【推荐1】Everybody usually makes decisions. They can be as important as what you will do in the future or as simple as what you will eat for breakfast . Any decision could be the turning point of your life.

I made an important decision when I was in Junior 3.

Before I made that decision I was one of the boys who tried too hard to act as an adult. I didn’t know that only kids want to show themselves as adults. I didn’t listen to my parents and teachers, and my grades became poor. Then came the high school entrance exam.

At the turning point of my life, my mom wanted to have a conversation with me. I wanted to turn it down but when I looked at her eyes, I felt I couldn’t refuse. Instead of asking me to study hard, to my surprise, Mom just asked what I wanted to do in the future. Without thinking too much, I just said I would like to study hard .

Mom smiled and asked again: “ I asked: what do you WANT to do?”

I never seriously thought about the question. So , I kept silent. “Whether you want to go on studying or enter the society,” she went on, “it is your own decision. Your life ought to be decided by you, not by anyone else, including me.” After saying that, she had tears in her eyes.

For the first time in my life I was asked to make my own decision. I sat in my chair and thought about myself, my life and what kind of person I wanted to become.

It took me what seemed to be ages to make the biggest decision so far in my life. I wanted to be a man who makes a difference in the world. To achieve that, I needed to study hard.

The path to my future became clear to me. I didn’t act rebelliously(叛逆地) any more. With passion(激情) in my heart, I studied hard.

Now, I’m 17 and I’m in one of the best schools in my city, in one of the best classes at the school and I am one of the best students in the class.

Thanks to that decision, I have become what I am today.

1. When did the writer make the important decision?_____

A．After he was 17 years old.	B．After he was in one of the best classes
C．When he was a pupil.	D．When he was studying in Junior 3.

2. What was the writer like before the decision?____

A．His grades became poor.

B．He tried too hard not to act as an adult.

C．He was one of the top students in his class.

D．He did what his teachers and his parents asked him to do.

3. Why did the writer make the decision?______

A．Because his teacher talked with him patiently.

B．Because he didn’t want to act rebelliously any more.

C．Because his mother asked him to study hard as usual.

D．Because his father asked him to think about his future by himself.

4. Which of the following is TRUE?______

A．The writer made the decision that he should work hard.

B．It took the writer several years to make the decision.

C．After hearing his mother’s words, the writer had tears in his eyes.

D．At the turning point of his life, the writer wanted to have a conversation with his mother.

【推荐2】Most of us fear failure. However, without failure, progress would be impossible. In fact, the word success comes from the Latin succedere, meaning “to come after”. And what does success usually come after? Failure. It seems that one cannot exist without the other.

        Every failure-even the worst ones-helps us learn to do things differently in the future. “Learning from the past mistakes and making changes helped me to reach the top of Everest successfully,” says mountaineer Pete Athans, who has now reached the world’s highest peak (山峰) seven times.
        Failure   also   reminds   us   that   things   can   go   wrong-sometimes   with   terrible   results. Austrian   Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner is the first woman to reach the top of all 14 of the world’s 8, 000-meter peaks without extra oxygen (氧气). In 2007, while climbing in Nepal, she was in an avalanche (雪崩). She survived, but two nearby Spanish climbers died. The experience taught Kaltenbrunner that no matter how prepared a person is, bad things can still happen. But Kaltenbrunner decided she had to learn from her experience and move on.
        Accepting failure is not easy for many, though. We are often reluctant to tell people that we are failures because our good name depends on success. However, things are slowly changing. In the past ten years, some scientific magazines-mostly in medicine-have published reports of failed experiments. The belief is that the science community can also learn from “negative’ results and that this can finally lead to positive outcomes.
        The business world already understands the value of negative results. Eli Lilly and Company has failure parties to study data about medicine that doesn't work.
        In fact, one of the business world’s most famous failures became one of its biggest successes. In the early 1990s, Apple Corporation created the Apple Newton. It was one of Apple’s biggest failures. However, Apple’s CEO,
        Steve Jobs, believed the product had potential (潜力) and he began to improve it. In time, this led to the creation of the iPhone and the iPad, two of the company’s most successful products.
        The story of the Apple Newton can teach us another important lesson about failure. There is a lot we can learn by studying mistakes. Perhaps the most important lesson is that failure and success are two sides of the same coin. One truly cannot exist without the other.
1. The writer writes Paragraph 2 and 3 mainly to ________.

A．show how bad things can become important lessons

B．tell us that it's possible for anyone to be successful

C．prove how bad things can happen in any situation

D．teach us what not to do when climbing mountains

2. The underlined word “reluctant” in Paragraph 4 probably means ________.

A．unable

B．unsure

C．unwilling

D．uninterested

3. What is the passage mainly about? ________

A．An attitude towards failure.	B．The experience of success.
C．A difficult way to success.	D．The rewards of failure.

【推荐1】Think of some great minds you like. You will probably find that their success didn’t come easily. As “Father of Hybrid Rice（杂交水稻）”, Yuan Longping got over great difficulties and spent his whole life working to increase rice production and helping to feed the country with the largest population.

Wu Mengchao, the “Father of Chinese Hepatobiliary Surgery（肝胆外科）”, focused on saving people’s lives for nearly eighty years. He did more than 16, 000 operations during his life. Holding the surgeon’s knife for such a long time deformed his fingers but he still kept doing operations. Wu once said, “It would be my greatest happiness if I could work at the operating table until the last moment of my life.”

In 1969, in order to solve the problem of treating malaria（疟疾）, Tu Youyou, worked as head of a research team. They did different kinds of experiments. However, the results were not satisfactory. Instead of giving up, they kept trying. Finally, in 1972, they made it! In 2015, at the age of 85, she received the Nobel Prize.

Thomas Edison, the inventor of the light bulb believed that every failure was a step towards success. He once said, “If I find 10, 000 ways that won’t work, I haven’t failed. I am not discouraged, because every wrong try is another step forward.”

Sometimes, their success was a surprise, even to themselves, even after a long time of their hard work. The famous scientist Alexander Fleming said, “When l woke up just after daybreak on 28th September, 1928, I just began another busy day with my research as I did many days and nights before. And I certainly didn’t plan to make a great difference to all medicine by discovering the world’s first antibiotic（抗生素）. But I guess that was exactly what I did.”

Some people only became successful after their deaths. The artist Vincent Van Gogh only sold one painting all through his life and that was to a friend. But he kept painting and he painted more than 2000 artworks in the following ten years. Now his paintings are very popular and they sell for millions of pounds.

One thing all these people have in common is that they never give up and stick to their goals no matter what happens.

1. The underlined phrase deformed his fingers means ________.

A．changing the shape of his fingers	B．making his fingers stronger
C．making his fingers quicker	D．cutting off his fingers

2. Before Alexander Fleming discovered the first antibiotic, he ________.

A．felt so tired that he couldn’t stay awake	B．planned to study all kinds of medicine
C．knew exactly what his success meant	D．had no idea he was going to make it

3. What can we know about the great minds from the article?

A．Yuan Longping succeeded in feeding every country in the world.

B．Tu Youyou’s team spent about 3 years solving the malaria problem

C．Thomas Edison tried 10, 000 ways before inventing the light bulb.

D．Vincent Van Gogh painted 2, 001 artworks during his whole life.

4. What does the writer mainly want to tell us?

A．Goals can’t be realized by everyone.

B．Difficulties can always lead to greatness.

C．Great success can be achieved naturally.

D．Following your dreams can result in success.

【推荐2】Close your eyes and picture a scientist. Does an image of a man show up in your mind?

It is hard to ignore that even in the 21st century, the “scientist equals male” stereotype （成见）is still there. In the science world, women’s voices are often unheard.

According to UNESCO, only 35 percent of global STEM（science, technology, engineering, and mathematics）students in higher education are women. In taking up science and technology careers, women are more likely to be treated unfairly because of their motherhood and skin color, noted Teen Vogue.

In November, at the 4th World Laureates Forum（世界顶尖科学家论坛）held in Shanghai, some of the world’s top female scientists announced an initiative（倡议）, encouraging universities around the world to promote gender equality in STEM areas.

“Role models of women scientists need to be better represented on important international stages and allow their voices to be heard as a way to encourage youths,” Lenore Blum, a female scientist from the US, said at the forum.

In December, Talk With Lu Jian, a Chinese TV show, launched a series of programs under the title of She Power in Tech. The show interviewed Chinese female scientists, including geneticist (遗传学家）Fu Qiaomei at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lṻ Zhi, a professor of life sciences at Peking University, and Rong Yi, a chief designer of the Long March 2F rocket.

“These female scientists share a strong passion for science,”said Lu Jian, the TV show’s host. “They are making a pathway for the next women scientists.”

Actions should also be taken to create a better environment for women working in the field of science and technology, noted Science and Technology Daily. For example, they should be given more resources, join in decision-making and gain support for their research during maternity（生育）.

1. According to UNESCO’s statistics （统计数字）,we can learn that ________ .

A．most women do not work during their motherhood

B．skin color may cause women scientists to be treated unfairly

C．only 35% of global STEM students are women

D．women are more interested in the arts than STEM courses

2. Lenore Blum thinks that ________ .

A．science companies should employ more women scientists

B．women scientists should have more respect from the world

C．role models of women scientists should have more chances to encourage young people

D．the 4th World Laureates Forum gives a good example of gender equality

3. Talk With Lu Jian interviewed several Chinese women scientist as an effort _________.

A．to celebrate women’s achievement in scientific technology

B．to show the importance of getting well-educated

C．to call for gender equality in China

D．to attract social concern about the stereotype in the science world

4. The career of the rocket designer Rong Yi infers that ________ .        

A．she is lucky enough to work together with many top scientists jg

B．women can also become successful in high-tech fields

C．rocket designing is a challenging work for women scientists

D．she is the most remarkable woman scientist in the interview

5. The “scientist equals male” stereotype is probably caused by            .

A．a lack of resources in high-level education

B．women’s weakness in competing with men in science

C．women’s traditional role in society

D．the amazing achievements of male scientists

【推荐3】On March 3, 2022, the 2021 Touching China Award ceremony aired on CCTV. Ten role models were on the list, and Yang Zhenning is one of them. When mentioning the greatest theoretical (理论的) physicists in the world, Yang Zhenning is a name never to be forgotten.

Yang Zhenning, a famous Nobel Prize-winning physicist, became the first Chinese- American scientist who managed to return to China after the US just lifted (解除) the ban (禁令) on visits to China in 1971. Yang also helped hundreds of Chinese students to have a further study in the US. These people later made a huge construction (贡献) for China.

Yang was born in 1922, in Hefei Anhui, China, and grew up in Tsinghua University. From a young age he had an interest in physics. At the age of 12, Yang showed his great goal to win a Nobel Prize after being attracted by a book about the unknowns of the universe.

With this goal in mind, Yang studied hard. After getting a master’s degree in Tsinghua University in 1944, Yang got the chance to further his studies in the United States. There he met another Chinese student, Tsung-dao Lee (李政道), who shared the same interests, and they often discussed the physics problems together. In 1957, they won the Nobel Prize in Physics. It let other Chinese people know that Chinese scientists could stand out in the global science community.

At the Nobel Banquet (宴会),Yang also expressed his pride. He was very proud of his Chinese background. No matter where he has been, Yang Zhenning has always had his motherland in mind.

In 2003, Yang returned to China and also taught at Tsinghua. Under his influence, many overseas Chinese also returned to China to make contributions, such as Turing Award winner Yao Qizhi, physicist Wu Xiaogang, and mathematician Zhang Shouwu.

1. ________ role models were awarded in the ceremony.

A．Three

B．Five

C．Eight

D．Ten

2. Which of the following statements is NOT true?

A．Yang Zhenning couldn’t return to his motherland in 1970.

B．Yang Zhenning takes pride in owning Chinese background.

C．Yang Zhenning knew Tsung-dao Lee in Tsinghua University.

D．Yang Zhenning showed his interest in physics from a young age.

3. As the age of ________, Yang Zhenning won the Nobel Prize in Physics with Tsung-dgo Lee.

A．22

B．35

C．48

D．81

4. Which isn’t mentioned in the passage?

A．Yang Zhenning is a great theoretical physicist in the world.

B．Yang Zhenning wrote many famous articles and gave many speeches in universities.

C．Hundreds of Chinese students were helped by Yang Zhenning to have a further study.

D．Under Yang Zhenning’s influence, Yao Qizhi and Zhang Shouwu returned to China.

5. We may find this article in the part of ________ in a newspaper.

A．Science

B．Nature

C．Travel

D．Sport

【推荐1】Although I have grown up, I act like a small child sometimes. I don't like growing up to be an adult.    1    

One day, I went to buy a Christmas card. After I went into the shop, the shopkeeper showed me where to find the cards. I met a young mother and her baby there.    2    The young mother passed by the shelf closely so that the little girl was able to pick up a toy. However, it seemed too difficult for the little girl to pick up a toy. Then the young mother stopped.    3    

The big smile on the face of the little girl made me think of my childhood. When I was a small child, my parents came along whenever I needed them. They solved almost every problem for me.    4     Suddenly, the young mother's words brought me back to reality(现实）."Dear, one day, when you become an adult, I hope you can manage your own life," she said to the little girl.

The words woke me up. I was no longer a small child. I should learn to be independent and face problems bravely by myself.    5    

A．I seemed to get lost in that happy memory.

B．Things become more difficult in the world of adults

C．She picked up a toy for her child and made her happy.

D．And my parents would certainly be proud of me.

E．There were a lot of toys on the shelf

【推荐2】“Everything happens for the best,” my mother said whenever I faced disappointment. “If you can carry on, one day something good will happen.”
After graduating from college in 1932, I decided to try for a job in radio, then work my way up to sports announcer(播音员). I took the bus to Chicago and knocked on the door of every station. But I was refused every time. In one studio, a nice lady told me that big stations didn’t want to accept inexperienced persons. “Go to the countryside and find a small station that’ll give you a chance,” she said.
I returned home, Dixon in Illinois. While there were no radio-announcing jobs in Dixon, my father said Smith Ward had opened a store and wanted a local sportsman to manage its sports department. Since I had played high school football in Dixon, I applied(申请). The job sounded just right for me. But I still failed in the interview. At that moment, mom’s words came to my mind: “Everything happens for the best.” Dad offered me a car to look for a job. I tried WOC Radio in Davenport in Iowa. The program director, named Peter MacArthur, told me they had already hired an announcer.
As I left his office, I felt sad. I asked aloud, “How can a man become a sports announcer if he can’t get a job in a radio station?”
I was waiting for the lift when I heard MacArthur calling, “What did you say about sports? Do you know anything about football?” Then he made me stand before a microphone and asked me to broadcast an imaginary game. As a result, I did a wonderful job and was told to broadcast Saturday’s game!
On my way home, I thought of my mother’s words again: “Everything happens for the best if you carry on. One day something good will happen.”
1. After the writer graduated from college, he tried to look for a job in        at first.

A．Chicago	B．Dixon
C．Davenport	D．Illinois

2. The writer couldn’t find a job in Dixon because       .

A．he had played high school football

B．he did not pass the interview

C．he had no working experience

D．he had no interest in the job

3. Which sentence below is TRUE?

A．In all, the writer went to three cities to look for the job.

B．The writer took the train to different places to look for the job.

C．The writer gave up finally when he was refused again and again.

D．MacArthur gave the writer a chance to broadcast Saturday’s game directly.

4. The passage mainly tells us that       .

A．it is hard to find a job

B．mother’s help is necessary

C．we should hope for the best

D．life is full of disappointment

【推荐3】I’m a procrastinator (有拖延症的人). In college, I was supposed to spend a year writing my 90-page senior paper. I didn’t write a word until three days before the deadline (截止日期). Finally, I wrote 90 pages over 72 hours, staying up two nights in a row to finish it on time. Of course, it was a very bad paper.

I have a theory (理论) that the brains of procrastinators are different from those of other people. Both kinds of people are able to make smart decisions. But the procrastinator’s brain also has a part that doesn’t like making the “right” decision. It only wants whatever is easiest and most fun.

For the procrastinator, this part of the brain makes all the decisions. So how can people like me work when we really need to? It turns out that procrastinators also have a part of their brain that makes them panic. This part isn’t active all the time. But it suddenly “wakes up” when deadlines are close. It’s the only thing that can make us take action.

The problem is that there are many things in our lives that don’t come with deadlines. We know that we should spend more time exercising or seeing our family. But these things don’t have deadlines. So how can we work on them?

One thing you can try is making a “life calendar”. Set a goal for yourself, such as exercising 20 minutes each day for a week. Take a regular calendar and put a big red “×” on each day that you exercise. After a week, you’ll see a neat (整齐的) row of “×”. This will help you feel more confident about working toward your goals.

1. Why does the speaker mention his college experience first?

A．To give an example of procrastination (拖延症).

B．To show that we all have limitless talent.

C．To explain that procrastination is quite common.

D．To prove that procrastinators are able to finish their tasks.

2. In the speaker’s theory, what makes procrastinators different from others?

A．They are able to make good decisions.	B．They only want to do easy and fun tasks.
C．They stay calm when deadlines come.	D．They don’t sleep as much as other people.

3. The writer’s theory doesn’t always work because ________.

A．not everything in life has a deadline	B．it is hard to finish big tasks quickly
C．some people change their goals often	D．some people have many tasks to finish

4. What does the underlined word mean in paragraph 3?

A．feel relaxed

B．feel glad

C．feel afraid

D．feel easy

5. What is the speaker’s suggestion for procrastinators?

A．Buy a calendar and use it often.	B．Find creative ways to put things off.
C．Focus on the important things in life.	D．Do more exercise.