1 . Recently, my college degree has just been completed. The last project was called “Smile”. The class was asked to go out to smile at three people and write down their reactions. I am a very friendly person and always smile at everyone and say hello anyway. So, I thought this would be a piece of cake.
My husband, the youngest son and I went out to McDonald. We were standing in line when all of a sudden everyone around us began to back away. As I turned around, an unpleasant body smell came to my nose and two poor homeless men stood just behind me. As I looked at the short blue-eyed gentleman closest to me, he was “smiling”. The second man fumbled (摸索) with his hands as he stood behind his friend.
The young lady at the counter asked him what they wanted. He said, “Coffee is all, Miss.” because that was all they could afford.
Then I really felt it-I embraced (拥抱) the little man with the blue eyes. That is when I noticed all eyes in the restaurant were set on me, judging my every action. I smiled and asked two more breakfast meals and gave them to the men.
The blue-eyed gentleman looked up at me, with tears in his eyes, and said, “Thank you.” I turned in my project. My teacher said, “Can I share this?” I slowly nodded as she got the attention of the class. She began to read and that is when I knew that we as human beings share this need to make people happy and to be made happy.
In my own way I had touched the people at McDonald’s and every soul that heard the story in the classroom. But I graduated with one of the biggest lessons I would ever learn.
1. The underlined part “a piece of cake” in Paragraph 1 means ______.| A．comfortable | B．embarrassing | C．moving | D．easy |
| A．Because they were very polite to the two men. |
| B．Because the two men smelt terrible. |
| C．Because they were moved by the two men. |
| D．Because the two men seemed unfriendly. |
| A．A friend in need is a friend indeed. |
| B．Nothing is difficult to a willing heart. |
| C．Helping others can bring pleasure to many people. |
| D．Don’t judge people according to their appearance. |
2 . "Carers" are all sorts of people with so many different caring roles. I know this only too well from attending my severely ill mother as a teenager, to having main carer responsibility for my Nanna for her last ten years, to now as a father caring for my disabled son.
But more importantly, I was also cared for. My dad had died when I was four, so after my mum died, it was my amazing Nanna and Grandad who took me in. Because they were my grandparents, I never really thought of them as "carers"，and I don't think they did either. Back then, I probably didn9t even know what 66kinship（亲属关系）carer" meant
It wasn't easy for them. My mother's long illness and early death nearly broke them. I used to think looking after me helped them deal with their heartbreak. But the truth is, they helped me get over my mum's death. Surrounding me with unquestioning love, they were classic kinship carers.
Working as a lawyer, I've helped a surprisingly large number of kinship carers over the years—mostly grandparents, fighting the system for their precious grandchildren. I like to think I go the extra mile, which helped them face the challenges. More than 180,000 children across the UK are being raised by kinship carers today, but the huge challenges facing them are too often forgotten by politicians and policymakers.
What my Nanna and Grandad did—and what kinship carers across the UK are doing today—is amazing. They are giving a loving home to these children, while reducing the stress on the formal care system― ven though it may add difficulties to their own life. We can't thank and support them too much.
1. The author knows very well about what carers are by .| A．giving and getting care | B．doing voluntary work |
| C．becoming a parent | D．learning from carers |
| A．They took care of the author's ill mother. |
| B．They spoiled the author with too much love. |
| C．They offered to look after the author's children. |
| D．They helped the author get through hard times. |
| A．Take the wrong way. | B．Make a special effort. |
| C．Save much precious time. | D．Do some unnecessary work. |
| A．Carers Face Huge Challenges |
| B．More Kinship Carers Needed |
| C．Carers Deserve Recognition and Support |
| D．British Policies Intended for Kinship Carers |
3 . It was our last class before summer break. I was finishing up the first year of an MFA program in poetry. I was tired and puzzled. "Was I good enough to be in the program?" When a professor asked about our summer plans, I panicked. I didn't want to appear idle(闲散的). "Gardening," I responded immediately. Actually I knew nothing about plants! My professor nodded, saying, "What a good idea, Mari! Emily Dickinson loved gardening." Emily Dickinson had lived in the countryside, studying plants as a child. I was in my late twenties, living in the city without gardening experience.
A few days later, I bought a jalapeño seedling(青辣椒秧苗). At least I could say I'd tried gardening. I watered and changed the dirt for my little plant. I even talked to it. And over the summer, it grew bigger and bigger. I was proud. Maybe I didn't have a black thumb after all.
I started the second year of my MFA, and then it was almost December and my jalapeño was suffering. It was brown in some places; many of its leaves had fallen off. Would my little guy make it? I prayed, "Please be okay." As if its survival were closely linked to mine.
I worked hard in school. Spring came. My jalapeño plant came back to life. It grew bigger, with new leaves. And then it flowered. I handed in my graduate paper--a book of poems--in May. "Your poems are strong," my professor said.
A huge weight lifted. I'd done it! At that time, I found the flowers on my jalapeño plant were gone. I watched closer. Where a flower had been, a tiny green fruit pushed through. I smiled. I had succeeded in my MFA program, and my jalapeño plant had grown right beside me, and I successfully did things I hadn't thought possible.
1. Why did the author begin gardening?| A．Just by accident. |
| B．For the love for gardening. |
| C．To express fancy for Emily Dickinson. |
| D．Because of the reminding of a professor. |
| A．In her childhood. | B．In one of her summer breaks. |
| C．In her teens. | D．In her first year of MFA program. |
| A．A talent to grow plants. | B．A dirty finger to touch plants. |
| C．A good fortune to do everything. | D．An inability to do gardening. |
| A．Nothing is impossible to a willing mind. |
| B．Easier said than done. |
| C．It's never too old to learn. |
| D．Do not teach fish to swim. |
4 . I was drowned(淹没) in work. I was convinced that it was because my job was demanding, but as I changed my job and eventually became self-employed and I could call my own shots, I was still drowned in work and things were still out of control. Now I come to realize that I have a tendency to drown myself in work and the problem is not the job I’m in.
One of the reasons why work-life balance is hard is that we attribute (把……归咎于) the problem to our environment when we ourselves are the problem actually. I enjoy making my clients happy. “Dushka, your work is unbelievable.” “Dushka, we would not have survived without you.” This is my instinctive (本能的) desire. I, a good girl, should make someone I love proud. What can get in the way of work-life balance is that approval often matters more than the balance I claim I want.
I am ambitious and want to do great things and as soon as a project is done I’m hungry for the next one. I want hard work. I want to push myself and test myself. I want to learn. Sometimes work-life balance is hard because there is a difference between what I say I want and what I really want.
My life is constantly changing. If a friend visits me from out of town I want to work less, if I happen to be particularly inspired I want to work more, and if a family member needs me I don’t want to have to worry about work at all. Work-life balance is hard because my definition of it is a moving target. It means different things to me depending on different situations.
What is work-life balance, anyway? Does it mean I get to go home every day when the clock strikes 5:00 pm? Does it mean that I work hard for a few weeks and then take a long weekend off? Do I want daily balance, or do I want things to balance out over the course of a few weeks, even months?
On one side, work-life balance doesn’t mean that the only way to do something well is to do it yourself. Your ego (自我) gets in the way of your being free. On the other side, work-life balance can be hard if you are worried that someone else can do your job better than yourself. Then you live in a constant state of suspicion (怀疑) and never allow yourself to step away. Your fear is calling the shots, not your ambitions.
Work-life balance can be hard if you are more worried about looking good than doing good work. If you want to make sure everyone sees you are the first one to come and the last one to leave, what others think of you has more weight than your desire of getting home in time for dinner.
My boss assures me that employees come first and that people are the most important, yet I don’t see him telling me it’s time to go home because I worked really late the night before.
Wait a minute. Why should my work-life balance be the company’s problem, in particular when I’ve already identified that my needs are ever-changing? How can I expect someone else to stay on top of that? The only person responsible for that is me.
1. What does the underlined part in Paragraph 1 mean?| A．Demand less from myself. | B．Pay more attention to work. |
| C．Complete more excellent jobs. | D．Control a situation by myself. |
| A．she is afraid to lose her job | B．she always desires to be approved |
| C．she wants to gain work-life balance | D．she could make a profit in that way |
| A．Her ego gets in the way of her success. |
| B．She is always satisfied with the current situation. |
| C．The achievement of work-life balance is easy for her. |
| D．She doesn’t have an exact definition of work-life balance. |
| A．Work-life balance relies on our own selves. | B．It’s no use working hard for our boss. |
| C．Profits are more important than employees. | D．Some leaders don’t mean what they say. |
5 . I remember the day when I first learned to ride a bike. It was a frightening, yet fun experience. My granddad was the one who taught me and he helped me when I got hurt. The first time I got on a bike, I had no idea what I was doing, and just about everything went wrong. My granddad told me to just put my feet on the pedals and start pedaling (骑自行车). He also told me he would hold onto the back of the bike the whole time, yet he didn’t.
As soon as I started trying to balance myself, he let go. I happened to look back just then. I was scared, to death that I was going to fall and hurt myself. When I was scared, my mind went blank from pedaling, and I just wanted off. I forgot how to use the brakes (车闸) and fell right off the bike. My granddad kept encouraging me to get up and try again, and after about 15 minutes, 1 finally stopped crying, got up and tried again.
As soon as I started pedaling again, my pants got caught in the chain, and I fell flat on my face and hit my nose. Since that happened t my granddad decided to call it a day and try again the next morning. The next morning I woke up bright and early, and was very eager to try to ride my bike. My nose felt better, so I wasn’t that afraid of falling anymore.
Though I knew there were a lot of difficulties on the way to mastering the skills in riding a bike, I believed I could do well with my granddad’s help. After all, riding a bike was what I wanted to do eagerly.
1. How was the author when he was on the bike first?| A．He didn’t know where he would be going. |
| B．He thought balancing himself was easy. |
| C．He was nervous and didn’t know what to do next. |
| D．He put his feet on the pedals and started pedaling. |
| A．Remember what happened this day. |
| B．Make the author feel happy. |
| C．Stop practicing bicycling. |
| D．Go on to ride a bike. |
| A．Supportive. | B．Grateful. |
| C．Indifferent. | D．Negative. |
| A．The Experience of My First Riding a Bike |
| B．The Difficulty I Met with My Granddad |
| C．The First Time I Got My Own Bike |
| D．The Great Moment When I Stayed with My Granddad |
