2 . When I was 13，my only purpose was to become the star on our football team. That meant ______ Miller King，who was the best player at our school.

Football season started in September and all summer long I worked out. I carried my football everywhere for ______. Just before September，Miller was struck by a car and lost his right arm. I went to see him the day after football practice started—after he'd come back from hospital. He looked quite ______，but he didn't cry.

That season，I ______ all of Miller's records while he ______ the home games from the bench，wearing his jersey with an empty sleeve. We went 101 and I was named Most Valuable Player，______ I was haunted by crazy dreams in which I was to blame for Miller's ______.

One afternoon，I was crossing the field to go home and saw Miller stuck ______ a fence-which wasn't hard to climb if you had both arms. I'm sure I was the last person in the world he wanted to accept ______ from. But even that challenge he accepted. I ______ him move slowly over the fence. When we were finally ______ on the other side，he said to me，“You know，I didn't tell you this during the ______，but you did a great job. Thank you for filling in for me. ” His words freed me from my bad dreams. I thought to myself，how even without an arm he was more of a leader. Damaged but not ______，he was still ahead of me. I was right to have ______ him. From that day on，I grew ______ and a little more real.

1.

A．cheering for

B．staying with

C．relying on

D．beating out

2.

A．practice

B．show

C．comfort

D．pleasure

3.

A．calm

B．pale

C．relaxed

D．ashamed

4.

A．held

B．broke

C．set

D．tried

5.

A．reported

B．judged

C．organized

D．watched

6.

A．and

B．then

C．but

D．thus

7.

A．decision

B．mistake

C．sacrifice

D．accident

8.

A．going through

B．going over

C．jumping over

D．looking through

9.

A．praise

B．advice

C．assistance

D．apology

10.

A．let

B．helped

C．had

D．noticed

11.

A．tired and upset

B．alive and well

C．joyful and delightful

D．safe and sound

12.

A．recovery

B．summer

C．treatment

D．season

13.

A．ruined

B．defeated

C．lost

D．abandoned

14.

A．admired

B．cured

C．invited

D．challenged

15.

A．healthier

B．bigger

C．cleverer

D．cooler

4 . Long ago, poems were recited out loud instead of being written down. Back when the Greeks first started the Olympics, they held poetry contests as well as athletic competitions.

Now, poetry competitions have been revived. This year 120,000 high school students competed in the first Poetry Out Loud national recitation contest, performing poems from memory for $100,000 in prizes.

The first competitions were held in classrooms. The winners went on to schoolwide contests, and then they competed in city and state competitions, and then the 50 state champions, along with the District of Columbia champion came to Washington, D.C. last week for the last showdown. After the 51 champions competed against one another, 12 went on to the finals. Then the field was narrowed to five. The final five had one last chance to “perform” a poem. The overall champ, Jackson Hille, a high school senior from Ohio, won a ＄20,000 scholarship.

The National Endowment for the Arts and the Poetry Foundation started Poetry Out Loud because they realized that hearing a poem performed is a different experience from reading it on the page.

It’s not just a matter of saying the words in the right order. It’s the tone of voice, the pauses, the gestures, and the attitude of the person performing that bring the words to life. “Each time we hear somebody recite a poem, we understand again what we found fresh and interesting about it,” says National Public Radio broadcaster Scott Simon, master of ceremonies for the finals. Hearing it in a new voice offers something new to the listener.

Not only do the people hearing poems have a new experience, but memorizing and presenting poems helps the participants understand those poems in a new way. Another benefit of a competition such as Poetry One Loud is that the participants learn public-speaking skills that can help them for life.

1. From the first paragraph, we can know ________.

A．the Greeks were the first to write poems.

B．the Olympics used to start with poem reciting

C．athletes were asked to recite poems before competing

D．poems were spread orally in the past

2. How many rounds of competitions did the champions take before they went to Washington D.C.?

A．Six.

B．Five.

C．Four.

D．Three.

3. According to the passage, hearing a poem recited by many people can ________.

A．offer something new to listeners	B．help listeners find their interest
C．make listeners learn the words	D．bring a new life to listeners

4. What’s the best title for the passage?

A．Reciting poems improves your memory.	B．Remembering a lot of poems is fun.
C．Poets have a great time.	D．Poetry rocks the microphone.

6 . In the third century BC, the full stop, or period, was introduced by Greek literary critic Aristophanes of Byzantium. This punctuation mark is used to show the end of a sentence.

However, the full stop has a different meaning to teenagers and those in their early 20s, who interpret this punctuation mark as a sign of anger. And there is a reason for that.

The younger generation has grown up using the texts as their primary means of communication.

When sending messages, they tend to break up their thoughts by sending each one as a separate message, instead of using a full stop. Some have said the full stop is redundant when used in texting because the message is ended just by sending it.

According to the Telegraph, linguist Lauren Fonteyn of Leiden University in the Netherlands, tweeted: “If you send a text message without a full stop, it's already obvious that you've concluded the message.” “So if you add that additional marker for completion, they will read something into it and it tends to be a falling intonation or negative tone.”

David Crystal, one of the world's leading language experts, argues that the usage of full stops is being “revised in a really fundamental way”. In his book Making a Point, he says that the punctuation mark has become an “emotion marker" that reminds the recipient that the sender is angry or annoyed.

Though the full stop has taken on a different meaning to the younger generation, experts noted that it is important to take context into account. For example, using full stops in an email is perfectly acceptable and is not considered rude.

1. What does the underlined word "redundant" probably mean?

A．Clear.

B．Unacceptable.

C．Unnecessary.

D．Old-fashioned.

2. What can we learn from Fonteyn's words?

A．Using the full stop improves communication.

B．The usage of the full stop is changing for the worse.

C．A text message is quite different from spoken language.

D．The full stop in text messages can show senders' emotions.

3. What do language experts suggest people do when using the full stop?

A．Consider different situations.	B．Check who the recipient is.
C．Take it as an “emotion marker”.	D．Follow the culture of the young generation.

4. What does the article mainly talk about?

A．The history of punctuation marks.	B．A new meaning to the full stop.
C．Correct ways to use the full stop.	D．Different views on punctuation marks.

7 . The world’s clocks mark every passing second, minute and hour. But to humans, seconds of pain can feel like minutes, and hours spent at a party can end in a blink (眨眼).

The brain can stretch or squeeze the feeling of time for many reasons, including pleasure, pain, fear and age. Although the science behind this “subjective time” is not fully understood, some research suggests that an additional factor might influence the subjective length of your life: your income.

Research already suggests that, on average, wealthy people live longer, biologically. Now, emerging work indicates that varied and novel (新奇的) experiences could create more “time codes (编码)” in the human brain as it processes memory formation. This, in tun, could mean that people who can afford to enjoy more vacations and hobbies, and who have more stimulating jobs, will recall having lived for a longer time on Earth.

“Even though time flies when you’re having fun, when you look back on it, you can remember much more of this extended experience compared to a boring experience,” says Jorgen Sugar, a postdoctoral student at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology’s Kavli Institute for Systems Neuroscience. He’s part of a team of scientists investigating these mental time codes.

The idea that novelty can affect the experience of time also seems to fit cultures that don’t measure time using clocks—many cultures depend instead on celestial, cultural and seasonal events to mark the flow of time. Our experience of time does vary according to circumstances, and also according to the kind of rhythm of activity we engage in,” says Chris Sinha, a cognitive (认知) scientist working with Hunan University who has studied so called “event-based time” in Amazonian tribes and linguistic minority groups in China.

But other experts aren’t convinced. According to Monica Capri, an economist with a background in neuro-economies at Claremont Graduate University, subjective time isn’t well understood scientifically. Even if higher-paid jobs can lead to more new experiences, wealthy people aren’t necessarily spending money that way. A millionaire, for instance, may spend money on a fancy watch, but this isn’t likely to change their feeling of time the way a vacation or even a low-cost hike would, she says.

What’s more, she says, there are many factors to consider in how the brain processes time. For instance, according to Adrian Bejan, a professor at Duke University, the novelty of fun experiences an simply war off.

Still, researchers from many fields are eager to uncover the mysteries of memory and subjective time. According to Sugar, understanding how humans form and recall memories can affect many aspects of society, such as law, education and healthcare—and perhaps can even aid our understanding of ourselves. “The human brain is the most complex biological system we know.” he says.

1. What do we know about “subjective time” from the passage?

A．It has nothing to do with one's income.

B．Its pace is influenced by a person’s mood.

C．It is a thing that is completely understood.

D．It marks every passing second for a person.

2. How can income influence a person according to some researchers?

A．Wealthy people tend to engage more in remembering things.

B．Wealthy people may feel life is relatively shorter psychologically.

C．Wealthy people tend to have a better memory than poor people.

D．Wealthy people usually need more time to process memory formation.

3. What is Monica Capri’s opinion?

A．She is not convinced that money can extend subjective time.

B．She doesn’t believe that wealthy people can buy good memories.

C．She thinks that the excitement of fun experiences can hardly wear off.

D．She doubts whether higher-paid jobs can lead to more new experiences.

4. What is the main idea of the passage?

A．The brain can change your feeling of time.

B．Many factors can influence how you feel time.

C．Your subjective time may depend on your income.

D．Researchers are exploring memory and subjective time.

9 . Living and dealing with kids can be a tough job these days, but living and dealing with parents can be even tougher.

If I have learned anything in my 16 years, it is that communication is very important, both when you disagree and when you get along. With any relationship, you need to let the other person know how you are feeling. If you are not able to communicate, your relationship drifts apart. When you are mad at your parents or anyone else, not talking to them doesn’t solve anything．

Communication begins with the concerns of another. It means that you can’t just come home from school, go up to your room and talk to nobody. Even if you just say “Hi” and see how their day is for five minutes, it is better than nothing. If you look up the word “communication” in the dictionary, it will say “the exchange of ideas, conveyance (传递) of information, correspondence (通信), means of communication; a letter or message”. To keep a good relationship, you must keep the communication strong. Let people know how you feel, even if it’s just by writing a note. When dealing with parents, you always have to make them feel good about how they are doing as parents. If you are trying to make them see something as you see it, tell them that you listen to what they have to say, but ask them politely to listen to you. Shouting or walking away only makes the situation worse.

Here is an example. One night, Sophie went to a street party with her friends. She knew she had to be home by midnight after the fireworks. but they didn’t feel she could just ask to go home. That would be rude. After all, they had been nice enough to take her along with them. Needless to say, she was late getting home. Her parents were mad at first, but when Sophie explained why she was late, they weren’t as mad and let the incident go. Communication was the key factor here. If Sophie’s parents had not been willing to listen, Sophie would have been in a lot of trouble.

Communication isn’t a one-way deal. It goes both ways. Just remember: if you get into a situation like Sophie’s, telling the other person how you feel and listening are key factors to communication．

1. The second paragraph mainly talks about ________．

A．the importance of friendship

B．making your feelings known to others

C．the importance of communication

D．the disagreement between generations

2. The key to happy relationship between parents and children is that ________．

A．children should always obey their parents

B．parents play the leading part

C．parents should mind their own business

D．both should make the other know their feelings

3. The example in the passage proves that ________．

A．Sophie’s parents were willing to listen to her

B．Sophie was very polite to her parents

C．Sophie did the right thing when she explained the reason of her being late

D．communication is the key to solving misunderstanding

4. All of the following statements are true EXCEPT ________．

A．if you don’t agree with others，you’d better let them know

B．it is better to say “Hi” to others than to say nothing

C．if you are too busy to communicate, just walk away

D．communication is a two-way deal