1 . There is a country-I read about it once-where the local custom is that if you go to a house and praise some small possession,the owners feel obliged to offer it to you as a gift.I don’t remember the name of the country;the only other place I know of with such a custom is my mother’s apartment.
Knowing Mama,I have always been careful with my compliments,but that doesn’t stop her. Mama senses admiration far more subtle(敏感的)than what’s spoken.If she catches me staring at anything small enough to put in a grocery sack,she hands it to me as I leave.It would do no good to protest.
Sometimes,while visiting Mama,I try not to say anything complimentary.
I have been worrying for weeks now about what to give my mother for Mother’s Day.For most people,this is a modest problem,solved by the purchase of a bathrobe or a box of candy. For me,however,Mother’s Day represents an annual challenge to do the impossible-find a gift that will make neither Mama nor me feel terrible.Expensive gifts-Mama defines as costing over$1.98-are out,because they make Mama feel terrible.There is always the danger that a gift given to Mama will bounce swiftly back to the giver.
Papa,a sensible man,long ago stopped trying to shop for Mama.Instead,on Mother’s Day, her birthday,and other appropriate occasions,he composes a short epic poem in which he tells of their meeting,courtship(求婚)，and subsequent(随后的)marriage.After nearly 30 years of poems,Papa sometimes worries that the edge of his poetic inspiration has dulled,but Mama doesn’t complain.She comes into the room while he is struggling over a gift poem and says,”It doesn’t have to rhyme as long as it’s from the heart.”
This year,finally,I think I,too,have found a painless gift for Mama.I am going to give her a magazine article,unrhymed but from the heart,in which I wish her”Happy Mother’s Day”and tell her there’s nothing Papa or I could ever buy,find,or make her that would be half good enough anyway.
1. The underlined word”compliments”in the second paragraph is closest in meaning to| A．behavior | B．purchase | C．words | D．praise |
| A．It’s difficult to choose a proper but cheap gift. |
| B．His Mama wishes him to follow his father’s way. |
| C．Gifts will make his mother feel terrible. |
| D．The writer has a very tight budget. |
| A．the writer will be given whatever he wants |
| B．his mother will give him the things he praises |
| C．his father will have to compose rhymed poems |
| D．his mother will return anything to the giver |
| A．An Economical Mother |
| B．A Challenging Choice |
| C．A Gift for Mama |
| D．An Old Custom |
2 . It was late, about 10:15 p.m, when Janice Esposito arrived at the New York train station and began the 20-minute drive home. She had traveled the route so many times that she almost drove on autopilot (自动驾驶):a left onto Station Road, then a left on Montauk Highway, and then-bang! Out of nowhere, a car T-boned Janice’s car, pushing her backward onto the railroad tracks.
As it happened, Pole DiPinto was gelling ready for bed. He'd just closed his book when he heard the loud crash not far outside his bedroom window. A volunteer firefighter and retired teacher, 64, never stopped to think, He grabbed a flashlight and still in his pajamas (睡衣), ran out the door. “Any firefighter would have? done what I did,” he said, “We're always on duly.”
The first car he came upon was the one that had hit Janice. Once DiPinto concluded the driver was OK, he looked around and spotted Janice's car lay across the railroad tracks. And then he heard a terrible sound: the bells signaling an on-coming train.
DiPinto rushed to Janice's cur and banged on the driver's side window. She just looked at him, her eyes unfocused. “I don't know where I am,” she said. She seemed unhurt. “Honey, you're on the railroad tracks,” DiPinto shouted, “We have to get you off right now!” He pulled hard on the door handle, but it didn't work. The heavy train, traveling at 65 miles per hour, was heading toward them. DiPinto ran to the passenger side and threw open the door. “Please, God, don't let her be trapped”, he thought. He pushed aside the airbags, grabbed Janice's arms, and pulled her toward him across the passenger seat until he could help her out and walk her to safety. Within six seconds, he estimated, the train crashed into the car.
“It was like a Hollywood movie,” DiPinto told reporters the next day. But this one had a difference. That night, the hero arrived in pajamas, not in a fire truck.
1. Which of the following words can best replace the underlined word "T-boned" in Paragraph 1?| A．Crashed into. | B．Came across. |
| C．Pushed forward. | D．Scratched the side of. |
| A．He was the volunteer firefighter who was on duty that night. |
| B．He wasn't aware of the coming train when he was rescuing Janice. |
| C．He was in sound sleep in his bedroom when the accident happened. |
| D．He first confirmed the other driver before he came to Janice's rescue. |
| A．Janice didn't know where she was. |
| B．The airbags protected her in some way. |
| C．DiPinto rescued Janice without difficulty. |
| D．All the doors of Janice's car were in good condition. |
| A．A Hero in Pajamas. | B．A Hollywood Movie. |
| C．A Dangerous Heavy Train. | D．A Horrible Car Accident. |
3 . Two of the saddest words in the English language are “if only”. I live my life with the goal of never having to say those words, because they convey regret, lost opportunities, mistakes, and disappointment.
My father is famous in our family for saying, “Take the extra minute to do it right.” I always try to live by the “extra minute” rule. When my children were young and likely to cause accidents, I always thought about what I could do to avoid an “if only” moment, whether it was something minor like moving a cup full of hot coffee away from the edge of a counter, or something that required a little more work such as taping padding (衬垫) onto the sharp corners of a glass coffee table.
I don’t only avoid those “if only” moments when it comes to safety. It’s equally important to avoid “if only” in our personal relationships. We all know people who lost a loved one and regretted that they had foregone an opportunity to say “I love you” or “I forgive you.” When my father announced he was going to the eye doctor across from my office on Good Friday, I told him that it was a holiday for my company and I wouldn’t be here. But then I thought about the fact that he’s 84 years old and I realized that I shouldn’t give up an opportunity to see him. I called him and told him I had decided to go to work on my day off after all.
I know there will still be occasions when I have to say “if only” about something, but my life is definitely better because of my policy of doing everything possible to avoid that eventuality. And even though it takes an extra minute to do something right, or it occasionally takes an hour or two in my busy schedule to make a personal connection, I know that I’m doing the right thing. I’m buying myself peace of mind and that’s the best kind of insurance for my emotional well-being.
1. Which of the following is an example of the “extra minute” rule?| A．Start the car the moment everyone is seated. |
| B．Leave the room for a minute with the iron working. |
| C．Wait for an extra minute so that the steak tastes better. |
| D．Move an object out of the way before it trips someone. |
| A．keep her appointment with the eye doctor |
| B．meet her father who was already an old man |
| C．join in the holiday celebration of the company |
| D．finish her work before the deadline approached |
| A．abandoned | B．lacked |
| C．avoided | D．taken |
| A．To Keep Emotional Well-being | B．To Prevent “If Only” Moments |
| C．To Follow the Most Useful Rule | D．To Achieve the Peace of Mind |
4 . One day, gardeners might not just hear the buzz of bees among their flowers, but the whirr of robots, too. Scientists have managed to turn an unassuming drone (无人机) into a remote-controlled pollinator (授粉媒介) by attaching horsehairs coated with a special, sticky gel to its underbelly.
Animal pollinators are needed for the reproduction of 90% of flowering plants and one third of human food crops. Chief among those are bees — but many bee populations in the United States have been in steep decline in recent decades. Thus, the decline of bees isn't just worrisome because it could disrupt ecosystems, but also because it could disrupt agriculture and economy. People have been trying to come up with replacement techniques, but none of them are especially effective yet.
Scientists have thought about using drones, but they haven't figured out how to make free-flying robot insects that can rely on their own power source without being attached to a wire. “It’s very tough work,” said senior author Eijiro Miyako, a chemist at the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology. His particular contribution to the field involves a gel, one he’d considered a mistake 10 years before and stuck in a storage cabinet. When it was rediscovered a decade later, it hadn’t dried up or degraded at all. “I was so surprised because it still had high viscosity,” Miyako said.
The chemist noticed that when dropped, the gel absorbed an impressive amount of dust from the floor. Miyako realized this material could be very useful for picking up pollen (花粉). He and his colleagues chose a drone and attached horsehairs to its smooth surface to mimic a bee’s fuzzy body. They coated those horsehairs in the gel, and then controlled the drones over lilies, where they would pick up the pollen from one flower and then deposit the pollen at another one, thus fertilizing it.
The scientists looked at the hairs under a scanning electron microscope and counted up the pollen grains attached to the surface and found that the drones whose horsehairs had been coated with the gel had about 10 times more pollen than those that had not been coated with the gel.
Miyako does not think such drones would replace bees altogether, but could simply help bees with their pollinating duties. There’s a lot of work to be done before that's a reality, however. Small drones will need to become more controllable and energy efficient, as well as smarter, with better GPS and artificial intelligence.
1. What does the underlined word “viscosity” in Para.3 probably mean?| A．Hardness. | B．Stickiness. |
| C．Flexibility. | D．Purity. |
| A．bees disrupt both agriculture and economy |
| B．scientists have invented self-powered robot insects |
| C．bees in the United States are on the edge of extinction |
| D．Miyako found the special feature of the gel by chance |
| A．its body is made like a bee’s |
| B．its GPS works more efficiently |
| C．some flowers are coated with the gel |
| D．horsehairs with the gel are attached to it |
| A．are not yet ready for practical use |
| B．may eventually replace bees in the future |
| C．are much more efficient than bee pollinators |
| D．can provide a solution to economic depression |
