【推荐1】Our neighbors have always had a beautiful statue by the gate of their house. I’ve always loved to look at it whenever I look out of the kitchen window.

The other day I found it wasn’t there! I hoped it was just moved and not lost! There were thieves reported recently. I told Mike about my worry and he said he would ask the neighbors the next time he saw them.

That afternoon he met Mrs “Neighbor” at the door and mentioned the missing statue to her. He told her how much we loved it and hoped it was safe. She said that she had just moved it to the yard and would bring it back right away. “Oh no,” said Mike. “We’re just glad it’s safe!”

That evening we went out to sit in our garden and saw that the statue was back by the gate! Oh, sweet neighbor! You were so kind!

The next day we were out in the garden again, planting flowers, and found that we had too many. We didn’t know where to put them all! I had to leave before we decided what to do with them. On my way out, I met Mrs “Neighbor” and thanked her for moving the statue back! She said she moved it to her yard because the area on the side of her house was too barren (荒芜的). There were no flowers. Suddenly an idea came into my mind! The flowers! She could have them!

Now the statue sits in beautiful flowers. I look out of my kitchen window again and smile. The kindness shared between neighbors is such a beautiful thing!

1. What made the writer feel worried?

A．The statue was moved inside.	B．Mike didn’t like the statue at all.
C．The statue might be taken away by thieves.	D．Her neighbors didn’t like the statue any more.

2. When Mike met Mrs “Neighbor”, he _____________.

A．asked her to put the statue outside	B．asked about the safety of the statue
C．gave her some flowers as a present	D．told her that there were thieves recently

3. When did the writer decide to give the flowers to Mrs “Neighbor”?

A．After she learned the statue was safe.	B．After she saw the barren area by the gate.
C．After she had a talk with Mrs “Neighbor”.	D．After she saw the statue was back by the gate.

4. Where is the statue now?

A．In the writer’s yard.	B．Beside the writer’s kitchen.
C．In the writer’s neighbors’ yard.	D．By the gate of the writer’s neighbors’ house.

【推荐3】She was three, just released from a hospital after brain surgery (手术). I was happy to have her back. My little “Mr. Clean ” (shaven head) and I went to our local mall.

“Daddy, can I get a treat? ” “OK, but just one, ” I replied. We got to the mall and walked hand in hand towards the entrance. I asked her what she wanted for her treat. Without hesitation, she said " An ice-cream cone from the ice-cream store." OK, the goal was set and we were in the mall!

At the end of an ordinary lane (小巷) she found something new--a huge fountain at about the same time. “Daddy, can I make a wish?” She screamed as she jumped with pure joy. Sure honey, but that will be your treat you know, I explained. She agreed.

I pulled out a coin and placed it in her hand. She held it tightly and closed her eyes making her wish. And then like a shooting star, the coin was thrown into the water with her wish.

“Can you tell Daddy what you wished for?” She answered, “I wished I could get an ice-cream cone.” Her answer was unexpected. Needless to say, she got her wish.

Little did I know then that my beautiful girl would soon be on a long road of seizures (疾病发作), surgeries, special schools, medications and end up paralyzed (麻痹) on her right side.

Today, she is almost seventeen. She cannot use her right hand and walks with a noticeable limp (跛行). But each year she showed improvement. She is planning a career in early childhood education.With one year still remaining in high school, she and I one night planned all the courses she would need to take in community college. It was her idea. You see that failure was never an option to her.

1. Why did the author call his daughter Mr. Clean?

A．Because she was a clean girl.

B．Because she liked people who are clean.

C．Because she had no hair.

D．Because it was her nickname when she was born.

2.          made the little girl scream and jump with pure joy.

A．The ice-cream cone

B．The huge fountain

C．The ordinary lane

D．The coin

3. Which of the following best describes the author 's daughter?

A．Kind and lucky.

B．Brave and strong.

C．Poor and lonely.

D．Lovely and friendly.

4. We can know from the passage that         .

A．the author did not buy his daughter the ice-cream cone

B．the author's daughter didn't tell him her wish

C．the author s daughter is paralyzed on her left side

D．the author is proud of his daughter

【推荐1】I must have looked deep in thought, or as deep in thought as an 11-year-old man can, when my grandmother glanced up from her weeding to ask, "You have something on your mind, don't you?"

"Yes, I was thinking that someday I want to be an Olympic speedskating champion like my hero, Eric Heiden, I want to be a doctor like my parents and I want to help children in Africa."

I immediately knew I had confided in the right person when a knowing smile broke across her face. "Johann, of course! You can do anything you want to do!" she said simply. And with my grandmother's support, I set out to pursue my passions.

14 years later, I was well ready to take hold of my first dream: becoming an Olympic champion. The Olympics in 1994 were in my home country, Norway. As I entered the Olympic stadium, I wasn't the best athlete, and many had doubts about my ability to perform well. But I had something special working for me. I had a woman in the first row who believed in me following my passions just as much as I did. For the first time ever, my grandmother was going to see me skate.

It happened. Breaking a world record, I won the gold.

As I stood on the podium(领奖台) that I had dreamed about my entire life, a curious question popped into my head. Why me? Why did I win, given all the other incredible competitors out there? The reason had to be more than a grandmother who shared a belief in her grandson's dream. The question led me to only one answer: because I wanted to make a difference in the world, and with all the media attention on my success, I could.

I immediately knew what that difference had to be: hope in the lives of the children in Africa. Six months earlier, I'd been invited to Egypt as an ambassador for Olympic Aid.

1. When the author spoke out what was on his mind, his grandmother______.

A．didn’t agree with him	B．she didn’t care about it
C．was not sure of his success	D．was in favor of him

2. When did the author probably realized his first dream?

A．When he was 14	B．when he was 25
C．14 years after the Olympics in 1994	D．Six months after he went to Africa

3. What will the author tell us in the part following the passage?

A．What was his life like in African?

B．What did he go through before adapting to the life in Africa?

C．What did he do to help the African children?

D．What did his grandmother do to support his career in Africa?

4. The whole passage is mainly about ______.

A．a young boy who had many dreams

B．the encouragement from a grandmother

C．a sportsman who realized his first dream of helping African children

D．an Olympic hero who made a difference in the world

【推荐2】“The first and best of victories for a man is to conquer himself; to be conquered by himself is, of all things, the most shameful,” says Plato. Self-control is at the root of all the advantages. Let a man give in to his impulses (冲动) and feelings, and from that moment he gives up his moral freedom.
A single angry word has lost many friends. When Socrates found in himself any temper or anger, he would check it by speaking low in order to control himself. If you are conscious of being angry, keep your mouth shut so that you can hold back rising anger. Many a person has dropped dead in great anger. Fits of anger bring fits of disease. _____________________________ “Keep cool,” says Webster, “anger is not argument.” “Be calm in arguing,” says George Herbert, “for fierceness (狂怒) makes error a fault.”
To be angry with a weak man is to prove that you are not strong yourself. “Anger,” says Pythagoras, “begins with foolishness and ends with regret.” You must measure the strength of a man by the power of the feelings he conquers, not by the power of those which conquer him.
Self-control is man’s last and greatest victory.
If a man lacks self-control he seems to lack everything. Without it he can have no patience, no power to govern himself; he can have no self-confidence, for he will always be controlled by his strongest feeling. If he lacks self-control, the very backbone and nerve of character are lacking too.
1. What’s the main idea of the passage?

A．Self- control is important for a man.

B．We should learn to be strong.

C．A man who keeps cool won’t lose any game.

D．The great heroes in history knew how to control themselves.

2. What does the underlined sentence in Paragraph 2 mean?

A．If you are mad, the gods will kill you.

B．If you lose your temper first, gods will kill you first.

C．If you can’t control yourself, you will be crazy.

D．If the gods want to kill you, they will make you mad first.

3. Which of the following is NOT true, according to passage?

A．The first and best of victories for a man is to conquer himself.

B．You will make a small mistake serious if you don’t keep cool.

C．You must measure a man’s strength by the power of the feelings which conquer him.

D．Anger begins with foolishness and ends with regret.

4. Which of the following can’t help you avoid anger, according to the passage?

A．Being calm in arguing.

B．Checking your temper or anger by speaking low.

C．Keeping your mouth shut.

D．Trying to make the other angry first.

【推荐3】In the middle of the Atlantic Ocean and preparing for the worst, Australian adventurer Peter Seiter wrote a farewell note to his family, put it in a bottle and threw it overboard. With a sense of bad feeling he wrote: “The ocean has a personality of its own. The place can be such a peaceful environment to be in, yet it can be frightfully violent. I’ve experienced both.” Fearing he wouldn’t make it home, he placed the note -- dated June 11, 1998 -- in a wine bottle and covered the bottle.
“I included my geographical coordinates, so if anything happened to me, they’d know my last place when I threw the bottle into the ocean,” says Peter, who was then sailing from the Azores in Portugal to New York and knew the Atlantic could be dangerous. He also included some money with his message, asking whoever found it to use the money to post the letter to his family.
Seventeen days later he reached his destination, having survived the dangerous seas, but he assumed his message in the bottle had not -- until it was found on shore, 11 years later!
Recently, American woman Katherine Ginn and her friend came across the bottle on a deserted beach in the Bahamas. “Alongside it they’d found a life jacket and, assuming the worst, opened the bottle and spent 24 hours drying it out so they could read my story and write to my family as I requested,” says Peter, 44. “I couldn’t believe it -- that after all these years my bottle had turned up with its contents, still undamaged.”
Overjoyed, he wrote to the pair, saying he was alive and living in Australia with his family.
Katherine posted him his letter, money and some broken glass of his bottle placed in a tiny box as a special souvenir. These special items now share pride of place among photos of Peter’s Atlantic voyage. “I can’t express what this old letter means to me,” Peter says. “It gives me a sense of hope and belief. It’s something special to share with my children as they grow up.”
1. Why did Peter have the idea of a message bottle?

A．He missed his family very much then.

B．He hoped to share his experience with his family.

C．He regretted taking a risk on the ocean.

D．He thought he might lose his life on the voyage.

2. As for the survival of the message bottle, Peter ________.

A．felt very certain about it

B．thought it had little chance of reaching land

C．took a long time to search for it

D．wrote a letter to Katherine

3. What can be inferred about the message bottle according to Paragraph 3 and 4?

A．Katherine found it by chance on a crowded beach.

B．It was 11 years before they came across it at sea.

C．Perhaps there was water in it when Katherine found it.

D．Peter couldn’t believe more that it was not damaged.

4. From the passage, we can learn that ________.

A．this was Peter’s first voyage in the Atlantic

B．Peter spent eleven days in the Atlantic

C．without the life jacket, the bottle wouldn’t have survived

D．Katherine was a caring and careful person

【推荐1】John H．Johnson was born in a black family in Arkansas city in 1918．His father died in an accident when John was six．He was reaching the high school age，but his hometown offered no high school for blacks．

Fortunately he had a strong﹣willed caring mother．John remembered that his mother told him many times，"Son，you can be anything you want really to be if you just believe．"She told him not to depend on others，including his mother．"You have to earn success，"she said．"All the people who work hard don't succeed，but the only people who do succeed are those who work hard．"

These words came from a woman with less than a third grade education．She also knew that believing hard work don't mean everything．So she worked hard as a cook for two years to save enough to take her son，who was then 15，to Chicago．

Chicago in 1933was not the promised land that black southerners were looking for．John's mother and stepfather could not find work．But here John could go to school，and here he learned the power of words﹣as an editor of the newspaper and yearbook at Du Sable High School his wish was to publish a magazine for blacks．

While others discouraged him，John's mother offered him more words to live by．"Nothing beats a failure but a try．"She also let him pawn（典当）her furniture to get the﹩500 he needed to start the Negro magazine．It is natural that difficulties and failures followed John closely until he became very successful．He always keeps his mother's words in mind．"Son，failure is not in your vocabulary!"

Now John H．Johnson is one of the 400 richest people in America﹣worth﹩150 million．

1. Why did John's mother decide to move to Chicago?

A．his father died when John was very young

B．life was too hard for them to stay on in their hometown

C．John needed more education badly

D．there were no schools for Negroes in their hometown

2. John's mother　　．

A．didn't believe in or depend on others

B．thought one could be whatever one wanted to be

C．believed one would succeed without working hard

D．thought no one could succeed without working hard

3. What does the underlined sentence "Nothing beats a failure but a try．"mean?

A．if you try，you would succeed

B．a failure is difficult to beat，even if you try

C．a try is always followed by a failure

D．no failure can be beaten unless you try．

【推荐3】Four years ago, Fred was on his way to work when he accidentally fell onto the tracks of Brooklyn’s train as a subway train was coming. The incident caused the loss of both of his legs.

But surprisingly, with the loss of his legs, Fred gained a new passion for racing. Before his accident. he wasn’t really that athletic. He would just occasionally (偶尔地) play basketball. But that all changed after he was introduced to handcycling (手摇自行车运动). “When I saw it. I was like, ‘Oh, this is great. You don’t even need legs to use it, this is perfect. ” he said. “So, I got on it, I rode and fell in love with it right away.”

Within a few months, he completed the TD Five Boro Bike Tour, a 40-mile ride through New York City. After that, he did his first marathon (马拉松) in 2021. He finished that race in 2 hours and 11 minutes, placing 12th out of 38.

“I’m going to attend this year’s marathon and take on challenges. My hands are on the wheel, my eyes are focused, and I think my time is going to speak for itself,” he said. He’s made a significant commitment to training. He rides his handcycle at least 13.1 miles a couple times a week and spends a lot of time in the gym. And he plans to keep pursuing his athlete goals. He wants to complete the Abbott Six-the world’s six largest marathons. One day, he said, “I’ll maybe even make it to the Paralympics.”

For those who might be following his journey, he hopes they will take some lessons from his story. “There will be ups and downs but the trend (趋势) is what’s important, focus on the good,” he said. “And also, take your big problems and divide them into small solutions, and then all of a sudden, your big problems turn into many small wins. ”

1. How did the accident happen to Fred?

A．Two trains ran into each other.	B．The train might leave the tracks.
C．The train might run over his legs.	D．He fell onto the tracks on his way back home.

2. When did Fred show interest in handcycling?

A．The minute he saw the sport.

B．Before he lost both of his legs.

C．After he had practiced the sport for several times.

D．After he watched others ride handcycles for some time.

3. What does the fourth paragraph mainly tell us?

A．The way that Fred rides a handcycle.

B．Fred’s introducing this year’s marathon.

C．Fred’s preparing hard to take part in the competition.

D．The reason why Fred spends a lot of time in the gym.

4. How can we best describe Fred?

A．Determined.

B．Shy.

C．Generous.

D．Careful.

【推荐1】This was the first real task I received in my new school. It seemed simple: go on the Internet and find information about a man named George Washington. As I searched the name, I found that there were two famous people having the same name who looked completely different! One invented hundreds of uses for peanuts(花生), while the other led some sort of army across America. I stared at the screen, wondering which one my teacher meant. I called my grandfather for a golden piece of advice; let the coin decide. I flipped(掷) a coin and Ah! Tails (背面)! My report would be about the great man who invented peanut butter, George Washington Carver.

Weeks later, I stood in front of the classroom and proudly read my homework. But things started to get strange. I looked around the room, only to find my classmates with big smiles on their faces and tears in their eyes and my stone-faced teacher. I was completely lost. “What could be causing everyone to act this way?”

Oh well, I dropped the paper and sat down at my desk, burning to find out what I had done wrong. As a classmate began his report, it all became clear, “My report is on George Washington, the man who started the American War of Independence.” The whole world became quiet! How could I know that my teacher meant that George Washington?

Of course, my subject result was awful. Sad but fearless, I decided to turn this around. I talked to the headmaster Miss Lancelot, but she said firmly: No re-dos; no new score. I felt that it was not fair, and I believed I deserved a second chance. So I threw myself heartily into my work for the rest of the school year. Ten months later, I sat in the headmaster’s office again, but this time a completely different conversation. I smiled and flashed back to the terrible moment at the beginning of the year as the headmaster told me I was good enough to skip(跳过) the 6th grade and started the 7th grade next term.

1. The task I received was to find information about ________.

A．uses for peanuts

B．American War of Independence

C．George Washington

D．my headmaster Miss Lancelot

2. People in the class acted strangely because ________.

A．I was too proud of my homework

B．I mistook what the homework was about

C．the whole world suddenly became quiet

D．the teacher’s face turned to a stone

3. We can infer(推断) from the passage that ________.

A．the headmaster didn’t like the writer at all

B．the writer’s classmates felt sad at his mistake

C．the writer knew little about American history

D．the writer’s grandpa was a very wise man

4. Which of the following proverbs can best describe the main idea of this story?

A．Seeing is believing.

B．Where there is a will, there is a way.

C．One is never too old to learn.

D．A friend in need is a friend indeed.

【推荐2】I arrived in this beautiful Spanish island at the start of September, full of enthusiasm and eager to start work as an English teacher. I sorted all the necessary paperwork out and moved into a flat of my own within the first couple of days. Great! Or so I thought. At 4 am and at several intervals after that, I was rudely awoken by the cock that lives opposite me. Fantastic! I now have 5 extra alarms every morning.

In the following weeks, I also started to notice a trend. Things in my flat started to break at the rate of one object per day, like the hot water, bowls, cups, shower, doors or glass shelves. Yes, I am clumsy but things just fell apart. If it wasn’t broken, it would either be dirty or missing. Using my washing basket for the first time was pretty disgusting. When I took out my clothes, they were swiftly followed by a hundred or so bugs that were living in the bottom.

As for the general lack of equipment in the house, there was no oven, tin opener, sharp knives or potato peeler. It turns out making a burger from scratch wasn’t the best idea. I have a small microwave and a grill. I thought the general understanding was never to put metal in a microwave but I went with it. Smoke soon started to appear. I was not quite sure if it was the burger or the grill but as soon as I opened the door, the electricity cut out. I spent the following 10 minutes in a dark, smoky room hunting for the power switch using the light from my mobile phone, which broke the week after and left me without a connection to the outer world.

Luckily, I’m now borrowing a phone and my luck has returned. No more things have broken (probably because there is nothing left to break). I’ve also realized that even if a flat looks pretty, it doesn’t mean its contents work. I am also learning how to adapt to life with limited, broken utensils (厨房用具).

1. What problem did the author have in the morning?

A．She got some noisy neighbors.	B．Her sleep was disturbed by a rooster.
C．She often slept late.	D．Her alarm failed to work.

2. What can we know about the author from Paragraph 2?

A．Her household articles were in poor condition.

B．Her flat was pretty old but comfortable.

C．She was quite satisfied with her flat.

D．She was a very careful woman.

3. What happened when the author was making a burger?

A．She broke her phone accidentally.	B．She suffered a sudden power failure.
C．She was seriously injured.	D．She made a terrible mistake.

4. What is the text mainly about?

A．Learning to live in a new flat.	B．Why living abroad is not easy.
C．Remaining optimistic.	D．How to choose a nice flat.

【推荐3】A British father, digital product manager Nick Herbert, has invented an app, ReplyASAP, because his 13-year-old son wasn't responding to his calls or texts.

The app takes over a smartphone screen, locking the phone from further use and sounds an alarm that only stops when the receiver replies by text. It sounds like an invasion of privacy(侵犯隐私) and the latest attempt by distrustful parents to track and control their children. But this is fair enough-it serves these youngsters right for not replying.

Mobile phones are usually bought by parents primarily for safety reasons, but teenagers have" other important things". Sometimes, it's perhaps an entirely reasonable lack of interest in anything that" boring adults" have to say.

However, mobiles have also long been employed by teens in the ongoing war against parental control in their otherwise vivid social lives. Thus, texts and calls are ignored, with the teen pretending to have missed them or just simply ignoring them. At which point parents must stroke their chins and consider apps such as “ReplyASAP”。

It should be pointed out that Herbert's son wasn't doing anything wrong-he was merely distracted by video games. Most teenagers wouldn't be doing anything wrong, but that's not the point. While there are wider concerns about things such as ReplyASAP being used by adults to control and abuse partners, makers can't really be held responsible for their apps being misused. And where kids are concerned, it's all about parental access and information. Parents not only have a right, they also need to know that their children are sate. It's this need, not the right, that I believe morally outweighs the child's privacy. Anyone who doesn't agree with me perhaps needs to experience the horror of not being able to locate their child in the small hours, long after they were supposed to be home.

1. Nick Herbert invented the new phone app because.

A．his son refused to talk to him	B．he couldn't reach his son by phone
C．his son was addicted to video games	D．he wanted to monitor his son's phone use

2. Teens sometimes ignore calls and texts from parents because they

A．have little interest in their parents' social life

B．find parents' concern over their safety ridicul.us

C．believe they are not doing anything wr.ng

D．are busy taking care of other things

3. ReplyASAP could be put to wrong use by

A．controlling adults	B．its maker
C．naughty teens	D．child abusers

4. Why does the author support apps such as ReplyASAP?

A．Because parents have the right to access their kids 'phone.

B．Because parents need to know if their kids are safe.

C．Because kids tend to stay out in the small hours.

D．Because kids are supposed to obey orders.