1 . Dawn Loggins didn’t have a typical senior year. Back in 2012, Loggins was waking up early to get to school to put in a before-school
Before the rest of her peers
“I don’t mind cleaning,” Loggins said. “If you have to walk through trash to get to your desk, you’re not going to have an environment that
While the teen was clearly hardworking, it wasn’t immediately obvious to school officials how badly Loggins
Even more shocking, while Loggins was at summer school, she
And the efforts
| A．gift | B．shift | C．practice | D．study |
| A．forced into | B．fit into | C．fell into | D．rolled into |
| A．wiping | B．falling | C．dropping | D．welling |
| A．equip | B．occupy | C．make | D．bother |
| A．come | B．lead | C．head | D．leave |
| A．Therefore | B．Instead | C．However | D．Besides |
| A．happens | B．encourages | C．appoints | D．troubles |
| A．used | B．spent | C．cost | D．needed |
| A．candles | B．toys | C．lights | D．sweets |
| A．finished | B．delayed | C．considered | D．tried |
| A．disconnected | B．stolen | C．spoiled | D．misguided |
| A．sick | B．blind | C．lonely | D．homeless |
| A．hope | B．advice | C．support | D．courage |
| A．came true | B．counted on | C．paid off | D．let out |
| A．matters | B．issues | C．challenges | D．problems |
2 . Jackdaws (寒鸦) are the smallest member of the crow family. They often live in a crowd. Indeed, when cold weather comes, they gather in the hundreds (and sometimes thousands) every evening so that they can sleep in the same place. If you’ve ever heard jackdaws during their evening gatherings and morning departures, you’ll know they are not quiet birds. Despite being fairly low-volume during the day, they are really loud on either side of their night-time get-togethers. Why might this be?
A team of the Cornish Jackdaw Project set out to determine why jackdaws are so noisy before they depart from their sleeping spot. The team’s theory was that the morning calls might be a jackdaw version of “voting”. The researchers suspected that each individual’s call might count as an “I’m in!”. When a certain amount of “I’m in!”s are called —and so a certain volume of noise is reached -the group might then depart as a unit.
To test this idea, the researchers artificially increased the level of calls during the jackdaws’ natural morning calls. Their expectation was that, if jackdaws really are “voting with their voice” to decide when to depart the sleeping site, artificially adding calls would make them leave earlier than they naturally would have done. Subsequent experiments confirmed their expectation. The team therefore showed that jackdaws use their calls as a sort of voting system.
You might wonder why this happens. The researchers suggest that individual jackdaws benefit from the voting system because they are less at risk of being killed and they can get more access to social information — such as where to find food.
So the loud calls of jackdaws in the morning are therefore not the pure chaos it sounds like. If you are ever being driven mad by the sound in the morning, you can find comfort in the fact that the louder they get, the sooner they will leave you in peace.
1. What aspect of jackdaws confused scientists?| A．Their strong team spirit. | B．Their preference for noisy habitats. |
| C．Their collective sleeping habit. | D．Their unusual calling behavior. |
| A．They stopped calling together. | B．They left their sleeping spot earlier. |
| C．They became noisier and more active. | D．They changed their sleeping location. |
| A．A signal of seeking food. | B．A strategy for better survival. |
| C．A way to attract potential partners. | D．A method of displaying social skills. |
| A．Jackdaws are Noise Makers. |
| B．Jackdaws Have a Complex Voting System. |
| C．Jackdaws ‘Vote’ to Make a Group Decision. |
| D．Jackdaws ‘Vote’ to Choose Their Group Leaders. |
Tang suits(Tangzhuang) refer to a type of Chinese jackets. The word of Tang suit
A Tang suit has two varieties in Chinese culture, which are strikingly different from each other in style. The one that is familiar to us refers to the authentic(真正的) Tang-era clothes
As
4 . If you are crazy about paintings, you shouldn’t miss the following four famous masterpieces which have stood the test of time.
The Arnolfini Portrait
Jan van Eyck’s Arnolfini Portrait, an oil painting on wood produced in 1434, in which a man and a woman hold hands with a window behind him and a bed behind her, is undoubtedly one of the masterpieces in the National Gallery, London. This painting is as visually interesting as it is famed. It is also an informative document in fifteenth-century society, through Van Eyck’s heavy use of symbolism—while husbands went out to engage in business, wives concerned themselves with domestic duties.
The Starry Night
Vincent van Gogh painted The Starry Night, oil on canvas, a moderately abstract landscape painting of an expressive night sky over a small hillside village, during his 12-month stay at the mental hospital near Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, France between 1889 and 1890. When the Museum of Modern Art in New York City purchased the painting from a private collector in 1941, it was not well known, but it has since become one of Van Gogh’s most famous works.
The Harvesters
The Harvesters is an oil painting on wood completed by Pieter Bruegel the Elder in 1565. It depicts the harvest time which most commonly occurs within the months of August and September. Nicolaes Jonghelinck, a merchant banker and art collector from Antwerp, commissioned this painting. The painting has been at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City since 1919.
Guernica
Guernica, a large black-and-white oil painting, was painted by the Cubist Spanish painter, Pablo Picasso in 1937. The title “Guernica” refers to the city that was bombed by Nazi planes during the Spanish Civil War. The painting depicts the horrors of war and as a result, has come to be an anti-war symbol and a reminder of the tragedies of war. Today, the painting is housed at the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofaí in Madrid.
1. Which of the following paintings was produced earliest?| A．The Arnolfini Portrait. | B．The Starry Night. |
| C．The Harvesters. | D．Guernica. |
| A．It was painted on wood in oil. |
| B．It wasn’t widely recognized before 1940s. |
| C．It described the painter’s life in hospital. |
| D．It was given away to the museum by a private collector. |
| A．Pieter Bruegel the Elder. | B．Vincent van Gogh. |
| C．Jan van Eyck. | D．Pablo Picasso. |
5 . Bad judgments are meant to feed our own personal ego (自我意识) and put others down, which is not the healthiest thing to do. Here are five reasons why you should stop it now.
You start finding faults in everyone. Judging quickly moves on to more private areas of your life.
Judging becomes a habit. If you judge people, sooner or later, it becomes a habit, and you start judging everyone around you for the tiniest of things.
People begin to distrust you. If you pass judgments about other people in front of your audience, you will lose their trust. As they will begin to feel that if you can judge others in front of them, you can talk about them behind their back.
Judgment is a sign of unhappiness. If you are 100% happy with who you are, you are a lot less likely to feel the need to judge others. If you are self-assured, you will not feel the need to cast a downward glance at others.
| A．You are viewed positively by people. |
| B．You start taking yourself too seriously. |
| C．Hence, seeing others positively shows we are positive people. |
| D．You judge their clothing, actions, success, values, and everything. |
| E．Likewise, you also judge because you feel you are better than others. |
| F．You start judging your close ones; friends, family members, partner, etc. |
| G．And no one wants to make friends with someone often talking unkindly about others. |
6 . One day, I was standing on the boat when a very large female leopard seal swam by. I put on my diving gear and got my camera. I was
I jumped into the freezing water. Immediately, the seal swam toward me. Then she put my entire camera—and much of my
By now, she didn’t seem very
Those four days were the most incredible experience I ever had as a wildlife
| A．amused | B．enthusiastic | C．cautious | D．frightened |
| A．approach | B．rescue | C．treat | D．hunt |
| A．leg | B．head | C．body | D．neck |
| A．feel | B．arouse | C．reveal | D．overcome |
| A．attacked | B．threatened | C．disturbed | D．confused |
| A．disappeared | B．communicated | C．returned | D．competed |
| A．digest | B．eat | C．seize | D．injure |
| A．mouth | B．eyes | C．nose | D．stomach |
| A．discipline | B．adopt | C．observe | D．feed |
| A．powerful | B．dangerous | C．sensitive | D．gentle |
| A．come across | B．come back | C．come over | D．come up |
| A．drove | B．directed | C．took | D．waved |
| A．manager | B．painter | C．advocate | D．photographer |
| A．demand | B．work | C．expect | D．react |
| A．intelligent | B．accessible | C．primitive | D．anxious |
George had his eye on a scoring record. He took a deep breath as he stood in the doorway,looking in at the basketball court. The gym was old and small, but it held a long history. Maybe today I’ll make history, George thought.
His basketball league was celebrating. Today’s championship game marked its 50th anniversary (周年) since the league’s first championship.
George looked over the brochure for the anniversary. It listed the winners of each championship game and the top scorers. He stopped suddenly when he read the name of the top scorer from a game 30 years before. He quickly went through the rest of the list. “Look!” he said to his teammate David,showing him the brochure.“You see who has the all-time record? My dad! He never told me that.”
“24 points,” David said. “That’s awesome!”
George’s best record was 19 points. He was the Badgers’ top scorer. “It seems that my dad never showed off something like that,”George said.
When his parents arrived, George brought the brochure over to them. His dad laughed. “I didn’t miss a shot in that game. But look at the score. I would have traded every shot for a win,”he said with regret. George hadn’t noticed that his dad’s team had lost the game just by one point.“That was a great group of teammates,”his dad added.“You have great teammates in the Badgers, too.”
As George warmed up, he was still digesting his father’s words. “This will be a struggle every second,”the coach emphasized before they got on court to play.“I want to see tough defense, sharp passing, and, above all, smart play as a team.”
George was confident he could lead the Badgers to victory, just as he did in their previous games against the Lions. And he played really hard. As the game neared its end, George had already scored 23 points. Another basket would break his father’s scoring record.
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。
However, his team was now one point behind the Lions.
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With no defenders around, David turned and shot at the basket.
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It is believed that Chinese knotting, also known as zhongguojie, originated for recording information and exchanging messages
A major characteristic of Chinese knots is that they are often tied from a single continuous length of string. The knots are commonly named
Crafting the Chinese knot is a three-step process
Today, most of such knots are often mass manufactured in factories. Skilled knot artists weave complex knots that you might see
9 . Every morning at 5 am when most people are asleep, a single figure would be busy in the kitchen, cooking meals for the needy folks of Singapores until the rest of the volunteers and the four full-time cooks arrive. Day in and day out, Mr Tony Tay and his team prepare, cook, pack and deliver the food to various parts of the island. This team of caring volunteers from all walks of life work tirelessly to bring a smile to the less privileged, bringing warmth and kindness into their lives.
During one of his visits to collect vegetables and distribute them to a less-privileged neighbourhood, his wife noticed that the elderly folk did not take the vegetables. Upon asking for the reason, one replied that she could not cook and thus only ate the rice delivered to her. Mrs Tay then offered to cook for her, and that single meal initiated Willing Hearts, which has since served nearly 650,000 meals and counting.
Since the organisation’s early days, volunteers have learned how to cook, interact with people from all walks of life, pick up different languages, gain greater knowledge about social issues, and most importantly, build strong bonds with one another. Through Willing Hearts, Mr Tay hopes to expose the younger generation to the country’s backyard, to allow them to see and experience firsthand what goes on behind closed doors. This is to encourage them to become more compassionate individuals who understand the importance of taking care of the elderly, and be inspired to foster unity within their own families. His best gift during the course of this journey is seeing how younger volunteers help and feed the less privileged. One volunteer, he proudly tells us, has been inspired to start his own programme to help the needy.
As a non-profit organisation, Willing Hearts relies heavily on donations and food collections. Although the volunteers at Willing Hearts may be a small and irregular group, they are always on the lookout for the poor to extend their assistance to them.
1. What best describes Mr Tay’s job?| A．Professional. | B．Demanding. | C．Well-paid. | D．Urgent. |
| A．Visits to the neighbourhood. | B．Smiles from the less privileged. |
| C．Encouragement from his wife. | D．One service to the old lady. |
| A．Qualified. | B．Sympathetic. | C．Wealthy. | D．Dynamic. |
| A．To pick up different languages. |
| B．To enhance unity within society. |
| C．To encourage youths to assist the needy. |
| D．To strengthen solid relationship with people. |
10 . A blind fish living within a Mexican cave system’s deep, enduring darkness still maintains some ability to sense light. As the cave fish no longer seem to rely on an internal daily cycle and some sleep very little, biologist Inca Stein-dal and her colleagues were keen to see if their bodies can still regulate cyclically through time. Most animals on Earth have an internal clock for this the circadian rhythm (昼夜节律) that uses light levels to make our bodies fit in with our planet’s day and night cycles. This rhythm is then used to cycle through different biological processes that can influence our behaviour, such as our hunger cycles.
The Mexican blind cave fish live in a complex of over 30 isolated caves, within which they have each independently adjusted to the dark. Their bodies are extra sensitive to vibrations (震动), allowing them to sense changes in water currents for navigation (导航) in compensation for their limited or complete lack of sight. This adaptation occurred despite the fish from each cave evolving from the same species with fully functioning eyes. This ancestral group still lives in the surface waters in the El Albra region of Mexico and some parts of the Southwestern US.
Steindal and her team took tissue samples from the blind cave fish, from three isolated caves, and their surface relatives and tested the cells in different conditions. They detected the activation of several molecular (分子的) clock mechanisms when the cells were exposed to light, even in the cave fish cells. “Non-visual light detection is maintained at a fundamental cell-based level,” the researchers explain,although the cave fish cells did not respond as strongly as those cells from surface fish. While there were some similarities between the fish from the different caves compared to their surface relatives, there were also differences that confirm their biological clock changes each evolved independently of one another via different molecular mechanisms.
“We have provided proof that despite being blind, cells from the Mexican blind cave fish can detect light and make their clocks fit in with a light/dark cycle,” Steindal and her colleagues conclude. The team hopes these can help us learn more about the circadian rhythm and provide an easier way to study animal adaptations to dark environments.
1. As to the cave fish, what did Steindal and her fellows try to find out?| A．If they have a circadian rhythm. | B．If they rely on an internal daily cycle. |
| C．If they need to sleep. | D．If they are able to sense light. |
| A．The Mexican cave fish’s ancestors had normal vision. |
| B．The Mexican cave fish’s home is in the dark deep sea. |
| C．The Mexican cave fish have adapted to darkness. |
| D．The Mexican cave fish have trouble navigating. |
| A．Cave fish’s unique molecular structures. |
| B．Non-visual light detection in cave fish cells. |
| C．The cave fish’s adjustment t0 molecular clock mechanisms. |
| D．Biological clock changes evolved independently. |
| A．Why Do the Mexican Cave fish Live in the Darken“ |
| B．A Blind Cave fish Can Still Perceive Light. |
| C．How Can the Mexican Cave fish Fit in with the Day Cycles? |
| D．The Biological Clocks of the Life in the Sen Are Constantly Changing. |
