It is said that nearly half of all employees of the EU are engaged in translating documents and speeches and nearly half of the EU’s administrative (管理方面的) costs are spent on this task. In the near future it is probable that several more countries, most of them having their own languages, will join the EU, thus making the situation even worse.

The problem is just cost; there are practical difficulties as well. With 12 languages, there are 132 possible “translation situations” that might be needed. It is often difficult to find people in the right place at the right time who can translate from, for example, Danish into Greek, or Dutch into Portuguese, at a high professional standard.

In practice the problem has been less serious by the use of English in many contacts between EU officials , since almost all of them speak some English. However, any move to reduce the number of official languages (perhaps to four or five) would be a blow to the pride of the smaller countries. Another commonly suggested solution is to make English the official language for all EU business. However, this is strongly resisted by powerful member countries like France and Germany .

1. The organization that finally became the EU _______.

A．included 132 languages

B．was set up by the Treaty of Rome .

C．started with three countries .

D．was started by France and Germany .

2. What’s the main purpose of this passage?

A．To show that the problem cannot be solved .

B．To criticize the European Union for inefficiency .

C．To find out a problem and show how serious it is.

D．To give a solution to a problem .

3. The writer mentions “Danish into Greek” as an example of _______.

A．a situation that occurs often.

B．a situation that might be difficult to deal with .

C．languages easily being interpreted.

D．one of the 12 situations that requires an interpreter

4. The writer suggests that if the number of official languages was reduced, _______.

A．Only languages which are easy to translate would be used officially.

B．The smaller member countries would be pleased .

C．the EU would not know which official languages to choose .

D．Countries whose languages were not used officially would be unhappy .

【推荐3】Handwritten Chinese characters (文字) can be beautiful. I still remember looking at Chinese and not understanding anything it said and yet feeling a strong attraction (吸引力). In fact, some students start learning Chinese because of the characters. After having studied Chinese for a while, I realized that handwriting in Chinese takes a very long time to learn.

Living as we do in a digital era (数字时代) with smartphones and computers, most students sooner or later ask themselves this question: Is it really necessary to learn how to write by hand in Chinese? When using smartphones or computers, we can use phonetic input (语音输 入) systems, which choose the characters we want for us as long as we can remember how they are pronounced. Since we enter different characters, we seldom need to be able to recognize the difference between characters in detail; the computer makes the right choices for us. Do we really need to write Chinese by hand at all?

I think most people agree that you should learn to write at least some characters at some point as a student of Chinese, although not necessarily straight away and not necessarily all the characters that you can say. But unless you don’t care about written language at all, you should learn the basics of handwriting. Without it, it will be very hard to understand characters. You don＇t need to be a calligraphy master (书法大师), but you do need basic handwriting skills to do this. Simply looking at things is, as usual, a bad way of learning.

I think learning the most common 500 characters or so is a good idea for all students. If you actually want to write by hand, increase that to 1, 000. Then learn to handwrite characters outside of the 1, 000 most common on a need-to-know basis.

1. What does the author think of Chinese characters?

A．They are less communicative than English words.

B．They attract some foreigners to learn Chinese.

C．They show the greatness of Chinese culture.

D．They are not really that difficult.

2. What can we infer about characters in paragraph 2?

A．Characters are very difficult for foreigners to learn.

B．People believe learning to write characters is important.

C．People doubt the necessity of learning to write characters.

D．Characters may disappear with the development of society.

3. What does the underlined word “this” in paragraph 3 refer to?

A．Understanding characters.

B．Being a calligraphy master.

C．Keeping a good learning habit.

D．Learning basic handwriting skills.

4. What would be the best title for the text?

A．Is it necessary to learn to write Chinese characters by hand?

B．When was the last time you wrote something by hand?

C．What rules are there for handwriting?

D．How to write Chinese characters on a computer?