1 . A month before my first marathon, one of my ankles (踝关节) was injured and this meant not running for two weeks, leaving me only two weeks to train. Yet, I decided to go ahead.
I remember back to my 7th year in school. In my first P. E. class, the teacher required us to run and hit a softball. I didn't do either well. He later told me that I was "not athletic".
The idea that I was "not athletic" stuck with me for years. When I started running in my 30s, I realized running was a battle against myself. It was all about the battle against my own body and mind. It was a test of wills.
The night before my marathon, I dreamt that I couldn't even find the finish line. I woke up sweating (出汗) and nervous, but ready to prove something to myself.
The next day, the Marathon started.
At mile 3, I passed a sign: "GO FOR IT, RUNNERS!"
By mile 17, I became out of breath and the once injured ankle hurt badly.
By mile 21, I was quite hungry. As I approached mile 23, I could see my wife waving a sign. She is my biggest fan.
I was one of the final runners to finish. But I finished. And I got a medal. In fact, I got the same medal as the guy who came in first place had.
Determined to be myself, move forward, free of shame and worldly labels (世俗标签). I can now call myself a "marathon winner".
1. A month before the marathon, the author ____________.| A．was well trained | B．felt excited | C．made up his mind to run | D．lost hope |
| A．To show the support of his teacher. | B．To tell the readers a funny story. |
| C．To show he was not talented in sports. | D．To share a valuable memory. |
| A．He made it. | B．He stopped halfway. |
| C．He got the first prize. | D．He walked to the end. |
| A．A man ones his success to his family support. |
| B．A winner is one with a great effort of will. |
| C．Failure is the mother of success. |
| D．Soon learn, soon forgotten. |
2 . A few years ago, my husband and I were on an island for a long week with our two little daughters. As we talked about what to do next, our daughters jumped in and told us exactly what they wanted to do. We agreed. As soon as we walked into the main area of the butterfly museum, we saw thousands of beautiful butterflies. They all flew with their colorful wings. My girls were jumping up and down, and I knew we had made the right decision to come to the museum. They were having so much fun. I turned to our guide and asked curiously (好奇地),"How long do butterflies live?" She said, "About ten days". "What can butterflies do in ten days?" The guide stopped, looked at me, and said, "They make the world a more beautiful place."
After we said goodbye, I couldn't stop thinking about what the guide had said. She was right. We all have something to offer the world with the time we have. If we spend the time doing what we can for others, we all can make the world a better place.
1. What did the girls want to do?| A．Go to visit an island. | B．Make the world beautiful. |
| C．Listen to the tour guide. | D．Visit the butterfly museum. |
| A．She knew how long butterflies live. |
| B．They were welcomed in the museum. |
| C．Their daughters were having a good time |
| D．She saw thousands of beautiful butterflies. |
| A．When they said goodbye to the guide. |
| B．Why they went to the butterfly museum. |
| C．What she learned from the guide's words. |
| D．How she would make her home a better place. |
3 . It's late at night, the weather is bad, and you're hungry. Your favourite restaurant is less than a mile away, but you don't want to pay a $5 delivery (递送) fee. So, what do you do? Back in the old days, you would have braved the weather. But those days are coming to an end, at least in Washington.
A group of about 20 knee-high robots recently has come out on the sidewalks (人行道) of the nation's capital. Their tasks are to bring take-out food from restaurants to hungry customers at home while keeping the delivery cost to around a dollar.
The robots are European, created in Estonia by a company called Starship Technologies. Each of them is a middle-sized cooler on six wheels, and drives at an average (平均的) speed of about 4 miles per hour, about the speed of a walker. It has lights and a tall, bright orange flag so that it can be noticed by people on the sidewalk.
Here in Washington, Starship has teamed up with Postmates, the online delivery service, and the robots already are completing deliveries around the city. They move almost silently. They are electric, so there isn't much sound, except for their wheels. Their cameras recognize a lot-including traffic lights and stop signs.
The robots have only been in Washington for about a month, and they're still causing quite a stir (轰动), often getting stopped for photos. A young mother Maria Garcia is on the sidewalk, pointing out the robot to her daughter. "It's super cool," she says, "But the only thing that makes me worry about-is it going to put people out of jobs?
The company does not see robots as a replacement (代替), says Russell Cook, the director of Postmates. "We have people that drive cars, walk, and bike, and we see robots as another type of vehicle that helps us to offer deliveries," he says.
1. What does the underlined word "It" refer to?| A．The walker. | B．The robot. | C．The company. | D．The car. |
| A．They were developed by a US company. | B．They are able to travel at a high speed. |
| C．They create little noise while working. | D．They can communicate with walkers. |
| A．They may not be as safe as expected. | B．They may cause a stir on the sidewalk. |
| C．They may be destroyed by some people. | D．They may take the place of deliverymen. |
| A．A leading online delivery company. | B．Delivery robots in Washington, D. C.. |
| C．The recent development of Postmates. | D．People's growing worry about robots. |
4 . Do you like sports? Are you getting enough exercise? Well, if you’re looking for a way to exercise, try walking.
●Waking is easy. There are no special instructions, and there are no rules. You just walk-left, right, left, right. See? It’s easy.
●Walking is cheap. Don’t spend money on expensive clothes and equipment(器材). All you need is a pair of comfortable shoes.
●Walking is fun, and it gives you time for yourself. Go with a friend. Walk and talk. Do something you enjoy. Listen to music, think about life, relax and so on.
●Walking is good for your health. It’s good for your mind and body. You feel energetic after walking a lot. And now science is proving that walking outdoors is the best exercise.
●Walking is good in all kinds of weather. So it’s raining? Don’t worry, take an umbrella.
When it’s sunny, use sunglasses. If it’s hot, take some water with you. When it’s cold, you always feel warm. And walking in the snow is of great fun! Are you willing to walk? Don’t wait! Just do it!
根据短文内容,判断句子正确( T ) 错误 ( F )。
1. Here are four reasons why walking is a great idea.
2. You must follow some rules while you are walking.
3. If you walk, you needn’t buy expensive clothes.
4. Walking is boring because you can’t walk on rainy days.
5. The passage tells us walking is a good way to keep healthy.
5 . Soon computers and other machines will be able to remember you by looking at your eyes! The program works because everyone’s eyes are different. So in the future you won’t have to remember a number when you want to use a machine or take money out of a bank. You’ll just have to look at the machine and it will be able to tell who you are.
The eye-recognition (眼睛识别) program has already been tested in shops and banks in the USA. Britain, Spain, Italy and Turkey. Soon this technology will take the place of all other ways of finding out who people are.
Eye-recognition is a course of recognizing iris (虹膜), which includes the following steps. First, a kind of machine needs to collect different examples of one’s iris from his eyes and store them. Second, when this person goes to the bank to take out money, this machine will have iris feature extraction (采集). Then, this machine will compare the examples kept in it with iris feature extraction. Once the examples and the feature extraction are the same, this person will be identified, and he will take out the money from the bank successfully.
However, scientists are also working on other systems. Machines will soon be able to know you from the shape of your face or hand or even your smell! We have already had machines that can tell who you are from your voice or the mark made by your finger. Eye-recognition is better than other kinds because your eyes don’t change as you get older, and don’t get dirty like hands or fingers, and even twins have different eyes. So the eye-recognition program can be up to 94% correct, depending on how good the technology is. However, some other programs may only be 51% correct now. In Britain, it was found that 91% of people who had tried it said that they liked the idea of eye-recognition.
In the future your computer will be looking at you in the eye, So smile!
1. How does the eye-recognition program work?| A．You type in your number. | B．You say your name. |
| C．You look at the machine. | D．You show your ID card. |
| A．Remembering smells. | B．Remembering fingerprints. |
| C．Remembering the shape of faces. | D．Remembering eyes. |
| A．The eye-recognition program can be up to 51% correct. |
| B．In Britain, 91% of people said that they liked the idea of eye-recognition. |
| C．Everyone’s eyes are different, and even twins have different eyes. |
| D．The eye-recognition program is widely used now. |
| A．You won’t have to remember a number when you take money out of a bank. |
| B．We have already had machines that can tell who you are from your voice. |
| C．Tell people how the eye-recognition program works and what advantages it has. |
| D．The eye-recognition program has already been tested in shops and banks. |
| A．You needn’t remember a number when you take money out of a bank. |
| B．Machines know you from your smell. |
| C．Computers can tell who you are by looking at your eyes. |
| D．Machines can tell who you are from your voice. |
6 . What can be both red or green, round or sharp, big or small, and more importantly, loved or hated by someone? Yes, the answer is chilies(辣椒).
Many of us in China enjoy adding chilies to our food, but did you know that this spicy(辣的) vegetable could also be dangerous? A 34-year-old US man recently ended up in hospital after eating a Carolina Reaper, the spiciest chili people have ever known so far. After taking just a single bite of one, the man suffered from serious headaches in the following days, reported BBC News.
In fact, eating spicy food causes stomachaches and headaches. But if chilies are harmful, why do people like to eat this vegetable? So what makes people love chilies so much? The human body is influenced by natural chemicals that produce “a sense of happiness”, noted BBC News.
And chilies are good to people in another way. Scientists found that the death rate of those who eat spicy food once or twice a week is 10 percent lower than those who eat it less than once a week. The death rate is 14 percent lower for those who eat spicy food six to seven times a week. This encourages people to eat more spicy food to improve health and bring less death risk at an early age. So, don’t worry if you love spicy food. It seems that chilies are actually good for us.
1. Carolina Reaper is a ________.| A．healthy vegetable | B．special kind of chili |
| C．little spicy chili | D．kind of junk food |
| A．Eating chilies can be dangerous. | B．The US man died in hospital. |
| C．The US man often had a headache. | D．The Chinese enjoy eating chilies. |
| A．chilies do no harm to people | B．the chili is a kind of vegetable |
| C．they can get personal enjoyment | D．chemicals in chilies make them mad |
| A．The more chilies you eat, the longer you must live. |
| B．Scientists encourage us to add chilies to our food. |
| C．We should eat spicy food six times a week. |
| D．Proper spicy food may improve our health. |
| A．Eating Chilies, a Healthy Lifestyle | B．A Loved and Hated Vegetable |
| C．Chili—a Harmful Vegetable | D．Causes of Stomachache |
7 . Painting and writing on walls is nothing new. In prehistoric (史前的) times, people in Africa and Europe painted pictures of animals and people in caves. Graffiti has been found at ancient sites in Greece, Italy, Syria and Iraq. In the Roman town of Pompeii in Italy, archaeologists found a lot of graffiti written in Latin, including political and romantic messages, and even some magic spells!
In the 1970s, young people in New York used pens to write their names, or “tags”, on walls around the city. One of the first “taggers” was Demetrius, a teenager from a Greek family. He wrote his tag on walls in his neighbourhood and in subway stations on the way to school. Other teenagers saw Demetrius’s tag and started writing their own tags on walls, buses and subway trains all over New York. Then, some teenagers stopped using pens and started using paints. Their tags were bigger and more colourful and appeared on trains, buses and walls around the world. In the 1990s and 2000s, a lot of graffiti artists started to make pictures too.
In many countries, it is a crime to paint on walls and street artists can have problems with the police. In other countries, street art is permitted in certain places. Nowadays, street art is more popular with the public. In some cities, there are street art festivals. In Bristol in the UK, there is a street art festival in August every year. Artists paint all the buildings in a street. Lots of people come to watch the artists and take photos. Street art can be seen in galleries (美术馆) too. There have been exhibitions of street art in galleries in Paris, London and Los Angeles.
Most street artists are young people who paint in their neighbourhood or home city. Many of them use the Internet to communicate and share photos of their pictures with other street artists around the world. Although we don’t know what will happen to street art in the future, we can be sure that it is here to stay!
1. Graffiti in ancient times includes different kinds of themes EXCEPT ________.| A．names and tags | B．magic spells |
| C．animals and people | D．romantic messages |
① Demetrius wrote his tags on walls.
② Many graffiti artists made pictures too.
③ Other teenagers wrote their own tags on walls.
④ There have been exhibitions of street art in galleries.
⑤ More colourful tags appeared on trains, buses and walls.
| A．①③⑤②④ | B．①③⑤④② | C．④③①②⑤ | D．④①③②⑤ |
| A．protected | B．allowed | C．punished | D．warned |
| A．Demetrius was the first graffiti artist | B．street art can be only seen in the street |
| C．street artists begin to share their works online | D．Bristol holds a street art festival every September |
| A．to tell why graffiti and street art will disappear |
| B．to tell the development of graffiti and street art |
| C．to tell what will happen to street art in the future |
| D．to tell the relationship between graffiti and street art |
8 . The pencil is a very simple object. However, it took hundreds of people over centuries to make it what it’s like today.
The story of the pencil starts with graphite(石墨). People cut it into small sticks and use them to write or draw. Around 1560, an Italian couple named Simoni and Lyndiana Bemacotti added wood holders to the graphite sticks. However, since the graphite is too soft, the pencils were easy to break. In 1795, in France, Nicolas-Jacques Conte worked out a method of mixing graphite powders with clay(黏土). In this way, people made strong pencil core(铅笔芯). To this day, the method is still used in making pencils.
It was Henry David Thoreau who came up with the grading scale(分级量表) for different hardnesses of pencils. It was graded one through four, and grade two is the proper hardness for general use. The softer the pencil is, the more graphite it has in it, and the darker the line is. The harder the pencil is, the more clay it has, and the lighter the line is. Nowadays, pencils marked 2B are usually used in exams to mark answers. Pencils marked HB are usually used in daily writing. People usually use pencils of different hardness and blackness to draw different parts of a picture.
When pencils were handmade, they were made round. Then an American Joseph Dixon developed machines to make pencils. Later people found out it was easier and less wasteful to make a pencil which has six sides.
There is a pencil for everyone and every pencil has a story. The Blackwing 602 is famous for being used by a lot of writers. And then, you have the Dixon pencil company. It’s what people think of when they think of a pencil and what they most probably will buy when their children are about to write.
In my opinion, there’s nothing that can be done to make the pencil better than it is.
1. Who improved the hardness of pencils?| A．Joseph Dixon. | B．Nicolas-Jacques. |
| C．Henry David Thoreau. | D．Simoni and Lyndiana Bemacotti. |
| A．Pencils of great hardness are less useful. |
| B．Their hardness and blackness decide their uses. |
| C．Round pencils were first made by machines. |
| D．Pencils with six sides are comfortable to use. |
| A．Pencils are the best writing tool. | B．There are many kinds of pencils. |
| C．The Blackwing 602 is very expensive. | D．Dixon pencils are popular with people. |
| A．The grading scale. | B．The story of the pencil. |
| C．To make the pencil round. | D．To make a pencil which has six sides. |
| A．The development of pencils. | B．The main inventors of pencils. |
| C．What pencils are made out of. | D．Why pencils are widely used. |
9 . According to a survey, many people think genes(基因) and intelligence have something to do with students' success or failure. But there aren't any researches to support this opinion. And in fact, it is not right at all. There is one thing that can finally decide students' success or failure. That is how they learn. A few students are clever and lucky. They find good ways for themselves to study every subject well. But others aren't so lucky like them. They don't find correct ways of their own and fail in the end.
To teachers, what is the best way to teach languages? Dr. Asher found a way called “Total Physical Response”. This was helpful to students. Studies in San Jose State University showed that if students moved their bodies when learning English, they were able to learn a lot more new words and grammar in a very short time. But if they sat still and didn't move, they could learn less. And after a year, the students who moved their bodies when learning remembered 80% or more things they learned. But others forgot more than 80%.
Now you may know how to learn English. Keep moving when you learn. So when you listen to a story or an article, do action as soon as you hear it. And you can imagine you are the person in the story or the article. By doing this, you can learn more English and you can remember it longer. The most useful is that you can use it more easily. Stop your old method. Try this one at once!
1. What is the aim of Dr. Asher's Total Physical Response?| A．For students to remember words. | B．For teachers to teach languages. |
| C．For parents to help their children. | D．For schools to develop fast. |
| A．moving your bodies | B．listening to stories |
| C．reading articles | D．talking to others |
| A．耐力 | B．魄力 | C．体力 | D．智力 |
| A．I am the writer of the story or article. | B．I am the seller of the story or article. |
| C．I am a character of the story or article. | D．I am the teller of the story or article. |
| A．Ways to succeed in the future. | B．Ways to do much more exercise. |
| C．Ways to make new sentences. | D．Ways to help people learn well. |
There are many different ways to travel to Paris from London. One of the quickest and most popular ways is by train. From Waterloo Railway Station, you can travel all the way to Paris. The journey takes about three hours. The train, called the Eurostar, is very modern, and the seats are comfortable.
You can also travel to France by ship. First, you go to Dover, on the coast, by bus from London. The bus stops at the Ferry Terminal Seven in Dover. You can buy your tickets there. Passengers travelling by car can drive on to theferry, too.
Another way to travel to Paris is by plane. There are several airports with international flights to Paris and other cities in France. You can travel to London Airport by bus or subway.
Some people even go by taxi but this is a very expensive way to travel!
1. The most popular way to Paris is _______.| A．by ship | B．by plane | C．by train |
| A．quick | B．expensive | C．comfortable |
| A．汽车站 | B．港口 | C．火车站 |
| A．Five. | B．Six. | C．Seven. |
| A．different ways traveling from London to Paris |
| B．international flights from London to Paris |
| C．buses stopping at Ferry Terminal Seven in Dover |
