1 . One day, a college student was taking a walk with a professor. As they went along, they saw a pair of old shoes lying in the path. They supposed the shoes belonged to a poor man who was employed in a field close by and who had nearly finished his day’s work.
The student turned to the professor, saying, “Let’s play a trick on him: we can hide his shoes, and hide ourselves behind those bushes, and wait to see his confusion when he cannot find them”.
“My young friend,” answered the professor, “we should never amuse ourselves at the expense of the poor. But you are rich, and may give yourself much greater pleasure by helping the poor man. Put a coin into each shoe, and then we hide ourselves and watch how the discovery will affect him.”
The student did so, and they both placed themselves behind the bushes close by. The poor man soon finished his work, and walked across the field to the path where he had left his coat and shoes. While putting on his coat he slipped his foot into one of his shoes, feeling something hard. He bent down to feel what it was, and found the coin. Astonishment and wonder were seen on his face.
He fixed his eyes on the coin, turned it round, and looked at it again and again. He then looked on all sides, but no person was seen. He put the money into his pocket, and continued to put on the other shoe, but his surprise was doubled on finding the other coin. His feelings overcame him. He fell upon his knees, looked up to heaven and cried a sincere thanksgiving, in which he spoke of his wife, sick and helpless, and his children without bread. He said the timely help, from some unknown hand, would save them from dying.
The student stood there, deeply affected, and his eyes filled with tears. “Now,” said the professor, “aren’t you much more pleased to do that than to play your intended trick?”
The student replied, “You have taught me a lesson which I will never forget.”
1. The student wanted to play a trick on the poor man to ______.| A．find the truth | B．show his wisdom | C．teach him a lesson | D．amuse himself |
| A．interested | B．thankful | C．peaceful | D．helpless |
| A．humorous | B．rich | C．wise | D．serious |
| A．God helps those who help themselves. | B．Where there is a will, there is a way. |
| C．A small act of kindness brings great joy. | D．Actions speak louder than words. |
Jim was shopping for a gift for his wife Della. The next day would be Christmas. With an income of twenty dollars per week, life was hard for the couple,
3 . Table Talk
As we got out of the car, our son announced, “Phones stay in the car.”
“Why do you always have to tell us that?” complained our fifteen-year-old grandson.
Our son’s wife winked at us and then explained, “We have a family
We
The silence was broken when the six of us sat down, and started talking. The waitress stood patiently and waited for our orders. When our food came, we continued to chat.
An elderly couple at the next table were finishing their dinners and conversing quietly. I noticed that they shot us a few glances, and wondered if our constant chatter was annoying them.
After the dessert, my son signaled the waitress for the check. She hesitated when she brought the black folder to our table. My son opened the black folder — it was
“There isn’t one. Someone else
“Why?” asked our son, his wife and myself at once.
“They loved it that no one was connected.” she continued. “They loved watching you guys
For a moment, everyone at our table was at a loss for
“They left after you ordered dessert,” the waitress replied.
We spent the next fifteen minutes discussing this goodness and camp up with a
| A．rule | B．appointment | C．discussion | D．goal |
| A．closed | B．returned | C．sent | D．locked |
| A．sweetness | B．quietness | C．patience | D．preference |
| A．smiling | B．knocking | C．staring | D．pointing |
| A．special | B．strange | C．typical | D．empty |
| A．paid | B．served | C．managed | D．changed |
| A．eat | B．talk | C．argue | D．work |
| A．directions | B．choices | C．words | D．ideas |
| A．schedule | B．message | C．task | D．plan |
| A．without | B．by | C．through | D．for |
Tell your friend that attending a TED (Technology, Entertainment and Design) conference can be a potentially life changing event as he will be able to listen, share, and interact with great
5 . Alexis, 17, sat quietly in the passenger seat of her dad’s car. She let her eyes lazily scan the landscape for wildlife. Then a deer came into view about 200 yards in front of them. “Dad, there’s a deer there!” Alexis said. It was a male deer with sharp antlers (角) on each side of its head.
As the car moved closer, Alexis saw that the deer’s head was bent toward the ground. Then she heard a scream and saw an arm fly up near the deer’s head. Alexis realized the deer was attacking a woman. Sue, a 44-year-old mother, had been out for her morning run. The deer followed her and edged closer. “I knew I was in trouble,” Sue says. She went to pick up a stick for self-defense, and the deer charged. It lifted her with its antlers and threw her into the air. Sue could feel blood flew down her leg. Within seconds, the deer had pushed her off the road.
When Alexis and her father pulled up, the deer was throwing Sue like a doll. Alexis looked into the woman’s terrified eyes, and before her father had even stopped the car, the teenager jumped quickly out of the car and ran toward the deer. “I was kicking it to get its attention,” she says. Then her father, who had followed his daughter, pushed the deer away from the women.
Alexis helped Sue into the car, and then applied a piece of cloth to Sue’s injured leg. “We’re going to get you to a hospital,” Alexis said. Then she heard her father shout loudly. He had been knocked to the ground. Alexis took hold of a hammer from the car and ran to where her father lay on his back. She beat the deer’s head and neck, but the blows didn’t scare it away. “I was losing faith,” she says. “A couple more strikes, Alexis,” said her father. “You can do it.” Turning the hammer around, Alexis closed her eyes and beat the deer’s neck with all her strength. When she opened her eyes, the deer was running away. Alexis got in the driver’s seat and sped toward the nearest hospital.
After Sue was treated, she tearfully thanked her rescuers. “You expect a teenage girl to get on the phone and call for help,” she says, “not to beat up a deer.”
1. What did Alexis do to save Sue?| A．She pushed the deer away. | B．She hit the deer with her feet. |
| C．She drove the car to hit the deer. | D．She beat the deer with a hammer. |
| A．Strong. | B．Cruel. | C．Energetic. | D．Brave. |
| A．A Woman Was Seriously Injured |
| B．A Dangerous Deer Attacked a Woman |
| C．A Girl Rescued Her Father Successfully |
| D．A Teenager Saved Others from a Deer Attack |
6 . Public distrust of scientists stems in part from the blurring of boundaries between science and technology, between discovery and manufacture. Most governments, perhaps all governments, justify public expenditure on scientific research in terms of the economic benefits the scientific enterprise has brought in the past and will bring in the future. Politicians remind their voters of the splendid machines “our scientists” have invented, the new drugs to relieve old disorders, and the new surgical equipment and techniques by which previously unmanageable conditions may now be treated and lives may be saved. At the same time, the politicians demand of scientists that they tailor their research to “economics needs”, and that they award a higher priority to research proposals that are “near the market” and can be translated into the greatest return on investment in the shortest time. Dependent, as they are, on politicians for much of their funding, scientists have little choice but to obey. Like the rest of us, they are members of a society that rates the creation of wealth as the greatest possible good. Many have reservations, but keep them to themselves in what they perceive as a climate hostile to the pursuit of understanding for its own sake and the idea of an inquiring, creative spirit.
In such circumstances no one should be too hard on people who are suspicious of conflicts of interest. When we learn that the distinguished professor assuring us of the safety of a particular product holds a consultancy with the company making it, we cannot be blamed for wondering whether his fee might cloud his professional judgment. Even if the professor holds no consultancy with any firm, some people may still distrust him because of his association with those who do, or at least wonder about the source of some of his research funding.
This attitude can have damaging effects. It questions the integrity of individuals working in a profession that prizes intellectual honesty as the supreme virtue, and plays into the hands of those who would like to discredit scientists by representing them as corruptible. This makes it easier to dismiss all scientific pronouncements, but especially those made by the scientists who present themselves as “experts”. The scientist most likely to understand the safety of a nuclear reactor, for example, is a nuclear engineer, and a nuclear engineer is most likely to be employed by the nuclear industry. If a nuclear engineer declares that a reactor is unsafe, we believe him, because clearly it is not to his advantage to lie about it. If he tells us it is safe, on the other hand, we distrust him, because he may well be protecting the employer who pays his salary.
1. What is the chief concern of most governments when it comes to scientific research?| A．The reduction of public expenditure. | B．Quick economic returns. |
| C．The budget for a research project. | D．Support from the voters. |
| A．doubtful | B．encouraging | C．serious | D．unfriendly |
| A．some of them do not assure of the safety of their products |
| B．sometimes they hide the source of their research funding |
| C．their pronouncements often turn out to be wrong |
| D．they could be influenced by their association with the project concerned |
| A．Scientists may find it difficult to seek research funds. |
| B．Scientists themselves may doubt the virtue of intellectual honesty. |
| C．People may suffer if they dismiss all the pronouncements of experts. |
| D．People may discredit the government for being cheated by the politicians. |
7 . The small town of Rjukan in Norway is situated between several mountains and does not get direct sunlight from late September to mid-March six months out of the year.
“Of course, we
But that
“People have been sitting there and standing there and taking pictures of each other,” Ro says. “The town square was totally
“It’ not very big,” she says, “but it is enough when we are sharing.”
1.| A．fear | B．believe | C．hear | D．notice |
| A．cloudy | B．normal | C．different | D．warm |
| A．helped | B．changed | C．happened | D．mattered |
| A．remembered | B．forecasted | C．received | D．imagined |
| A．repair | B．risk | C．rest | D．use |
| A．forbids | B．directs | C．predicts | D．follows |
| A．library | B．hall | C．square | D．street |
| A．appeared | B．returned | C．faded | D．stopped |
| A．new | B．full | C．flat | D．silent |
| A．Instead | B．Gradually | C．However | D．Similarly |
In 1967, the Chinese government formed a team of scientists
9 . Although growing up in a poor family in post-war 1950s, Gloria Stewart remembers her poor but kindhearted parents always had an extra setting at their table, especially at Christmas.
The warmth of her mum and dad’s welcome for poor guests at the coldest time of the year inspired the 69-year-old grandmother to spread her own seasonal joy. “Mum and dad hadn’t even got a penny,” recalls Gloria. “But it didn’t matter. They’d never turn down any homeless one who knocked on the door.”
“When I became a mum, I tried to make the festive season as special as possible. However, I once met an old lady who was spending Christmas alone in bed. It broke my heart.”
In December 2007, Gloria hosted the first Home Alone lunch after advertising to the public and receiving donations. It took a special person with a big heart and an even bigger table to invite 87 lonely old people for Christmas. Her Home Alone event has lasted up to now.
Every Christmas, Gloria wears her most sparkly dress to serve the traditional roast to every table of her smiling, grateful guests, making time to speak to as many of them as possible. After her first lunch, Gloria was nicknamed Mrs. Christmas. And now she has written a book about her extraordinary life helping bring joy to the elderly who would normally spend Christmas alone.
She wrote in her book, “When I was a child, I had few friends and I was laughed at for being so poor. So I was determined no one else should bear the loneliness and hardship I had suffered.” Having battled cancer three times, Gloria became even more determined to make sure Christmas was not clouded by sadness.
Now the Home Alone event has grown to serving turkey lunch to over 500 happy guests. The kind lady received an award from Sheffield City Council for her efforts and was praised by former Prime Minister David Cameron.
But for Gloria, the real prize comes as she watches the smiles light up the faces of her lunch guests. She says, “There really is no greater reward. Just for a few hours they escape their loneliness and are surrounded by love.”
1. The first two paragraphs intend to tell us ________.| A．why Gloria had a suffering childhood |
| B．how Gloria’s parents celebrated Christmas |
| C．what memories Gloria had about her parents |
| D．that Gloria was inspired by her parents’ kind act |
| A．Her desire for success. | B．Her parents’ will. |
| C．Her tough life experiences. | D．Her friends’ encouragement. |
| A．A Home Alone Event | B．A Big-hearted Grandmother |
| C．A Special Memory of Christmas | D．A Shared Christmas Dinner |
Alice stood here helpless before this angry man. There was a lot more she would like to have said,
