The morning of my daughter’s first school play I had an important business meeting. I went to the play, getting a seat in the front row. I even brought my mum along in case it overran. But, not wanting to be late for my appointment, I moved quietly to the back. My daughter, who was just three at the time, noticed my empty seat and started to cry. Outside the doorway, I heard one mum say loudly and angrily, “She’s gone to work.” I watched as some of the others rolled their eyes. My stomach went cold.
It’s OK for a mum to have a job — as long as it’s part-time, fits around the school run or means she doesn’t have to leave the school play early or fly to the other side of the world now and again to earn a living. During the decade I’ve been a working mum I’ve received numerous critical comments from women about my work choices, but I think running my own business and travelling with my work when I can (while still taking my daughter to school most days and making pretty much every show or event) is setting a good example to my daughter. It shows her that it is possible to succeed at a time when women in many professions find it harder than men to reach the top and get less pay.
But I often feel I’ m in the minority. Do the women who roll their eyes at other women who leave the school play early or show up late to parents’ evening because their meetings overrun really believe females should only be in part-time, flexible work that fits around their children? I think it’s time for women to support each other’s career decisions.
1. What does the text mainly talk about?(no more than 10 words)2. What does the underlined sentence in the first paragraph probably mean?(no more than 25 words)
3. What may the author’s daughter learn from her working mother?(no more than 30 words)
4. What kink of job should a mother have according to other mothers who rolled their eyes? (no more than 5 words)
5. Do you agree with the author? Give your reasons.(no more than 25 words)
Never give up on hope
Oct 31, 2013 wasn’t just another Halloween for me. While I was driving home, a vehicle struck my car from behind, sending me into the busy road. I fought hard to open my eyes for a second, but I lost my consciousness.
After I was taken to hospital, the doctor told me I wouldn’t be able to move anything from my neck down. I had lost the use of almost every muscle and was very weak. I then realized that I had to say goodbye to my dream of entering NBA.
But at the rehab center (康复中心), I saw a glimpse of hope and was inspired by other patients with injuries like mine. The first year was slow and I didn’t see much progress. My head felt like a heavy ball, and I couldn’t hold it up, and my blood pressure would drop all the time. And while I didn’t have a ghost of a chance to walk or even stand, I did try. Six month later, I finally returned home.
However, that’s when the reality of the situation became clear to me. I realized that my life was so different. I was unable to use a phone, and unable to feed or wash myself. I couldn’t hold on to anything; a fork or spoon was too heavy to pick up. I had to learn to be patient with myself, and to enjoy every moment going forward.
I was determined to walk again, so giving up was no longer a choice. I fought hard on my recovery and still do to this day. I’m now moving my legs and arms on my own, doing things like working out, swimming and yoga. All of this is proving my doctors wrong, and is turning the page from the impossible to the possible. My supportive family, friends and team encourage me to continue to work harder.
I believe that this difficulty is an opportunity to grow, become stronger and keep on fighting to hopefully inspire myself not to give up.
1. Why was the author sent to hospital?(no more than 10 words)2. What was the author’s dream before the accident? (no more than 5 words)
3. What does the underlined part in Paragraph 3 mean? (no more than 10 words)
4. Who helped the author continue to work harder on his recovery? (no more than 10 words)
5. How does the author’s story inspire you? (no more than 20 words)
Many people dream of winning the lottery (彩票). Oh, just think about the things they could do with a million dollars! Perhaps they’d buy a new house, deal in stocks or travel around the world! But there’s a difference between dreaming about such good luck and actually becoming a lottery winner. Such a moment must have been quite unbelievable for single mother Jane Surtees, who has certainly dreamed about what she would do with such big money over the years.
Shortly after hitting a £7.5 million top prize, Jane set out a plan to help orphans (孤儿) in Ethiopia. She traveled to Ethiopia’s capital, Addis Ababa, and headed straight to the Kidane Mehmet Children’s Home, which cares for 120 orphans. Because the Mehmet Children’s Home runs completely on charity, it is crowded and can only feed the kids three small meals per day. Meat is a once-a-week treat and toys and books are almost unheard-of. Jane was surprised by how satisfied the kids seemed to be living in such conditions.
Jane was especially moved by the story of 15-year-old Workeneh Fanetay. After losing his parents when he was just four, Fanctay was responsible for bringing up his two-year-old brother alone. He was one of many homeless children in the city and bought food with money he earned by working in shops and helping neighbors tidy their gardens. Thankfully, his life was altered radically due to Jane’s kindness. He joined the Children’s Home and now lives in a nice house with his brother. They plant vegetables on a piece of ground near their house and both attend school-something that will change both of their lives.
Jane is truly grateful for her good luck to win the lottery and get to know such amazing children. And the children she helped consider her as one example of the view that kindness does exist in this world.
1. What was Jane’s plan after winning the lottery? (no more than 10 words)2. How did the kids in the Kidane Mehmet Children’s Home feel about their living conditions? (no more than 5 words)
3. Why did Fanetay work in shops and help neighbors tidy their gardens? (no more than 15 words)
4. What’s the meaning of the underlined sentence in Paragraph 3? (no more than 10 words)
5. What will you do if you win a million dollars in the lottery? Please explain. (no more than 25 words)
Robert Armstrong’s favorite food has been his grandma’s cookies ever since he was a child.
Years later and armed with a business degree, Armstrong, 28, is turning his grandma’s cookie recipe into a national brand, G. Mommas Southern Style Cookies, featuring chocolate chip pecan(美洲山核桃) and “buddascotch” oatmeal(燕麦片) flavors.
In February, California-based specialty retailer(零售店), Cost Plus World-Market, with 265 stores in 31 states selling home decor(装饰), food and drink, started selling the cookies. They will also be in 800 Cracker Barrel stores this fall.
After graduating from college in 2008 and unable to find a job, Robert Armstrong asked his grandmother, Anice Morris Armstrong, to teach him how to bake, which he thought would take an afternoon.
“It was harder than college,” he said.
With basic cooking tools and an oven in an abandoned kitchen, he set up his own business, Selma Good, and began producing cookies in an old warehouse. Baking 10 to 12 hours a day, he managed to deliver cookies to 35 stores. His grandmother helped him develop the “buddascotch” recipe before her death, aged 88, last July. “She inspirited me in ways no one else ever could,” said Armstrong.
He reached out via LinkedIn, a website, to a national distributor, who asked for samples. Within a year, he found a commercial bakery in Pennsylvania and a deal to go national with World Market. “Everybody has a grandma recipe, but I was lucky to find people that would take a chance on me,” Armstrong said. “They’re crunchy, but light, like feathers, and taste extremely good,” said Judy McKinny at Mark’s Market, one of Armstrong’s first retail customers in his hometown of Selma, Alabama.
World Market is ordering two cases per store each quarter, a huge leap from the 9,000 bags he made himself per quarter.
His goal is to one day move production back to his native Selma to help its development. Selma has struggled economically since the closure of a candy factory several years ago.
1. What did Robert major in when he was in college? (1 word)2. Why did Robert choose to bake after his graduation? (no more than 10 words)
3. What does the underlined word mean in Paragraph 6? (1 word)
4. What does Robert owe his success to according to Paragraph 7? (no more than 10 words)
5. What did your grandma teach you? Please explain. (no more than 30 words)
The Yosufs’ house is unlike any other house. In the sitting room, instead of a television, there is a blackboard on the wall. For two hours every day, Mr Yosuf writes complex mathematical problems on the board. His daughter, Zuleika, copies them into an exercise book and solves them.
Zuleika is special. She’s five years old, but instead of watching cartoons or playing computer games, her favourite pastimes are solving equations and reading books. She already spends hours every day in a university library. Next year Zuleika will become Britain’s youngest “A” level student.
Not surprisingly, the Yosufs are a very clever family. Zuleika’s two sisters and a brother, aged 16, 14 and 12 are also good at maths and are already at university. Her father, who specialises in maths research, has taught them all. “Zuleika is very competitive, says her father.” She sees her brother and sisters working every day and she can’t wait to catch up with them. I remember teaching the others maths when they were eight. Zuleika solves the same problems now, although she took up maths much earlier. We could see she was interested in numbers at a much younger age. ”
So what is the secret of their success? When their first child arrived, Mr Yosuf and his wife made up their minds to teach all of their children at home. They say that home tuition combined with love and understanding has helped their children to succeed. “We’ve been patient and supportive, and they take pride in what they do,” says Mr. Yosuf. “Maybe Zuleika has a natural talent for maths, but I believe given the right surroundings, any child could do well. ”
One thing all child prodigies(神童) do have in common is a complete dedication to and love of their subject. They spend many more hours working at it than the average child, and this extra effort is reflected in their achievements. It is not necessary to be extremely talented to be a child prodigy, but you do have to have a lot of motivation.
1. What is the blackboard in the sitting room used for? (no more than 20 words)2. Why is Zuleika special? (no more than 15 Words)
3. What does the underlined word “surroundings” in paragraph 4 probably mean? (1 word)
4. What do all child prodigies have in common according to the text? (no more than 15 words)
5. What do you think of studying at home?Give your reasons. (no more than 20 words)
Steve and Rob opened their home and their hearts to not just one, but six siblings(兄弟姐妹)who had spent almost five years in the foster(寄养的)care system. Steve said, “At first, we thought it would be great to have these kids at our home for some time and help them, but when I saw those eyes, I changed my mind. So even though we have two adult kids, we still decided to raise the smaller children and adopt them. ”
The couple was inspired to adopt children who are siblings after they saw a TV story about another family that did the same thing. They started researching the idea and saw how many siblings were broken up in the foster care system, and the fact simply broke their hearts.
The couple saw the children on an Ohio adoption website in early 2018. Amazingly, the siblings were never separated during their stay in the foster care system. “ However, the kids, who were teenagers, were hard to place, which made me nervous when I tried to communicate with them. I wanted to throw in the towel, ” Steve said, “but Rob encouraged me to continue. ”
When the home studies and background checks were completed, Steve and Rob began emailing the documents to the children’s caseworker. Finally, they were matched with the kids in June 2018 and met them for the first time on July 2. While everyone was nervous at first, they developed a relationship of trust quickly after the first meeting. The children came to live with Steve and Rob a month later and never left. Steve quit his job so that he could be a full-time dad to take care of them, and bought a minibus to transport the much larger Anderson-McLean family.
Some families are made through blood, but some like the Anderson-McLean family are made through love.
1. What was Steve and Rob’ s original idea? (no more than 15 words)2. Why did Steve and Rob decide to adopt the siblings?(no more than 15 words)
3. What does the underlined part in Paragraph 3 mean? (no more than 5 words)
4. What did Steve do to take care of the siblings? (no more than 10 words)
5. What do you think of the couple? Please explain. (no more than 20 words)
When I was in Grade 4, I got my first diary as a present from my mother. It made me feel very important because it was a precious gift to me in the year when a printed diary was rare. During the first week of my life as a diary owner, I kept looking at it. My heart filling with pride. In the second week, I suddenly felt nervous. I had not written a single word in the diary. And now each page seemed to be looking at me in sorrow for the way it was being gored, so I decided to keep an account of how I spent the day at school.
I kept my promise to the diary, every day after coming back from school, I would take out the diary, open the page dated for that day and write about what happened but a stranger thing happened. But a strange thing happened—each page looked dull, instead of looking as if it came straight out of a famous writer’s book.
I recently read a 4000-year-old account of a young boy’s day in school. It surrounded almost the same thing as mine! This boy was from Summer. The Sumerians, as they were called invented a lot of things. They constructed the first cities. They invested writing an idea that children must go to a place like school for education.
What was the account of the boy’s day in school like? Well almost like mine but 4,000 years ago! I read it in a book called, The Mammoth Book of How it Happened, by Jon E. Lewis. In a fascinating manner, he has put the important and usual things together into one collection, eye-witness accounts of moments in history, also eventful and ordinary.
The book told me that for schoolchildren anywhere in the world and probably at any time in history, school has always meant the same. Perhaps writing diaries too.
1. Why did the diary make the author feel important? (no more than 20 words)2. How did the author feel when he reads 4000-year-old account of a young boy’s day?(No more than 5 words)
3. Who is Jon E. Lewis? (No more than 15 words)
4. What does the underlined word “eventful” is Paragraph 4 mean?(1 word)
5. What do you think about writing dairies? (No more than 20 words)
Marco Polo came from a wealthy family and received a good education. He was only six years old when his father and uncle left for a journey to China or Cathay, as it was called at that time. At the age of 17, Marco followed his father and uncle on their second journey to Asia.
The Polos traveled through many countries, over mountains and along the Silk Road, the main travel route for traders. Marco would keep detailed journals and record his findings. The Polos also stopped for a year in the Mongol region. There they learnt about the lives and culture of the people. This was useful as Marco was able to share what he had learnt with the Emperor of China, Kublai Khab. The Emperor was impressed with him. The Polos traveled 9,000 kilometres in more than three and a half years before reaching China. There Marco was most surprised to find the stones that burnt like logs. The Chinese had found a source of fuel that nobody in Europe could have imagined. It was called coal.
In 1298, Marco wrote a book called The Travels of Marco Polo which was a record of his travels in Asia. The book enabled the Europeans to understand and carry out trading activities more easily with Asians.
1. What was China also called in the past? (1 word)2. What was the Silk Road mainly used as in ancient times? (no more than 10 words)
3. What did the Polos do during their stay in the Mongol region? (no more than 12 words)
4. Why was Marco impressed with the stones? (no more than 6 words)
5. What is the main idea of the last paragraph? (no more than 10 words)
At Manhattan’s PS 140 students in Tony Paulino’s middle school Spanish classes are exploring the geography, economics, and culture of South America, all without leaving their classroom.
They’re using the Internet to follow the One Road South team of adventurers on a 14-month bicycle trip around the continent. Through a program called Reach the World kids at 60 of the city’s elementary and middle schools are getting a taste of global citizenship by following the One Road South bikers, a family travelling in Europe, a bike trek (艰苦跋涉) in Africa, and a Harlem teacher working with scientists in Antarctica through online videos, journals, and field notes.
Sometimes, students even get to meet the travelers they are following online. Three of the four One Road South bicyclists recently visited Paulino’s classes to present a slide show about the place they plan to visit.
The students jumped in with questions, asking if the travelers were afraid of wild animals, running out of food or going for 14 months without having a girlfriend.
But Reach the World isn’t just for fun. The program aims to integrate (使融入) technology into the classroom, to bring subjects like science and social studies to life, and to encourage students to think of themselves as global citizens, according to administrators.
Their teacher, Tony Paulino, said his students are beside themselves with excitement about following the One Road South bikers. “I believe it speaks to the core desire we all share, to dream, to travel and to explore,” he said.
1. What is the best title for this passage? (no more than 7 words)2. How are the students in Tony Paulino’s class exploring the South America? (no more than 4 words)
3. What can students do through Reach the World program? (no more than 20 words)
4. Please explain the underlined words “beside themselves with excitement” in English. (no more than 2 words)
5. What do you think of Reach the World program? Please give your reasons. (no more than 20 words)
John and Bobby joined a wholesale company together just after graduation from college the same year. Both worked very hard. After several years, however, the boss promoted Bobby to the position of manager but John remained an ordinary employee. John could not take it anymore. So without hesitation, he presented a tender resignation to the boss quickly, complaining the boss did not know how to identify a good clerk and did not value hard-working staff, but only promoted those who flattered (讨好) him.
The boss knew that John worked very hard for the years. He thought a moment and said, “Thank you for your criticism, but I have a request. I hope you will do one more thing for our company before you leave. Perhaps in time you will change your decision and take back your resignation.” John agreed.
The boss asked him to go and find out anyone selling watermelon in the market. John went and returned soon. He said he had found out a man selling watermelon. The boss asked how much per kg? John shook his head and went back to the market to ask and returned to inform the boss $1.2 per kg.
The boss told John to wait a second, and he called Bobby to come to his office. He asked Bobby to go and find anyone selling watermelon in the market. Bobby went, returned and said, “Boss, only one person selling watermelon. $1.2 per kg, $10 for 10 kg, and he has inventory of 340 melons. On the table 58 melons, every melon weighs about 2 kg, bought from the South two days ago. They are fresh and red, of good quality.”
John was very impressed and realized the difference between himself and Bobby. He decided not to resign but to learn from Bobby.
My dear friends, a more successful person is more observant, thinks more and explores in depth. Chances exist in the daily details. For the same matter, a more successful person sees more and farther so that he can find out an opportunity and catch it to realize his aim. If a person sees one year ahead, while another sees only tomorrow, the difference between a year and a day is 365 times. How could you win?
1. After Bobby’s promotion, what did John do? (no more than 12 words)2. What’s the meaning of the underlined word “take” in Paragraph 1? (no more than 3 words)
3. What was “one more thing” the boss asked John to do before he left the company? (no more than 15 words)
4. What kind of person is Bobby? (no more than 12 words)
5. To be a more successful person, what would you like to do? Please tell your reason(s). (no more than 25 words)
