Melinda Skaar wasn't expecting any phone calls. Skaar was working late in her office at the First Internet bank of California. By 10:45 that night she was almost ready to go home when the phone rang. Picking it up, she heard a guard shouting, “There is a fire! Get out of there.” Skaar didn't panic. She figured that it was just a small fire. Her office building was huge. There were 62 floors and her desk was on the 37th floor. Skaar called out to office mate Stephen Oksas, who also stayed late to work. But when they got out to the hallway, they were met by a cloud of black smoke. Rushing back, Skaar shut the door and filled the space at the bottom of the door with her jacket to keep the smoke out.
Then they called 911. Before they could call their families, however, the line went dead. That meant that they were completely cut off from the outside world. All they could do was wait and hope someone would come to rescue them.
Minutes ticked by. Smoke began to float into the office. Soon it became hard for them to breathe. Looking around, Skaar noticed a small workroom. It seemed to have cleaner air. So they crowded there. That helped for a while, but in time even the workroom was filled with deadly smoke. Hopeless, they tried to break the windows, but the glass was not breakable. Everything they threw at it just bounced back. Defeated, they struggled back to the workroom. They felt weak and dizzy. Soon Skaar found Oksas had passed out.
As Skaar and Oksas lay near death, rescuers were rushing to find them. At last, at about 4 a.m., firefighters found them.
Skaar and Oksas knew they were lucky to be alive. Sunday is my birthday, Skaar told a reporter. She would be turning 29, but she knew she had already got the best present possible—the gift of life.
1. What did Skaar and Oksas do when they were stopped by the fire?| A．they tried to run down the stairs. | B．they called their families. |
| C．they waited where they were. | D．they rushed back and shut the door. |
| A．calling 911 for help |
| B．shutting the door and keeping the smoke out with a jacket |
| C．breaking the windows to get some fresh air |
| D．crowding in a small workroom for clean air |
| A．she was trained as a firefighter |
| B．she was cleverer than Oksas |
| C．she had had the experience of being caught in fire. |
| D．she remained calm in the face of danger |
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【推荐1】I was sitting in an airport when I heard a woman seated behind me say, "What's the best gift you ever got?”
I closed the magazine and listened for an answer.
“Well," the young man said. “Probably the gold coin I got for graduation.”
Fighting off the urge to turn around, I thought about the question. When it comes to material objects, for me it was a high school graduation present.
“Congratulations,” my grandfather said.
I tore open the paper. "Wow," I said. “A shovel.”
“It's a spade（铁锹）,” he said, gently but firmly. From that moment on I've known there was a difference. My grandfather said, "Stay close to the land. Don't be afraid to dig in and get a little dirt on you.”
“Oh, I won't,” I said. I laughed at how it sounded.
That fall, I went off to college, and that shiny new green-handled spade hung untouched on the wall in my parents' garage. A few years later, I got an office job and married. Eventually my wife and I moved into our own house, and that graduation spade made its way into my own garage. I dug gardens, planted trees and roses, the usual stuff. The spade was nothing but a tool. I was just glad to have it. Glad I didn't have to buy one.
The years rolled by. I still dig hard into the earth, more often than ever. It's a reminder of my family, one proudly rooted in agriculture. It is a useful tool with a memorable message about staying close to the earth. Priceless.
A few months from now my daughter will finish graduate school. I have something valuable to give her.
It'll be wrapped, of course, and if she opens it and says, "Wow. A shovel."
1. Why does the author mention the "gold coin" story at the very beginning?| A．To give an example. | B．To introduce the topic. |
| C．To present the object. | D．To make a comparison. |
| A．Useless. | B．Priceless. | C．Dirty. | D．Unfashionable. |
| A．His daughter would refuse his gift. | B．He knew nothing about shovel and spade. |
| C．He was gradually interested in agriculture. | D．His grandfather gave the shovel randomly. |
| A．The Priceless Coin | B．The Benefits of a Spade |
| C．A Memory that I Valued | D．A Gift that Kept me Grounded |
【推荐2】As a boy I was always small for my age. I was also five years younger than one of my brothers and seven years younger than the other. As a result, I often felt left out when their friends came over to play. I was either too small or too young for whatever they were doing and they didn't want me to listen to their conversations either. More often I found myself outside playing alone and feeling forgotten.
I remember one spring afternoon feeling especially lonely as I sat in the yard behind our house. I heard my brothers laughing from inside the house and felt tears coming down my cheeks. At that moment I saw a large, brown dog walking over to me. His face was panting happily and his tail was wagging as well. Even though he didn't know me, he licked my feet and sat beside me on the spring grass.
It must have been for at least an hour that I petted and talked to this four-legged angel. He let me pour out all my troubles and shared my deepest thoughts before he kissed my cheek goodbye. I went back, knowing that no matter what life may hold I was loved. Now over 40 years later I still remember that furry angel with a smile. I believe that god sent him in that moment of sadness to remind me just how much he loved me.
In truth, nothing brings us greater joy than knowing we are loved. Knowing we are loved gives us the strength to love others as well. Knowing we are loved helps us to be the people God meant for us to be. Knowing we are loved aids us in making Earth more like Heaven. Embrace that love, take joy in it, and then go out and share your own love with the world.
1. When the author was a child _________.| A．he often played with his two brothers | B．he disliked talking with his brothers |
| C．he hoped he was allowed to play outside | D．he wished he had had his own friends |
| A．he led this four-legged angel home | B．he shared his thoughts with his brothers |
| C．he did feel much happier than before | D．he was anxious to play with his brothers |
| A．We Must Know We Are Loved | B．We Should Take Care of Dogs |
| C．We Can Play with Our Brothers | D．We Need to Give Love to Others |
【推荐3】Miss England, Jessica Gagen, is not your ordinary beauty winner. She just added an impressive title, a rocket scientist, to her career.
The 27-year-old just graduated from the University of Liverpool with a degree in Aerospace Engineering and she has set her sights on becoming an astronaut (宇航员).
But winning her title just a few months before completing her degree was no easy task for the energetic redhead from Kelmersdale. She is the first red-headed woman — and the first rocket scientist — to be crowned (加冕) Miss England.
Gagen was able to manage both her competition and her schoolwork but the stress of doing both left her with chest pains and sleeplessness. However, she didn’t give up, just as she had been treated badly and always been made fun of as a child for having red hair.
“It was a tough five-year journey to get to this point, and I faced challenges before I even began,” Gagen said. “I think it’s important that today’s youth know that sometimes things don’t go entirely to plan, and that’s perfectly okay.”
Before starting at the university, Gagen studied a foundation year in physics while working on weekends because she didn’t have all the courses she needed for the program. She began studying at the university in 2019 and when the pandemic (流行病) hit, all the course work went online. She did this while working full time at night.
During the course of her studies, Gagen saw that there were very few females in STEM and decided to make it her task to promote (提升) careers in STEM for women and girls on her social media.
In the first year, she won Miss Lancashire and placed second in the national contest but she really wanted to win to promote her task. “There’s a lot of work that goes into becoming Miss England, and I really wanted to win because I knew I could use the platform to get more girls into engineering,” she said.
1. What is special about Miss England mentioned in the text?| A．She is also a scientist. | B．She was once an astronaut. |
| C．She had a happy childhood. | D．She has great pressure at present. |
| A．She had trouble with her study. | B．She was in poor health. |
| C．The color of her hair was unusual. | D．Her clothes were not beautiful. |
| A．Her lifestyle in high school. | B．Some of her college education. |
| C．Her attitude to her classmates. | D．The support from her family. |
| A．To continue her college education. |
| B．To realize her dream since childhood. |
| C．To get confidence to deal with difficulties. |
| D．To encourage more girls to learn STEM. |
【推荐1】Hurricane season is here. Fiona ruined Puerto Rico, and less than two weeks later, Ian struck the west coast of Florida and its remnants(残余部分) moved up and hit the Eastern Seaboard.
Extreme weather events like Ian and Fiona have become more intense because of climate change. That reality has implications for those of us in health care. We have a duty to protect and advance the health of our patients.
We typically think of health as something doctors monitor, offering treatment such as prescription medications as needed. But in reality, only about 20% of a person's health is attributable to the medical care they receive. Social determinants such as people's neighborhood and socioeconomic status are actually responsible for 40% of a person's health outcomes. It's a sad truth that a ZIP code can be more predictive of a person's health than his or her genetic code.
Consider how extreme weather events such as this summer's heat waves affected communities unequally. Poor urban neighborhoods, with sparse tree cover but plenty of concrete and asphalt, absorb and retain the heat of the sun's rays, while leafy, shaded countrysides just a few miles away stay much cooler. A University of California–San Diego study that measured land surface temperatures in over 1,000 counties across the United States found that neighborhoods with the lowest average education and income levels generally recorded higher temperatures.
Extreme weather events such as flood can threaten people's physical and mental health long after it recedes. Almost 1 in 3 people in the flooded area were estimated to have suffered from certain post-traumatic stress disorder. Therefore, physicians in regions at increased risk of natural disasters may need to be ready to deliver more mental health care. For example, doctors in drought-stricken areas may need to make water safety a part of their conversations with patients, because groundwater sources can become unsafe to drink without sufficient rainfall.
Climate change has posed an immediate and dire health threat. Now is the time for health care providers to take collective action to adapt to this unfortunate reality.
1. What can we infer from paragraph 3?| A．ZIP code largely tells a person’s health outcomes. |
| B．A person’s genetic code is determined by ZIP code. |
| C．A person’s genetic code is less important than ZIP code. |
| D．ZIP code is most responsible for people’s health outcomes. |
| A．To show that people with the lowest education have the lowest income. |
| B．To show that poor people tend to be more exposed to extreme weather. |
| C．To show that shaded countrysides stay much cooler than urban areas. |
| D．To show that poor people live in a less-environment-friendly community. |
| A．2. | B．3. | C．4. | D．5. |
| A．Objective. | B．Urgent | C．Optimistic. | D．Worried. |
【推荐2】Earthquakes usually happen on the edges of large sections of the Earth’s plates. These plates slowly move over a long period of time. Sometimes the edges, which are called fault lines, can get stuck, but the plates keep moving. Pressure slowly starts to build up where the edges are stuck and, once the pressure gets strong enough, the plates will suddenly move causing an earthquake.
Generally before and after a large earthquake there will be smaller earthquakes. The ones that happen before are called foreshocks. The ones that happen after are called aftershocks. Scientists don’t really know if an earthquake is a foreshock until the bigger earthquake occurs.
Shock waves from an earthquake that travel through the ground are called seismic waves (地震波). They are most powerful at the center of the earthquake, but they travel through much of the earth and back to the surface. They move quickly at 20 times the speed of sound.
Scientists use seismic waves to measure how big an earthquake is. They use a device called a seismograph (地震仪) to measure the size of the waves. The size of the waves is called the magnitude.
To tell the strength of an earthquake scientists use a scale called the Moment Magnitude Scale or MMS (it used to be called the Richter scale). The larger the number on the MMS scale, the larger the earthquake. You usually won’t even notice an earthquake unless it measures at least a 3 on the MMS scale. Here are some examples of what may happen depending on the scale:
4.0-Could shake your house as if a large truck were passing close by. Some people may not notice.
5.0-If you are in a car, it may shake. Glasses and dishes may rattle. Windows may break.
6.0- Items will fall off shelves. Walls in some houses may crack and windows break. Pretty much everyone near the center will feel this one.
7.0- Weaker buildings will collapse and cracks will occur in bridges and on the street.
8.0- Many buildings and bridges fall down. Large cracks in the earth.
9.0 and up- Whole cities flattened and large-scale damage.
1. If a 5.0-magnitude earthquake hit your area, what might happen?| A．Your house might shake violently. | B．People might feel no shaking at all. |
| C．The family photo may fall off the wall. | D．There might be cracks everywhere on the street. |
| A．It’s still hard to tell foreshocks from main earthquakes. |
| B．Scientists can’t exactly measure the strength of an earthquake. |
| C．People may ignore foreshocks when an earthquake is not so strong. |
| D．The earthquake won’t cause any damage unless it reaches 9.0 MMS. |
| A．listing examples | B．giving explanations |
| C．making comparisons | D．offering data |
| A．enrich people’s knowledge of self-rescue in disasters |
| B．stress the importance of earthquake rescue |
| C．issue early warnings before an earthquake |
| D．present facts about the earthquake |
【推荐3】Our ship sailed on the sea into the Earth’s night. Here, there was no visible light from the Sun or the Earth Engines. But as we looked up, we children saw the starry sky for the first time in our lives. How breathtakingly beautiful it was!
Ms Xing put an arm around us while pointing at the sky with her other hand. “Look, children! That is Proxima Centauri (比邻星), our new home!” With these words, tears ran slowly down her face. Before long, we were all in tears—even the captain and crew. We all looked in the direction that Ms Xing was pointing. There was only one point of light among the twinkling stars that shined constantly: Proxima Centauri—the only source of hope and comfort for a hundred future generations. “Whatever risks we might take, we will finally make it there!” said the captain, in an assured voice.
On our way back from the sea, we saw the first sign that Earth had begun its journey. In the night sky, a huge comet had appeared. It was the Moon, abandoned by humankind. Lunar Engines had been installed to the Moon to force it out of its orbit so that a disastrous crash could be avoided as the Earth sped up and moved away. As it progressed, the gravitational tide of the Moon caused the ocean to swell, creating gigantic waves. We quickly got off the ship to our destination in the Southern Hemisphere. The next few days were the countdown to our departure.
Finally came the big day! As Earth Engines was set at a full power, we got immediately blinded by the bright light from it. This acceleration created massive tsunamis hundreds of meters high that crashed onto the coasts of every continent. Burning hot hurricanes roared through the boiling waves, screaming with wild fury and pulling up almost every tree on Earth.
Our Earth, with its blue tail cutting through the darkness of space, had set out on its long journey, and with it went all of humankind.
1. Why did we all cry when looking up into the sky?| A．Because we had to abandon the Earth. |
| B．Because we were fascinated by the stars. |
| C．Because we saw our new settlement. |
| D．Because we felt lonely in the universe. |
| A．To protect the Earth from a deadly impact. |
| B．To make sure the Moon runs in its orbit. |
| C．To keep the moon at the same speed as the Earth. |
| D．To shelter humans from the tide of the Moon. |
| A．Smooth and steady. | B．Endless and hopeless. |
| C．Exciting and entertaining. | D．Ambitious and adventurous. |
| A．A personal diary. | B．A science fiction. |
| C．A travel magazine. | D．An academic article. |
