2 . Magic is a form of entertainment that is based on pretending to do things that are impossible. The magician is a specially trained actor. He tries to make the audience believe that he has the power to do things which are against the laws of nature.

Magic shows are entertaining as long as the audience does not discover how the tricks are done. The magician usually depends on his skill with his hands, on his knowledge of psychology, and, sometimes, on mechanical devices(机械装置). Since magic performance is meant to trick people, the use of psychology is important. The magician must keep people from noticing all the movements of his hands and from thinking about the secret parts of his equipment. He must also lead the audience to draw false conclusions. The magician's success depends on the fact that many things seen by the eye are not the things that matter.

Two basic magic tricks are making objects seem to appear and making objects seem to disappear. A combination of these two tricks makes for some interesting effects. For example, the magician puts a small ball under one of several cups. The ball then seems to jump from one cup to another or to change colour. What actually happens is that the magician, employing quick hand movements or a mechanical device, hides one ball. While doing this he talks to the audience and waves a brightly coloured cloth with one hand. The audience is too busy watching the cloth and listening to the magician's words to notice that his other hand is hiding the ball.

Another favourite trick is to cut or burn something, and then make it appear whole again. What actually happens is that the magician makes the cut or burned object disappear by quickly hiding it while the audience watches something else. Then he “magically” makes it appear whole again by displaying(展示)another object that has not been cut or burned.

1. What is the author's main purpose in writing the text?

A．To promote a magic show.	B．To teach people to be magicians.
C．To explain the art of magic.	D．To praise the talents of magicians.

2. Which of the following is important for a successful magic trick?

A．Moving stage equipment.	B．Directing the audience's attention.
C．Applying high technology.	D．Keeping the performance in secret.

3. What does the author focus on in the last two paragraphs?

A．Providing examples.	B．Making a summary.
C．Drawing comparisons.	D．Explaining a concept.

4. What can we infer from the text?

A．Mechanical devices are expensive.	B．Most magicians employ assistants.
C．It takes practice to perform magic.	D．Small objects are magicians' favourite.

3 . The University of Adelaide employs a full-time staff of fire prevention professionals. They inspect all campus buildings and maintain all sprinkler systems, fire alarms and fire extinguishers. They also provide educational programs on fire safety in the residence hall. Whenever you move to a new area, you should locate the fire alarm pull stations and the two exits nearest your room.

Fire Alarms

The floors of all campus buildings are equipped with manual fire alarm systems which include fire alarm pull stations and pipes. Most are also equipped with automatic fire alarm systems consisting of heat detectors, smoke detectors and sprinklers. For your safety, never toy with these systems. False fire alarms are illegal and may lead to imprisonment.

Fire Drills

A fire drill will be conducted in your residence hall every semester. During a fire drill, please do the following:

·Take your room key and ID. Close and lock the door to your room.

·Exit immediately from the nearest emergency exit and do not use a lift.

·Meet outside of your residence hall and wait for further instructions.

Fire Extinguishers

Fire extinguishers are located on each floor and in each apartment. Use a fire extinguisher only if you have been trained to do so. Irresponsible use of a fire extinguisher can create a dangerous situation for other residents and could result in damage to personal property. Misuse of a fire extinguisher will result in fines.

Smoke Detector

A smoke detector is on the ceiling in your room. Some buildings also have heat detectors on the ceilings. Do the following to ensure the safe operation of your smoke detector:

· If your smoke detector is working properly, the red light should be on. If the red light is not blinking, contact residence hall staff immediately.

·Do not cover or block your smoke detector in any way. If a smoke detector sets off an alarm and there is no fire or smoke, inform your hall staff.

1. What is the main duty of the fire prevention professionals?

A．To provide part-time jobs for students.

B．To lead the students to the nearest exits.

C．To check and maintain fire prevention equipment.

D．To train teachers to be fire prevention professionals.

2. In a fire drill, the students should                     .

A．rush quickly to a lift

B．gather at the nearest exit

C．shut the door and leave at once

D．wait for instructions in the hall

3. To ensure the safe operation of the smoke detector, one should           .

A．contact the hall staff regularly

B．cover the things that burn easily

C．start the smoke detector in a fire

D．make certain the red light is working

4 . I had worried myself sick over Simon’s mother coming to see me. I was a new ____ , and I gave an honest account of the students’ work. In Simon’s case, the grades were awfully low. He couldn’t read his own handwriting. ____ he was a bright student. He discussed adult subjects with nearly adult comprehension. His work in no way reflected his ____ .
So when Simon’s mother entered the room, my palms(手掌心) were sweating. I was completely ____ for her kisses on both my cheeks. “I came to thank you,” she said, surprising me beyond speech. ____ me, Simon had become a different person. He talked of how he ____ me, he had began to make friends, and for the first time in his twelve years, he had ____ spent an afternoon at a friend’s house. She wanted to tell me how grateful she was for the ____ I had nurtured(培养) in her son. She kissed me again and left.
I sat, stunned (惊呆), for about half an hour, ____ what had just happened. How did I make such a life-changing difference to that boy without ____ knowing it? What I finally came to ____ was one day, several months before, when some students were ____ reports in the front of the class, Jeanne spoke ____ , and to encourage her to raise her voice, L had sai, “Speak up. Simon’s the expert on this. He is the ____ one you have to convince, and he can’t hear you in the ____ of the room.” That was it. From that day on, Simon had sat up straighter, paid more attention, ____ more, and became happy. And it was all because he ____ to be the last kid in the last row. The boy who most needed ____ was the one who took the last seat that day.
It taught me the most ____ lesson over the years of my teaching career, and I’m thankful that it came ____ and positively. A small kindness can indeed make a difference.1.

A．cleaner

B．reporter

C．monitor

D．teacher

2.

A．Or

B．And

C．But

D．So

3.

A．courage

B．abilities

C．feelings

D．dream

4.

A．desperate

B．responsible

C．unprepared

D．unsuitable

5.

A．Because of

B．In spite of

C．Apart from

D．As for

6.

A．loved

B．envied

C．pleased

D．criticized

7.

A．gradually

B．constantly

C．recently

D．obviously

8.

A．self-respect

B．self-doubt

C．self-pity

D．self-defence

9.

A．imagining

B．observing

C．wondering

D．regretting

10.

A．also

B．even

C．always

D．still

11.

A．expect

B．remember

C．believe

D．accept

12.

A．writing

B．reviewing

C．editing

D．giving

13.

A．quietly

B．repeatedly

C．quickly

D．firmly

14.

A．lucky

B．lonely

C．only

D．likely

15.

A．entrance

B．middle

C．front

D．back

16.

A．slept

B．smiled

C．shouted

D．quarreled

17.

A．intended

B．pretended

C．refused

D．happened

18.

A．change

B．praise

C．thanks

D．visits

19.

A．difficult

B．painful

C．valuable

D．enjoyable

20.

A．early

B．slowly

C．frequently

D．occasionally

5 . Most of us marry creativity to our concept of self either we're "creative" or we aren't, without much of a middle ground. "I'm just not a creative person!" a frustrated student might say in art class, while another might blame her talent at painting for her difficulties in math, giving a comment such as, "I'm very right-brained."

Dr. Pillay, a tech entrepreneur and an assistant professor at Harvard University, has been challenging these ideas. He believes that the key to unlocking your creative potential is to ignore the traditional advice that urges you to "believe in yourself." In fact, you should do the opposite: Believe you are someone else.

Dr. Pillay points to a 2016 study demonstrating the impact of stereotypes on one's behavior; The authors.   educational psychologists Denis Dumas and Kevin Dunbar, divided their college student subjects into three groups, instructing the members of one to think of themselves as "romantic poets" and the members of another to imagine they were "serious librarians" (the third group was the control). The researchers then presented all the participants with ten ordinary objects, including a fork, a carrot, and a pair of pants, and asked them to come up with as many different uses as possible for each one. Those who were asked to imagine themselves as romantic poets came up with the widest range of ideas, whereas those in the serious-librarian group had the fewest. Meanwhile, the researchers found only small differences in students' creativity levels across academic majors.

These results suggest that creativity is not a fixed individual characteristic but a "malleable product of context and perspective, as long as he or she feels like a creative person. Dr. Pillay argues that, besides identifying yourself as creative, taking the bold, creative step of imagining you are somebody else is even more powerful. So, wish you were more creative? Just pretend!

1. According to the passage， who is more likely to unlock his creative potential?

A．An art major who always believes in himself.

B．A math major who has excellent academic performance

C．A physics major who likes to imagine himself as a poet.

D．A history major who works as a librarian on weekends.

2. What does the Study conducted by Denis Dumas and Kevin Dunbar focus on?

A．The creativity of the college students.

B．The stereotypes of the college students.

C．The impact of stereotypes on one's behavior

D．The influence of creativity on one's behavior.

3. The underlined word in the last paragraph probably means__________?

A．stable

B．sustainable

C．predicable

D．changeable

4. Dr Pillay may agree with the statement that__________.

A．there is no doubt that we are either creative or not

B．a student who doesn't do well in art class is not creative

C．right brain determines whether a person is creative or not

D．if we pretend to be creative， then we might be really creative

6 . During my career in the past years, I’ve been fired a few times. The last time was about five years ago.

At the time, I co-owned a literary agency. I agreed to take on a giant project for a major client. I worked my tail off about a year, focusing just on this one client. Meanwhile my partner and associates took care of everyone else. We all thought it was a good bet. But in the end, the client fired me and cooperated with an agency who promised to get him a major book deal with a New York publishing house and an appearance on Oprah. I was left high and dry with nothing to show for my year-long investment.

The worst part was that I did not see it coming. I thought I had done a great job, and we had enjoyed a long-term personal relationship. But my client had his eye on bigger things and decided I couldn’t take him there, so he abandoned me without discussion.

The thing I finally learned from this experience was that clients and customers can be changeable. So never put all your eggs in one basket.

This wasn’t the only mistake I’d made in my career. Some of the mistakes I had made got me fired. That got my attention and furthered my education in the school of hard knocks.

Chances are that you are going to be fired at some point in your career. Last May, 1.7 million workers in America were laid off or fired. And according to the Labor Department, that was during month of generally good economic news. The trick — after being fired — is to try to push bitterness aside and learn from it. Failure can be a great teacher, but we have to listen.

1. Why did the author only focus on one project?

A．His client required him to do so.

B．He considered it would be a safe bet.

C．It can give him an appearance on Oprah.

D．There were no other projects in his agency.

2. Why was the author abandoned?

A．He caused some trouble for his client.

B．His client wanted to teach him a lesson.

C．He couldn’t satisfy his client’s demands.

D．His client was afraid of destroying their friendship.

3. What lesson did the author probably learn?

A．He should have spread his risk.

B．He should have tried his best to do better.

C．He shouldn’t have worked on giant projects.

D．He shouldn’t have made friends with his clients.

4. What did the author mainly write the text for?

A．To show the importance of failure

B．To tell us how to face getting fired.

C．To share a most horrible experience.

D．To explain why people easily get fired.

9 . Are all inventors scientists? No. Anyone can make a(n) _________. All it takes is a(n) _________and some hard work. A person must be willing to try again and _________ the invention works. That’s just what happened to Murray Spangler in 1907.

Spangler was a janitor(清洁工) at a department store. He _________ to work every night after the department store closed. He _________ his job, but it was a lot of work to clean all that space. He was_________. He wished that there was a better way to clean the store’s floor.

Each night as he worked, he thought about the _________. What kind of machine could he make? After a while, some ideas formed in his head. He got a group of _________, including an old box, a tape, a pillowcase, an electric fan, a broom handle, and a paint roller. Then he spent weeks fitting them together. He tried it at home. It_________! At last, he was ready to take his invention to the __________.

A police officer was walking down the street. He glanced at the department store window. He saw Spangler ________ his invention. The officer went to the owner’s house, __________ the owner that Spangler was doing something with a(n) __________ machine that made a lot of noise. He thought that Spangler had lost his mind.

The __________ rushed to the store. He told Spangler that he was fired for messing around __________doing his job. Spangler told him that he was doing his job __________ than ever before. He asked the storeowner to let him show him how his machine worked. __________, the man agreed. He was __________ when Spangler moved his machine over dirt and gum wrappers. They __________! Spangler had just built the first vacuum cleaner. The next year he sold his invention to a firm named Hoover. Before long vacuum cleaners were as __________ as stoves in homes.

1.

A．observation

B．mistake

C．plan

D．invention

2.

A．topic

B．theory

C．idea

D．excuse

3.

A．though

B．until

C．once

D．after

4.

A．started

B．failed

C．agreed

D．decided

5.

A．found

B．liked

C．quit

D．knew

6.

A．ashamed

B．frightened

C．worried

D．exhausted

7.

A．accident

B．discovery

C．problem

D．experiment

8.

A．machines

B．objects

C．pictures

D． books

9.

A．worked

B．changed

C．stopped

D．arrived

10.

A．store

B．hotel

C．lab

D．station

11.

A．showing

B．improving

C．using

D．designing

12.

A．threatening

B．convincing

C．showing

D．telling

13.

A．old

B．cool

C．huge

D．strange

14.

A．janitor

B．policeman

C．owner

D．customer

15.

A．instead of

B．because of

C．thanks to

D．as for

16.

A．worse

B．better

C．slower

D．busier

17.

A．Excited

B．Satisfied

C．Curious

D．Afraid

18.

A．confused

B．shocked

C．disappointed

D．amused

19.

A．disappeared

B．continued

C．dropped

D．moved

20.

A．simple

B．safe

C．convenient

D．common

10 . On her third Christmas, my daughter Jillian didn't have the energy for opening presents. At 23-months, she had been diagnosed with neuroblastoma, an aggressive tumor. I didn’t know how challenging the holidays could become until Jillian died. Being sorrowful became my full-time job in the following days. The pain was a wildfire in my chest and nothing could put it out.

A week before the fourth Christmas, Tom and I bought a three-foot plant that slightly resembled a Christmas tree. My adult nephew Frankie came along. We were busy decorating the tree and Frankie reached into a Christmas decoration box and pulled out a toy angel with a white gown that my aunt had crafted years before. As he lifted the angel, her hair fell out in one big bunch, just like Jillian's.

We burst into laughter. In between gasps, Frankie looked up with the angel in hand and said, “Hi, Jillian.” Tom emerged from the bedroom and saw our tree, “It’s small, bald and beautiful! Just like Jilly-boo. I like it.”

I moved closer to Tom and he put his arm around my shoulder. Looking at the angel, I knew it would help us through the holidays. Like us, it was sad and pitiful, but full of beautiful memories of Jillian.

“Do something new.” said a minister who ran a support group I went to. It’s as if you must create a new space in your heart to keep it beating, despite the bleeding hole.

Tom and I were eventually able to experience the wonder of a four-year-old at Christmas. On the one-year anniversary of Jillian’s death, I discovered I was pregnant. Our second daughter, Cadence, brought us back to joy and hope. Cadence is nine now, and hoping Santa will bring her a dog this year. Eleven years after Jillian’s death, Christmas is almost Christmas again.

1. What does the author say about herself after Jillian’s death?

A．She went on her life as usual.	B．She was drowned in tears.
C．She decided to start a new life.	D．She quit her full-time job.

2. What can we infer about the toy angel?

A．It was a beautiful decoration.	B．It was a gift from Jillian.
C．It was a relief to the author.	D．It was a symbol of strength.

3. What does the author mean by “Christmas is almost Christmas again”?

A．Her family can reunite again.	B．She has been out of sadness.
C．Santa will bring them gifts.	D．She has another daughter.

4. What can we learn from the passage?

A．Mother’s love is forever strong.	B．One should depend on himself.
C．Family is everything for people.	D．Life goes on despite misfortunes.