1 . At eleven, I decided to learn to swim. There was a pool at the YMCA offering exactly the opportunity. My mother continually warned against it, and kept fresh in my mind the details of each drowning in the river. But the YMCA pool was safe.
I had a childhood fear of water. This started when I was three years old and my father took me to the beach.The huge waves knocked me down and swept over me.
The pool was quiet. I was afraid of going in all alone, so I sat on one side of the pool to wait for others. Then came a big boy. He yelled, “Hi, how’d you like to be ducked?” With that he picked me up and threw me into the deep end.I landed in a sitting position, and swallowed water. But I was not frightened out of my wits—when my feet hit the bottom, I would make a big jump to come out of the surface. It seemed a long way down. I gathered all my strength when I landed and made what I thought was a great spring upwards. Then I opened my eyes and saw nothing but water. I tried to yell but no sound came out. I went down, down, endlessly.
When I came to consciousness, I found myself lying on the bed in the hospital.
I never went back to the pool. I avoided water whenever I could. This misadventure stayed with me as the years rolled by.It deprived(剥夺) me of the joy of boating and swimming. Finally, I decided to get an instructor. Piece by piece, he built a swimmer. Several months later, the instructor was finished, but I was not .Sometimes the terror would return.
This went on until July. I swam across the Lake Went worth.Only once did the terror return. When I was in the middle of the lake, I put my face under and saw nothing but bottomless water. I laughed and said, “Well, Mr Terror, what do you think you can do to me?” I had conquered my fear of water.
1. What was the author’s original fear of water caused by?| A．His poor skill in swimming. |
| B．His mother’s warning of drowning. |
| C．An outing to the beach with his father. |
| D．An unpleasant memory of the pool. |
| A．He knew how to swim in the pool. |
| B．He felt that the YMCA pool was safe. |
| C．He was waiting for others to save him. |
| D．He came up with an idea to go upwards. |
| A．He was still a poor swimmer. |
| B．He had not overcome the fear yet. |
| C．He was not afraid of drowning any more. |
| D．He was not satisfied with the swimming training. |
| A．Goodbye,Mr Terror |
| B．Hello,Childhood Fear |
| C．A Swimming Adventure |
| D．My Passion for Swimming |
2 . Have you ever had this kind of childhood memory: a family sits together casually, drinking and tasting tea after lunch or dinner?
After being spread to different parts of the world,
Traditional tea processing techniques and associated social practices in China consist of the knowledge, skills and practices concerning the management of tea plantations (茶园) as well as the picking of tea leaves, manual processing, drinking, and sharing of tea, noted UNESCO.
Weilu zhucha is a replacement in the cold seasons for the camping craze. Sitting around a stove, boiling some tea, people chat, admire the scenery and immerse themselves in traditional Chinese culture by boiling tea together in person. “
| A．Take tea making for example. |
| B．This can be fully shown by weilu zhucha. |
| C．tea is common in Chinese people’s daily lives. |
| D．It’s good to feel the warm atmosphere when boiling tea. |
| E．China now has 43 items on the intangible cultural heritage list. |
| F．tea has delighted and fascinated the world for a thousand years. |
| G．This has been a daily activity for Chinese people throughout their history. |
3 . English is full of funny expressions that don’t always make sense. Idioms are phrases and sentences that do not mean exactly what they say. Even if you know the meaning of each word, you may not understand the idiom because you don’t understand the culture behind it. Here are some English idioms based on animals.
When children jump around and act silly, their parents may tell them to stop “monkeying around”.To “monkey around” means to do things that are not useful or serious, or to simply waste time.
Many American families have and love pet dogs. But for some unknown reason, Americans use “dog” in a phrase that means to feel unwell. If you are “as sick as a dog”, you’re really, really sick.
Sometimes you may also hear cats mentioned in conversations, “I told you to keep that secret, but you have just ‘let the cat out of the bag’!” You probably guessed it — that idiom means to reveal a secret or tell facts that were previously unknown.
Dogs and cats don’t always get along, but they appear side by side in a commonly used idiom. When it rains heavily, people might say it’s “raining cats and dogs”．
Heavy rain often ruins people’s plans for outdoor activities. But on a lovely day, you can have a picnic. If a swarm (一群) of tiny bugs love your food and start to hover (盘旋) around you, it would be really annoying. That experience perfectly explains why people often tell someone who keeps bothering them to “stop bugging me”．
Idioms are very common in both spoken and written English. If you want to have a better understanding of English, you have to learn idioms.
1. According to Paragraph 1, which is right about idioms?| A．Expressions which are based on animals. |
| B．Expressions with rich cultural background. |
| C．Expressions that always make sense. |
| D．Expressions which are easy to understand. |
| A．Children jump around and waste time. |
| B．Children do something useful and serious. |
| C．Children play with monkeys with their parents. |
| D．Children spend time playing with their family pets. |
| A．Dogs and cats always get along nicely. |
| B．Bugs can be used to show your annoyance. |
| C．Americans believe cats can give away secrets. |
| D．Americans use the idiom “as sick as a dog” to describe a healthy man. |
| A．By sharing experiences. |
| B．By making comparisons. |
| C．By giving examples. |
| D．By listing figures. |
4 . As the lyrics to Taylor Swift’s hit song “Bad Blood” go: “Cause, baby, now we got bad blood. You know it used to be mad love.” It’s a song about falling out of friendship, but to 14-year-old Hallie Barnard, who was born with a rare blood disorder, the song holds a much deeper meaning.
At just 15 months old, Barnard was diagnosed (诊断) with Diamon Blackfin Anemia, or DBA, and she spent most of her life in and out of the hospital. The Swiftie said she relied on the singer to bring her joy.
The only way to survive DBA is with a bone marrow transplant (骨髓移植) and Barnard was desperate for one. But she knew thousands of other patients are, too. So, a few years ago, she decided to do something about it, creating her own foundation: Hallie’s Heroes. “It started selfishly as just trying to save my life, but then we realized there were so many other children out there that needed a bone marrow transplant,” she said. “So, so far we’ve tested 8,000 people and found over 300 matches.”
After a 9-year wait, Barnard got her own match — through her own foundation. But more obstacles stood between her and normal life as a kid. The blood disorder led to a cancer diagnosis: osteosarcoma. She received surgery to cut the cancer out of her leg at MD Anderson in Houston.
The recovery was difficult, but Hallie said she stayed hopeful. “My survival instinct (本能) just kicked in. I was trying to do anything that I could to survive. So, of course, it was scary but in my mind, I was just thinking that I wanted to be at my sister’s future weddings. I wanted to play games and run again,” she said.
Her survival instinct —combined with Taylor Swift―helped her through her operation, where doctors cut her cancer out, and reattached her foot and ankle to her upper leg to work as a knee.
1. Why does the author mention Taylor Swift’s song “Bad Blood”?| A．To stress the power of music. |
| B．To introduce the topic of the text. |
| C．To show Taylor Swift’s popularity. |
| D．To state Taylor Swift’s song is a hit. |
| A．To raise money for her heroes. |
| B．To treat her rare blood disorder. |
| C．To help other children with DBA. |
| D．To have an operation for her cancer. |
| A．Strong-minded and selfish. | B．Hard-working and patient. |
| C．Kind and optimistic. | D．Outgoing and helpful. |
| A．Bad Blood Inspired a Little Girl |
| B．Hallie’s Heroes: a Useful Foundation |
| C．Taylor Swift: a Popular Singer with Teens |
| D．A Cancer Survivor Helped Others Find Matches |
5 . Mr. Guo is a teacher from Xi’an. He asked his students to hand in their homework through a QR code(二维码). “We spent an hour or two in class learning how to generate (产生) the codes, and in the end everything gets easier” said Gao. “When students finish the homework, they keep it on WeChat. Then, each student makes his own QR code and gives it to me. So I can check their work everywhere using my computer or telephone.”
The QR codes can be sent to Mr. Guo by email, QQ and WeChat. When Guo scans(扫描)his students’ QR codes, their homework appears on his phone. He finds that their homework becomes more creative, with many pictures, music and even videos.
Guo’s students like the new way and think it is interesting. “We are living in the information age. Many students like to work with computers, which makes learning more fun,” said Tingting, a student of Guo’s.
“The paper is not easy to keep, but the code is easy to keep and share,” Guo said. “It is worth trying to use new technology in education. Education itself is a kind of creation. I don’t want my students to fall behind the times.”
However, some parents are worried. They are afraid that their children will spend too much time on computers and less time communicating with teachers. But in fact, it’s unnecessary. Students still need to look up information in books and write it down when they do their homework. They only use the code when they hand in their homework, which doesn’t take them too much time. Also for teachers, it allows them to check the Students’ work at any time. And it’s also an easy way to share homework with other students.
1. According to the passage, students can keep their homework on________.| A．WeChat | B．QQ | C．e-mail | D．blog |
| A．strange | B．boring | C．interesting | D．unnecessary |
| A．talk with teachers face to face |
| B．spend too much time on computers |
| C．not like the new way of handing in homework |
| D．find the QR codes too difficult to use |
| A．Teachers needn’t check homework any more. |
| B．Students needn’t hand in homework any more. |
| C．Using QR codes makes checking homework easier. |
| D．Some parents are worried about their children. |
6 . Turning soil, pulling weeds, and harvesting cabbage sound like tough work for middle and high school kids. And at first it is, says Abby Jaramillo, who with another teacher started Urban Sprouts, a school garden program at four low-income schools. The program aims to help students develop science skills, environmental awareness, and healthy lifestyles.
Jaramillo’s students live in neighborhoods where fresh food and green space are not easy to find and fast food restaurants outnumber grocery stores. “The kids literally come to school with bags of snacks and large bottles of soft drinks,” she says. “They come to us thinking vegetables are awful, dirt is awful, insects are awful.” Though some are initially scared of the insects and turned off by the dirt, most are eager to try something new.
Urban Sprouts’ classes, at two middle schools and two high schools, include hands-on experiments such as soil testing, flower-and-seed dissection, tastings of fresh or dried produce, and work in the garden. Several times a year, students cook the vegetables they grow, and they occasionally make salads for their entire schools.
Program evaluations show that kids eat more vegetables as a result of the classes. “We have students who say they went home and talked to their parents and now they’re eating differently,” Jaramillo says.
She adds that the program’s benefits go beyond nutrition. Some students get so interested in gardening that they bring home seeds to start their own vegetable gardens. Besides, working in the garden seems to have a calming effect on Jaramillo’s special education students, many of whom have emotional control issues. “They get outside,” she says, “and they feel successful.”
1. What do we know about Abby Jaramillo?| A．She used to be a health worker. | B．She grew up in a low-income family. |
| C．She owns a fast food restaurant. | D．She is an initiator of Urban Sprouts. |
| A．The kids’ parents distrusted her. | B．Students had little time for her classes. |
| C．Some kids disliked garden work. | D．There was no space for school gardens. |
| A．Far-reaching. | B．Predictable. |
| C．Short-lived. | D．Unidentifiable. |
| A．Rescuing School Gardens | B．Experiencing Country Life |
| C．Growing Vegetable Lovers | D．Changing Local Landscape |
7 . I’m a strong believer in learning different languages, which makes you look incredibly good when you’re in a foreign country and can understand and speak the language. The following are 4 apps that will help you learn a foreign language! You can download them for free.
Babbel
Babbel’s lessons are mainly quiz-styled and use audio, pictures and words to help you with the grammar and vocabulary of your chosen language. It helps you use most of the skills needed to learn a language. Your skills are improved by carrying out different tasks, such as completing sentences with missing words, translating, placing words in order and so on.
FluentU
FluentU takes native language content like music videos, news and inspiring talks and turns them into language learning lessons. The videos all make use of interactive (交互的) subtitles (字幕) to ensure understanding, allow users to save material for later review, and make the experience more enjoyable. Clicking on a word or phrase brings up extra information, including example sentences and other video clips that use the language item.
Tandem
Rather than have you work through tasks and memorise different things, the app matches you up with people who share your interests but speak the language you want to learn. You can then have text, voice and video conversations with people to learn their native language, and in return they can learn yours, all by simply communicating with each other.
Busuu
This app is perfect if you want to learn English. There are all sorts of audio and visual learning aids. You’ll find yourself working through interactive tests and learning tools for the vocabulary and dialogue.
1. Which app suits you best if you want to learn through communication?| A．Babbel. | B．FluentU. | C．Tandem. | D．Busuu. |
| A．They cover all languages. | B．They focus on grammar. |
| C．They contain many tests. | D．They are free to download. |
| A．To sell apps to language learners. | B．To teach languages through apps. |
| C．To introduce language learning apps. | D．To teach language learners to use apps. |
8 . Two managers in the same organization were coming into conflict when having disagreements in their work. After thinking about a particularly troubling issue throughout the night, the first manager wrote a letter to the other one, outlining his thoughts as reasonably as possible. He gave it to the other person and asked him to read it later and suggested that after working through their anger, they discuss it again.
The following day the first manager stopped by the office of the other and asked how it would go. The second one admitted that he was very upset at first, but after thinking it over he realized that most of their disagreements were for a lack of understanding. He stated that he felt if they could discuss it without losing their tempers, they could work things out. That is exactly what they did later and got the issue settled with flying colors (成功地).
American president Abraham Lincoln was known for writing two letters when he needed to communicate with someone else who had made him angry. He first wrote a letter that severely conveyed just what he thought. Then he tore up that letter and wrote a second one that was appropriate and reasonable, and sent the letter out.
Effective communication is the key to any relationship. When we allow ourselves to become emotional and react immediately to what we feel without thinking, emotions overwhelm (压倒) the situation and prevent true communication. Step back, think evaluate what happened or what was said, and ask to clarify questions if it is needed. Then, you can respond appropriately.
Don’t let overwhelming emotion control your life. Instead, choose to think and process internally whatever comes your way before externally responding. That is when you can communicate with others effectively and you will be able to keep good relationships with them.
1. What did the first manager do in his letter?| A．He expressed his general ideas reasonably. |
| B．He explained why the issue was troubling. |
| C．He apologized to the second manager sincerely. |
| D．He invited the second manager to discuss the issue. |
| A．Any great man can get angry. |
| B．Making plan B is necessary in work. |
| C．Writing letters was very popular in the past. |
| D．We should deal with matters after calming down. |
| A．A bad first impression. | B．Ineffective communication. |
| C．The high chance of failure. | D．The breakdown of a relationship. |
| A．Learn to answer questions indirectly. | B．Avoid anger to keep good relationships. |
| C．Never be overwhelmed by your emotions. | D．Think reasonably before making a decision. |
9 . China Small Group Tours
◆Tour Route 1: 11 Days Private Beijing - Lhasa - Xi’an - Shanghai
Tour Highlights:
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View the soaring city skylines and feel the pulse of modern Shanghai
From $ 2, 459 per person
◆Tour Route 2: 11 Days Private Bejing - Xi’an - Chonqing - Yangtze River Cruise - Yichang - Shanghai
Tour Highlights:
Must-see sights in China — the Great Wall, Forbidden City, Terracotta Wariors
Try biking on the Ming Dynasty City Wall of Xi’ an, or tour by electric car
Enjoy the Three Gorges (三峡) scenery on Yangtze River & feel totally relaxed
From $ 1, 879 per person
◆Tour Route 3: 12 Days Private Bejing - Shanghai - Xi’an - Guilin - Yangshuo - Guilin - Hong
Kong
Tour Highlights:
Must-see sights in China — the Great Wall, Forbidden City, Terracotta Warriors
Experience the Bund, classical garden, modern and old in contrast in Shanghai
Feel the lively atmosphere & explore busy markets freely in Hong Kong
Walk into a local family, learn to cook Chinese food & dine with the hosts in their home
From $ 2, 499 per person
◆Tour Route 4: 12 Days Private Bejing - Xi’an - Chengdu - Guilin - Shanghai
Tour Highlights:
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Come to Chengdu, the hometown of giant pandas to visit and observe the cute creature
Cruise on the meandering Li River & admire Guilin landscape
Walk into a local Chinese family, interact & dine with the hosts in their home
From $2, 079 per person
1. What do Tour Route 1 and Tour Route 2 have in common?| A．They have cycling activities. |
| B．They include a visit to Tibet. |
| C．Visitors enjoy the Three Gorges scenery. |
| D．Visitors pay the same amount of money. |
| A．Tourists can travel by bike. |
| B．Tourists can visit a huge dam. |
| C．Tourists can dine with a family. |
| D．It is the most expensive of the four. |
| A．Tour Route 1. |
| B．Tour Route 2. |
| C．Tour Route 3. |
| D．Tour Route 4. |
10 . An 82-year-old Chinese female pilot has set a record in the country’s airline industry after flying a small plane for 40 minutes in Beijing. Miao Xiaohong, one of China’s second team of female pilots, controlled the Tecnam P2010 plane to take off, turn, climb, dive and land safety at the Shifosi Airport in Pinggu District of Beijing.
In 1956, Miao Xiaohong, who graduated from a high school in Jinan, won a position in the second team. She graduated from the flight school in 1958. in the following years, she flew many important missions. In 1963, she undertook a mission to airdrop materials for the flood-stricken areas in Hebei Province. Poor visibility prevented her locating the target areas as the clouds were about 100 meters above the ground, but she managed to finish the task.
In 1989, she retired and started her writing career. When she collected material for her books, she found that many aged pilots in other countries still flew, and she had the idea of returning to the sky. To prepare for the flight, she walked 3,000 steps every day and moved her arms to meet the requirements for the high-altitude flight. Different from past flights for missions, this time her goal was to enjoy the flight. She said that it was exciting and fresh. “Seeing the boundless blue sky unfold in front of me, I feel it is very open,” she said.
The trainer said that Miao Xiaohong could finish the 30-hour flight to get a license for commercial flights. She said, “My physical condition is good enough to finish the 30-hour flight but it is not so important for me to get such a license. After achieving my dream of returning to the sky, I hope to encourage young women to join the airline industry. I’m 82 years old and I can fly again. You, the young people, can fly and will fly better than me.
1. What can we learn from the airdrop mission carried out by Miao Xiaohong?| A．She was a very beautiful pilot. | B．She had excellent flying skills. |
| C．She suffered from poor eyesight. | D．She usually completed hard tasks. |
| A．Her deep love for flights. | B．Her wish to set a flying record. |
| C．The requirements of her books. | D．The influence of other aged pilots. |
| A．Faithful. | B．Energetic. | C．Determined. | D．Enthusiastic. |
| A．Returning to the blue sky | B．Coming to join in the flight |
| C．Managing to finish difficult tasks | D．Improving yourself to set a record |
