1 . Ieoh Ming Pei, one of the last great modernist architects, has died aged 102.Although he worked mostly in the United States, Pei will always be remembered for a European project: his redevelopment of the Louvre Museum in Paris in the 1980s.
Pei was the first foreign architect to work on the Louvre in its long history, and initially his designs were fiercely opposed.But in the end, the French — and everyone else — were won over.His glass pyramid outside the Louvre, completed in 1989, is now one of Paris' most famous landmarks.
Pei was born in China in 1917 into a wealthy family.His father was a banker.His artistic mother—a calligrapher and musician—had the greater influence on him.Despite not speaking English, he moved to the US at the age of 18 to study at Pennsylvania, MIT and Harvard.He worked as a research scientist for the US government during World War Two, and went on to work as an architect, founding his own firm in 1955.He carried on working well into old age, creating one of his most famous masterpieces—the Museum of Islamic Art in Doha, Qatar—in his 80s.
He has designed buildings, hotels, schools and other structures across North America, Asia and Europe.His other work includes Dallas City Hall and Japan's Miho Museum.His style was influenced by his love of Islamic architecture.His favoured building materials were glass and steel, with a combination of concrete.
He won a variety of awards and prizes for his buildings, including the AIA Gold Medal, the Praemium Imperiale for Architecture.In 1983 Pei was given the fifth Pritzker Architecture Prize for giving the 20th century some of its most beautiful interior spaces and exterior forms.He used his $100,000 prize money to start a scholarship fund for Chinese students to study architecture in America.In person, Pei was always neatly dressed, good-tempered, charming and unusually modest.
1. What do we know about Pei and his work on the Louvre Museum?| A．The French approved of his designs at first. |
| B．Pei was the only foreign expert employed by the Louvre. |
| C．Pei made use of glass in his designs. |
| D．Pei retired after completing the work. |
①He received the Pritzker Architecture Prize.
②He founded his own firm.
③He created the Museum of Islamic Art.
④He worked as a research scientist.
| A．①③②④ | B．④①②③ |
| C．④②①③ | D．①④③② |
| A．Productive and humorous. | B．Generous and modest. |
| C．Determined and outgoing. | D．Attractive and responsible. |
| A．Louvre Pyramid Architect Dies Aged 102 | B．Prizes Awarded to Pei |
| C．Landmarks Created by Pei | D．A Famous Architect Passed Away |
On Thanksgiving weekend, the Heffelmire family gathered for a meal at their home. After dinner, the family went down to the finished basement to relax except Charlotte’s father, Eric, who was in the garage to fix his truck．
Around 8 p.m., Charlotte decided to check on her dad. She walked through the kitchen. When she opened the side door to the garage, black smoke rose up into the kitchen. She could barely make out her father lying on his back, trapped under the truck. He’d removed the front passenger-side tyre and raised the truck on a jack（千斤顶）. The truck had slipped off the jack, and now the whole weight of the wheel was on his chest and shoulders．
Charlotte ran to the front of the truck and struggled to lift it. Eric was still conscious, and he yelled, “You got it! One more try!” She tried again and was able to tip the truck backward just enough for her to pull her dad by the shirt with both hands from under the truck．
She dragged him across the garage and 20 feet down the driveway. Then she ran back to the garage, which had burst into flames. “I was afraid the car was going to explode,” says Charlotte, so she climbed into the truck, which faced forward, turned the key, and pressed the gas pedal（油门）. The car slowly rolled out, the metal wheel scratching loudly against the concrete．
Safely on the driveway, Charlotte stopped the truck and ran back to the basement. “There’s a fire! Everybody get out!” she yelled as she picked up her three-month-old niece and ran out. Outside, she handed the baby to her mom, and then ran around to the burning garage. She picked up a garden hose（水管）and sprayed the fire while calling 911．
A few minutes later, firefighters and an ambulance arrived. Charlotte was treated for second-degree burns on both her feet and face. Her dad had injuries on his chest and shoulders, as well as minor burns on his face. The garage and the house were damaged but the family survived．
The Heffelmires are staying in an apartment while their house is rebuilt. “Charlotte is a remarkable kid,” says her dad. Charlotte, however, simply says, “ I was saving my family and my house. I wasn’t going to let my dad die.”
1. Eric got trapped because_________| A．the truck slipped off the jack. |
| B．the wheel fell off the truck. |
| C．the front tyre was removed. |
| D．the kitchen was on fire. |
a. Charlotte called the firefighters．
b. Charlotte saved Eric from under the truck．
c. Charlotte drove the truck out of the garage．
d. Charlotte warned the family to leave the house．
| A．b, c, a, d | B．a, b, d, c |
| C．b, c, d, a | D．a, c, b, d |
| A．the house was not fit to live in. |
| B．the truck exploded. |
| C．the three-month-old baby was injured. |
| D．Charlotte was burned on her chest and shoulders. |
| A．proud and clear-headed. |
| B．calm and quick-minded. |
| C．modest and easy-going. |
| D．independent and self-centered. |
3 . Looking back on too many years of education, I can identify one truly impossible teacher. She cared about me, and my intellectual life, even when I didn’t. Her expectations were high—impossibly so. She was an English teacher. She was also my mother.
When good students turn in an essay, they dream of their instructor returning it to them in exactly the same condition, save for a single word added in the margin of the final page: “Flawless.” This dream came true for me one afternoon in the ninth course. I had heard that genius could show itself at an early age, so I was only slightly taken aback that I had achieved perfection at the age of 14. Obviously, I did what any professional writer would do; I hurried off to spread the good news. I didn’t get very far. The first person I told was my mother.
My mother is normally incredibly soft-spoken, but when she got angry, she was terrifying. I am not sure if she was more upset by my hubris(得意忘形) or by the fact that my English teacher had let my ego get so out of hand. In any event, my mother and her red pen showed me how deeply flawed a flawless essay could be. At the time, I am sure she thought she was teaching me about transitions (过渡), structure, style and voice. But what I learned was a deeper lesson about the nature of creative criticism.
Creative criticism implies something about who is able to give it, who knows you well enough to show you how your mental life is getting in the way of good writing. They are also the people who care enough to see you through this painful realization. ①
I was lucky enough to find a critic and teacher who was willing to make the journey of writing with me. “It is a thing of no great difficulty,” according to Plutarch, “to raise objections against another man’s speech, it is a very easy matter; but to produce a better in its place is a work extremely troublesome.” Perhaps Plutarch is suggesting something a bit closer to Marcus Cicero’s claim that one should “criticize by creation, not by finding fault.” Genuine criticism creates a precious opening for an author to become better on his own terms—a process that is often extremely painful, but also almost always meaningful.
② My mother said she would help me with my writing, but first I had to help myself. For each assignment, I was to write the best essay I could. Real criticism is not meant to find obvious mistakes, so if she found any—the type I could have found on my own—I had to start from scratch. From scratch. Once the essay was “flawless”, she would take an evening to walk me through my errors. ③
She criticized me when I included little-known references and professional jargon (行话). She had no patience for brilliant but irrelevant figures of speech. Somewhere along the way I set aside my hopes of writing that flawless essay. ④ But perhaps I missed something important in my mother’s lessons about creativity and perfection. Perhaps the point of writing the flawless essay was not to give up, but to never willingly finish. Whitman repeatedly reworked “Song of Myself” between 1855 and 1891. Repeatedly. We do our absolute best with a piece of writing, and come as close as we can to the ideal. And, for the time being, we settle. In critique, however, we are forced to depart, to give up the perfection we thought we had achieved for the chance of being even a little bit better. This is the lesson I took from my mother: If perfection were possible, it would not be motivating.
1. What can we learn from the second paragraph?| A．The author performed perfectly as a professional writer. |
| B．The author didn’t think he was good at writing a flawless essay. |
| C．The author never dreamed of his essay being marked as “flawless”. |
| D．The author was not much surprised at his essay being marked as “flawless”. |
| A．The author’s mother taught him about the structure of a perfect essay. |
| B．The author’s mother pointed out lots of faults in his seemingly perfect essay. |
| C．The author’s mother taught him how to leave a lasting mark on the essay. |
| D．The author’s mother underlined the important style and voice in his essay. |
| A．giving constructive criticism is an easy matter |
| B．criticizing someone is painful and meaningless |
| C．finding fault is better than coming up with a better work |
| D．criticizing someone’s speech is easier than coming up with a better one |
That was when true criticism, the type that changed me as a person, began.
| A．① | B．② | C．③ | D．④ |
| A．generous and strict | B．demanding and caring |
| C．stubborn and loving | D．critical and troublesome |
| A．The Perfect Essay | B．My Dear Mother |
| C．True Criticism | D．The Skills of Writing |
4 . Look at the center circles of Diagram A and Diagram B. Which of the center circles looks larger? In Diagram B? In fact, they are exactly the same size.
Then look at the picture on the right. What do you see? A vase? Or two faces？Does the picture change quickly from one to the other again and again? Maybe or maybe not, but you can never see them at the same time.
“What’s happening? Is something wrong with my eyes?” You may wonder at what you see.
Don’t worry. Here is how it goes:
When we look at things, our eyes send messages to our brains and then our brains interpret the information. However, sometimes our brains interpret the received information in a wrong way. It seems that our eyes are playing a joke on us. This often happens and we call it “visual illusion ( 错误)”.
Movie makers often make use of visual illusions. They make the objects around actors much smaller or bigger than usual. This makes us believe that the actors are much larger or smaller than they usually are. The movies Jurassic Park and Honey I shrunk the kids just make use of visual illusions.
1. Why does the center circle in Diagram A look smaller than that in Diagram B?| A．Something is wrong with our eyes. |
| B．The two circles are not the same size. |
| C．The two pictures change quickly from one to the other. |
| D．Our brains interpret the information in a wrong way. |
a. We look at things with our eyes. b. Our brains interpret the messages.
c. Our brains tell us what we have seen. d. Our eyes send messages to our brains.
| A．c a b d | B．a d b c | C．a c d b | D．b c a d |
| A．To make the actors seem different in size |
| B．To make the actors much braver |
| C．To help the actors become stronger |
| D．To help the actors look better |
5 . For the 17 years my life was very happy. Then the first sad thing happened. My mother became very ill, and soon she knew that she was dying. Just before she died, she asked Elizabeth and me to go to her room. She held our hands and said, “Victor and Elizabeth, my children, I’m very happy because you love each other, and because one day you’ll get married. Everyone in the family loves you, Elizabeth. Will you take my place in the family, my dear? I can die happy if you look after them when I have gone.”
My mother died and we were very sad, because we loved her dearly. Elizabeth was brave and helped us; her sweet smile gave us some happiness in the unhappy days after my mother’s death. The time came for me to go to university. I didn’t want to leave my sad family, but we all knew that I should go. It was hard to leave, too, because the parents of my good friend Henry would not let him go to university with me. So I had gone alone.
On my first day at university I met my teacher, Professor Waldman, who was one of the greatest scientists in the world. He gave a wonderful talk to all the students who were starting at the university. He ended his talk by saying, “Some of you will become the greatest scientists of tomorrow. You must study hard and discover everything that you can. This is why God made you intelligent—to help other people.”
After the professor’s talk, I thought very carefully. I remembered the storm when I was 15; I remembered how the lightning had destroyed the tree. From then on, I wanted to use electricity to help people, and I wanted to discover the secrets of life. I decided to work on these two things.
I started to work the next day. I worked very hard and soon Professor Waldman and I realized that I could learn to be a very good scientist.
The professor helped me very much, and other important scientists who were his friends helped me, too. I was interested in my work and I did not take one day’s holiday during the next two years, I did not go home, and my letters to my family were very short.
After two years, I had discovered many things and I built a scientific machine that was the best in the university. My machine would help me answer the most important question of all. How does life begin? Is it possible to put life into dead things? To answer these questions about life I had to learn first about death. I had to watch bodies from the moment when they died and the warm life left them. In the hospital and in the university, I watched the dying and the dead. Day after day, month after month, I followed death, so it was a dark and terrible time.
I built a tall mast about 150 meters high, which is higher than the tallest building in the city, to catch lightning and send the electricity down to my machine in the lab. I believed I could use that electricity to give life to things that were dead.
Then one day, the answer came to me. Suddenly I was sure that I knew the secret of life.
1. Which of the following is TRUE according to the passage?| A．Victor did not want to leave his family because his mother died not long before. |
| B．Elizabeth married shortly after Victor’s mother died. |
| C．Elizabeth was a brave girl who loved Victor and gave him much help. |
| D．Victor’s mother was very angry when she knew he loved Elizabeth. |
| A．he discovered many things and built a scientific machine |
| B．he learnt much about death both in the hospitals and in the university |
| C．he built a tall mast to catch lightning and send the electricity down to the lab |
| D．he worked hard and took only one day’s holiday during the next two years |
| A．use electricity to cure diseases |
| B．build the best machine to learn about death |
| C．become the greatest scientist of tomorrow |
| D．give life to things that were dead by using electricity |
① Victor’s mother passed away.
② Victor got help from the professor and other scientists.
③ Victor went to university and attended the professor’s talk.
④ Victor found the answer to giving life to things that were dead.
⑤ Victor experienced a storm, seeing the lightning destroying the tree.
| A．①②③④⑤ | B．⑤①③②④ | C．①③②⑤④ | D．⑤①②④③ |
6 . When I was about twelve, I headed to a restaurant for dinner with my family. It was a windy winter night. As my mom and I headed towards the restaurant from our car, a girl about my age and her mother came up to us. They asked if we had any spare change. My mom immediately asked where they kept their things. They pointed to an old car in a parking across the street. The girl said there were six of them living in that car, which was the same size as my own family.
My mom said she had something to do after handing the people a few dollars. She sent me inside the restaurant with my dad and my three siblings(兄弟姊妹).But she didn’t come.
Later, I found out she had gone home and practically emptied our cupboards into a few bags. Then, she brought that food over to the car and handed the bags to the family. I wasn’t there when that part happened, but I can only imagine the joy it brought to their faces.
A few days later, when I actually found out about what she had done, I asked her why she helped those people. She told me that they were not lucky. I remember the face of that girl who had asked us for change; she was the same age as me, yet we looked so different.
Here I stood, dressed in almost new clothes, headed to dine in a restaurant and then back home to the bedroom I shared with my younger sister. I remember thinking that the girl didn’t have any food to eat and that she was heading back to a cold car shared with five other people.
After painting this picture in my mind, I understood why my mom had done what she did. I will never forget what she did that night. And that night I also learned one of the best lessons she taught.
1. We learn from the passage that the girl about the writer’s age .| A．made friends with the writer |
| B．had her own bedroom |
| C．received a good education |
| D．lived a hard life |
a. My mom gave the girl a few dollars.
b. My family was on the way to a restaurant.
c. My mom went home and brought some food.
d. We met with a girl and her mother asking for dollars.
| A．b a c d | B．b d a c |
| C．d a c b | D．d c b a |
| A．Patient. | B．Strict. |
| C．Kind. | D．Proud. |
| A．visit the girl in the near future |
| B．save as much money as possible |
| C．learn from her mother |
| D．deal with the world’s food problem |
7 . This month, when earthquakes rocked Southern California on back-to-back days, it was a shocking reminder that we may one day experience the “Big One,” a quake with the power to kill and destroy. However a few people saw something else: a photo opportunity.
Tourists flocked to a large crack in a highway to see evidence of the damage for themselves and, of course, take a quick selfie(自拍).
It was only the latest example of how our modern love of sharing photos we take of ourselves in notable situations is colliding with nature and the world, often in confusing and even dangerous ways.
In Canada, a sunflower farm barred visitors last year after selfie-seekers destroyed flowers and left the land looking like a “zombie apocalypse.”(僵尸启示录) In Spain, a man was gored in the neck last weekend while trying to take a video selfie at the annual running of the bulls in Pamplona.
The selfie phenomenon entered the mainstream after Apple and other phonemakers added front-facing cameras starting in 2010, the same year Instagram and other photo-sharing apps were becoming popular. From 2011 to 2017, more than 250 people died while taking selfies, according to a study by researchers in India, which had by far the highest number of such deaths, followed by Russia and the United States. Many died after drowning, falling or being attacked by an animal. Most were under the age of 30.
It’s easy to be uncomfortable with selfies and even mock them, especially when they’re risky or in bad taste. But some researchers have explored different questions: Why do we take selfies? Can they ever be a healthy form of expression? Can selfies be used for good?
1. Why does the author mention the earthquake happened in Southern California?| A．To show how severe the earthquake is. |
| B．To warn the readers of the dangers in the earthquake. |
| C．To introduce the risky behavior of the crazy selfie takers. |
| D．To show how scared people are when earthquake happened. |
| A．there are too many visitors. |
| B．the farm used to be devastated by selfie seekers. |
| C．the sunflowers are supposed to be well protected. |
| D．the farm owner did not want others to enjoy the beautiful sunflowers. |
| A．the US, India, Russia. | B．Russia, the US, India. |
| C．India, Russia, the US. | D．India, the US, Russia. |
| A．Positive. | B．Negative. |
| C．Ambiguous. | D．Uncaring. |
Do you have imagination? Do you like to solve problems? Can you? If so, you could be the next great inventor. “But I’m just a kid，” you might say! Don’t worry about a little thing like age. For example, one famous inventor — Benjamin Franklin — got his start when he was only 12. At that young age, he created paddles for his hands to help him swim faster. Finally his creation led to what we know is called flippers!
So you don’t have to be an adult to be an inventor. One thing you do need, though, is something that kids have plenty of: curiosity and imagination. Kids are known for looking at things in new and unique ways.
So what should you do if you have what is a great idea for an invention? Talk to a friend or family member about it. Get input from others about your idea. Then ask them to help you create a working model — called a prototype (原型) — of your idea.
Once you have a prototype, you can test it. Sometimes your idea turns out to be not as great as you thought. At other times, though, you realize it is a good idea and your prototype can help you figure out how to make it even better.
If your idea is really a good one, an adult can help you contact companies that might be interested in it. You will also want an adult’s help to get a patent (专利权) for your idea, so that it is protected and can’t be stolen by someone else. If you need some inspiration, consider these kids and their inventions：
Jeanie Low invented the Kiddie Stool when she was just 11. It’s a folding stool that fits under the kitchen sink. Kids can unfold it and use it to reach the sink all by themselves.
At the age of 15, Louis Braille invented the system named after him that allows the blind to read.
Chelsea Lanmon received a patent when she was just 8 for the “pocket diaper”， a new type of diaper that includes a pocket for holding baby wipes and powder.
1. By saying “But I’m just a kid”， you probably mean you ________.| A．are too young to achieve anything |
| B．can do anything though you are young |
| C．are old enough to become an inventor |
| D．have to learn knowledge from other people |
| A．a patent—a prototype—a good idea—an invention |
| B．an invention—a good idea—a patent—a prototype |
| C．a good idea—a prototype—an invention—a patent |
| D．a prototype—a patent—a good idea—an invention |
| A．Jeanie Low. | B．Benjamin Franklin. | C．Chelsea Lanmon. | D．Louis Braille. |
| A．Kids have curiosity and imagination |
| B．There are some world famous inventors |
| C．Kids are exactly like adults in a way |
| D．It is possible for kids to be inventors |
9 . If this isn’t true love then we don’t know what it is. High school sweethearts Leonard and Hazel Cherry passed away last Thursday just hours apart, a sweet ending to their 74-year together.
The couple were married in 1942 in Muldoon, Texas. Following their wedding ceremony at the start of World War II, Leonard enlisted in the Army Air Corps and became a B-24 bomber pilot. Luckily for the couple, he was never far from home as he was stationed at Carswell Army Air Corps Base in Fort Worth training others how to fly. Meanwhile, Hazel was a stay-at-home mom taking care of their only son, David. Once the war was over, Leonard worked as an auto body repairman in Fort Worth before opening an auto repair business in 1949, which the couple ran together for 31 years. The couple finally moved to Woodstock, Texas in 1980 to be close to their son and grandchildren.
In their final days, Leonard who was 95, was placed at the St. Catherine Center, a hospice (临终安养院) in Waco, Texas, while 93-year-old Hazel, who was in good health, had just moved into the village at Providence Park, a facility right next door to her husband’s.
Then on October 27, Leonard passed away just before 1 p.m. and his wife died just 10 hours later at 11 p.m.
“Every time I began to think about it, I began to smile because of how much they loved each other. In my mind my grandfather was waiting for her in heaven with open arms,” Craig Cherry told KWTX. “Even in his ninety-fifth year, he still, when he talked about her, had a sparkle (闪烁 的光) in his eye. A memorial service for them is scheduled for this Friday and I’m sure there won’t be a dry eye in the house.”
1. What is the correct order for the events in the story about Leonard?① Leonard got married.
② Leonard became a bomber pilot.
③ Leonard moved to Woodstock, Texas.
④ Leonard opened an auto repair business.
⑤ Leonard worked as an auto body repairman in Fort Worth.
| A．①②⑤④③ | B．①⑤③④② |
| C．②①③⑤④ | D．②①⑤④③ |
| A．Because she wanted to live independently. |
| B．Because she wanted to receive medical care. |
| C．Because she wanted to accompany her husband. |
| D．Because she wanted to be close to her son and grandchildren. |
| A．he felt happy because they lived long |
| B．Hazel died because of her deep love for Leonard |
| C．everyone would feel extremely sorrowful for the loss |
| D．the couple had affection for each other only at their advanced age |
| A．The Loving Couple | B．The Long-lived Couple |
| C．A Sudden Death of Hazel | D．Die Hours Apart for Love |
10 . The Day My Father Almost Drowned Me
Dad used to be a devoted fisherman. He tried to get me interested as well, but it never seemed much fun to me. The line always seemed to tangle（缠结），the worms（虫）would not hold still, the hooks （挂钩）were sharp, and Dad always seemed to want to go someplace far away, so that you had to get up in the middle of the night.
One time when I was about ten years old, my dad took me fishing to the American Falls reservoir （I think that's where it was. Our neighbor Wayne Booth had built a kayak （皮船），which was painted bright blue, and Dad thought we could row out onto the reservoir（划到水库）and catch some fish. I don’t remember whether we caught any fish or not. I think I was having more fun rowing the kayak, which is rowed facing forward with a double-ended oar（船桨）,unlike an ordinary row-boat, which I never liked because you couldn't see where you were going. But mid-afternoon the wind came up a little. We were maybe a hundred feet from shore, when the wind caught my hat and blew it into the water just a few feet away. Dad said, “Don't worry. I'll get it!" and reached out for the hat.
Now, a kayak is a very skillfully balanced thing, and Dad's reaching for the hat was just enough to upset the balance and tip us over. I didn't know how to swim yet, and thought I was a goner. Dad did, too, I think, because he was grabbing for me madly until we realized that the water was only about four feet deep.
Mother was not too pleased when we got home, soaking wet, and I think she thought Dad was creating the story a little so that it wouldn't sound like he had really almost drowned（溺死）me.
1. How many people are mentioned in the passage?| A．Two. | B．Three. |
| C．Four. | D．Five. |
| A．He was good at swimming. |
| B．He was hard on the writer. |
| C．He was into making up a story. |
| D．He was a man fond of fishing. |
a. Dad grabbed for me madly. b. Our neighbor built a kayak.
c. Dad and I fell into water. d. My hat was blown into the water.
| A．a, b, c, d | B．b, d, c, a | C．c, d, a, b | D．b, a, d, c |
| A．He was going to be saved. | B．He was going to be drowned. |
| C．He was going to be beaten. | D．He was lucky to leave. |
