Twelve-year-old Amanda Clement raced to the ballpark across the street from her house in Hudson, South Dakota. She couldn't wait to join her brother, Hank, and the boys for a game of baseball.
Would they let her play? She could throw, run and bat as well as any of them, but they let her play only when they needed her. She would have to umpire again. At least she could be part of the game. Amanda knew all the rules, and the boys could count on her.
Over the next few years, local teams began asking her to judge their games，too. One summer day in 2018，Amanda and her mother traveled to Hawarden, Iowa, to watch Hank play in the championship semiprofessional game. Two local teams decided to play a game be- fore the semiprofessional teams. Amanda agreed to be the judge. As Amanda finished the morning game, she saw two men walking toward her. To her surprise, they were the manag- ers of the semiprofessional teams and were impressed with her judge and wanted her to judge the afternoon championship game. They would even pay her. The 16-year-old girl was about to become the first female paid to be a judge of a baseball game. Amanda was calm and confident and judged fairly. She was right on the spot, watching closely.
Newspaper reporters said that she was absolutely fair. Managers began to ask for her first when they needed a judge. Amanda was popular with the fans, too. In one game, the audience weren't happy with the judge and insisted on replacing him with Amanda. Being a judge was hard work. Amanda judged for the whole game, and she worked in all kinds of weather. She said, "It isn't as easy as it looks, but for all that, there is a good deal of enjoyment in the work. You have got to have confidence in your ability or you won't do well in anything.”
1. What can we learn about twelve-year-old Amanda| A．She always competed directly with boys. |
| B．She showed much enthusiasm for baseball. |
| C．She was the best player of a baseball game. |
| D．She played baseball better than her brother. |
| A．Act as a judge. | B．Join the local team. |
| C．Win a game. | D．Play baseball. |
| A．They doubted it. | B．They were angry with it. |
| C．They showed no interest m it. | D．They were favorably impressed by it. |
| A．Rude and unjust. | B．Silent and thoughtful. |
| C．Proud and narrow-minded | D．Confident and hard-working. |
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【推荐1】Don’t complain in the NBA
The NBA has a new rule this season. It’s called “zero tolerance”. NBA referees are not letting players complain too long or too loudly about a referee’s call. A player who does can be given a technical foul (犯规). Two technical fouls, and the player is out of the game.
The players don’t like the new rule and want the NBA to change it. They think it’s only natural to get angry during a close, hard-fought game if a call goes against you.
But I like the “zero tolerance” rule and wish other sports would follow the NBA’s example. Wouldn’t it be more enjoyable if football, soccer and tennis players stopped arguing the calls and just played the game?
The biggest reason I like the new rule is that it sets a good example to younger players. When kids see stars such as Rasheed Wallace of the Detroit Pistons shouting at the referees and arguing every call, they think it’s part of the game. But shouting at referees and arguing calls should never be part of any kid’s games. Kids should be taught to forget about the referees’ calls and pay attention to improving their skills and play their best.
All players need to learn that you control only one thing in a game, and that’s your own performance. You can’t control what the other players or trainers do. And you certainly can’t control the calls the referees make.
Finally, everyone from NBA all-stars to 8-year-olds should remember that being a basketball referee is a hard job. The referee has to make dozens of sudden calls. No hesitation. No second chances. Not even the best referee gets every call right.
Maybe if the players, trainers and fans who shout at the referees had to wear a whistle and call a few games, there wouldn’t be as many complaints about the “zero tolerance” rule.
The new rule | The players are not otherwise he might be |
The | They dislike the new rule and wish it to be |
They think it’s natural for them to get angry during a close game if there is a call | |
The writer’s opinion | He likes the “zero-tolerance” rule and wishes it to be followed by other sports and it would be more enjoyable if players |
The new rule does | |
Shouting at referees and arguing calls shouldn’t be part of any kid’s games and kids should pay attention to | |
All players can control nothing else except their own | |
Everyone should keep in mind that it’s |
【推荐2】All over the world people are hooked on sports, which help them to strengthen their body and build their character.
Many people like to watch others play games.
People from different countries or races may not be able to understand each other, but after a game, they get to know each other better and they often become good friends.
| A．They can make friends with each other. |
| B．Sports help to train a person’s character. |
| C．They buy tickets or turn on the TV to watch the games. |
| D．Chinese people liked doing sports even in ancient times. |
| E．What fun it is to jump into a pool or lake, whether in China, Egypt or Italy! |
| F．Some sports or games date back thousands of years, like running or jumping. |
| G．Sports are competitive physical activities or games through casual or organized participation. |
【推荐3】Football clubs have existed since the 15th century, but unorganized and without official status. It is therefore hard to decide which the first football club was.
Early clubs were formed by former school students.
Another change took place when some clubs became willing to pay the best players to join their team.
Football was for a long time a British phenomenon.
Then the Federation Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) was founded. England and the other British countries did not join FIFA from the start. They had invented the game and saw no reason to obey an association.
In 1908, football was included as an official sport in the Olympic Games. Until the first FIFA World Cup was played in 1930, the Olympic Games football tournament ranked as the greatest on a national level.
| A．Other milestones were now to follow. |
| B．Still, they joined in the following year. |
| C．Thus, football was played all over the world. |
| D．But it gradually spread to other European countries. |
| E．Until now, FIFA still plays a major role in the world. |
| F．And the first of this kind was formed in Sheffield in 1855. |
| G．The motivation behind this was not only to win more matches. |
【推荐1】I had the chance to go to college locally in Jamaica，but knew that going to school in the U. S. would give me more career opportunities. So I went 1o the U. S. and studied engineering，an area traditionally held by men. While in school，I interned for three years with Bell Atlantic’s（Now Verizon）science and technology lab. They offered me a job when I graduated，but I turn edit down，thinking I wouldn't have the same opportunities as males in the organization.
I chose to take a position in a French company. A few years later，I made re-entry into Bell Atlantic because it was purchased（收购）by the French company.
My experiences over the years have helped me to grow and promote（晋升）within the organization. I'm now the president of Verizon Telecom's New England area，overseeing 4，000 employees who deliver excellent service to customers and businesses in Massachusetts and Rhode Island
I recognize that I am where l am today as a result of people reaching out and guiding me---I’ve been fortunate throughout my career，and that's why it's so important for me to he able to give back. I'm extremely enthusiastic about youth development. In 2009，my husband and I set up the Global Venture Foundation in the Caribbean，which intended to inspire and develop youth leadership through a combination of structured athletic and educational programs.
The foundation has a variety of functions，including youth mentoring（指导），summer programs based in the U. s. and college students placement help and funding. Having recently moved to the greater Boston area. I am looking forward to setting up roots in the community that will allow me to continue touching the lives of the youth.
1. Why did the author turn down the offer from Bell Atlantic?| A．She wanted to find her job in the U.S |
| B．She wanted to find her job by herself. |
| C．She wouldn't have the equal chances as males there. |
| D．She found most of the positions were held by men there. |
| A．She pays back for what she has gained. |
| B．She plans to quit her job in Bell Atlantic. |
| C．She helps train more women employees. |
| D．She gets promotion in her position. |
| A．Athletic training. |
| B．Helping the disadvantaged. |
| C．Youth training and promoting |
| D．Supporting university education. |
| A．To show off her great success in her life. |
| B．To share her successful stories in her career. |
| C．To tell us her desire to contribute to society. |
| D．To inform us of something about her company. |
【推荐2】Ellen Kalish runs a center for rescued wild animals in New York. When a woman asked if she could treat an owl, she was happy to help. Then, the caller told her exactly where the tiny owl was hiding out. It was the Christmas tree in Rockefeller Center in New York City! Kalish said she has been helping wild animals for 20 years, but she has never heard a story like that. The rescued owl has been nicknamed “Rockefeller”.
When workers were unwrapping the tree which just arrived, one of them spotted the creature. It was buried in the base of the tree, Kalish said. At first the worker thought the owl might be injured. It would not let go of the tree’s base. One of the workers called his wife, telling her he was bringing the owl home. He asked if she could find a place that helps wildlife animals. She called Kalish.
The owl is the smallest of its kind living in the Northeast. So how did Rockefeller end up stuck in the tree in the first place? Kalish offered a few ideas. He could have gone to the tree to hide and got trapped later, she said. Maybe once the tree was loaded onto a truck, the branches squished (挤压) him into the trunk. He might have been too scared to move.
Kalish met the woman who first called her at a gas station. The woman handed her a cardboard box with the owl inside. “He looked up at me, and I was relieved to see that he was looking in relatively good shape,” Kalish said of their first meeting. She was impressed that he didn’t look worse.
Kalish brought Rockefeller back to the wildlife center. She said she gave him plenty of water and left two mice in the plastic pet carrier. They were gone by the next morning. Rockefeller spent most of his time at the wildlife center eating or sleeping. On Monday, he went to the vet (兽医) to get some X-rays taken. He has no broken bones, Kalish added.
Rockefeller will not spend much time at the center, she said. She is preparing to release him soon. He will fly away at dusk. That’s the time when owls normally wake up. The release will be quick and quiet, she said, and she will bring a camera to take pictures of him flying away.
“I will wish him a very long and happy life,” Kalish said. “For me, it’s the Christmas miracle of 2020.”
1. What can we learn about Ellen Kalish in Paragraph 1?| A．She is a vet in a wildlife center. |
| B．She is an employee in a nature reserve. |
| C．She was surprised hearing the owl’s story. |
| D．She had little experience in treating animals. |
| A．It appeared suddenly as the tree was loaded onto a truck. |
| B．It might have been too scared to move when trapped. |
| C．It settled into the tree branches as home. |
| D．It was locked into the trunk of a car. |
| A．She rescued him from a damaged Christmas tree. |
| B．She drove him back to his home in the Northeast. |
| C．She gave him water and food at her wildlife center. |
| D．She performed X-rays on the owl before releasing him. |
| A．Unpleasant. | B．Comfortable. |
| C．Stressful. | D．Disappointing. |
【推荐3】When people ask how many languages I speak, I reply I have forgotten six. That’s the problem with languages: if you don’t use them you lose them. But a little practice soon brings them back and you can once again enjoy the magic of talking to others in their own language and on their own terms.
I was a disaster at languages at school. I obtained 5 out of 200 in zero level French — an all time record. I was badly taught and I could never see the point. But as a young Royal Navy soldier to Singapore in the early 1960s,I heard that in Malay there was one word for “let’s take off our clothes and tell dirty stories”. Suddenly I saw the point. I never found the word, but in the process I learnt my first language. In the mid-60s,I was sent to the deep jungle among the local people. In their long-houses there were dried human heads hanging from the frames of the houses. I decided I would feel more comfortable if I knew their language too.
Not long after that, I spent two years learning official Chinese language in Hong Kong. One day, at a party with fellow students and teachers I tried to make a small talk with my female Chinese teacher. “Have you ever flown in planes?” However, with my terrible Chinese tones, I made a mistake by asking “Have you by any chance sat upon a flying cock?” So you can imagine how I really felt inside my mind at that moment! You know what it means by speaking in such an uncomfortable tune to a female teacher!
Then I changed my languages and chatted with her in German, French and Russian in brief. God Heavens! My female Chinese teacher finally reacted and turned her red face to normal! Indeed this is the only time in my adult life when I haven’t been learning a language. Languages have changed my life-and enriched it. And I think they can change yours too.
1. In the writer’s eyes, the loss of using a language can be obtained .| A．by practicing it more often | B．from a zero level record |
| C．by learning the points | D．from a Chinese teacher |
| A．he hated speaking Chinese with female people |
| B．he didn’t learn languages very effectively |
| C．his French tests were always a zero record |
| D．his Chinese teachers taught him in a bad way |
| A．would make the writer more confident of his Chinese level |
| B．would certainly bring the writer a severe punishment |
| C．brought the writer into a very embarrassing situation |
| D．would make her think highly of his Chinese level |
| A．warn people not to make any mistakes in official language |
| B．advise people to try using more languages to talk with others |
| C．suggest a diversity of changes of languages in people’s life |
| D．relieve the tense atmosphere to make her relaxed |
【推荐1】From Rags to Riches: Success Stories to Inspire You
For many people, stories about success can be truly motivational. Indeed, reading about someone’s journey, the hardships they overcame and how they eventually achieved success can become the sort of examples that encourage us to persist in achieving our own goals.
The following amazing success stories of celebrities will become a source of endless inspiration for you.
Stephen King
The master of horror has penned over 90 stories throughout his career, most of which have been a definitive success. But the going wasn’t always easy for King.
Raising a family with his wife Tabitha, who was also a writer, the pair could barely make ends meet. When he wasn’t working as a teacher, King worked odd jobs at a laundromat, and as a gas station attendant and a janitor to keep a roof over his family’s heads.
His first novel Carrie, which tells the story of a troubled teen with telekinetic powers, was rejected 30 times before finally getting published, eventually becoming one of the best-selling novels of all time.
Anita Roddick
The late founder of The Body Shop could never have predicted the success that her business would bring. Indeed, when Roddick founded The Body Shop, she had a simple plan: to sell cruelty-free cosmetics made from natural ingredients.
Soon after opening the doors to her first store in 1976, its vast popularity led to numerous franchises, resulting in over 700 global stores by 1991.
Thanks to Roddick’s unique vision, The Body Shop became the forefront for ethical consumerism, becoming one of the first businesses to shun animal-tested ingredients and promote fair-trade products. Roddick also used her booming business to support and advocate several environmental and social causes, often working with organizations such as Greenpeace.
James Dyson
Britain’s richest man has taken the world by storm with his inventions. However, Dyson’s schooling is not what you’d expect from a world-renowned inventor. Indeed. Dyson was inclined towards the arts as a student and studied furniture design at the Royal College of Art in London.
But his career path would take a turn one day after becoming frustrated with his home vacuum. After breaking it apart and identifying a design flaw in the product. Dyson set out to create what would become a market-changing invention: the first bagless vacuum cleaner.
It took him 5 years and 5, 126 failed prototypes before he made one that worked. But after being unable to find a manufacturer that would produce it, Dyson put his house on the line to become a manufacturer himself. Even then, getting sellers and shops to stock his vacuum cleaner was a struggle, and being a one-man operation, he acted as the sole designer, engineer, manufacturer and salesman of his product.
Although it took a while for his invention to get any attention from consumers, once it did, it inevitably became a billion-dollar idea that set the foundations for Dyson’s empire.
1. What does the article intend to tell the readers?| A．How to achieve success. | B．How to become a famous person. |
| C．How to find inspiration. | D．How to be motivated. |
| A．King experienced several jobs to gain inspiration. |
| B．Carrie became a hit once it was published. |
| C．King’s wife Tabitha was good at managing money. |
| D．King’s works mainly feature horror. |
| A．It has numerous franchises. | B．It has chain stores all over the world. |
| C．It never uses animal-tested ingredients. | D．It is environment-friendly. |
| A．People didn’t recognize Dyson’s invention at first. |
| B．Dyson started his own company after cooperating with a manufacturer. |
| C．Dyson’s home vacuum had a problem with its bag. |
| D．Dyson used to be a furniture designer. |
【推荐2】Shetara Sims had weathered some tough years. In 2012, her eldest daughter died from a car accident in Kansas City, Missouri. Last year, the single mother lost her job because of the economic depression. She had only $7 in her pocket as she headed into the grocery store one day last July with her 12-year-old daughter, Rakiya Edmondson.
And then Lady Luckcut them some slack. Sims and her daughter found a dollar bill in the parking lot. Maybe this was their day, they told each other. So, they bought a lottery ticket—and won $100.
But before they could spend their bonus, Rakiya had an idea. The news in Kansas City that week had been filled with stories about a police officer, Tyler Moss, who had been seriously injured in the line of duty. He was in critical condition Rakiya and her mother had never forgotten how kind the police had been after their own family member died. "The police were really there for us," Sims says. "They came to see my kids. They were fathers, friends, and therapists." Rakiya wanted to give their lottery winnings to Officer Moss's family. Her mom readily agreed.
On July 10, Sims called the police and made an unidentified donation. Moved by her generous expression of thanks the officers did what they could do best—they tracked Sims down. When she explained the family's motivation, the officers could hardly believe it. "With her current financial hardship, we encouraged her to keep the money," the department later explained. "She refused, saying the officer's family needed it and police needed to know they were supported."
By then, that feeling of support was shared. The police set up a GoFundMe page for Sims, whom they described as “The Woman with the Heart of Gold." Their goal was $10,000. As of January 11, 2021, they had received $165,405. Ever better: Officer Moss, who had a 1 percent chance of survival, is out of the hospital and recovering.
1. What does the underlined phrase in paragraph 2 mean?| A．Giving them up | B．Doing them a favor. |
| C．Ridding them of debt. | D．Inspiring them with an idea. |
| A．To extend thanks to the police | B．To make a name on the Internet. |
| C．To get additional financial support. | D．To set up a fund for the officer Moss. |
| A．They raised money for her. | B．They bought lottery for her. |
| C．They provided medical care | D．They saved her eldest daughter. |
| A．Hardship makes a man wise. | B．Don't judge a book by its cover. |
| C．One good turn deserves another. | D．A friend in need is a friend indeed. |
【推荐3】Karen Darke was paralyzed (瘫痪的) from the chest down in a climbing accident about 30 years ago, but it hasn’t stopped her from continuing her life as an extreme adventurer.
Darke was 21 when she fell 10 meters off a sea cliff (悬崖) while climbing in Scotland. She woke up three days later and was told she was paralyzed from the chest down. She’s been in a wheelchair ever since.
She had a really hard time. However, what opened her eyes was seeing other patients around her with even less muscle function, and the news of a close friend dying while climbing, only a few months after her own accident. “It just kind of made me realize that I was still here, and I had to make the most of the situation,” she says.
Her first adventure after her accident was a handbike ride along the Silk Route from Kazakhstan to Pakistan in the Himalayas in 1996, which she still thinks is her most significant one so far. Other adventures followed, including more Himalayan rides, sit-skiing across Greenland in 2007 and climbing the 3,000-foot cliff El Capitan in Yosemite in 2008.
Darke joined the British Para-cycling team in 2010 and won silver at the London Paralympics two years later. At the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games, she won the gold medal for hand cycling. But the real prize, she says, was the “inner gold” — “a discovery of what is possible when the power of thought, clear intention and good people come together.”
Her latest adventure is Quest 79, a project to undertake a total of nine handbike rides on seven continents while raising money for charity and encouraging others to take on their own challenges. Darke believes the biggest barrier to living and achieving our dreams isn’t our bodies, but our minds. “Even if in our darkest days when we think we can’t do it anymore, anything is possible.”
1. What did Darke face at the age of 21?| A．The failure at the London Paralympics. | B．The separation from her friends. |
| C．A terrible traffic accident. | D．A physical disability. |
| A．The handbike ride along the Silk Route. | B．Nine handbike rides on seven continents. |
| C．Climbing the cliff El Capitan. | D．Sit-skiing across Greenland. |
| A．Behind bad luck comes good luck. | B．Where there is a will, there is a way. |
| C．He that travels far knows much. | D．Life is not all roses. |
| A．Imaginative and talkative. | B．Traditional and generous. |
| C．Positive and courageous. | D．Wise and scholarly. |
