1 . We live near a famous hospital in the city. Since our house is big, we rent some rooms to the patients.

One evening, a truly ugly old man came. Extremely politely, he said, “Good evening. I’m wondering if you have a room for just one night. I came for treatment from the eastern shore (海岸), and there’s no bus till the morning.” He told me he’d been searching for a room since noon, but failed because of his face.

For a moment, I hesitated (犹豫), not only because there was no room left. But his following words convinced (说服了) me: “I could sleep on the floor. I’ll leave early in the morning.”

By chatting with him, I knew he fished for a living to support a big family. But what touched me most was that instead of complaining, he was grateful that his disease didn’t bring him terrible pain.

At bedtime, we put a bed in the children’s room for him. The next morning, he got up early and asked if he could come again. I told him he would be welcome.

On his next trip, he arrived early in the morning.

1. 根据文本内容从方框中选择恰当的词并用其正确形式填入文本图示中，每词限用一次，有两词为多余选项

ask     polite     agree     accept     change     complain     move     sleep     hard     welcome     ignore     strong
An ugly old man came to my house and ________ for a room to stay for a night.		He felt helpless and spoke very ________.
The old man explained his situation and I ________ to put him up.		I didn’t want ________ him at first, but his words ________ my mind.
I chatted with the old man and knew he led a ________ life but never ________ about that.		I ________ by his story deeply.
The old man ________ in the children’s room and wondered if he could come to stay again.		I expressed my ________ to him.

2. What kind of person is the old man?
_______________________________________________________________________________________
3. What may the old man do for the writer’s family when he came the next time?
_______________________________________________________________________________________
4. How would the writer feel about knowing the old man? Why?
_______________________________________________________________________________________

2 . 任务型阅读

As I inch closer to my sixth decade, I can’t help but reflect on my life’s journey.

My path has taken many twists and turns, as it does for most, and I am grateful for each chapter and all the characters who were a part of my script. Through all the seasons, hills and valleys, I have grown in all areas of life and as a human being in general.

My husband and I have always wanted to retire near the ocean. We are active and love the outdoors. Finally, we were getting closer to our goal. I had put in my final years for retirement at MES, the wonderful school I spent the majority of my teaching career. I had three years left, but with Illinois’ bad weather, I had it in my mind to get us to Florida sooner than expected.

Our son is stationed at Hurlburt Field near Destin, Florida, and after visiting him there, we fell in love with the pretty coast. The salt air,heat,and humidity did my sinuses (鼻窦) and body good. I was back to running daily and did not once suffer from knee pain or sinus issues during our time there. We discussed it when we returned to Illinois, and I decided to act. I applied for teaching jobs in the Destin area.

Fortunately, I landed a teaching job at a great school and left MES. We put our house up for sale and were looking forward to this next adventure.

I moved to Florida in late July to start my next chapter while my husband stayed back to wrap things up.

I got into my new school on Aug. 1st and began preparing to move from teaching seventh to fourth graders.

However, back home, we weren’t selling our house. Besides, we couldn’t find housing in Florida. After much discussion, we decided the timing wasn’t right because of many unforeseen factors, so I packed up and drove back to Illinois.

1. 根据文本内容从方框中选择恰当的词并用其正确形式填入文本图示中，每词限用一次，有两词为多余选项

stay     calm     reason     leave     hope     nose     health     grow     disappoint     expect     tire     satisfy

My Life Crossings
I ________ in all areas of life, full of twists and turns.		I’m grateful and ________ with my life.
I wanted to ________ MES.		I was ________ of bad weather in Illinois.
I visited my son and ________ in Florida; the weather was good for my ________.		I fell in love with the pretty coast.
I applied and landed a teaching job in Florida. I moved to Florida and got into the new school, ________ my future.		I was excited and ________.
For some ________, I drove back to Illinois.		I was quiet and ________.

根据文本内容回答下列问题
2. Why did the author go back to Illinois?
___________________________________________________________________
3. What would the author do next?
___________________________________________________________________
4. What’s the author’s opinion of her path?
___________________________________________________________________

3 . 阅读短文，并按照题目要求用英语回答问题。

When I was a little girl, I spent memorable holidays with my grandmother, who lived in a small village. She was a farmer with a stooped (弯曲的) back that made it seem like she was always leaning forward to examine something. Early in the morning, she would tie a cloth around her waist and set out to the farm. I would skip breathlessly alongside, trying to keep up. On our way, she would greet everyone we passed.

There was the standard greeting, “Did you wake up on the right foot this morning?” Then, the more personalized greetings. To Patriarch Kosi who sat under the mango tree, she would ask, “Are the grandchildren in good health?” To the Bean Stew Seller who was preparing to serve breakfast, she would inquire, “Are your boys well?”

Sometimes, the greetings were spoken soothingly (安慰地). When we walked past the widow, Dada Mawusi, many months after her husband’s death, Grandmother would say directly, “How is your grieving?” She didn’t like to beat around the bush. The greeting made more sense to her to acknowledge the woman’s suffering, and in doing so, empathize (理解) with her.

The people that Grandmother greeted would respond similarly. “I see you have your granddaughter with you today. How is her father?” or “I see you have woken up before the cock’s crow today. May it be a fruitful day at the farm.” As a young girl, I thought these greetings were unnecessarily time-consuming. What I now realize is that the greetings increased a sense of belonging. My grandmother taught me that there is always time to greet someone before getting down to business. You can always take a few extra seconds to say a greeting to a person. We enrich our society when we acknowledge the unique presence of one another.

1. Where did the writer spend holidays when she was young? (no more than 6 words)
________________
2. What made the writer feel breathless? (no more than 8 words)
________________
3. How do you understand the underlined sentence in Paragraph 3? (no more than 10 words)
________________
4. What did the writer think about greetings when she was young? (no more than 10 words)
________________
5. Why do you think greeting neighbors is important? Give your reasons, (no more than 20 words)
________________

4 . 阅读短文，完成下列任务。

About three years ago, something terrible happened to me. That was the day when it took only six hours to break my body and soul.

One day, my two brothers and I were coming back from the islands where we often risked going and got more fish than others. Suddenly, the sky was covered with dark clouds and in less than a minute we were in a terrible storm. A huge wave covered our boat and my younger brother fell into the sea. My elder brother cried out “Moskoe-strom!” The moment I heard the word I became very frightened. I knew what he meant by that one word well enough.

With the wind and waves, we were going in the direction of the whirlpool. We were hopeless. Nothing could save us. It may appear strange, but at that moment, when we were in the edge of the whirlpool, I felt calmer than when we were moving towards it.

I saw clearly that there were other objects in the whirlpool — trees and barrels. After a while, I became curious about the whirlpool itself. I then made three important observations. The first, the larger the bodies were, the more rapidly they fell; the second, between two objects of equal extent, round objects fell down less rapidly; and the third, between two objects of the same size, objects shaped like a tube fell down more slowly. So I tied myself to a barrel to help me float. I tried to make my brother understand, but he was too frightened and stayed in the heavy boat. Without waiting, I jumped into the sea to try and escape.

As you can see, the reason why I’m here to tell the story is that I made the right decision. Some time after I left the boat, with my brother in it, it was pulled into the bottom of the whirlpool. Soon after that, the whirlpool became less wild. I was still tied to the barrel and the waves soon carried me to an area where the other fishermen were. In the end, a boat picked me up.

1. 推断下列词汇在文章中的含义，从表格中选择恰当的释义。
①appear________②curious________③escape________④wild________

A. to seem to be    B. to start to be seen    C. violent and strong D. wanting to know about something E. living or growing in natural conditions F. to get away from a dangerous situation

2. Why could the writer survive in the disaster?
3. What did the writer do to save himself after observing the whirlpool?
4. What is the story trying to say about the relationship between humans and nature?