1 . Hey, that’s me!
Amy Jandrisevits knows the value of a good doll. “Dolls have a power we don’t completely understand,” she told The Today Show. It’s what she learned while working as a social worker in a hospital. She used dolls to help her young patients to adapt (适应) to their changing medical situations. Many of the kids saw themselves in those dolls. But for the kids missing an arm or a leg, there were none they could relate to.
So, seven years ago, when a friend’s son lost one of his arms because of an accident, Jandrisevits knew what might help the little boy to go through this challenging period. “It’s hard to tell a kid, ‘You are perfect the way you are,’ and to build confidence that way, but never offer them anything that looks like them,” she says. Jandrisevits went about changing that. She made a doll by hand that looked like her friend’s child and sent it off. After the friend posted a photo online of the happy child and his doll, another woman asked Jandrisevits to make a doll that looked like her baby, who was missing a leg.
Word spread, and soon Jandrisevits was making dolls for children with facial scars (疤) and birthmarks—in short, a doll that looked like themselves. She quitted her job and started an organization called A Doll Like Me which offers dolls to those children for free.
Working out of her home in Milwaukee, from photos sent by parents or caregivers, Jandrisevits spends about seven hours making each doll. A Go Fund Me page helps her with costs and allows her to donate her services.
In all, she’s made more than 400 dolls so far. The waiting list is long, but Jandrisevits is not planning to give up. As she explains, “Every kid, no matter which country, age, medical problem, or body type, should look into the sweet face of a doll and see their own.”
1. What happened seven years ago?| A．Jandrisevits became a social worker in a hospital. |
| B．Jandrisevits lost one of her arms in an accident. |
| C．Jandrisevits planned to start her own business. |
| D．Jandrisevits made a doll for her friend’s son. |
| A．teach parents how to make dolls at home |
| B．offer dolls to children with medical problems |
| C．provide social workers for children’s hospitals |
| D．send caregivers to families with disabled children |
| A．Looking after dolls helps children to be more caring. |
| B．Selling dolls is a good way to improve children’s social skills. |
| C．Seeing themselves in dolls can help children build confidence. |
| D．Making dolls provides more job opportunities for social workers. |
Volunteers Wanted
A Clean the West Park!Six volunteers are wanted. We need help clean up the West Park. We will help to collect rubbish and protect the environment there. If you are free, join us. | B Beautify the Garden Park!We need eight volunteers who are strong. We need to plant more trees and flowers to make the Garden Park more beautiful. Join us if you are free. |
C Guide the East Park!Five volunteers are wanted. We need to create a guide to important places in the East Park. We will create maps and write descriptions of the places in the guide. Come and help. | D Help the Central Park!We need four volunteers to work in the Central Park. We can make posters or speeches to teach people how to protect the environment here and call on more people to join us. |
1.
I love doing volunteer work and I am good at drawing maps.2.
I am a strong boy and I’d like to plant trees and flowers.3.
I enjoy making posters and I have some good ways to protect the environment.
In her grandparents’old house, Maya discovered an old family calendar, with each page filled out carefully.
On June 6, 1892: “Helped Mr Thompson repair his house.” On November 14, 1907: “
Curious, she asked her grandmother about it.
“That is the tradition of our family,” her grandmother explained. “Every day, for generations (世代), we complete one act of kindness and take it down. No matter how
Maya was interested. “Why?”
Her grandmother smiled, “It’s a belief that through continuous kind actions, we can create a life of
With admiration, Maya decided to keep the tradition. Every night, she would record her act of kindness for the day. As the years went by, Maya’s entries of her kind act
One day, as she sat at a café, a young woman came to her. “Are you Maya?” She asked politely.
Maya nodded, feeling
The woman went on, “Years ago, you taught me for free when my family couldn’t afford lessons. Because of you, I graduated top of my class. Today, I
Maya was moved and proud. She realized her actions were creating ripples (涟漪) in ways she had never imagined.
The calendar became a community legend (传奇). Inspired by Maya, the town started a “Calendar Day”, encouraging everyone to do good.
When Maya was old, she often sat with her grandchildren, turning the filled pages. “This was when your grandpa and I met. I helped him find his lost dog.”
One day, her oldest grandchild, Sophie, looked up from the calendar. “I want to
Maya handed the calendar over. She knew the tradition would live on.
Years after Maya passed, the town built a statue (雕塑) in her honor, with the words on its base:
In memory of Maya and the generations before her who believed in the power of everyday
| A．Saved | B．Wasted | C．Managed | D．Volunteered |
| A．popular | B．small | C．unfair | D．interesting |
| A．freedom | B．balance | C．purpose | D．discovery |
| A．grew | B．appeared | C．remained | D．mattered |
| A．worried | B．relaxed | C．excited | D．confused |
| A．run | B．need | C．name | D．visit |
| A．praise | B．report | C．continue | D．remember |
| A．changes | B．kindness | C．happiness | D．achievements |
4 . 
Charlotte Liebling was volunteering at a thrift shop in London, England, in 2016. Thrift shops sell used items like clothes or toys. Often, they donate the money they make to people in need.
Liebling noticed that many people dropped off old soft teddy bears, rabbits and other stuffed animals in good condition. Some were sold. But most were thrown away. Liebling loves stuffed animals and she knew these stuffed animals were once special toys for the owners. “I was sad to learn most of them ended up at the garbage,” she said. In 2019, Liebling created a company called Loved Before. It is a soft-toy adoption agency. It cleans up donated stuffies. Then, it resells them online. It charges between 10 to 15 pounds for each stuffed animal. She has donated 50 percent of her profits (利润) to charity.
In the past five years, Liebling has collected more than 60,000 stuffies —people can just drop them off at Loved Before’s offices. They can also mail them in. Lauren Sergi donated her collection of stuffed toys to Loved Before. “They deserved better than staying in boxes for decades.” she said.
The stuffed animals are cleaned with high-temperature steam. Liebling works on 50 to 100 stuffed animals every day. She gets help from three workers and three volunteers. Each stuffie takes between one and five hours to clean up.
Donors (捐赠人) are asked to send a brief story about their stuffed animals. The company uses the information to create a life story for the toys. Sometimes, a stuffie comes in without a story. “We’ll pass them over to a school classroom,” Liebling said. “The children will take them on adventures and write the stories. They help teach children the importance of giving something secondhand a second chance.”
Liebling has big hopes for each Loved Before toy. “Our second-chance toys are very valuable. It’s because of the love and adventure they’ve already experienced. I love that we can give them a second chance to be loved. Besides, we contribute to environmental sustainability (可持续性) by reducing the waste and showing a new way of recycling.”
1. What do thrift shops sell?2. How can people give the stuffies to Loved Before?
3. Where will the company pass the stuffies without stories over to?
4. What do you think of the company Loved Before? Why do you think so? (Give at least 2 reasons)
| easy, local, is, way, push, clothes |
Actually there are some creative
The first way is the kindness you show to others. You can give away old
6 . 让青少年利用课余时间参加志愿者服务活动，对其成长具有重要意义，可以帮助他们学习新技能，增强沟通能力和社会责任感。
假如你是红星中学初二(16)班班长李华。五一假期将至，你校的Willing Hearts英语社团公众平台正在做“我奉献，我快乐”的系列推送，如：去市图书馆帮忙，打扫城市公园，举办社区义卖 (charity sale)，到养老院看望老人，到孤儿院 (orphanage) 看望儿童……请你用英语给社团公众平台投稿，介绍你们班打算在五一期间将参与的一件公益项目，说说将有哪些活动内容以及你对这次志愿服务的看法。
提示：volunteer, visit, listen, benefit, contribute, helpful提示问题：Where will you and your classmates do voluntary work?
What activities are you going to do there?
What do you think of the voluntary work?
I am Li Hua, from Class 16, Grade 8.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________| spend; leave; kind; sleep; pay; for; |
Wang Ya, a university student in Kunming received 5,000 yuan after ordering some takeout food for a homeless man. One night, in the heavy rain, Wang saw a homeless man
Wang’s story got so popular online that a charitable foundation (慈善基金会) gave him 5,000 yuan for his
8 . Hats in Harvard
The cold wind blew through the trees and between buildings. Winter was on its way, Amaya was warm in her house, thinking about an article she read at school. The article was about the kids who helped out their communities, and she thought it would be really cool to help her own town, Harvard.
The only problem was that she wasn’t sure how to help. What could a kid do for her town? In the article, the kids grew food for people who needed it. But it was winter, she couldn’t start a garden. Amaya was still deep in thought when her mom said it was time to go shopping.
On the road, Amaya saw a family walking on the sidewalk, wearing only light jackets. How cold they must be, Amaya thought. That gave her an idea! She could help her town. She could collect winter coats, hats, and gloves for people in Harvard who needed them.
Amaya decided to talk to her teacher, because then she could share her idea with her classmates at least. Mrs. Monroe was very supportive when Amaya talked about her idea. She even said she could help Amaya talk to the principal (校长) about it, so they could get the whole school involved! They decided to call the project “Hats in Harvard” and they wrote up a letter explaining the idea to the families. Mrs. Monroe said they could even take a fieldtrip to parks around Harvard where families in need gathered to drop off the coats, hats, and gloves. Amaya was excited, and really hoped the principal, Mrs. Brown, would let the school participate (参加)!
Mrs. Brown was excited about the idea, and said she would make sure copies of the letter went home with all the students! They collected the winter clothing for a few weeks, then were able to take their fieldtrip to two parks to leave the clothes where families who needed them could get them.
Three day safer their fieldtrip, Amaya and her mom once again saw the same family walking together. This time, though, the family looked nice and warm in some new coats, hats, and gloves. Amaya felt a warm glow in her heart.
1. The article Amaya read was about ________.| A．the cold weather in Harvard |
| B．the communities in her town |
| C．the trees and buildings near her house |
| D．the kids who helped out their communities |
| A．grew food for people who needed it |
| B．wrote up a letter explaining her idea to the principal |
| C．collected winter clothes for people who needed them |
| D．went shopping with her mom to buy some new clothes |
| A．she felt sorry for poor people |
| B．she felt warm with her coat and gloves |
| C．she was happy because she could help others |
| D．she was moved by the poor family |
| A．She got the idea on her way to the shop. |
| B．People in need of winter clothes could get them in the park. |
| C．The principal supported Amaya warmly. |
| D．All the schools in the town participated the activity. |
9 . When did you visit a famous place last time? Do you often go shopping with your friends or parents on weekends? You will easily find that women usually wait in a long, slow-moving line for a toilet (卫生间). However, not far away, men quickly go in and out of their own toilets.
This is the same for most women around the world for a long time. It’s no secret (秘密) that a trip to the toilet means more time for women than men, and there are many reasons for it. In fact, there are many differences between men and women, so women usually stay longer in toilets than men.
According to the World Toilet Organization, although men’s public toilets are almost as big as women’s, women spend an average (平均的) of 89 seconds on the toilet, about 2.3 times longer than 39 seconds spent by men. On Sina Weibo, many people ask for women’s rights (权利) and they say there should be “more toilets for women than for men”. Then more than 260 million people pay attention to the idea. And to our surprise, it gets full support from both men and women.
Now comes good news for women in China: as the government recently said that they would do something to help women’s rights. That is, they will build more toilets for women than for men in the next few years. “We really need toilets far more than men do. And we do have reasons. Mothers take their young children to the toilets. And sometimes we need a space to check our clothes and faces in the mirror,” an Internet user said online.
It is true that the toilet problem is not a small thing. Caring about the details of women can help the world become better and better, said Red Star News.
1. Women need more toilets than men because________.| A．more women go shopping than men |
| B．women spend more time on the toilet |
| C．women don’t like to wait for the toilet |
| D．there are more women than men in China |
| A．Men also ask for more toilets in places of interest. |
| B．Women’s toilets are usually much bigger than men’s. |
| C．Sina Weibo users can decide almost everything. |
| D．Both men and women support more toilets for women. |
| A．Women’s Toilet Problem |
| B．Women’s Right to Use Toilets |
| C．Fun Facts about Toilets |
| D．More Space in Toilets |
10 . Zhou Jingyi is a second-year postgraduate student from Inner Mongolia University of Finance and Economics, and 2024 marks her third year working as a railway volunteer, as well as her third experience with the Spring Festival travel rush.
As a local, she serves at Wanzhou North Station during the winter vacation. She began to participate in volunteer activities in 2019. According to Zhou, she was influenced by her mother to become a railway volunteer, “My mother works for public good, which leads me to get involved in volunteer activities.”
Wanzhou North Station operates 124 trains per day on average, with an estimated (估计) daily departure of 18, 000 passengers and an arrival of 19, 000 passengers during this year’s travel rush.
There are only six railway youth volunteers, like Zhou, working in the station, helping passengers after pre-job training. During the travel rush, she gets up at 6:30 am and arrives at work by 7:50 am every day. At the station, she provides passengers with services like helping them buy tickets and board the train, keeping order, answering questions, and dealing with the transfer. Zhou has to repeat to answer the same question from different people hundreds of times, but she never loses patience.
“It might cause my legs to ache and my throat to become uncomfortable, but the volunteer activities warm the people on their journey and paint my vacation colorful, as well as improve my ability in communication and expression,” she added.
The most unforgettable experience for Zhou was that she met a grandmother with a lot of luggage. “I helped her carry the bags from the entrance to the ticket gates. She kept saying ‘Thank you’ and gave me two oranges, telling me that ‘you look so much like my granddaughter’,” she recalled.
She said those were the sweetest oranges she had ever had. “This proves that warmth can produce warmth, strengthening my mind to be a volunteer.”
1. Who influenced Zhou Jingyi to become a railway volunteer?2. What services can Zhou Jingyi provide for passengers?
3. Why did the grandmother give Zhou Jingyi two oranges?
4. Do you want to work as a volunteer? Why or why not? (Please give two reasons.)
