1 . Yesterday after work, the boss told me I was fired. When I walked along a riverbed sadly, I suddenly realized it was New Year’s Day, a day to start afresh.
I passed by a man holding his son, one or two years old. The baby’s face was in pure joy, and his innocent eyes were full of wonder. The simple sweetness of the baby made me moved.
Walking on, I saw a young couple repairing their bicycle. They smiled at me and said, “Happy New Year!” I smiled and wished them the same. It was a simple thing, but for a moment it brought me a sudden joy.
I kept walking, enjoying the cheerful singing of birds. With people around laughing out loud, an old woman immersed herself in her sewing. She didn’t seem either happy or sad. A feeling of timeless peace flowed through me and all fear of what the future might bring disappeared. I thanked her in my heart, and moved on.
As I reached home, I was filled with great thanks and hope for life, which took me a long time to find. Actually, happiness could be simple and easy. Now I knew whatever the New Year would bring, there would be joy and enough love to help me through the hard times we all had to face.
“Happy New Year!” I said to myself.
1. What did the writer’s boss tell him after work?| A．It was New Year’s Day. | B．He was fired. |
| C．He needed a day to relax. | D．He had a day off. |
| A．age | B．laughing | C．innocence | D．crying |
| A．repairing their bicycle | B．waiting for the writer |
| C．watching the passers-by | D．celebrating the New Year |
| A．Lucky. | B．Hopeless. | C．Fearful. | D．Thankful. |
| A．Greetings make people polite. | B．Happiness could be simple and easy. |
| C．Walking makes people energetic. | D．Friendship lies in getting together. |
2 . Eradajere Oleita thinks she may have a partial solution for two of her country’s persistent (持续的) problems: garbage and poverty (贫困). It’s called the Chip Bag Project. The 26-year-old student and environmentalist from Detroit is asking a (n)
Chip eaters drop off their
It
Since its start in 2020, the Chip Bag Project has
Sure, it would be simpler to
And, of course, there’s the symbolism of recycling bags that would otherwise land in the
| A．advice | B．question | C．favor | D．permission |
| A．throw | B．track | C．leak | D．lock |
| A．design | B．detect | C．digest | D．donate |
| A．homeless | B．disabled | C．old | D．sick |
| A．heavy | B．empty | C．luxury | D．full |
| A．moments | B．decisions | C．locations | D．conclusions |
| A．clean | B．load | C．soften | D．resolve |
| A．dig | B．slice | C．lift | D．knock |
| A．pays | B．takes | C．delays | D．wastes |
| A．resulting in | B．figuring out | C．contributing to | D．depending on |
| A．out | B．around | C．over | D．on |
| A．reached | B．related | C．found | D．collected |
| A．destroyed | B．repaired | C．compared | D．created |
| A．lose | B．lend | C．raise | D．drop |
| A．goal | B．income | C．profit | D．way |
| A．risking | B．recommending | C．attaining | D．realizing |
| A．driving | B．devoting | C．enjoying | D．encouraging |
| A．store | B．trash | C．solution | D．family |
| A．day after day | B．step by step | C．face to face | D．hand in hand |
| A．generations | B．inspirations | C．connections | D．expectations |
3 . When I was growing up, I had an old neighbor, Dr. Gibbs. He didn’t look like any doctor I’d ever known. He never invited us to play in his yard, but he was a very kind person. When Dr. Gibbs wasn’t saving lives, he was planting trees. He owned a large field and wanted to make it a forest.
The good doctor had some interesting ideas about planting trees. He never watered his new trees. Once I asked why, he said that watering plants spoiled them, and that if you watered them, each baby tree would grow weaker and weaker, so you had to make things difficult for them and pick out the weaker trees early on. He talked about how watering trees made for shallow (浅的）roots, and how trees that weren’t watered had to grow deep roots in search of water under the earth by themselves. Deep roots were very important. So he never watered his trees. He’d planted an oak and, instead of watering it every morning, he’d beat it with a rolled-up newspaper. I asked him why he did that, and he said it was to get the tree’s attention.
Dr. Gibbs died several years after I left home. Every now and then, I walked by his house and looked at the trees that I watched him plant about twenty-five years ago. They’re very big and strong now. I planted some trees a few years back and carried water to them for a whole summer. After two years of caring too much, whenever a cold wind blows in, they shake a lot.
Every night before I go to bed, I check on my two sons. Mostly I pray (祈祷) that their lives will be easy. But lately I’ve been thinking that it’s time to change my prayer. I know my children are going to face difficulties. There’s always a cold wind blowing somewhere, so what we need to do is to pray for roots that reach deep into the brave heart, so when the rains fall and the winds blow, we could face it strongly and won’t be beaten down.
1. We know from the reading, the doctor ______.| A．didn’t know how to plant trees at all |
| B．had his own ways of planting trees |
| C．wasn’t good at his own medical job |
| D．had nothing to do but plant trees |
| A．some weak trees would be easily found out at the beginning |
| B．he would choose the weak trees to water earlier |
| C．the weak trees would be sent to his patients later |
| D．he would not plant weak trees so early anymore |
| A．beat all his trees with a rolled-up newspaper |
| B．often water his trees |
| C．took too much care of his trees |
| D．didn’t have a large field |
| A．his trees will be stronger than Dr. Gibbs' |
| B．his trees will not be beaten down |
| C．his sons will be better at planting trees |
| D．his sons will be able to face difficulties |
| A．Watering Trees |
| B．Growing Roots |
| C．Doctor and his Neighbor |
| D．Father and his Children |
4 . Fire ants are famous for their construction projects (as well as their burning bites). When they need to, colonies of these insects turn themselves into ladders, chains and walls. And when flood water rises, a colony can float to safety by making an unusual boat. The ants hold tightly to each other, forming a floating disk atop the water. The antraft may float for months seeking safe harbor. The ants on the bottom don’t drown, and the ants on the top stay dry. Working together, the ants float to safety — even though a single ant alone in the water will struggle to survive.
“They have to stay together as a colony to survive.” Nathan Mlot said.
Fire ants and water don’t mix. The ant’s hard outer shell, naturally repels water. A drop of water can sit on top of the ant like a backpack. When an ant does end up underwater, tiny hairs on its body can trap bubbles of air that give the bug a boost up.
To investigate the science behind the antraft, the scientists placed hundreds or thousands of ants at a time in the water. A group of ants took about 100 seconds, on average, to build a raft. The researchers repeated the experiment multiple times. Each time, the ants organized themselves the same way, creating a raft about the size and the thickness of a thin pancake. The rafts were flexible and strong, staying together even when the researchers pushed the rafts underwater.
The scientists then froze the rafts in liquid nitrogen and studied them under powerful microscopes to figure out how the ants kept everyone safe and the water out.
The team found that some ants used their jaws to bite other ants’ legs. Other ants joined their legs together. Thanks to these tight bonds, say the scientists, the ants did a better job at keeping the water away than any one ant could do on its own. By working together, thousands of ants can stay alive in the face of a crisis like a flood by using their own bodies to build a boat.
1. When flood comes, fire ants ________.| A．will run away separately | B．find a hole to hide themselves |
| C．combine themselves into a raft | D．climb onto boats on the water |
| A．Tiny hairs on their body. | B．Their hard outer shell. |
| C．Their slippery skin. | D．Their backpack on its body top. |
| A．built a raft in 100 minutes | B．organized themselves into a flexible raft |
| C．organized themselves in different ways | D．liked to look for the food of pancakes |
| A．practice | B．calmness | C．cooperation | D．speed |
| A．how fire ants react in face of danger | B．fire ants’ differences from common ants |
| C．fire ants’ ability to live underwater | D．the building ability of fire ants |
5 . Animals might not be able to speak or master advanced language techniques, but they certainly have other ways of communicating. Whale song, wolf howls, frog cries — even the fast dance of the honeybee or the friendly waves of a dog’s tail — are among so many ways animals pass on information to each other and to other living things of the animal kingdom.
When it comes to hearing communication, not every member of a species is just alike. Animals in different places have often been sounding off in different dialects. For example, one study shows that blue whales produce different types of sounds depending on where they are from. Some bird species are the same way. And what about those birds that live on the border between territories (领地) of different songbirds? They are often able to communicate in a way accepted by each of their groups of neighbors.
Communication between different species can play important roles as well. One study shows that iguanas (鬣蜥蜴) do not communicate by making sound, but their well-developed ears help them hear well the warning calls of the flycatcher (a type of small bird). The two species have nothing in common except for the fact that they share a general habitat and enemies. So when an iguana hears a bird make a signal of danger for other birds, it probably knows to be watchful for arriving enemies, too.
However, as noise pollution has become a serious problem all across the globe, many animals are now under fire. Increased shipping traffic over the last century has greatly affected the spread of whale song around the ocean basin. Studies have found that songbirds, too, suffer from noisy city surroundings. Some species have had to change their singing styles, producing songs that sound louder, in order to be heard above the noise. Their new voices usually lead to stranger and somewhat worse styles of singing that female birds find decidedly less sexy.
1. What does the author mainly tell us in Paragraph 2?| A．Various dialects can also happen to the same animals. |
| B．Animals communicate with each other in different ways. |
| C．Different animals have different ways of communicating. |
| D．Animals from different places may make the same sound. |
| A．They communicate by singing. |
| B．They are born with poor hearing. |
| C．They often bring bad luck to humans. |
| D．They get along well with flycatchers. |
| A．they refuse to communicate with others |
| B．they cannot communicate effectively |
| C．they are now in danger of dying out |
| D．they don’t make a sound any more |
| A．find it hard to attract the opposite sex |
| B．produce more songs that sound sad |
| C．begin to communicate by dancing |
| D．can not find food easily any more |
| A．by raising questions |
| B．by following time order |
| C．by providing examples |
| D．by analyzing the data |
6 . My best friend, Mitch Shapiro, is a person who makes me feel that no matter what kind of situation you are going through, you can still make yourself needed and useful. Words cannot describe the spirit of kindness and good will that Mitch Shapiro has shown.
Ten years ago Mitch started the Foundation for Sight and Sound after having been with the Foundation Fighting Blindness for a number of years. Mitch, who began wearing hearing aids at a very young age and now has two cochlear implants (耳蜗植入), has Usher Syndrome which is also called deaf-blindness; he is also going blind.
Mitch is the most capable person I know! He runs the Foundation for Sight and Sound, which is not a profitable organization whose task is to improve the quality of life for men, women and children with vision and/or hearing damage.
What makes Mitch my hero is his heart. It would be easy for Mitch to be angry at the world for the extremely difficult circumstances he deals with in his day to day life; but that’s not who Mitch is. He greets every day and every one with a smile and positive attitude. I can’t count the number of times I’ve come to Mitch with one of my “problems”; he is always there for me with compassion and inspiration.
Listening to him offering his ideas and plans to others as an audience is inspiration. Mitch is also a skilled cook, gardener, outdoorsman and stand-up comic!
Mitch devotes his life to helping improve the quality of life for others. Whether through his tireless work and fundraising efforts at the Foundation for Sight and Sound, or the cheerful way Mitch greets the world, or the way, no matter what else is going on in his life － Mitch makes time for people. He makes you feel valued.
1. According to the passage, Mitch has been suffering from ________.| A．blindness | B．hearing problems |
| C．poor living conditions | D．a deadly disease |
| A．support his huge family |
| B．help people with vision and/or hearing problems |
| C．raise money to help those who need help |
| D．make his life more colorful |
| A．runs the foundation together with Mitch |
| B．is suffering from a serious disease too |
| C．is very grateful to Mitch for his help |
| D．helped lots of people with hearing problems |
| A．wants to change the world |
| B．is good at running a company |
| C．likes to help managers in need |
| D．does well in cheering others up |
| A．spare his time to meet a person in need |
| B．make it available to talk with the author |
| C．spend some time with his family every day |
| D．raise money for the Foundation for Sight and Sound |
7 . When I started teaching in school, I was sure I would change the world and touch children who needed love.
Although most of my students seemed to respond pretty well to my teaching, there was a small group of teenage girls who became more and more hostile (敌对的) toward me.
One day a fight happened in my classroom. Attempting to end it, I stepped in to face one of these hostile young women, who started hitting me in the face. Two boys jumped up to control the girl, but the damage was done.
While the girl was suspended for a few days, I was determined that she would not return to my classroom. But I also prayed. I wanted to see all the students right there in my daily work at school.
On the top of my daily lesson-plan book, I wrote this statement, “To see all the children in my classroom is always beautiful.” It was the first thing I saw each day when I started teaching. With this view I could expect healing in my heart of any anger toward the girl.
After her suspension, she returned to my classroom. The student’s young mother was trying to raise six children while her husband was away in the war overseas. The mother and I agreed to work together to help her eldest daughter.
There were no more incidents of anger the rest of the year. In fact, in the seven years I remained at that school, I taught all six of this family’s children. When the youngest was in my class, the mother told me, “Our family loves you. Every year one of my kids says, ‘I hope I’m in her classroom!’”
The standard of seeing each of my students as perfect was the best teaching tool I had, which led to success in the classroom.
1. At the beginning of teaching, the author ________.| A．was full of confidence in herself |
| B．doubted if she could be a good teacher |
| C．was sure to win love from her students |
| D．decided to change her students’ life |
| A．A girl fought with two boys. | B．She was hit by a girl. |
| C．She hit a girl in the face. | D．She fought with several girls. |
| A．She was sent to another class. |
| B．She was driven out of school at once. |
| C．She had to stay at home for a few days. |
| D．She was beaten heavily by her mother. |
| A．she apologized to the author |
| B．she took her mother to school |
| C．the author was still angry with her |
| D．the author treated her with love |
| A．the author got along better with boys |
| B．the author tried to let the girl come to her class |
| C．the girl’s mother was very thankful to the author |
| D．all the six kids of the woman are hard to teach |
8 . One day, my father drove his employer to another city for a business meeting. On the outskirts（郊区）of town, they
The man
It didn’t take long for my father to
Later, my father’s employer got in touch with the local government with a request to send someone to Jimmy’s home to
His parents watched in
The
| A．waited | B．paid | C．prepared | D．stopped |
| A．car | B．town | C．office | D．restaurant |
| A．thought | B．observed | C．doubted | D．worried |
| A．delighted | B．satisfied | C．interested | D．relaxed |
| A．laughed | B．apologized | C．returned | D．nodded |
| A．plays | B．studies | C．lives | D．stays |
| A．determination | B．permission | C．help | D．plan |
| A．chat | B．ride | C．meeting | D．holiday |
| A．build | B．decorate | C．paint | D．find |
| A．patiently | B．briefly | C．proudly | D．calmly |
| A．Confused | B．Excited | C．Ashamed | D．Tired |
| A．warn | B．remind | C．argue | D．convince |
| A．anger | B．fear | C．amazement | D．disappointment |
| A．secret | B．polite | C．humorous | D．cautious |
| A．until | B．when | C．unless | D．whom |
9 . Terry Evanshen was one of Canadian football’s greatest receivers. He played every down as if it was his last. Though he had made great achievements, Terry’s memories of his playing days have been completely lost.
It was in the summer of 1988 after he retired from playing that his career in sales was taking off. One day in July, Terry, on his way home from work, had a terrible car accident. He was knocked unconscious, and within minutes he was rushed to the nearby hospital.
Three weeks later, he woke up. However, it became obvious that Terry’s injuries were far more serious than whatever damage had been done to his body. A lifetime of memories had been completely wiped clean. He had been all but reduced to the level of a baby; everything from his ability to talk and walk to his understanding of what it meant to be a husband and a father was all gone.
At age 44, Terry Evanshen would be starting all over again. Luckily he had the support of his family, helped by small victories and a renewed bond between him and his three daughters, for example, when they taught him how to play football again.
In 1992, his recovery really began to pick up steam. It has taken years to rebuild his shattered life. But today, more than 20 years since his playing days, Terry is a popular public speaker. He tells his inspiring story of perseverance and courage. “Never forget, we’re all in this game of life together. We will get to the finish line, one day at a time, one moment at a time, but celebrate the journey. Seize today, because yesterday is gone and is never coming back.” As the subject of the most watched Canadian movie of 2005, The Man Who Lost Himself, Evanshen says his family has been his most important treasure. He refuses to be a victim, saying he is a survivor.
1. In 1988, Evanshen was ________.| A．a businessman | B．a public speaker |
| C．a football player | D．a father of two daughters |
| A．He would never drive again. | B．He couldn’t stand up anymore. |
| C．He lost his memory and all his ability. | D．He suffered a serious physical injury. |
| A．His determination never to give up. | B．His gift for learning new things. |
| C．His good luck. | D．His fans’ love. |
| A．It was lost in 1992. | B．It was a boring film. |
| C．It was directed by Evanshen. | D．It was based on the story of Evanshen. |
| A．A great football player | B．What’s a persevering person like? |
| C．The man who lost himself | D．Terry Evanshen’s life |
10 . Live music fans all over the world are constantly on the lookout for live musical events and concerts. There are indeed a great number of festivals that take place all over the globe to cater to this great demand for music and entertainment. Among these events one of the more popular festivals is the UK Cardiff Big Weekend, which is famous for its featured talent that includes famous musical bands and artists and much revelry that has made a popular audience draw.
The event has taken place every year since 1995 and it is organized around by Cardiff Council. It is known as the country’s largest free music event, thus attracting hundreds of thousands of music lovers and enthusiasts. The celebrations go on for three days featuring different styles of live entertainment. What is more, the occasion also features a number of lively outdoor events that are celebrated around Cardiff’s Civic Centre. The participants can also look forward to the fireworks display every night that takes place during the closing of the performances.
It features not just budding talent, but also established artists as well as those who have made a name for themselves on the international entertainment scene. Generally, on Friday nights, the concert features Welsh Bands. For those who take part in the event, they can look forward not just to good music but also a fun-filled fairground atmosphere with all the attractions of a fair. Thus it is a popular spot for not just the young but also those who are young at heart looking to have a great time and hear a wide range of musical styles.
Festival participants can make use of the different hotel packages on offer from various UK hotels. Hotel chains such as Millennium & Copthorne Hotels UK have a number of attractive offers such as rooms with breakfast, long-stay packages and advance booking packages. Even if you are a last-minute planner, there are great deals not to be missed.
1. The underlined part “cater to” in the first paragraph can best replaced by “________”.| A．avoid | B．create | C．reduce | D．satisfy |
| A．It lasts two days. | B．It is free of charge. |
| C．It is held every two years. | D．It has a history of 30 years. |
| A．meet some well-known artists | B．watch Welsh bands perform on Sunday |
| C．visit a local fair near Cardiff’s Civic Centre | D．watch fireworks when performances begin |
| A．what we shouldn’t miss during the festival |
| B．what we should keep in mind when making plans |
| C．there are a lot of cheap hotels in the United Kingdom |
| D．good deals on hotels are available during the festival |
| A．A news story. | B．A research paper. | C．A music magazine. | D．A history book. |
