1 . San Francisco Fire Engine Tours
San Francisco Winery TourRunning: February 1st through April 30th
This delicious tour goes through the city on its way to Treasure Island where we will stop at the famous Winery SF. Here you can enjoy 4 pours of some of the best wine San Francisco has to offer.(Included in tickets price)
Departing from the Cannery: Tour times upon request.Duration(时长): 2 hours
Price: $90
Back to the Fifties Tour
Running: August 16th through August 31st
This tour transports you back in time to one of San Francisco’s most fantastic periods, the 1950s! Enjoy fun history as we take you through San Francisco for a free taste of ice cream.
Departing from the Cannery: 5:00 pm and 7:30 pmDuration: 2 hours
Price: $90
Spooky Halloween Tour
Running: October 10th through October 31st
Join us for a ride through the historical Presidio district. Authentic fire gear(服装) is provided for your warmth as our entertainers take you to some of the most thrilling parts of San Francisco.
Departing from the Cannery: 6:30 pm and 8:30 pmDuration: 1 hour and 30 minutes
Price: Available upon request
Holiday Lights Tour
Running: December 6th through December 23rd
This attractive tour takes you to some of San Francisco’s most cheerful holiday scenes. Authentic fire gear is provided for your warmth as you get into the holiday spirit.
Departing from the Cannery: 7:00 pm and 9:00 pmDuration: 1 hour and 30 minutes
Advance reservations required.
1. Which of the tours is available in March?
| A．San Francisco Winery Tour. | B．Back to the Fifties Tour. |
| C．Spooky Hallowen Tour. | D．Holiday Lights Tour. |
| A．Go to Treasure Island. | B．Enjoy the holiday scenes. |
| C．Have free ice cream. | D．Visit the Presidio district. |
| A．Take some drinks. | B．Set off early in the morning. |
| C．Wear warm clothes. | D．Make reservations in advance. |
2 . What if you could give your children everything they wanted without them having to take any effort at all to get it？Would they appreciate what they now have？Would they know how to even maintain the lifestyle or how to keep the business moving forward and not downward?
There is some debate among parents of this new generation about the question of whether our children have been given so much that they now expect everything all at once. A case in point is a friend of mine who has a son in his late twenties. It is not that he doesn't have a good paying job and a really nice house. Actually his house is a lot better and bigger than I ever had at his age. But, he is not satisfied with what he has；he wants everything else right now, not tomorrow, but right now.
What he wants is a bigger house, a fancier car, and all the newest gadgets(小玩意) that come on the market. He never thinks he should work a little longer and save his money or that he shouldn't have it all. Maybe we have spoiled our children to expect more than what they should normally expect and then expect all of these worldly possessions to keep coming their way.
Now, the situation with my friend's son is one where his son calls him and complains that life is difficult and that he is having a hard time getting what he wants. The discussion usually then turns to waiting a little longer and working to save money but this discussion usually ends with his son still being disappointed with his life.
Each life must come from work, sacrifice and satisfaction of being able to provide for your family, but there is little room for just wanting when waiting, working and patience could get it done.
All of us need a bit of hardship, struggle, learning to overcome obstacles, understanding perseverance, and developing an attitude that speaks loudly about accepting responsibility for one's own destiny.
1. The writing method of the passage is ________ .| A．listing facts | B．giving an example |
| C．explaining reasons | D．making comparisons |
| A．live a happier life | B．learn to be independent |
| C．never be satisfied with it | D．be grateful for his parents |
| A．the result of parents' spoiling their children |
| B．the way for parents to prepare for a better life |
| C．the advice for parents on how to raise their children |
| D．the solution for parents to solving their family issues |
| A．What our life offers us. |
| B．What we should do for our family. |
| C．How we should gain what we desire. |
| D．How we should prepare for our destiny. |
3 . Snowboarding genius Su Yiming made a name for himself by winning China’s first Olympic gold in the sport on Tuesday. By cleanly stomping back-to-back 1800 tricks, the teenager landed the biggest prize so far in his young career—gold in the men’s Big Air at the Beijing Winter Olympics. The notable achievement realized a childhood dream to reach the peak of the sport, which he began to learn at the age of 4.
Now with two shinning medals hung around his neck, the 17-year-old described his superb Olympic debut ( 首秀) as an unbelievable experience that has made all his sacrifices worthwhile. “This feels so surreal that I’ve finally accomplished what I’ve dreamed of since I was little,” said an emotional Su.
Over the past four years, Su has combined his talent with hard work to produce one of the swiftest rises to prominence the sport has ever seen. When the Shougang Big Air venue hosted its first international event, Su was an unknown qualifier, who didn’t even make the final runs. Just over two years later, Su is the name on everyone’s lips at the venue’s Olympic debut—drawing the whole nation’s attention to the sport he loves.
“The biggest motivation (动力) for me is my love for snowboarding,” Su said, when asked about the secret to his success. “In snowboarding, I feel like I can show my own style and creativity. Every time I ride my board, it’s always a joyful moment. I hope through my experience, I can inspire more young people to get interested in the sport.”
Su, a former child actor who featured in action movies, said the Olympic gold will encourage him to seek for more breakthroughs—even beyond his athletic career. “I enjoy snowboarding just as much as I enjoy acting,” said Su, who turns 18 on Friday. “I think I still have a lot of possibilities to explore in my future career either in snowboarding or in acting. But now I just want to enjoy the moment and celebrate it as the best possible birthday gift.”
1. What does the underlined word “landed” in Paragraph 1 mean?| A．Arrived. | B．Gained. | C．Created. | D．Dreamed. |
| A．His acting experience. | B．His talent and hard work. |
| C．His being fond of snowboarding. | D．His life dream of achieving success. |
| A．Talented and thoughtful. | B．Lovely and famous. |
| C．Creative and kind-hearted. | D．Hard-working and devoted. |
| A．Upset. | B．Hopeful. | C．Anxious. | D．Satisfied. |
4 . 43-year-old John Chadwick started live-streaming (直播) life of the birds with their chicks.But just weeks after uploading the videos to YouTube, he gained millions of views from around the world.
John said, “To think that tens of millions of people have been watching the birds from around the world is just incredible and quite overwhelming.”
The sound engineer bought the bird box by accident. He placed it on a willow tree in his back garden in March, and within hours two blue tits (蓝冠山雀) moved in and they had five chicks. At first, he only wanted to show his family what the birds were up to.
John said, “Within a day the birds moved in, and I wanted to know what was going on inside. I started to livestream and do video highlights every day-on the first day 100 people watched it. It showed things like the chicks being fed in the nests as the parents carried in caterpillars (毛毛虫). After three months, I had 2, 000 subscribers.”
John decided to put a final video together and keep it as short as possible-showing the birds going into the nests, the eggs hatching, and the chicks fledging(长羽毛).
Now despite the huge global success of the videos, John is unlikely to make enough for a nest egg of his own. He still needs to struggle for his family. But some people say they find it quite relaxing and genuinely fascinated by John’s videos.
He said, “My personal challenge to myself was to get out of my comfortable zone. And I enjoy exploring new areas. But I keep in mind that I need to care for my family.”
1. Why did John livestream birds’ life at first?| A．To kill time at home. |
| B．To know more about the birds. |
| C．To get him closer to his family. |
| D．To call on people to shelter blue tits. |
| A．His financial problem. |
| B．Little blue tits’ settlements. |
| C．Improvement of his final video. |
| D．Challenges from online viewers. |
| A．Intelligent and hardworking. |
| B．Helpful and wise. |
| C．Knowledgeable and generous. |
| D．Adventurous and responsible. |
| A．A Bird Lover’s Video of Blue Tits Attracts Millions of Fans |
| B．A Video Raises People’s Awareness of Protecting Birds |
| C．Technology Can Greatly Affect the Survival of Wildlife |
| D．A Bird Lover Makes Efforts to Protect Rare Blue Tits |
5 . Do you think you have what it takes to be a successful scientist? A successful scientist is generally a good observer. He makes full
The rise of modern science may perhaps be considered to
Galileo (1564－1642),
What
| A．use | B．sense | C．speed | D．trust |
| A．relied | B．based | C．insisted | D．centered |
| A．refuses | B．desires | C．intends | D．regrets |
| A．casually | B．carefully | C．quickly | D．privately |
| A．date | B．keep | C．look | D．come |
| A．command | B．suspect | C．suggest | D．conclude |
| A．in | B．with | C．on | D．by |
| A．brought | B．discovered | C．handled | D．announced |
| A．however | B．therefore | C．seldom | D．never |
| A．truths | B．problems | C．investigations | D．subjects |
| A．threw | B．fell | C．ran | D．rolled |
| A．although | B．because | C．when | D．if |
| A．place | B．foot | C．top | D．ceiling |
| A．big | B．small | C．similar | D．unequal |
| A．spirit | B．skill | C．theory | D．wish |
| A．plans | B．opinions | C．world | D．ability |
| A．led to | B．turned to | C．set up | D．put forward |
| A．makes | B．prevents | C．considers | D．promises |
| A．reasonable | B．successful | C．expert | D．sensitive |
| A．foreseen | B．rejected | C．produced | D．challenged |
6 . A new study found that 15-year-olds told more coherent (连贯的) stories about turning points in their lives if their mothers had been taught the new conversational techniques 14 years earlier. These adolescents also reported fewer symptoms of depression and anxiety compared to adolescents in the study whose mothers had talked with their toddlers (初学走路的孩子) as usual.
In the research,115 mothers of toddlers were assigned to either a control group without any training or an experimental group given training in elaborative reminiscine (详尽回忆) for a year. The training involves open and responsive conversations with young children about every day past events.
Project lead Professor Elaine Reese says adolescents whose mothers had participated in the earlier coaching sessions narrated difficult events from their lives — such as parental divorce or cyber-bullying with more insight into how the experience had shaped as people.
Professor Reese says, “Our findings suggest parents’ sharing memories early in children’s lives can have long-lasting benefits, both for the way adolescents process and talk about difficult life events and for their well-being. For example, it helps children develop more complete, specific, and accurate memories of their experiences, providing a richer store of memories to use when telling their own stories. It also teaches children how to have open discussions about past feelings when they’re no longer in the heat of the moment.”
Professor Reese hopes parents and policy makers realize the importance of early childhood as the ideal time for starting to have positive conversations with children, and to know that these conversations can make a difference as children grow older. “The ultimate goal is to encourage parents to have more sensitive and responsive conversations about events in their children’s lives.”
The researchers intend to continue the study, following up with participants in emerging adulthood to determine any ongoing effects of their theirs mother’s elaborative reminiscine.
1. According to the text, all mothers involved in the research ________.| A．were trained how to talk with kids for a year |
| B．had children who were about one year old |
| C．took part in the follow-up research annually |
| D．had experienced some difficult events in life |
| A．Coaching sessions with parents benefit toddlers. |
| B．Parents need to learn new conversational techniques. |
| C．Parents’ elaborative reminiscing can fight depression. |
| D．Sharing memories sets kids on path to better well-being. |
| A．They went through more turning points in life. |
| B．They had a richer store of memories to refer to. |
| C．They could well remember what happened in life. |
| D．They had better language skills to describe events. |
| A．Uncertain. | B．Favorable. | C．Concerned. | D．Doubtful. |
7 . Moksh Jawa, 16, a student at Washington High School in the US, has already become a legend(传奇) among students. “Why not?” might be his favorite question to ask.
As a seventh-grader, he taught himself coding(编程) by studying on the Internet.
As a high school freshman, he passed the AP Computer Science A exam with a 5, the highest score possible.
As a sophomore (高中二年级学生), he developed his own online course and helped his classmates get through it because his high school didn't teach coding.
Everything he did came from his own interest. His father sent him a link to Codeacademy, an online coding training program, in middle school. He learned a programming(编程) language all by himself after signing up to the website.
“I just fell in love with computer science,” Jawa said. Along the way, he lit a fire of curiosity and passion among classmates to learn coding too.
“All of my friends, especially the girls, were really, really afraid of computer science,” he said. But the subject and exam weren't things to be feared, he said, “Computer science is all about logic(逻辑), not about how smart you are. ”
To make his knowledge available online, Jawa set about creating his own online course, with easy-to-follow lessons. He included quizzes and tests too.
The course has so far attracted 3, 200 students across the US and in 120 countries and regions, including China, Ukraine and Algeria. It shows, Jawa said, the huge need for coding lessons.
When video lecturing, “I deliver it like I'm talking from one high school student to another .” Jawa said.“ It's always great to make it as clear and fun as possible, and to try to keep my voice as energetic as possible. ”
He also does that, when teaching members of the computer science club he founded at his high school.
“His tutorials(辅导) were great, ”said Taj Shaik, the club's co-president, who took the whole course last year. “I'm definitely one of the early adopters(使用者) of Moksh. ”
“He's pretty amazing, ”said Bob Moran, principal of Washington High School, who saw him lead the club. “He was just a fantastic teacher—clear, organized and entertaining. When a student got the right answer, he would throw him a candy. ”
1. Which of the following probably made Moksh Jawa a legend among students?| A．He created his own online coding course. |
| B．He welcomes any kind of challenge by asking, “Why not?” |
| C．He learned an intermediate programming language. |
| D．He earns a lot of money by coding for companies. |
| A．You have to be smart to learn computer science well. |
| B．Interest is the most important when learning coding. |
| C．Computer science is not difficult to learn. |
| D．Coding is useful and everyone should know it. |
| A．is patient but strict with his students |
| B．likes to do things in a fixed order |
| C．usually applies unusual teaching methods |
| D．tries to make his classes simple yet interesting |
阅读下列短文，从每题所给的四个选项（A、B、C和D）中，选出最佳选项。
I am a strong believer that if a child is raised with approval (认可) he learns to love himself and will be successful in his own way.
Several weeks ago, I was doing homework with my son in the third grade and he kept standing up from his chair. I kept asking him to sit down, telling him that he would concentrate (集中注意力) better. He sat but seconds later, as if he didn’t even notice he was doing it, he got up again. I was getting angry, but then it hit me: I started noticing his answers were much quicker and right when he stood up. Could he concentrate better while standing up?
This made me start questioning myself and what I had been raised to believe. I grew up to believe that a quiet child was more likely to succeed. This child would have the ability to study hard, get good grades and become someone important in life. Kids that were active and loud would only be losers.
Now people perhaps come to realize that their kids are born with their own sets of DNA, and all they can do is loving and accepting them. As parents, throughout their growing years and beyond that, we need to guide them and help them find their way.
I have stopped asking my son to sit down and concentrate. Clearly, he is concentrating, just in his own way and not mine. We need to accept our kids, and their ways of doing things. There is nothing sweeter than seeing our children being themselves. It makes us happy and that’s just the way I want my kids to live a happy life.
1. The author tried to keep his son seated so that ________.| A．he couldn’t disturb the author |
| B．he could keep silent in the room |
| C．he could finish his homework on time |
| D．he could pay more attention to his study |
| A．the importance of parents |
| B．the old education methods |
| C．the good grades of some kids |
| D．the love between kids and their parents |
| A．Encouragement is important. |
| B．Children shouldn’t be punished. |
| C．A fine example is necessary in the school. |
| D．Children can’t be taught in the same way. |
| A．have no freedom |
| B．have their own style |
| C．learn from their friends |
| D．be friendly to their parents |
9 . I’d like to share a little with you about something that happened when I was four. I remember it clearly. Our loving family dog was nearing the end of his life. My father picked him up and put him in a little bed we had made for him. Our dog, my companion, whom we had cared for, bit my father when he attempted to help him. How could he? Why? I couldn’t understand it. I didn’t like him anymore.
I hadn’t thought that story for a long time but something that happened last brought it back to me. I went to speak with a friend. When I knocked on the door, I met in an instant an angry look and a few harsh (尖刻的) words. When the door was slammed (砰地关上) in my face, I stood there shocked, and in rush, I was reminded of my dog bit my father 20 years ago or so. What brought that story back was that same feeling of betrayal.
Both stories taught me something the next day. You see, when I got up in the morning and was told my dog had died, it became clear to me that he must have been in great pain. For him to have bitten a family member, he could not have been himself. Much the same for the other story when I learned that my friend’s wife had just left him.
We are all begins of our environments, our opinions and feelings. And all of those things can cause you to say and do things that can’t be understood by those who are not in the same situation with you.
If you meet someone either behaving out of character or acting in a way that doesn’t seem to fit the situation, put our your hand and be patient when you think it is least possible for him to do so. You may turn around a story that has a sad ending simply by your actions.
1. What is the influence of the incident mentioned in Paragraph 1?| A．It hurt his father’s feeling deeply. | B．It has puzzled the author ever since. |
| C．It left a deep impression on the author. | D．It made the author dislike dogs. |
| A．He was ill-tempered. |
| B．He was suffering the pain of losing his wife. |
| C．He was bothered by an unexpected visit. |
| D．They once quarreled and he couldn’t forgive the author. |
| A．Help those in need. | B．Look before you leap. |
| C．Respect of others is a kind of virtue. | D．Learn to put yourself in others’ shoes. |
