For years, my wife Teresa taught physical education at the elementary school level. Travelling on a regular schedule to the six schools in her district, she had a chance to get to know most of the kids in the area and see them at their best and their worst.
One day, in her class, Teresa noticed a third-grade girl, Meagan, who was short and grossly overweight, with a closed and hopeless look on her face. Meagan always sat alone in class, played alone at break, and ate alone from a recycled paper sack at lunch. The teachers and staff were kind to Meagan, but the students were not.
The stories made your shoulders drop. Teresa heard that when the playground supervisors (管理员) turned their backs, kids would run up to Meagan, calling her “Meagan the Fat Pig.” They did far worse than isolate (孤立) her; they filled her school days and walks home with physical and emotional torment (折磨). Also, Meagan’s single mother, a hard-working woman, was trying her best to make ends meet but she had never made it before.
Meagan’s situation disturbed my wife deeply. After talking with the principle and other teachers, Teresa came up with an idea. She knew from talking to Meagan that the child had never had a pet. Teresa was sure a pet would be the perfect way to inject some high-powered love and acceptance into Meagan’s life.
So one Saturday afternoon, Meagan was invited to Teresa’s office. When the door buzzer sounded, a dog engaged in a predictable and vigorous welcome. Getting down on one knee, Teresa introduced herself to Meagan. She told Meagan her thought that she could take away a puppy if she liked. Like any creature that has been cared about, Meagan gleamed in her eyes and playfully lifted the puppy almost off the ground. That day Meagan left the office with the puppy.
注意：
1.续写词数应为150左右；
2.请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
Paragraph 1: Now she had a living, breathing friend who wanted to play with her.
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Paragraph 2: Ten years later, Teresa received an invitation to the high school graduation ceremony from Meagan, where Meagan made a speech.
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2 . People these days are posting about their lives on social media. But what if you’re a private and introverted person like me? What if you want to live in the moment instead of sharing every bit of your life? To be honest, it’s nobody’s business but your own.
Escaping stalkers (跟踪者).
I’ve been a public person as a jazz vocalist for years. It exposed me to stalkers who felt they knew me, just because I was present everywhere. Needless to say, it brought me much anxiety and stress. At some point I asked myself-is being visible more important than my peace of mind?
Protecting privacy
Another reason I keep my life private is that I prefer to be in the present moment and appreciate it fully. To be on your phone constantly, or to film everything you do, can be quite disrespectful to the people you spend your time with. You lose out on those spontaneous(自发的) moments and a deeper connection. I choose what I share and when I share it, and the rest is for experiencing life without expectations.
Live your life fully, regardless of whether the world knows it or not!
| A．Experiencing life |
| B．Living in the moment |
| C．Don’t I really care about privacy? |
| D．Are my followers more important than my friends and family? |
| E．If you feel like sharing your life openly without hesitation, go for it. |
| F．Here are my reasons for not sharing my personal life on social media. |
| G．It can be quite challenging to go through tough moments with everyone watching. |
3 . Taking a picture of Mars is not easy. Once light bounces off the planet, it can take between 3 to 22 minutes to travel to Earth - so there aren’t truly “live” images of Mars.
But on Friday afternoon, the European Space Agency will offer the closest thing: the first “livestream” of Mars a rare, almost real-time look into space on YouTube, which posts pictures of the planet every 50 seconds as they beam down directly from the camera mounted (安装) on the agency’s Mars Express orbiter (轨道飞行器). We can get a firsthand look at Mars on Friday.
“During Friday’s one-hour livestream, the time between the images being taken from orbit around Mars and appearing on your screen will be about 18 minutes,” James Godfrey, the spacecraft operations manager at the ESA’s mission control center, said in a statement. “That’s 17 minutes for light to travel from Mars to Earth in their current configuration, and about one minute to pass through the wires and servers on the ground. ”
“Normally, we see images from Mars and know that they were taken days before. I’m excited to see Mars as it is now - as close to a Martian(火星人) ‘now’ as we can possibly get!’
In 50-second intervals, the camera shoots across Mars, showing a side of the planet entering night, as well as some clouds billowing out on the comer. The livestream celebrates the 20th anniversary of the Mars Express mission which was launched in 2003 to better understand the planet, as well as search for traces of water.
It’s with this camera, originally meant for engineering purposes, that we’ll get ”live“ images on Friday evening from 18:00 CEST in the first MarsLIVE. What makes this unique, is that it’s a one-hour livestream from Mars but don’t expect a detailed view of the Red Planet!
1. What can we learn from this text?| A．Watching the MarsLIVE, people will have a completely real-time view of the Mars. |
| B．The audience can watch the MarsLIVE thanks to the camera on the Mars |
| C．About 20 years ago, the ESA launched an orbiter to search for Martians. |
| D．The MarsLIVE is to celebrate the launch of the Mars Express mission in 2003. |
| A．Equipment. | B．Orbit. | C．Planet. | D．Spacecraft. |
| A．The live images taken from orbit around Mars. |
| B．The 20th anniversary of the Mars Express mission. |
| C．The first ”livestream“ of Mars to be shown on YouTube. |
| D．A rare and almost real-time look into space on YouTube. |
| A．The camera was originally used to shoot the Mars. |
| B．We can get truly live Mars images in the first MarsLIVE. |
| C．Detailed images about the Mars can’t be ensured. |
| D．The unique MarsLIVE will live up to viewers’ expectation. |
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2.征文要求(内容、词数. );
3.投稿方式。
注意：
1.写作词数应为80个左右：
2.请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答：
Contributions Wanted
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5 . 阅读下面短文，在空白处填入1个适当的单词或括号内单词的正确形式。
Seagrass meadows (海草床) are wonder plants growing beneath the sea. Thanks to the assistance of tiger sharks,
In this study, tiger sharks were selected as research tools due to their
So far, the world’s largest seagrass ecosystem, measuring at least 66,900 square kilometers,
The sharks led us to the seagrass ecosystem in the Bahamas,
The game of basketball was created by Dr. Naismith,
The New England winters were very cold, and the students were unwilling to do outdoor
Five years later, a championship (锦标赛)
7 . Studies show that females usually have better handwriting than males. University of Warwick researchers note that “Girls are generally better handwriters than boys. Girls also usually write faster than boys”. But why do females have better handwriting than males? There are a number of reasons.
Handwriting differences may be because of cultural label. Researchers asked boys and girls aged 7 and 8 to model after each other’s handwriting. When modeling after writing, boys tried to make theirs “smaller and neater” while all the girls said that they had made their handwriting larger, and half of them said they had made it less tidy. Do females work hard to write neater because there is an expectation that they have neat handwriting? Are females encouraged to write better because there is an expectation?
Handwriting may be influenced by the writer’s female hormones (激素). Babies before they are born receive various amounts of female hormones with males receiving less and females more. One sign of female hormone effect is the relative length of a person’s index finger to ring finger (called the “2D: 4D rate”). This study found that the higher the 2D : 4D rate for right-handed female writers,the neater their handwriting is.
Neural development differences between males and females may be the reason for the differences. During the early school years, when kids are learning to shape letters, the neural fibers that control fine motor skills in boys’ brains usually haven’t matured (成熟) as much as girls’ have. Boys’ brains finally catch up and their handwriting gets better than before, but it’s still usually not as neat as that of the girls. That’s because women usually have more neural connections between the two sides of the brain, which also helps with correctness.
1. What’s the purpose of paragraph 1?| A．To introduce the topic. | B．To list some reasons. |
| C．To summarize the text. | D．To provide examples. |
| A．neater | B．larger | C．more correct | D．longer |
| A．Boys’ handwriting is too large to be neat. |
| B．Boys’ 2D: 4D rate becomes higher and higher. |
| C．Boys’ brains don’t get enough exercise like girls do. |
| D．Boys usually have less neural connections inside the brain. |
| A．Who perform better in handwriting? |
| B．Is handwriting well a difficult task? |
| C．Are girls cleverer than boys? |
| D．Why do we need to write well? |
8 . In 1823, a young woman noticed a strange fossil (化石) on a beach near Lyme Regis, England. She dug out the bones and had them carried to her home. She carefully arranged the skeleton on a table. Then she saw something extraordinary. The neck was a meter long — more than half the length of its body. It was unlike any animal living on Earth.
Even at a young age, Mary Anning had a talent for hunting “curies” fossils. In 1811, aged just 12, she made her first major discovery, a crocodile-like skull with a long skeleton. It was the first extinction animal known to science.
Fossil hunting brought in money, but it was dangerous. One day, a rock fall killed her dog and almost buried Mary. However, she still continued to look for new findings. The long-necked fossil she uncovered in 1823 was another long-dead sea reptile.
Mary was not only a skilled fossil hunter, she also carefully examined and recorded her finds. However, she didn’t get approval (认可) of other scientists. Only one of her scientific writings was published in her lifetime, in 1839. She was not allowed to join London’s Geological Society as only men could become members. She didn’t care about these. Instead, she kept moving on.
Mary died in 1847, but her contributions (贡献) have not been forgotten. Her finds are now on show in museums in London and Paris. The beach near her home is a UNESO World Heritage Site (遗址), known as Jurassic Coast. Her life continues to inspire visitors hoping to find their own fossil wonders. According to Britain’s History Museum, Mary Anning was “the greatest fossil hunter the world has ever known”. She was also a scientist who changed the way we think about life on Earth.
1. The word “curies” in Para. 2 means .| A．huge | B．beautiful | C．common | D．unusual |
| A．She won high praise from other scientists. |
| B．She published several scientific articles in her lifetime. |
| C．She had a narrow escape from a rock fall. |
| D．She was later a member of the London’s Geological Society. |
| A．To show how Southern England has the most important fossil finds in the world. |
| B．To show the readers that Jurassic Coast is in need of protection. |
| C．To give an example of how important Mary’s discoveries are to the world. |
| D．To encourage more people to find their own fossil wonders. |
| A．We shouldn’t risk our life doing things at any time. |
| B．We should still continue though others don’t support us. |
| C．We should fight for our own rights bravely when treated unfairly. |
| D．We should listen more to others’ opinions when there is disagreement. |
9 . Aron Ralston was a pretty normal guy, but he always had an extremely adventurous desire to travel and see the world. During his childhood, his family moved to Denver, Colorado, a place offering many opportunities to climb mountains, explore, and eventually become the adventurer he’d always wanted to be. Back in 2003, Ralston was climbing in the remote, mountainous area of Southwestern Utah, when the unthinkable happened: Aron got stuck in a crevice (裂缝) in the rocks and pinned by a big stone that weighed over 360 kilograms. The weight of the rock crushed his arm, and he was pinned by it. Aron took photos of his bad situation (which was going to get a lot worse), hoping rescue teams (救援队) would know where he was and came to remove the rock so that he could get out and home safe.
But rescuers never came. Aron waited for them for days till he lost his hope. He knew he had to do something. He was 18 meters above the floor of the valley where he was pinned in, and he had a pocketknife. He made what must have been one of the most difficult decisions of his life: to cut his own arm in order to survive. Aron cut the lower part of his arm off, having to wrench (扭动) his forearm against the big stone to break the bones, and then got himself down to the bottom of the valley, where he would begin to walk and search for help. Luckily, help arrived in the form of a helicopter (直升机) that spotted him, covered in blood. Aron had tied off the wound to keep himself from bleeding to death pretty successfully and would eventually make it out alive.
Ralston went on to become an inspiring speaker and continued to travel and climb mountains—he didn’t let an incident that forced him to cut his own arm off, stop him from doing what he really loved.
1. What can be inferred about Aron’s getting stuck?| A．It was unavoidable. | B．It resulted from his being lost. |
| C．It was unexpected. | D．It was caused by a moving stone. |
| A．To send them to rescuers for help. | B．To keep a record of his adventure. |
| C．To remind his friends of the danger. | D．To tell the doctors about his wound. |
| A．He waited for the rescue to come. |
| B．He cut the stone using his pocketknife. |
| C．He moved off the stone using all his might. |
| D．He cut his lower part of his arm and broke the bones. |
| A．His cruelty and anger. | B．His effort and bravery. |
| C．His talent and creativity. | D．His calmness and determination. |
When the fire alarm woke her up at 6:50 a.m., Cloe Woods immediately took action.
Cloe told her grandmother to hold her shoulder as they walked out of their home. Once outside, started looking for water,
The fire was eventually put out. A firefighter praised Cloe for her
“Cloe is ahead of my time,” Shone Arceneaux, Cloe’s mom, said
The family is now at a hotel while the house
