【推荐2】Life was not kind to a sweet Boxer-Pit Bull mix. Dog fighting had cruelly taken away his left ear. In 2019, the 4-year-old arrived at a shelter in North Carolina and was then named Van Gogh. Christy Langley explains he was named after the famous painter “not because he is an artist, but because he is a work of art”. What Langley couldn’t predict was that Van Gogh would actually go on to be a successful artist.

Gartner owns a shelter that helps dogs in shelters that are at risk of being put down. She saw Van Gogh and immediately knew she needed to help him. So, she took Van Gogh in from North Carolina in June 2022. Gartner started telling everyone about the friendly and lovely dog on Facebook, Pet Finder, and Rescue Me, but no one responded.

After months of searching for a new owner, Gartner had a new idea. Why not take Van Gogh’s name literally? Gartner explained, “He certainly had the name and the ear for it.” Gartner got to work, putting some paint on a canvas(油画布), wrapping it in a plastic bag, and coating it with peanut butter(花生酱)as a tasty treat for the pup. It only took five minutes for Van Gogh to lick the plastic-coated canvas clean and for a work of art to be created.

They worked on paintings for about a week and then, Gartner invited people to an outdoor art gallery event on October 23, 2022. Sadly, only two people showed up. The next day, Gartner put out a post on Facebook that she felt bad only two people showed up, and said the rest of the paintings were still waiting for their owners. Suddenly, Van Gogh’s pieces were hot items. After two minutes, the paintings were sold out and Gartner raised around $1, 000 for her rescue. The biggest success of all, though, was that on the last day of the silent sale, Van Gogh was finally adopted(收养).

1. What is Van Gogh?

A．A dog owner.

B．A boxer.

C．A rescuer.

D．A dog.

2. What do the underlined words “put down” mean in Paragraph 2?

A．Killed.

B．Expanded.

C．Protected.

D．Valued.

3. How did Van Gogh create his works?

A．By painting with a brush in his mouth.	B．By licking a plastic-coated canvas.
C．By running on a canvas.	D．By wrapping a plastic bag.

4. What did Gartner do when she found few people were interested in the paintings?

A．She gave up.	B．She invited more people.
C．She tore up all the paintings.	D．She posted a post on social media.

【推荐3】Liu Huan is a professor at the University of International Business and Economics. He is also a noted musician and popular singer in the Chinese mainland.
Born on Aug. 26, 1963 in to a teacher’s family in Tianjin, Liu enrolled at the University of International Relations in Beijing in 1981, majoring in French literature. He was retained at the university as a faculty member(教职工)after graduation in 1985. He won two first prizes in Beijing’s first-ever university English and French singing contests in 1985. To help promote local education by teaching music, he lived in Shizuishan, a remote area in the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, in 1985~1986. He was appointed a professor at the University of International Business and Economics to teach the history of Western music in 1991, and has been working at the university for more than 20 years.
As a professor, Liu is invited every year to colleges and universities in Beijing to teach music courses. As a famous musician, when asked if his classes differ from other teachers’, Liu simply said, “Nothing different. While standing on the platform, I am just a teacher. Everything outside has nothing to do with me at that moment. ”
Since becoming a professional singer in 1985, Liu’s singing has been widely welcomed across the country. He won many national awards, including the Top 10 Film and TV Singers in the Country in 1988, in 1990 and in 1992. On Aug. 8, 2008, Liu sang a duet “You and Me” with Sarah Brightman at the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympic Games, reaching the top of his singing career. In addition to singing, Liu Huan also creates original scores for film and TV. His works have been well received by both audiences and his peers in the industry.
Therefore, Liu is chosen to act as one of the four judges on “The Voice of China” , a surprisingly popular singing talent show which has been aired on Zhejiang Satellite TV since July 13, 2012. At the same time, his fellow judges are Na Ying, Yang Kun, and Harlem Yu. (322W)

1. What does the underlined word “noted” in the first paragraph mean?

A．Famous.

B．Skilled.

C．Gifted.

D．Important.

2. Liu Huan used to live in Shizuishan, a remote area in the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region to_____

A．learn about their customs and cultures

B．improve his ability of composing music by living in the village

C．help promote local education by teaching music

D．find some talented students in music

3. When he reached the top of his singing career, he was     .

A．45

B．22

C．28

D．49

4. Which is NOT true of the description about his musical achievements?

A．He has won the Top 10 Film and TV Singers in the Country three times.

B．He succeeded in singing a duet “You and Me” with Sarah Brightman at the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympic Games.

C．He creates many original scores for film and TV.

D．He is the only one who acts as a judge on “The Voice of China”.

【推荐2】One evening last summer, when I asked my 14 year old son, Ray, for help with dinner, his response shocked me. “What’s a colander (漏勺)?” he asked．

I could only blame myself. In the family, nobody else’s hands went in the sauce except my own. But that night, as I explained with a touch of panic that a colander is the thing with holes in it, I wondered what else I hadn’t prepared Ray for.

As parents, while we focus on our sons’ confidence and character, we perhaps don’t always consider that we are also raising someone’s future roommates, boyfriends, husbands, or fathers. I wanted to know that I’d raised a boy who would never ask the woman in his life, “What’s for dinner?” So I came up with a plan: I would offer Ray a private home economics course. I was delighted to find that he didn’t say no. For two hours, three days a week, Ray was all mine. One day, as his tomato sauce reduced on the stove, he washed and seasoned a chicken for roasting. Then he rolled out the piecrust (馅饼皮) and filled it with apples, all while listening to my explanation on the importance of preheating an oven.

I knew that he would rather have been shooting hoops in the driveway than learning to mend socks with his mother—he tried to beg not to have sewing lessons, even though I insisted that one day, someone would find the sight of him fixing his own shirt very attractive— but it couldn’t be denied that he was learning, and more than just housekeeping. “I appreciate what you do as a mom,” he told me one day. Ray now understands the finer points of cooking, and more importantly, he realizes there’s nothing masculine (男子气概的) about being helpless.

Now, not only can he make his own dinner, but also he can make a big meal for his family. That’s what I call a man. I’m glad that I prepared so great a present for my future daughter in-law.

1. Why was the author shocked at her son’s response?

A．Because he was not well behaved.

B．Because he refused to help with dinner.

C．Because he didn’t know the common kitchen tools.

D．Because he was very curious about kitchen tools.

2. In the author’s opinion, some parents pay little attention to _______．

A．building up children’s confidence

B．telling kids what is right and wrong

C．preparing children for their future life

D．making children live a hard life

3. After learning to do housework, Ray _______．

A．fell in love with sewing

B．did other work in the house

C．began to be more hardworking

D．acknowledged his mother’s efforts

4. We can infer from the text that Ray _______．

A．made great progress in cooking.

B．always thought housework interesting.

C．preferred sewing to cooking.

D．was unwilling to learn cooking at first.

5. What would the author like to convey in the text?

A．Useful education for boys.

B．The importance of housework.

C．Boys should be involved in housework.

D．Cooking and sewing make boys masculine.

【推荐3】I became a magician by accident. When I was nine years old, I learned how to make a coin disappear. I’d read The Lord of the Rings and gone into the adult section of the library to be buried in fantasy literature but young enough to still hold out hope that you might find a book of real, actual magic in the library. The book I found taught basic techniques, and I tried to practice.

At first the magic wasn’t any good. It was just a trick — a bad trick. I spent hours each day running through the secret moves in front of the mirror. I dropped the coin over and over, a thousand times in a day, and after two weeks my mom got a carpet and placed it under the mirror to muffle (消音) the sound of the coin falling again and again.

One day I made the coin disappear on the playground. We had been playing football and were standing in the field behind the school. A dozen people were watching. I showed the coin to everyone. Then it disappeared. The kids screamed.

A few years later, I staged an underwater escape in the river that flowed through the middle of the campus of the University of Iowa, where I went to school. I stood on a boat in the middle of the river wearing nothing but hiking shorts. The sky was dead and gray, and the water was cold at the surface, and colder in the depths below.

Technically, I succeeded. I jumped into the water, sank to the bottom, and escaped from the locks and chains before swimming to the surface. But it didn’t feel like a success.

1. Why did the author’s mother bring a carpet home?

A．To encourage him to clean the house.

B．To make the sounds less noisy than before.

C．To have guests clean their shoes on entering the house.

D．To decrease the number of cleaning the house.

2. How did the author make the kids scream?

A．By playing football with them.	B．By making the showed coin disappear.
C．By praictising his techniques more frequently.	D．By providing hands-on practice.

3. What can be a suitble title for the text?

A．The Magic Trick that Changed My Life.	B．A Nineteen-year-old Magician
C．What Can Give You a Magic Life.	D．A Brief Introduction to a Magician’s Life