【推荐2】Good afternoon. I am Sullivan. Now think about a question: What determines the way we are when we grow up? Let’s start with the TV program Seven Up. Do you still remember it? It started following the lives of a group of children in 1973. We first meet them as wide-eyed seven-year-olds and catch up with them at seven-year intervals: nervous 14-year-olds, serious 21-year-olds and then grown-ups.

There are ups and downs in their lives, but interestingly, in almost all the cases the children’s early hopes and dreams are shown in their future lives. For example, at seven, Tony is a lively child who says he wants to become a sportsman or taxi driver. When he grows up, he goes on to do both. How about Nicki? She says, “I would like to find out about the moon.” And she goes on to become a space scientist. As a child, soft-spoken Bruce says he wants to help “poor children” and ends up teaching in India.

But the program would have been far less interesting if the lives of all the children had followed this pattern. It was the children whose childhood did not prepare them for what was to come that made the program so fascinating. Where did their ideas come from about what they wanted to do when they grew up? Are children influenced by what their parents do, by what they see on television or by what their teachers say? Many film directors, including Steven Spielberg, say that an early visit to the cinema was the turning point in their lives. One of my colleagues, Dr. Margaret, who has devoted herself to researches in this area and published her findings in Science, thinks that the major factors are parents, friends and the wider society.

1. From Paragraph 2, we know that ________.

A．people will make great achievements if they have dreams in their childhood

B．the children’s childhood dreams are more or less the same

C．the lives of the children in the TV program are not smooth

D．a large number of poor people in India are in need of help

2. From Spielberg’s story we can conclude that ________.

A．going to a movie at an early age helps a child learn about the space

B．parents and friends can help a child grow up properly

C．a single childhood event may decide what one does as a grown-up

D．films have more influence on a child than teachers do

3. Which one is TRUE according to the passage?

A．The TV program is not so appealing.

B．One of the children, Bruce, ended up teaching in India because he is not strong.

C．The children in the TV program made good preparations for their future in their childhood.

D．In the TV program, the research on the children is done every seventh year.

4. We can tell that Sullivan may be ________.

A．a radio announcer

B．a professor

C．a librarian

D．a geologist

【推荐3】阅读表达

When people think of New York City, most of them probably picture the attractive lifestyles of the rich and famous or think of Broadway, Times Square and other tourists attractions. However, there is another side of New York City. The summer after tenth grade, I went with my group on a mission trip to New York City for a week.

I had always known that poverty existed in major cities, but I had never seen it to a degree as high as we did there. We worked at several different locations with our small groups. One day, we served at a soup kitchen and what I saw astounded me. I couldn’t believe my eyes. We saw people from all walks of life. We met people who came there because they had no job, no home and no money.

Another day, we volunteered at a homeless shelter. We helped people there do some cleaning and spent time talking to them and listening to their stories. It was incredible to see how thankful they were to us for just spending a couple of hours talking to them.

Every person we met on that trip had a unique story. Whatever their stories were, there was a common thread we saw in them—hope and thanks. These were people who had nothing and yet they were so hopeful about her future and they were thanking us.

My experience during the summer changed my life. I used to picture my future as containing a big house and a lot of money, but now I see my future as helping others. After college, I would really like to work for some sort of global aid organization that deals with social issues, such as poverty and homelessness.

1. What do most people have in mind when thinking of New York City? (no more than 10 words)
_________________________________________________________________
2. What does the underlined word “astounded” in Paragraph 2 mean?(1 word)
_________________________________________________________________
3. What did the author discover in the people at the homeless shelter? (no more than 15 Words)
_________________________________________________________________
4. What kind of organization does the author want to work for after college? (no more than 10 words)
_________________________________________________________________
5. How does the author’s experience inspire you? (no more than 25 words)
_________________________________________________________________

【推荐1】The other day a big, ugly, black bat found its way to the bathroom of my house and hung upside down, over the toilet bowl. As “the man of the house”, I was asked to rid the house of the awful creature. I grabbed a pillow and held the broom. I quickly opened the bathroom door and threw the pillow at the bat. It didn’t move. Then that old feeling started to come over me. It was the same feeling I experienced when I was sent down the stairs in the middle of the night to see what made a noise. The feeling can be summed up in one word—trapped.

All men, I think, sometimes have had that feeling of being trapped in some male role. It may be something as simple as having to carve the chicken before it is served, or having to pretend that you know something about car engines when the car won’t start. However，women nowadays seem to have the freedom to be themselves. They can repair cars or be firefighters. Yet men appear to be more afraid to do something different. It's as if being a man is not what you are, but what you do and the way you do it.

As I came towards the fierce and frightening bat, I wondered what would happen if I had simply told my wife that I won’t do it—that she could get it out，or else call someone in the morning. But I couldn’t do that! I am the man! I slowly opened the window and closed the toilet bowl cover. I then, carefully, lifted the broom over my head and swept the bat out the window. Just like that, it was gone.

My wife was so pleased and in the morning, my son thought I was a hero. They asked me how I had got rid of the bat. I started to tell them——but then stopped. A man doesn’t talk of such things.

1. Why does the author mention the old feeling in Paragraph 1?

A．To recall the old days.	B．To show his fear of darkness.
C．To predict his fight with the bat.	D．To highlight the situation of being trapped.

2. What does the author mean by mentioning women’s freedom in Paragraph 2?

A．Men are forced to bear household burdens.

B．Men have to live up to social expectations.

C．Women are free to choose their jobs.

D．Women are equal to men in workplaces.

3. The last sentence of the passage implies that the author________.

A．believes silence is gold	B．feels proud of himself
C．will do what he has to do	D．will be what he wants to be

【推荐2】I wanted, in 1999, to be a “farmer’s wife”. Thankfully, after quick correction by my progressive parents, that gradually turned into “farmer”. But that only lasted until my dad told me I had to put my arms up cows’ backsides. Immediately I rethought my career path. Archaeologist followed, and driving instructor after that, then somewhere along the way, footballer.

I remember the exact moment when I said to my dad, “It makes me sad I can’t be a footballer.” He asked why not, and I answered, “Because I’m not a boy.” Looking back, I can see exactly why I felt like that. At school, there was an unwritten rule that sports like hockey and netball were “girl” sports and rugby and football were for the boys. Besides, I’d never seen a women’s football match on TV.

Representation is critical, and although we talk about it a lot, I’m yet to be convinced that those who were represented often fully understand what it means to those who aren’t, and how, without really realizing, it affects the general trajectory (轨迹) of their life. In the words of Marian Wright-Edelman, “______” Lack of representation leads, at best, to a misunderstanding around a certain group of people, or at worst, fear and discrimination.

Today, the Lionesses will take on Scotland in the FIFA World Cup, and people across the world will tune in. But, although women’s football has turned out to be one of FIFA’s best investments — with a pound for pound return, only £24 million prize money was awarded to the women’s World Cup victors in comparison to £315 million in the men’s. The most popular defence of those figures argues that it is because viewing statistics are lower than those played by their male counterparts, but the truth is, investment is needed for female football to become more visible and become an equally respected game.

I often wonder what path I would have taken if the option had not seemed so impossible. Today, I’ll be cheering on the Lionesses because talented, skillful female footballers will be broadcast into millions of homes and maybe, among the millions of viewers is a little girl believing that she too can be a Lionesses one day.

1. What did the author go through on her career path?

A．She stuck to her initial goal in the face of challenges.

B．She didn’t hold out much hope of becoming a footballer.

C．She didn’t take her father’s suggestions seriously.

D．She gave up her dream because of the unwritten rule.

2. Which of the following sentences can be put in the blank in paragraph3?

A．It’s what you think about yourself that counts.

B．It’s never too late to realize your ambition.

C．You never know what the future holds in store.

D．You can’t be what you can’t see.

3. Which statement would the author most likely agree with?

A．Most female football players are earning a fair wage.

B．Female players earn less because they attract less attention.

C．Awareness should be built with investment in the first place.

D．FIFA is not aware that women’s football games are profitable.

4. What can we infer from the last paragraph?

A．Girls will be motivated to pursue their dreams.

B．The author has fulfilled her dream of being a footballer.

C．The Lionesses is a female football team without equal

D．Female football games are as exciting as male ones.

【推荐3】Franz Kafka wrote that “a book must be the ax (斧子)for the frozen sea inside us.” I once shared this sentence with a class of seventh graders, and it didn’t seem to require any explanation.

We’d just finished John Steinbeck’s novel Of Mice and Men. When we read the end together out loud in class, my toughest boy, a star basketball player, wept a little, and so did I. “Are you crying?” one girl asked, as she got out of her chair to take a closer look. “I am,” I told her, “and the funny thing is that I’ve read it many times.”

But they understood. When George shoots Lennie, the tragedy is that we realize it was always going to happen. In my 14 years of teaching in a New York City public middle school, I’ve taught kids with imprisoned parents, abusive parents, irresponsible parents; kids who are parents themselves; kids who are homeless; kids who grew up in violent neighborhoods. They understand, more than I ever will, the novel’s terrible logic—the giving way of dreams to fate.

Year after year, however, we are increasing the number of practice tests. We are trying to teach students to read increasingly complex texts, not for emotional punch (碰撞) but for text complexity. Yet, we cannot enrich the minds of our students by testing them on texts that ignore their hearts. We are teaching them that words do not amaze but confuse. We may succeed in raising test scores, but we will fail to teach them that reading can be transformative and that it belongs to them.

1. The underlined sentence probably means that a book may help to________.

A．make us brave	B．arouse our feelings
C．cut things open	D．give support to our life

2. After reading John Steinbeck’s novel Of Mice and Men, ________.

A．all of the class were moved to tears

B．the naughtiest boy in the class cried

C．the author couldn’t hold back her tears

D．the students didn’t expect the tragedy happened

3. Why were the students able to understand the novel Of Mice and Men?

A．Because the novel was too simple.

B．Because they might have the same experiences.

C．Because they lived with uneducated parents.

D．Because they grew up in terrible environment.

4. What’s the author’s attitude towards the current education system?

A．Negative.	B．Doubtful.
C．Positive.	D．Supportive.

【推荐1】They asked Katherine Johnson for the moon, and she gave it to them. With little more than a pencil, a slide rule and one of the finest mathematical minds in the country, Mrs. Johnson, who died at 101 on Monday, calculated the precise trajectories (轨道)that would let Apollo 11 land on the moon in 1969 and, after Neil Armstrong's history—making moonwalk, let it return to Earth.

Yet throughout Mrs. Johnson's 33 years in NASA and for decades afterward, almost no one knew her name.

Mrs. Johnson was one of several hundred strictly educated, supremely capable yet largely unrecognized women who, well before the modem feminist movement, worked as NASA mathematicians. But it was not only her sex that kept her long unsung. For some years at midcentury, the black women were subjected to a double segregation (隔离)：They were kept separate from the much large group of white women who in turn were segregated from the agency's male mathematicians and engineers.

Mrs. Johnson broke barriers at NASA. In old age, Mrs. Johnson became the most celebrated of black women who served as mathematicians for the space agency. Their story was told in the 2016 Hollywood film "Hidden Figures," which was nominated for three Oscars, including best picture.

In 2017, NASA dedicated a building in her honor. That year, The Washington Post described her as “the most high - profile of the computers” — “computers ” being the term originally used to describe Mrs. Johnson and her colleagues, much as “typewriters” were used in the 19th century to represent professional typists.

She “helped our nation enlarge the frontiers of space,” NASA's administrator, Jim Bridenstine, said in a statement on Monday, “even as she made huge steps that also opened doors for women and people of color in the universal human quest to explore space.”

As Mrs. Johnson herself was fond of saying, her tenure (任期) at Langley — from 1953 until her retirement in 1986 — was “a time when computers wore skirts.”

1. What is the function of the first paragraph?

A．To present the Apollo moon mission.

B．To stress Mrs. Johnson's contributions

C．To honour Neil Armstrong's moonwalk.

D．To mourn a great woman—Mrs. Johnson.

2. What does the underlined word "barriers” in Paragraph 4 refer to ?

A．Gender inequality and color line.

B．Mrs. Johnson's unrecognized talents.

C．The agency's male mathematicians and engineers.

D．The hardships before the modem feminist movement.

3. Why were Mrs. Johnson and her colleagues described as "computers"?

A．Because they used computers to keep their work secret.

B．Because they were the agency's human calculators'

C．Because computer systems engaged them deeply.

D．Because they opened a door to outer space.

4. What can we learn from Mrs. Johnson's experience?

A．Try things that may not work.

B．The world awaits our discovery.

C．Use knowledge to wipe out ignorance '

D．Never be limited by the labels attached by others.

【推荐3】Just reading Facebook posts——without posting messages or responding to comments——makes users feel bad about themselves，some studies have discovered. A 2015 study at the University of Michigan，for example，found that students who simply read Facebook posts for 10 minutes were in a worse mood by the end of the day than those who posted messages or commented on friends' posts.

Researchers think that users who only read posts may be always comparing their own lives to others' posts and feel they're coming up short. Or users may simply be missing out on face-to-face human communication.This is necessary and important for a healthier state of mind. "In general，when people spend a lot of time passively（被动地）receiving information——reading，but not interacting（交流）with people——they report feeling worse afterward，"said an unusual Facebook blog post.

The research appears to be bad news for Facebook，but Facebook itself is getting the negative news known to the public. In fact，the findings support the company's push to get users to be more active on the site，the blog noted. Research has also found that “interacting with people—especially sharing message，posts and comments with close friends and thinking of past interactions — is connected with improvements in well-being".

One commenter to the Facebook blog post noted that it's "no surprise that your conclusions-encouraging 'active' Facebook use—are connected with Facebook's business interests. It gives Facebook chances to persuade us into sharing, commenting, and posting more than ever—for our own good!"

The company has faced a lot of negative news about Facebook. Former Facebook Vice President Chamath Palihapitiya told Stanford University graduate business students that social media are destroying society. Palihapitiya said he felt really bad for the role he played in making Facebook so outstanding."We kind of knew something bad could happen."

1. What did the 2015 study mainly show?

A．Not all users considered Facebook useful.

B．Using Facebook in the right way could benefit us.

C．Not all people loved interacting with others on Facebook.

D．Passively using Facebook negatively affected users' moods.

2. What does the underlined word "This"in Paragraph 2 refer to?

A．Avoiding comparing ourselves with others.

B．Reading the posts on Facebook positively.

C．Interacting with others face to face.

D．Sharing experiences on Facebook.

3. Why did Facebook make the findings known to the public?

A．To encourage people to use Facebook more.

B．To show Facebook's concern about its users.

C．To apologize to its users for the bad influence.

D．To prove the importance of human interaction.

4. From what Chamath Palihapitiya said, we learn that       .

A．Facebook has some disadvantages

B．Facebook is facing serious challenges

C．Facebook disappoints the public deeply

D．Facebook is improving some students' life

【推荐1】When I travel the country speaking to high school and college students about exactly what they need to do to become financially successful in life, I always begin my presentation by asking three questions:

“How many want to be financially successful in life?”

“How many think they will be financially successful in life?”

Almost every time I ask the first two questions every hand rises in the air. Then I ask the magic third question:

“How many have taken a course in school on how to be financially successful in life?”

Not one hand rises in the air, ever. Clearly every student wants to be successful and thinks they will be successful but none have been taught by their parents or their school system how to be financially successful in life. Not only are there no courses on basic financial success principles but there are no structured courses teaching basic financial literacy. We are raising our children to be financially illiterate and to fail in life. Is it any wonder that most Americans live paycheck to paycheck? That most Americans accumulate more debt than assets? That many Americans lose their homes when they lose their job? Is it any wonder that most Americans cannot afford college for their children and that student loan debt is now the largest type of consumer debt?

What's worse is what our children are being taught by their parents, the school system, politicians and the media. They are teaching our children that the wealthy are corrupt, greedy, have too much wealth and that this wealth needs to be redistributed. What kind of a message do you think that sends to America's future generation? It is teaching them that seeking financial success by pursuing the American Dreams is a bad thing.

The statistics from my five-year study on the daily habits that separate the wealthy from the poor illustrate the fact that the poor are poor because they have too many Poverty Habits and too few Rich Habits. Poor parents teach their children the Poverty Habits and wealthy parents teach their children the Rich Habits. We don't have a wealth gap in this country, we have a parent gap. We don't have income inequality, we have parent inequality.

Parents and our schools need to work together to instill good daily success habits as follows:

•Limit T. V., social media and cell phone use to no more than one hour a day.

• Require that children read one to two educational books a month.

• Require that children set monthly, annual and 5-year goals.

• Require that children save at least 25% of their earnings or gifts they receive.

• Teach children the importance of relationship building by requiring them to call friends, family, teachers, coaches etc. on their birthdays and to send thank you cards for gifts or help they received from anyone.

• Reassure children that mistakes are good not bad.

• Children need to learn how to manage money.

• Teach children how to manage their time.

1. What's the writer's purpose of raising the three questions at the beginning of the presentation?

A．To show children's ambition to lead a successful life.

B．To attach importance to financial success.

C．To blame parents, teachers, and the media for the lack of courses about money management.

D．To emphasize the association between financial success and financial literacy.

2. What does the underlined word “accumulate” mean in the context?

A．Get used to.

B．Increase.

C．Pay back.

D．Borrow.

3. Which of the following belongs to the good daily habits mentioned in the passage?

A．Parents open up a checking account or savings account for children and force them to use their savings to buy the things they want.

B．Children understand that the very foundation of success in life is built on learning from parents' mistakes.

C．Children spend no more than 1 hour per day on Internet use.

D．Children are required to create daily “to do” lists and these lists are monitored by parents.

【推荐2】We can achieve knowledge either actively or passively（被动地）. We achieve it actively by direct experience, by testing and proving an idea, or by reasoning．

We achieve knowledge passively by being told by someone else．Most of the learning that takes place in the classroom and the kind that happens when we watch TV or read newspapers or magazines is passive. Conditioned as we are to passive learning, it’s not surprising that we depend on it in our everyday communication with friends and co-workers．

Unfortunately, passive learning has a serious problem．It makes us tend to accept what we are told even when it is little more than hearsay and rumor（谣言）．

Did you ever play the game Rumor? It begins when one person writes down a message but doesn’t show it to anyone．Then the person whispers it, word for word, to another person．That person, in turn, whispers it to still another, and so on, through all the people playing the game．The last person writes down the message word for word as he or she hears it．Then the two written statements are compared．Typically, the original message has changed．

That’s what happens in daily life．The simple fact that people repeat a story in their own words changes the story．Then, too, most people listen imperfectly．And many enjoy adding their own creative touch to a story, trying to improve on it, stamping（打上标记）it with their own personal style．Yet those who hear it think they know．

This process is also found among scholars and authors: A statement of opinion by one writer may be restated as a fact by another, who may in turn be quoted by yet another; and this process may continue, unless it occurs to someone to question the facts on which the original writer based his opinion or to challenge the interpretation he placed upon those facts．

1. According to the passage, passive learning may occur in _______．

A．doing a medical experiment	B．solving a math problem
C．visiting an exhibition	D．doing scientific reasoning

2. The underlined word “it” in Paragraph 2 refers to _____．

A．active learning	B．knowledge
C．communication	D．passive learning

3. The author mentions the game Rumor to show that _____．

A．a message may be changed when being passed on

B．a message should be delivered in different ways

C．people may have problems with their sense of hearing

D．people tend not to believe in what they know as rumor

4. What can we infer from the passage?

A．Active learning is less important．

B．Passive learning may not be reliable．

C．Active learning occurs more frequently．

D．Passive learning is not found among scholars．

【推荐3】When you think of a map, is north on the top or the bottom? Usually, maps are designed with north on top,though when we think about it, there is no logical reason for this bias. After all, there is no up or down in space. So what is wrong with south, east or west being on the top of the map? The answer is:nothing at all. In fact, north-up maps only became the norm in the last few hundred years.

Ancient Egyptian maps had south at the top because the Nile River flows downhill from mountains in the south to the Mediterranean Sea in the north. Mecca was to the south of most early Muslim civilizations, and south-up maps were designed so that viewers would look up to see Mecca. Medieval Christian maps had east at the top, as they believed the Garden of Eden was in the east. The only early maps that had north at the top were those of early China because the emperor lived in the north.

North seems to have settled at the top of maps during the 16th century, largely thanks to a Flemish mapmaker, Mercator. Mercator was a great admirer of an early Greek mapmaker, who, for reasons now unknown, put north at the top of maps, so Mercator did, too. When Mercator s world map became the standard map to navigate the oceans, north up became standard as well.

What is the implication of this north-view of the world? Psychologically, people tend to think of up as good and down as bad. Just think of words and phrases like “upmarket”，“upbeat” and “moving up in the world", and how they contrast with their opposites. Because north is so consistently put at the top of maps, people now think of north as good, too.

Several attempts have been made in recent years by introducing south-up maps to the market. These maps not only give us a chance to see the world differently, but also give everyone the chance to see themselves on top.

1. What can we learn from the first two paragraphs?

A．North-up maps were rare in ancient times.

B．Deciding up or down in space is ridiculous.

C．Mecca maps were based on a legend.

D．The south-up map first appeared in ancient Egypt.

2. Why is north associated with good?

A．An illogical reason.

B．The spread of Mercator' s maps.

C．People's preference for up.

D．An age-old tradition in Greece.

3. What is the authors attitude to south-up maps?

A．Cautious.

B．Supportive.

C．Uncaring.

D．Disapproving.

4. What's the main purpose of the text?

A．To explain a phenomenon.

B．To compare various facts.

C．To correct a cultural bias.

D．To argue for a viewpoint.