1 . Mom was a teacher most of her life. When she wasn't in the classroom, she was educating her children or grandchildren; correcting our grammar; starting us on collections of butterflies, flowers or rocks; or inspiring a discussion on her most recent ''Book of the Month Club'' topic. Mom made learning fun.
It was sad for my three brothers and me to see her suffering in her later years. At eighty-five, she suffered a stroke and she went steadily downhill after that.
Two days before she died, my brothers and I met at her nursing home and took her for a short ride in a wheelchair. While we waited for the staff to lift her limp body back into bed, Mom fell asleep. Not wanting to wake her, we moved to the far end of the room and spoke softly.
After several minutes our conversation was interrupted by a muffled sound coming from across the room. We stopped talking and looked at Mom. Her eyes were closed, but she was clearly trying to communicate with us. We went to her side.
'' Whrr, '' she said weakly.
''Where? '' I asked. ''Mom, is there something you want? '' ''Whrr, '' she repeated a bit stronger. My brothers and I looked at each other and shook our heads sadly.
Mom opened her eyes, sighed, and with all the energy she could gather said, '' Not was. Say were! ''
It suddenly occurred to us that Mom was correcting brother Jim’s last sentence. ''if it was up to me…''
Jim leaned down and kissed her cheek. ''Thanks, Mom, '' he whispered. We smiled at each other and once again shook our heads…
1. What does the underlined words ''went steadily downhill'' mean in the 2nd paragraph?| A．went lower and lower | B．went worse and worse |
| C．went down the hill | D．went downstairs |
| A．She wanted to tell her sons her will. |
| B．She wanted to have something to eat before she died. |
| C．She wanted to correct the mistakes Jim made while talking. |
| D．She wanted to give her sons something before she died. |
| A．Mom was a good teacher and never gave up her teaching. |
| B．Mom was always making her teaching fun. |
| C．Mom didn't forget her teaching until she died. |
| D．Mom stopped teaching when she was at home. |
| A．He loved her but was tired of his mother's teaching. |
| B．His mother should have forgotten her teaching and enjoyed the rest of her life. |
| C．His mother was great because she devoted herself to teaching. |
| D．His mother was an excellent teacher before she was retired. |
| A．Once a Teacher, Always… | B．Mom's Will |
| C．A Teacher’s Life | D．A Teacher’s Devotion |
2 . We are admitted into the full-time school called “life”. Every day in this school, we have opportunities to learn new lessons. No matter whether we like these lessons or not, we have to take them, because they are our lessons.
Why are we here in this world? What is the purpose of life? Humans have tried to discover the meaning of life for thousands of years, but failed to get the answer, because the meaning of life is different from person to person.
Each one of us has his or her special purpose and path, unique and different. As we travel on our life path, we will learn many great lessons in order to fulfill that purpose. Learning our lessons well is the key to discovering the real meaning of our own life.
As we travel through our lifetime, we may be taught hard lessons that others don’t have to face, while others spend years struggling with problems we don’t need to deal with. We may never know why we love English, not physics, which indicates that our path is different. While traveling on our own path, sometimes alone, we should, first of all, take a basic lesson in openness.
Openness means being receptive. Life will present us with so many lessons, none of which are useful to us unless we can recognize them and are open to their values. These lessons are not easy to learn, but we should regard them as gifts. But how can we recognize these lessons? It is a matter of what “glasses” we are wearing at the time. It is not difficult to spot them if we take them as opportunities. So when we are not open to learning our lessons, failing a weekly English test might be like a disaster rather than an opportunity to us. Of course, the hard lessons may not be fun, but they can actually be the biggest gifts we receive from life.
1. The author may be in favor of the viewpoint that all men are born _______.| A．equal | B．challenging |
| C．opportunistic | D．different |
| A．we choose our own path in life |
| B．people have to face the same lessons |
| C．we should travel on the same path |
| D．we should enjoy the meaning of life |
| A．angles of view | B．experiences from life |
| C．common value system | D．willingness to face challenge |
| A．Life in School | B．Gifts from Life |
| C．Life School and Students | D．Life as School |
| A．People always learn the same lessons. |
| B．Life is a lesson as one in the classroom. |
| C．Hard lessons are fun. |
| D．People should be open to the life. |
3 . For 63 percent of Americans, coffee is one of their daily essentials. This number has been this high since 2017, according to the National Coffee Association. The rise of coffee is due to its numerous benefits like preventing DNA damage, but it works best if you do this simple thing first: Eat.
“Drinking coffee on an empty stomach, or early in the morning before you’ve had breakfast, can raise the level of cortisol (皮质醇) in your body. From the moment you open your eyes in the morning, your body starts releasing cortisol. It’s a hormone (激素) that’s responsible for ruling your immune response, metabolism (新陈代谢), and stress response,” says Dr. Nikola Djordjevic, MD.
“If you pump your body with caffeine(咖啡因) when your cortisol is at its peak,” Djordjevic says, “you’ll be forcing your body to bear even more stress.” In a study that evaluated preference for caffeinated drinks among medical students, it’s shown that 25 percent of students drank coffee in the morning on an empty stomach.
These students are at an increased risk of mood changes and possible long-term effects on their health, as explained in the study. “Drinking coffee on an empty stomach can greatly encourage the acid in your stomach, producing a more acidic environment,” says Dr. Jamie Long, a licensed clinical psychologist. Thus, a full stomach is important to control the amount of stomach acid produced.
Since coffee increases your stomach acid, you’re highly likely to experience heartburn and even develop gastric ulcers (胃溃疡), Djordjevic says. Clearly, drinking coffee on an empty stomach affects physical health. But it does harm to mental health, too. The overproduction of acid in the stomach can cause mood swings, nervousness, shaking and other withdrawal symptoms (症状). “And if you’ve already had the sign of experiencing anxiety, you’re even more possible to be attacked by the effects of coffee,” says Long.
Base line: Know your limits so you can fully experience what coffee can offer, because here’s exactly what happens to your body when you drink coffee daily.
1. What does the underlined word “it” in Paragraph 1 refer to？| A．The coffee. | B．The DNA damage. |
| C．The stomach. | D．The National Coffee Association. |
| A．It can help to reduce our stress. |
| B．It will slow down our metabolism. |
| C．It might contain some kind of hormone. |
| D．It may increase the cortisol in our bodies. |
| A．Cortisol in the body is at a high level in the morning. |
| B．75 percent of the medical students dislike coffee. |
| C．Medical students usually suffer more stress. |
| D．Most people drink coffee in the afternoon. |
| A．be good for our hearts | B．make us feel less hungry |
| C．relieve our nervousness and anxiety | D．harm our physical and mental health |
| A．Why so many Americans are coffee lovers. |
| B．What you can do to keep your stomach healthy. |
| C．Why you shouldn’t drink coffee on an empty stomach. |
| D．How you can control the level of cortisol in your body. |
