1 . School Spirit is in the bag!

Now you can design your own Taft Tiger bags and backpacks.

What’s in your bag?

School books, homework, and gym clothes are just a few of the many items that successful students at Taft Middle School carry around every day. The right bag or backpack can help you get organized. Carry your school equipment with style and show your Tiger Pride with one of these strong SCHOOL SPIRIT TO GO bags.

Which bag do you need?

Backpack: $20

●Made with strong materials and zippers

●Comfortable, padded shoulder straps(软垫肩带)

●Two large compartments for books and notebooks

●Small zippered bag for pens, pencils, calculators and more

Duffle bag: $15

●Perfect for holding gym clothes, shoes, and towels

●Large enough to hold up to three basketballs

●Removable shoulder straps and short handles

Tote bag: $10

●Ideal for light loads

●Use it to carry a sweater and snacks for a field trip

●Take it to the library to carry books and research materials

Satisfaction guaranteed

These bags are a great bargain and SCHOOL SPIRIT TO GO guarantees their quality. If the bag has a defect(缺陷), simply return it within 30 days of receipt for an exchange of equal value or a full refund(退款).

How to order your bag

All orders must be placed in person and during the week of September 26-30 only.

●Visit the SCHOOL SPIRIT TO GO representatives in the cafeteria September 26-30 to see samples of bags.

●Complete the order form. Be sure to write down your first-period teacher’s name on the form.

●Hand in your payment with the order form to the representatives.

The bags will be delivered to the school in three weeks. First-period teachers will give out the bags to students who placed orders.

1. Compared with Tote bags, Duffle bags ________.

A．are a little cheaper	B．have small bags for tiny items
C．can have their shoulder straps taken off	D．are suitable to be carried to the library

2. What do we know about the sale of the bags?

A．It is held by Taft Middle School.

B．It is aimed at Taft Middle School students.

C．It allows students to return bags without reasons.

D．It includes offering free gym clothes to students.

3. What is one requirement for students who order the bags?

A．Going to a given place to get the bags.

B．Giving payments to their first-period teachers.

C．Including the representatives’ names on the forms.

D．Placing the orders during the last days of September.

2 . Today’s youth seem satisfied to take the easy route and enjoy the ride of life. When ________ situations arise, they often pull a long face and complain. How you live your teen years will have a __________influence on the rest of your life. You must learn to use your _________wisely.

You may not see it now, __________developing leadership characteristics at a young age is very important. _________we get older, it becomes harder to overcome bad habits and replace them with good ones. Having leadership _________ is necessary, both in this life and in the world to come. There are certain qualities that one needs to develop in order to become a leader: justice, judgment, dependability, initiative, decisiveness, tact, integrity, enthusiasm, poise, unselfishness, courage, knowledge and loyalty. You may recognize these as good qualities to have, without realizing how they apply to leadership. The more these qualities are part of your nature, the more _________and enjoyable your life will be. All of these are qualities that one must possess to one degree or another.

________the general public believes that leadership is a natural ability, leadership is actually something that is learned. No one is born a leader. We are all capable of exhibiting(展现) the leadership qualities mentioned above — some just choose not to. Of course, not everyone can be the “top dog”, _________all the time. However, everyone does have the capacity to lead in some way — but _________is required! Understand that learning is a fact of life—learning to ride a bike, learning to drive, learning to type, learning mathematics, etc. All of these activities _________action. While we are born with many different abilities, if we do not _________and develop them, those abilities will never come to fruition.

Youth is an excellent time to start developing leadership characteristics. _________the time to study each one in detail. Put them into practice as you interact with other people. __________ which areas you are weak in, striving to always improve. Observe the leaders, and how they handle situations and carry themselves. Also, study the lives of great leaders. The results will serve you in this life — and _________!

1.

A．comfortable

B．tough

C．enjoyable

D．convenient

2.

A．limited

B．relevant

C．dramatic

D．fantastic

3.

A．intelligence

B．time

C．degree

D．challenge

4.

A．but

B．while

C．for

D．since

5.

A．Before

B．After

C．As

D．Though

6.

A．sources

B．resources

C．quantities

D．qualities

7.

A．efficient

B．effective

C．sufficient

D．productive

8.

A．While

B．If

C．Since

D．As

9.

A．let alone

B．depend on

C．start off

D．get together

10.

A．patience

B．perseverance

C．intelligence

D．action

11.

A．require

B．cause

C．profit

D．set

12.

A．increase

B．exploit

C．recall

D．use

13.

A．Spend

B．Take

C．Pay

D．Consume

14.

A．Decide

B．Determine

C．Imagine

D．Figure

15.

A．out

B．away

C．beyond

D．off

3 . Car Hire

Hiring a self-drive car really adds to the enjoyment of your holiday. There are so many places of interest to visit, and if you enjoy seeing more than just the city center, there’s no better way to explore than by car.

Hire Charges

What are included

a) Unlimited mileage (英里数).

b) Expenses on oil, maintenance and repairs, which will be repaid on production of invoices (发票).

c) Full insurance except personal accident ( see below ) and contents.

What are not included

a) Personal accident insurance.

b) Garaging, petrol, parking and traffic fines.

Conditions of Hire

★ The shortest rental period at these special low prices is three days. For prices for periods of one or two days you only see our representative at the hotel.

★ Car hire must be booked six weeks or more before arrival in London to guarantee a car. But if you have been unable to make a booking in advance, please see our representative at the hotel who may still be able to help you.

★ The car types on the sheet are examples of the types of cars in each price range, but a particular car cannot be guaranteed.

★ Upon delivery the driver(s) will be asked to sign the car hire company’s Conditions of Hire.

★ If you decide to hire a car, just fill in the Booking Form and return it to us. A booking fee of ￡12 as part of the car hire cost is required.

★ Should you be forced to cancel your car hire booking after payment in full (two weeks before date of hire) , a cancellation charge of £12 will be made.

1. From the advertisement we can see a car hirer will pay ______.

A．insurance against damage to the car	B．insurance against injury to the driver
C．the cost of maintenance of the car	D．the cost of repairs to the car

2. Which of the following is NOT true according to the advertisement?

A．You have to pay parking fine yourself.

B．The company can’t provide all kinds of cars you need.

C．When you hire a car from the company, a driver will go together with you.

D．You have to pay a booking fee when you hire a car from the company.

3. If car hirers change their minds after paying the whole cost of hiring, the ￡12 booking fee is ______.

A．partly returned	B．double paid
C．not returned at all	D．returned within six weeks

4. The prices for car hire are especially low when ______.

A．it is booked for at least three days	B．it is booked two weeks in advance
C．it is booked for two days	D．the booking is made in London

4 . If you are a recent social science graduate who has had to listen to jokes about unemployment from your computer major classmates, you may have had the last laugh. There are many advantages for the social science major because this high-tech “Information Age” demands people who are flexible and who have good communication skills.

There are many social science majors in large companies who fill important positions. For example, a number of research studies found that social science majors had achieved greater managerial success than those who had technical training or pre-professional courses. Studies show that social science majors are most suited for change, which is the leading feature of the kind of high speed, high-pressure, high-tech world we now live in.

Social science majors are not only experiencing success in their long-term company jobs, but they are also finding jobs more easily. A study showed that many companies had filled a large percentage of their entry-level positions with social science graduates. The study also showed that the most sought-after quality in a person who was looking for a job was communication skills, noted as “very important” by 92 percent of the companies. Social science majors have these skills, often without knowing how important they are. It is probably due to these skills that they have been offered a wide variety of positions.

Finally, although some social science majors may still find it more difficult than their technically trained classmates to land the first job, recent graduates report that they don’t regret their choice of study.

1. Compared with graduates of other subjects, social science graduates _____.

A．are ready to change when situations change

B．are better able to deal with difficulties

C．are equally good at computer skills

D．are likely to give others pressure

2. According to the text, what has made it easy for social science graduates to find jobs?

A．Willingness to take low-paid jobs.	B．Readiness to gain high-tech knowledge.
C．Skills in expressing themselves.	D．Part-time work experience.

3. The underlined word “land” in the last paragraph probably means _______.

A．keep for some time	B．successfully get
C．immediately start	D．lose regretfully

5 . Should you listen to music when you work?

Do you like to listen to music when you work?

Ask this question at a party, and you’ll probably get _________ responses. Some will say they love it, claiming that it improves their performance; others will say they find it distracting (分散注意力的) and cannot work _________ with music playing in the background.

Interestingly enough, our research has found that both of these viewpoints can be true. It just _________ on what sort of work you’re doing.

In a recent study, we brought participants into our lab to perform a variety of tasks. They included a(n) _________ task-searching through word lists and crossing out words containing the letter “a” and a more difficult task—memorizing word pairs and _________ word to its partner. Some participants completed all of the tasks in silence, _________ others completed the tasks with instrumental music that was cither loud or soft, and either simple or complex, the latter meaning music with more instruments being played. Several key findings _________ from our study.

We found that participants who listened to simple music or no music performed about the same on the easy task. However, participants who listened to _________ music performed best on the easy task.

On the contrary, participants performed worse on the more difficult task when they listened to any music, regardless of complexity or volume, compared to those who didn’t listen to any music.

How should we _________ these findings?

We suggest that people have limited mental resources from which both __________ and tasks can draw. We can become __________ and our minds may wander when these resources are not fully used. But we also can become over-excited and __________ when these resources are used up.

Not surprisingly, we typically need to use fewer of our mental resources when we perform easy tasks, whereas demanding tasks require more brainpower. However, because we might be less __________ during easier tasks, there’s a greater risk of drifting off. Music might give us the extra __________ we need to overcome the monotony (单调). However, difficult tasks already demand lot of our resources. Listening to music can become too much.

So best __________ should appear when we strike “sweet spot,” which may depend on the type of music and the type of task.

1.

A．fixed

B．similar

C．various

D．positive

2.

A．effectively

B．immediately

C．exactly

D．happily

3.

A．depends

B．focuses

C．carries

D．takes

4.

A．unpleasant

B．familiar

C．impossible

D．easy

5.

A．matching

B．realizing

C．suggesting

D．creating

6.

A．until

B．while

C．since

D．when

7.

A．faded

B．appeared

C．survived

D．responded

8.

A．dull

B．reliable

C．necessary

D．complex

9.

A．make up for

B．make out

C．make use of

D．make up

10.

A．music

B．work

C．study

D．culture

11.

A．surprised

B．bored

C．afraid

D．proud

12.

A．interested

B．distracted

C．attracted

D．worried

13.

A．disgusted

B．embarrassed

C．frightened

D．engaged

14.

A．obstacle

B．push

C．opportunity

D．rule

15.

A．action

B．program

C．performance

D．problem

6 . WE COMBAT ANIMAL DISEASES TOGETHER!

We want to prevent serious animal diseases such as foot and mouth disease, classical swine fever and African swine fever from spreading to Finland. These and other animal diseases can be transmitted from one country to another by animals or by meat and dairy products even if they are packed for personal consumption or intended as gifts. Travelers like you play an important role in preventing the spread of animal diseases.

Don’t bring meat, meat products, milk and dairy products from non-EU countries to Finland!

A ban on personal imports applies to meat and dairy products brought into Finland by travelers or ordered and sent through the post. The ban applies to food stuffs intended for personal consumption or as gifts and to pet food. If you have food products of animal origin with you, throw them in a waste container in the point of entry or contact Customs!

Bringing meat-containing products as presents and for personal use from an EU country to Finland

At the moment, there are EU countries with cases of African swine fever. In those countries there are restriction areas and, as a rule, pork and wild bear meat or products containing these meats may not be imported from these areas into Finland. Import is allowed only under very strict criteria controlled by local authorities. However, the sales of these meat products within the country may be allowed. In the EU, the disease has been detected in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Belgium and Italy (Sardinia), for instance. It is difficult for travelers to know and prove from which area meat products originate and whether the products on sale meet all criteria. This is the reason why we recommend that people avoid importing any meat products containing pork or wild bear meat as presents or for personal use from countries with African swine fever.

PLEASE NOTE! Never leave any food waste or leftover in the environment or places where they may be eaten by wildlife. Never give food waste or leftover to production animals or to pet pigs.

Thank you for helping us to prevent the spread of animal diseases. We wish you a pleasant journey!

1. Whom is this notice intended for?

A．Food importers in Finland.	B．Travelers to Finland.
C．Citizens in EU countries.	D．Medical staff from non-EU countries.

2. Why does the Finnish Food Authority issue the notice?

A．To protect endangered wildlife.	B．To secure the domestic economy.
C．To promote vegetarian lifestyle.	D．To prevent the infectious diseases.

3. Which of the following behaviors is IMPROPER, according to the notice?

A．A Russian official threw a beef burger in a dustbin at the Finnish airport.

B．A Finnish girl fed milk to pigeon at the park in her neighborhood.

C．A Japanese traveler bought some Hungarian homemade sausages in Finland.

D．A German brought German cheeses to his Finnish girlfriend as a gift.

7 . A person seeking a new career opportunity might consider looking in a museum. Museums provide jobs in fields such as research, management, graphic arts, public relations, education, preserving, cataloging, fund-raising, and construction. A museum may have one employee or thousands.

Many museum workers do not work directly with the objects in the museum; for example, the staff of a finance department prepares budgets and financial reports. Accountant and bookkeeper are typical positions. Staffers in the development department, meanwhile, work to increase museum membership and donations and to plan fund-raisers, such as dances or auctions. Publications department personnel may write newsletters, brochures, or books.

Some museums have an education department responsible for planning talks, teaching workshops, directing tours, or training tour guides.

People who prefer to work directly with a museum's collection have many career options. A person who pays attention to detail may enjoy being a registrar, the person who keeps track of the objects in a museum. Registrars keep records of objects, noting what they are, when and how they were obtained, and whether they are on loan to another museum or on display.

Curators are the people responsible for a museum's collection. One of their duties is to choose items for exhibits; then they work closely with designers who plan the best way to arrange exhibits. Other specialists do things such as arrange lighting or build display cases. Expert craftspeople can also find jobs re-creating historic buildings, such as the Pilgrim village at Plimoth Plantation.

A museum also often employs conservators to repair and take care of its collection. Many conservators are specialists who care for one kind of item, such as books or paintings. The Henry Ford Museum employs many conservators, including some who are experts in caring for antique cars.

Some historic homes, such as George Washington's home in Mount Vernon, have gardens, farms, and woods, as well as buildings. Gardeners are employed to care for the grounds and livestock handlers to care for farm animals.

Museums offer many other career opportunities too. They may have gift shops where sales assistants sell books, postcards, and other items or. restaurants where meals are prepared and served. Depending on one's interests, a museum could be a great place to look for a job.

1. A museum's education department might _____.

A．plan fund-raisers	B．prepare financial reports
C．write brochures	D．conduct workshops

2. Like curators, conservators______.

A．work directly with museum collections

B．choose museum collections

C．prepare financial reports

D．choose items for exhibits

3. It can be inferred from the passage that a publications department in a museum employs______.

A．teachers

B．writers

C．craftspeople

D．bookkeepers

4. Which of the following sentences best describes the main idea of the passage?

A．Curators work closely with designers in the arrangement of museum exhibits.

B．There are many kinds of museums in such fields as history, art, and science.

C．Museums, although they vary in purpose and size, offer a wide range of career opportunities.

D．Museums serve as an ideal workplace for those only interested in museum collections.

8 . Freelance is a kind of work that goes back to medieval times when it was used to describe soldiers who sold their skills to those prepared to pay their market rate. Today it's an increasingly common way of working for people in a range of occupations and appeals to many who feel constrained by corporate culture.

What you gain is freedom of movement; what you can lose is a sense of belonging. You can end up feeling isolated from normal support networks, because suddenly you are responsible for your own welfare, training, safety, career development, equipment, professional updating and a thousand other things,it is easy to remain unaware of these things in the relatively spoiled existence of full-time employment. So before you leap up into this exciting and potentially rewarding way of working,stand back and take a look at the risks.

Freelancing has always been a common way of working for writers,artists and performers,but the range of occupations with a substantial number of freelancers is growing steadily. Anyone with a marketable skill can choose to do it alone. Websites offer a free directory listing for those with skills to sell. Their categories include accountants,healthcare consultants,landscape architects and computer trainers. Areas of work that have problem recruiting staff are always keen to employ freelancers.

Being a freelancer is different from other forms of self-employment-you still work for an employer or several employers but have to develop a completely different set of relationships with them. Employers are now your customers,you are their supplier. You have to become indispensable(不可缺少的)to them,providing solutions to their problems,some of which they may not even realize they had. In many ways you have to behave like their dreamed employee,being more willing and available than you may have got used to while in a “proper job”.

You also have to be aware of,and sensitive to,the fact that you can be seen as a threat by your customer's conventional employees,who may regard you as taking work they could do. Successful freelancing relies on the cooperation of everyone you come into contact with. Work that brings you into conflict with an existing workforce can be more troublesome than it's worth.

1. The first freelancers originated in medieval times were_____.

A．soldiers

B．writers

C．artists

D．performers

2. The underlined word “constrained” in Paragraph 1 is closest in meaning to_____.

A．shocked

B．charmed

C．chained

D．elevated

3. Which of the following sentences is NOT true about freelancers?

A．They can enjoy greater freedom than full-time employees.

B．They need to work for no employer but themselves only.

C．They have to shoulder full responsibilities for themselves.

D．They may feel isolated because they belong to no corporate culture.

4. Those who take up freelancing are NOT supposed to_____.

A．have professional skills to sell to different employers

B．be well aware of the challenges of freelancing

C．be able to work both independently and cooperatively

D．compete with conventional employees to have an edge over them

9 . The African elephant will disappear within two decades if urgent action is not taken to save one of the world's most iconic animal species, the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) has warned in a new campaign fundraiser.

The population of these elephants—the largest animal currently walking the earth—has declined by 70 percent in the last 40 years, in large part because of the illegal ivory trade, which is the biggest driver of elephant poaching, according to the non-profit.

In fact, 20,000 elephants are killed every year to feed this trade—which is equivalent to one death every 26 minutes.

Once an elephant is killed, poachers harvest the ivory to meet a growing demand for products made from this material. Ivory can be turned into ornaments and decorations, as well as being used in traditional Asian medicine for its intended therapeutic value. Elephants are also sometimes killed to provide a source of meat.

This poaching takes place despite a global ban on ivory sales under the CITES multilateral treaty (the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) which was introduced in 1990. Above the poachers are powerful organized criminal networks which commonly engage in corruption, money laundering and assassinations.

Part of the issue in policing the problem is that the governments of nations where Africans elephants live often lack sufficient resources to protect and monitor elephant herds, which often reside in remote and inaccessible habitats. When the animals are killed, they often suffer a brutal death.

African elephants are found in 37 countries across the continent and are categorized as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) with a remaining population of around 415,000 in the wild, according to WWF.

These animals play a crucial role in the ecosystem, helping to maintain healthy habitats for many other species.   This is because African elephants help to disperse seeds.

The population of African elephants—which are split into two subspecies—once numbered between three and five million during the last century. However, this figure has fallen dramatically as a result of poaching and other factors, such as habitat fragmentation or loss.

1. The word “poaching” (paragraph 2) probably means ________.

A．desperate desire	B．severe damage
C．illegal hunting	D．cruel killing

2. What is the main reason for the sharp decline in the number of African elephants？

A．They were hunted by other animals.

B．They failed to survive the natural disasters.

C．There is no suitable living environment.

D．They were illegally traded for ivory.

3. Which of the following can be learned from the passage?

A．Absence of bans or regulations on ivory sales is the biggest driver of elephant poaching.

B．Elephants living in remote habitats are less vulnerable than those living in nations with adequate resources.

C．If the African elephant disappear, the ecosystem there is likely to be ruined.

D．African elephant herbs usually migrated in large population.

4. What’s the best title for this passage?

A．African Elephants Will Be Gone in The Future

B．African Elephants, Leading Role in Ecosystem

C．The Population of African Elephants

D．Different Types of African Elephants

10 . "When I was 16 years old, I was diving in Greece, but I was disappointed because I saw more plastic bags than fish.” These are the words of Boyan Slat, an engineer who designed the world's first ocean plastic cleanup system.

Every year, more than 8 million tons of plastics end up in our oceans, according to the UN Environment Programme. It is predicted that the weight of ocean plastics will match the weight of all the fish in our oceans by 2050. To prevent this from happening, in 2013 Slat created the Ocean Cleanup, an environmental non¬governmental organization, and put his plan for an ocean cleanup device into action.

After years of research and develop¬ment in the Netherlands, a device called System 001/B successfully started gathering plastics on October 2, 2019. The device uses a 600-meter-long C-shaped tube to gather all the floating rubbish. Unlike other cleanup methods, the system floats freely according to the direction of the waves, which allows waste to flow into and stay within the device. A sea anchor is attached to either end. This slows down the system as it floats through the water and allows the faster-moving rubbish, carried by the waves, to flow into its mouth. System 001/B can also collect waste below the surface using a 3-meter-deep skirt（挡板）attached to the end. After being gathered, the trash will be dragged back to shore by boat and recycled.

Right now, the system operates in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, an area that is 3 times the size of France. Once operational, the Ocean Cleanup expects a full fleet to be able to clear 50% of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch in 5 years.

"It remains to be seen whether this dream will become a reality, but it is undeniable that humanity must work together to reduce our plastic use and repair the damage our waste has caused," Slat said. "We are starting to see a young generation that gets it and is excited about a sustainable （可持续的）future, but the question still comes down to: Are we going fast enough, and how much damage will have been done before we get there?"

1. The underlined word “match” in Paragraph 2 probably means “_________”.

A．compare	B．equal
C．measure	D．cover

2. Why did Boyan Slat create the Ocean Cleanup?

A．To collect ocean plastic waste.

B．To help to invent System 001/B.

C．To protect the living environment of fish.

D．To do research on the ocean environment.

3. What can we know about System 001/B?

A．It can collect and recycle garbage at the same time.

B．It can only gather ocean waste which floats on the water.

C．It aims to clear up the Great Pacific Garbage Patch in five years.

D．It is an ocean-cleaning device which has already been put to use.

4. What does Slat want to tell us according to the last paragraph?

A．Young generations care less about the environment.

B．The future ecology of the oceans is deeply worrying.

C．People should work hard to decrease plastic pollution.

D．It's quite difficult to repair the damage to the environment.