1 . That morning, I dropped our eldest at kindergarten and returned home to let our two younger children play while I worked on my medical report. It was wonderful, but it hit me that my career in hospital wasn't making a difference in anyone's life. I needed something that would stretch my limits and push me to grow. My career enabled me to work from home. I could work from home, and become a foster (领养) mother, providing safety for a child who needed it desperately.
On Monday morning, I picked up the phone and dialed the number I had googled for the nearest Department of Children's Services. The man on the other end was receptive to my questions and explained the next step of training, involving eight weeks of classes designed to prepare and educate foster parents. We continued through all the classes, the home visits, background checks, and seemingly endless steps.
Five long months after we were approved, the phone rang. In the middle of the night, I woke my husband and rushed to East Tennessee Children's' Hospital. Our placement was waiting for us in the emergency room, sick and lack of nutrition. It didn't take long for us to realize the full depth of her suffering. Six months later, her half-brother came to us by our request. We now had five children under our care.
On August 12, 2016, our family of seven walked into a small courtroom. The children's lawyer and social worker were there. With just a few words, our adoption was finalized. These two amazing children weren't going home, because they were already home. We are their forever family, and they are our forever children. We may not be able to change the entire world, but we have changed the world entirely for our new children.
1. How did the author feel about her hospital work?| A．Unusually demanding. | B．Lacking in motivation. |
| C．Filled with challenges. | D．Packed with chances. |
| A．She wanted to make a difference in other people. |
| B．She felt sympathetic for abused children she knew. |
| C．She felt confident about her ability to raise children. |
| D．She experienced training to raise children properly. |
| A．The foster parents must be healthy and well-educated. |
| B．It was impossible to go through all the endless process. |
| C．The man on the phone was nice and gave clear instructions. |
| D．The home visits and background checks would take eight weeks. |
| A．The child to be adopted. | B．The need to get trained. |
| C．The approval of adoption. | D．The official at the hospital. |
| A．To put the adopted kids elsewhere. | B．To receive another adopted child. |
| C．To begin the kids' adoption in her home. | D．To make the adoption officially legal. |
2 . Sometimes just when we need the power of miracles, they arise in the places we would least expect.
On a cold January afternoon in 1989, I was climbing Egypt’s Mt. Horeb, hoping to get to the peak by sunset to see the valley below. As I was winding up the narrow path, I’d sometimes see other hikers who were coming down. While they would generally pass with simply a nod or a greeting in another language, there was one man who did neither.
I saw him coming and as he got closer, I could see that, unlike other hikers, he was wearing traditional Egyptian galabia( 长 袍 ). What made his appearance so strange was that the man didn’t even appear to be Egyptian, but was a small-framed Asian man with little hair and round glasses.
As we neared one another, I said Hello, but not a sound came from him. I thought maybe he hadn’t heard me. Suddenly he stopped directly in front of me, looked up from the ground, and spoke a single sentence to me in English, “Sometimes you don’t know what you have lost until you’ve lost it.” As I took in what I had just heard, he simply stepped around me and continued his going down.
That moment in my life was a small miracle. The reason is less about what the man said but more about the timing and the context. The year was 1989, and it was during my Egyptian pilgrimage (朝圣), and specifically during my hike to Mt. Horeb, that I’d set the time aside to make decisions that would affect my career, my friends, my family, and ultimately, my life.
I had to ask myself what the chances were of an Asian man dressed in an Egyptian galabia coming down from the top of this historic mountain just when I was walking up, stopping before me, and offering his wisdom, seemingly from out of nowhere. My answer to my own question was easy: nearly no chance! In a meet that lasted less than two minutes, a total stranger had brought something clear and something of a warning, regarding the huge changes that I would make within a matter of days. In my way of thinking, that’s a miracle.
Miracles are everywhere and occur every day for different reasons, in response to the different needs that we may have in the moment. Our job may be less about questioning the extraordinary things that happen in our daily lives and more about accepting the gifts they bring.
1. Before the Asian man spoke, how did the author think about him?| A．He was very rude and strange. |
| B．He was different from others. |
| C．He was shy and nod to strangers. |
| D．He looked ordinary and was talkative. |
| A．He was in search of a miracle in his life. |
| B．It was a place for a religious person to head for. |
| C．He intended to make arrangements for his future life. |
| D．He waited patiently in expectation of meeting a wise person. |
| A．For what reason did the man stop before me ? |
| B．Why did the Asian man go to the mountain ? |
| C．What change would I make within a matter of days ? |
| D．What was the probability that others told us the right words ? |
| A．Because the Asian man’s appearance had a deciding effect on his future life. |
| B．Because his words were in perfect response to the need he had at that moment. |
| C．Because what the Asian man said was meaningful in the philosophy of life. |
| D．Because the Asian man impressed on him the worth of what he had possessed. |
| A．Can you recognize a miracle? | B．Is a miracle significant to us? |
| C．When might a miracle occur? | D．Why do we need a miracle? |
3 . Prosocial behaviors are those intended to help other people. Behaviors that can be described as prosocial include feeling empathy(同感) and concern for others and behaving in ways to help or benefit other people.
Prosocial behavior has long posed a challenge to social scientists seeking to understand why people engage in helping behaviors that are beneficial to others, but costly to the individual performing the action. Why would people do something that benefits someone else but offers no immediate benefit to the doer?
Psychologists suggest that there are a number of reasons why people engage in prosocial behavior. In many cases, such behaviors are fostered during childhood and adolescence as adults encourage children to share, act kindly, and help others. Prosocial behaviors are often seen as being compelled by a number of factors including egoistic reasons (doing things to improve one's self-image), reciprocal benefits (doing something nice for someone so that they may one day return the favor), and more altruistic reasons (performing actions purely out of empathy for another individual).
Characteristics of the situation can also have a powerful impact on whether or not people engage in prosocial actions. For example, if you drop your purse and several items fall out on the ground, the likelihood that someone will stop and help you decreases if there are many other people present. This same sort of thing can happen in cases where someone is in serious danger, such as when someone is involved in a car accident. In some cases, witnesses might assume that since there are so many other present, someone else will have surely already called for help. All the examples are what we call the bystander effect, the tendency for people to become less likely to assist a person in distress when there are a number of other people also present.
Why do people help in some situations but not in others? Experts have discovered a number of different situational variables that contribute to (and sometimes interfere with) prosocial behaviors. First, the more people that are present decreases the amount of personal responsibility people feel in a situation. People also tend to look to others for how to respond in such situations, particularly if the event contains some level of ambiguity. Fear of being judged by other members of the group also plays a role. People sometimes fear leaping to assistance, only to discover that their help was unwanted or unwarranted. In order to avoid being judged by other bystanders, people simply take no action.
Experts have suggested that some key things must happen in order for a person to take action.
1. What can we learn from paragraph 2?| A．Social scientists feel it hard to understand why helping behaviors exist. |
| B．Helping behaviors are costly to people who receive the action. |
| C．Social scientists have been researching on prosocial behavior for quite long. |
| D．It is quite challenging for people to perform helping behaviors. |
| A．empathy for another individual | B．instant benefits of helping others |
| C．parental influences in the early life | D．the desire to better one's self-image |
| A．To show that some people are in need of immediate help. |
| B．To indicate that some people think their help is not needed. |
| C．To suggest that some people perform helping behaviors quickly. |
| D．To demonstrate how the situation can impact helping behaviors. |
| A．When hearing an injured lady crying for help, the neighbors didn't take action. |
| B．Seeing an old man slipping on the icy road, many people volunteered to help. |
| C．A woman had a heart attack on the train and you were the only doctor there. |
| D．On the scene of your colleague's traffic accident, you called the police for help. |
| A．possible benefits of prosocial behavior |
| B．various reasons for prosocial behavior |
| C．situational influences on prosocial behavior |
| D．skills and knowledge to provide assistance |
4 . Every year migratory（迁徙的） bats travel from Mexico to Bracken Cave, where they spend the summer consuming insects that would otherwise hungrily eat common food crops. But the bats have been showing up far earlier than they did two decades ago.
In a study, scientists at Rothamsted Research, used radar data from 160 U.S. weather stations to analyze activity in the Texas bat colony from 1995 through 2017. They discovered the creatures were leaving their winter quarters in Mexico earlier and reproducing sooner. They were also astonished to find increasing numbers of bats overwintering（过冬）at Bracken Cave instead of heading back to their cold weather quarters in Mexico. Overwintering is a sign that warmer temperatures change the bats' annual rhythms, Rothamsted biologist Phillip Stepanian says.
A separate study of migratory bats in Indiana, published last year, found that temperature variations affected arrival and departure times-likewise hinting at the potential influence of climate change. Joy O'Keefe, a biology professor and co-author of that study, says early arrival at their summer habitats could expose these bats to cold snaps（寒流）, and they could freeze to death.
Joy O’Keefe and her colleagues also found that changing bat migration times can also clash with rainfall patterns. Many insects that bats eat breed in seasonal lakes and puddles. If the bats arrive too early to benefit from summer rainfall and the resulting abundance of insects, they may struggle to feed their pups（幼崽） or skip reproduction altogether, O’Keefe says. She fears this shift could cause Midwestern bats to decrease toward extinction, which would be bad news for humans. “Declines in bat populations could have severe effects for crop success,” she says, adding that bats also “control significant disease vectors, such as mosquitoes.”
However, scientists are not certain that climate change alone is causing the Bracken Cave bat colony to migrate earlier. They have found a direct link between seasonal temperatures and bird migration, but bats are also influenced by factors such as changes in wind speed and direction. And there are other complications. “Bats are mysterious little animals that move mostly at night and are difficult to observe and track ,” Stepanian says. “We have this conceptual picture of what might be happening, but really tying it to the cause is the next step.”
1. What is the best title for the passage?| A．Bats’ habitants | B．Endangered bats |
| C．Bats’ migration | D．Bats, our good friends |
| A．bats prefer heading back to Mexico | B．bats delay their reproduction |
| C．warming affects bat migration | D．radar can be used to observe bats |
| A．bats are used to living in rainfall seasons |
| B．bats’ earlier migration might harm farming |
| C．insects' reproduction helps to spread disease |
| D．insects shortage makes bats reproduce earlier |
| A．Insects. | B．migration times. |
| C．Bats. | D．lakes and puddles. |
| A．Wind speed and direction affect bats. |
| B．It is difficult to observe and track bats. |
| C．Climate change makes bats migrate earlier. |
| D．Further research on the cause is necessary. |
5 . Some teachers seem to be bad teachers, but they are not. Take my football coach for example. One day, we were doing some
After practice he came
Another teacher
He gave me a(n)
Determined to change his attitude and
So don’t ever complain about your “
| A．running | B．drills | C．operations | D．actions |
| A．yelling at | B．sending for | C．getting rid of | D．joking with |
| A．amazed | B．encouraged | C．frightened | D．embarrassed |
| A．debate | B．discriminate | C．decide | D．defend |
| A．in | B．across | C．over | D．away |
| A．other than | B．more than | C．less than | D．rather than |
| A．overlooked | B．blamed | C．resisted | D．exposed |
| A．erasing | B．strengthening | C．jogging | D．changing |
| A．reputation | B．reference | C．concern | D．preference |
| A．astonished | B．puzzled | C．disturbed | D．fascinated |
| A．principle | B．assignment | C．reward | D．award |
| A．set out | B．settle down | C．cut in | D．carried on |
| A．relaxed | B．content | C．comfortable | D．mad |
| A．acquire | B．acknowledge | C．spread | D．address |
| A．Suddenly | B．Eventually | C．Gradually | D．Purposefully |
| A．accomplishment | B．establishment | C．development | D．commitment |
| A．enquiry | B．presentation | C．schedule | D．conference |
| A．although | B．as | C．before | D．until |
| A．tolerant | B．considerate | C．mean | D．kind |
| A．permit | B．bother | C．inspire | D．discourage |
6 . Choosing a major, which is the specialized area of your college study, can be overwhelming. But have no fear! Your choice of major will not lock you into a specific career for the rest of your life. And the major you choose will neither predict nor guarantee your future. Consider these factors when picking your major.
Career Prep
Choose a major because it will prepare you for a specific career path or advanced study. Maybe you already know that you want to be a nurse, a day trader, or a web developer. Before you declare, take a class or two in the relevant discipline, check out the syllabus for an advanced seminar, and talk to students in the department of your choice. Make sure you’re ready for the coursework required for the career of your dreams.
Earning Potential
Future earning potential is worth considering—college is a big investment, and while college can pay you back in many ways beyond salary, this can be a major factor for students who are paying their own way or taking out loans. According to PayScale.com, the majors that lead to the highest salaries include just about any type of engineering, actuarial mathematics, computer science, physics, government, and economics. Keep your quality of life in mind, too—that six figure salary may not be worth it if you're not happy at the office.
Subjects You Love
Some students choose a major simply because they love the subject matter. If you love what you're studying, you're more likely to fully engage with your classes and college experience, and that can mean better grades and great relationships with others in your field. If your calling is philosophy, don't write it off just because you're not sure about graduate school, or what the job market holds for philosophers. Many liberal arts majors provide students with critical thinking skills and writing abilities that are highly valued by employers.
Undecided? Explore your interests.
If you truly have no idea what you want to study, that's okay—many schools don't require students to declare a major until you are a second-year student. That gives you four semesters to play the field. Exploring your interests will help you find your best fit major—and maybe even your ideal career.
1. You don’t need to feel fearful when choosing your major because ______.| A．your major has completely nothing to do with your future |
| B．you are not limited to only one particular career for your whole life |
| C．changing career fields are unavoidable in your life |
| D．you only spend a little time on whatever subject you choose |
| A．field | B．rule |
| C．theory | D．knowledge |
| A．Your college investment will be all given back to you in the form of high salary. |
| B．Future career earning is viewed as the top concern for most college students. |
| C．High salary will not be worthwhile at the cost of your unhappy office work. |
| D．If you choose engineering-related majors, you are sure to earn high salary. |
| A．You are advised to choose liberal arts majors for what are provided. |
| B．Worse grades result from poor relationships with others in college. |
| C．Employers like liberal arts majors more than science majors in job market. |
| D．Some students don’t necessarily need to decide their choices of majors upon entering college. |
| A．Why is it difficult to choose a major. | B．What influences your choice of a major. |
| C．How can a major affect your career. | D．When should you decide your major. |
7 . A study of art history might be a good way to learn more about a culture than is possible to learn in general classes. Most typical history courses concentrate on politics, economics, and wars. But art history focuses on much more than this because art reflects not only the political values of a people, but also religious beliefs, emotions, and psychology. In addition, information about the daily activities of our ancestors ― or of people very different from our own ― can be provided by art. In short, art expresses the essential qualities of a time and a place, and a study of it clearly offers us a deeper understanding than what can be found in most history books.
In history books, objective information about the political life of a country is presented: that is, facts about politics are given, but opinions are not expressed. Art, on the other hand, is subjective: it reflects emotions and opinions. The great Spanish painter Franciso Goya was perhaps the first truly political artist. In his well-known painting The Third of May, 1808, he criticized the Spanish government for its misuse of power over people. Over a hundred years later, symbolic images were used in Pablo Picasso’s Guernica to express the horror of war. Meanwhile, on another continent, the powerful paintings of Diego Rivera, Jose Clements Orozco, and David Alfaro Siqueiros ― as well as the works of Alfredo Ramos Martinez ― showed these Mexican artists’ deep anger and sadness about social problems.
In the same way, art can reflect a culture’s religious beliefs. Four hundreds of years in Europe, religious art was almost the only type of art that existed. Churches and other religious buildings were filled with paintings that depicted people and stories from the Bible. Although most people couldn’t read, they could still understand biblical stories in the pictures on church walls. By contrast, one of the main characteristics of art in the Middle East was (and still is) its absence of human and animal images. This reflects the Islamic（伊斯兰教的）belief that statues are unholy（不神圣的；亵渎的）.
1. Which of the following sentences is WRONG according to the passage?| A．Art history concentrates on religious beliefs, emotions and psychology only. |
| B．Art can provide information about the everyday activities of ancient people. |
| C．Information and facts about politics are given objectively in history. |
| D．Franciso Goya was perhaps the first truly political artist. |
| A．personal and emotional opinions are expressed through it |
| B．it will make the viewers angry and sad about history |
| C．it can help us understand historical facts better |
| D．opinions about facts are not expressed |
| A．art is subjective |
| B．artists are very similar even over a hundred years |
| C．art can reflect political life of a country |
| D．history books present objective information |
| A．Europe | B．America |
| C．Mexico | D．Middle East |
| A．the difference between general history and art history |
| B．the development of art history |
| C．the influence of artists on art history |
| D．what we can learn from art |
| A．Islamic artists focus on creating architectural decorations with pictures of flowers or geometric (几何) forms |
| B．history teachers are more objective than artists |
| C．it is more difficult to study art history than general history |
| D．people and stories from the Bible were painted on churches and other buildings in order to popularize the Bible |
8 . I have had just about enough of being treated like a second-class citizen, simply because I happened to be that put-upon member of society ― a customer. The more I go into shops and hotels, banks and post offices, railway stations, airports and the like, the more I’m convinced that things are being run just to suit the firm, the system, or the union. There seems to be a new motto for the so-called “service” organization ― Staff Before Service. How often, for example, have you queued for what seems like hours at the Post Office or the supermarket because there aren’t enough staff on duty at all the service counters? Surely in these days of high unemployment it must be possible to increase counter staff. Yet supermarkets, hinting darkly at higher prices, claim that bringing all their cash registers into operation at any time would increase expenses. And the Post Office says we cannot expect all their service counters to be occupied “at times when demand is low”.
It’s the same with hotels. Because waiters and kitchen staff must finish when it suits them, dining rooms close earlier or menu choice is lowered. As for us guests (and how the meaning of that word has been cut away little by little.), we just have to put up with it. There’s also the nonsense of so many friendly hotel night porters having been gradually withdrawn from service in the interests of “efficiency” (i.e. profits) and replaced by coin-eating machines which supply everything from beer to medicine, not to mention the creeping（慢慢加剧的） threat of the tea-making set in your room: a kettle with teabags, milk bags and sugar. Who wants to wake up to a raw teabag? I don’t, especially when I am paying for “service”.
Our only hope is to repeat our anger whenever and wherever we can and, if all else fails, restore that other, older saying ― Take Our Custom（买卖） Elsewhere.
1. The author feels that nowadays customers are _____.| A．not provided with proper service |
| B．considered to be lower members of society |
| C．not worthy of special treatment |
| D．regarded as privileged |
| A．more consideration is given to the staff than customers |
| B．customers are becoming more demanding |
| C．customers are unwilling to be satisfied with |
| D．the staff are less considerate than employers |
| A．deliberate（故意的）understaffing |
| B．lack of cooperation among staff |
| C．the reducing supply of good staff |
| D．inefficient staff |
| A．the personal touch is less appreciated nowadays |
| B．few people are willing to do this type of work |
| C．machines are more reliable than human beings |
| D．self-service provides a cheaper alternative |
| A．to put up with whatever service is provided |
| B．to fully use all kinds of coin-eating machines |
| C．to make strong complaints wherever necessary |
| D．to go where good service is available |
9 . Fitness Center Timetable
Body Power: This class uses weights and aerobic movements (a form of very active physical exercise) to increase strength while burning fat. It is suitable for all levels for fitness.
Aerobics: This is a low to middle level of difficulty aerobic class. It is good for beginner to average levels of fitness.
Beginner Aerobics: This class has a low level of difficulty and simple aerobic movements. It is mainly for people who have not exercised before or who are just returning after a long break or injury.
Body Stretch (hold your arms or legs out straight and tighten your muscles): This is a relaxation class which stretches all the muscle groups. It is suitable for all levels of fitness. People who exercise regularly or have a stressful lifestyle would also greatly improve their health in this class.
Body Burn: This is a high level of difficulty aerobic class that mainly aims at fat burning. It is only for those people with a very high level of fitness.
1. On Wednesday the fitness class at 6: 30 p. m. is _____.| A．Aerobics | B．Body Power |
| C．Body Burn | D．Beginner Aerobics |
| A．Aerobics and Body Power | B．Body Burn and Aerobics |
| C．Body Power and Body Stretch | D．Body Stretch and Beginner Aerobics |
| A．3:00 p.m. | B．5:30 p.m. |
| C．7:15 a. m. | D．12:30 p.m. |
| A．reduce fat | B．reduce stress |
| C．increase strength | D．increase muscle size |
10 . As I jogged over the bridge and round the corner on my regular early morning run, he was standing opposite the jeweler’s, looking extremely suspicious. But the moment he saw me, instead of trying to avoid me, he came straight across the road as I drew level with the jeweler’s. Halfway across he began addressing me: “I thought you were going to…” — but his voice trailed away as he received no reply and no sign of recognition from me. It was quite obvious that he had mistaken me for someone else. But he started up again as if nothing had happened．“Good morning, ” he said．“Nice to bump into someone so early. Someone to talk to. I’ve taken to talking to myself on this job.”
I hate meeting people when I’m out early, and I was almost out of breath, so I just paused in my stride, nodded in a friendly manner, and went on up the road. The stranger had spoken quietly, and quite slowly. And I had noticed that he was well dressed, too. But if he looked suspicious dressed like that at that time of the morning, what about me? I was in a track suit, with an old sweater round my shoulders and a cap on my head．As to his odd remark about “talking to himself on this job”, I hadn’t paid any attention to it, although now it began to worry me. Was he perhaps a plain clothes policeman? At the time I somehow felt he was.
I had just turned the corner into the High Street when I heard the sound of breaking glass somewhere behind me, and I thought the sound came from the street I had just left. I stopped dead and almost without thinking looked back around the corner. The stranger was not there, but almost immediately an alarm bell in the jeweler’s began ringing furiously.
I found out later that a burglar had broken into the jeweler’s shop and stolen watches and rings worth about ￡5,000. The police are still looking into the matter, but I’m afraid to go and tell them what I know now because they might even suspect me of committing the crime, and it might be difficult for me to prove my innocence. After all, I haven’t offered my assistance as a witness, and the only other person around that morning was the “stranger” who had spoken to me.
1. From the passage we can infer that the author _____.| A．always goes past the jeweler’s |
| B．didn’t like talking to the strangers |
| C．meets a few people every morning |
| D．saw a plain clothes policeman that morning |
| A．Because the stranger took the author as someone else. |
| B．Because the stranger loved talking to people. |
| C．Because the stranger recognized the writer. |
| D．Because the stranger took a job of talking to himself. |
| A．He was about to go into the jeweler’s. |
| B．He was far too friendly. |
| C．He was dressed too well for that time. |
| D．He talked to himself a lot. |
| A．he might have been badly injured |
| B．he would have seen what happened |
| C．he wouldn’t have heard the alarm bell |
| D．the stranger wouldn’t have broken the window |
| A．he thinks the stranger is innocent |
| B．the burglar didn’t steal very much |
| C．he might commit the crime to the police |
| D．he hesitates whether to report to the police about what he knew |
