1 . HONG KONG — At the school where Ko Cheuk-kiu works, there are neither school bells ringing nor students running around the playground. “You look good today. Shall we review the text together?” After greeting her student Hei Hei, Ko, in a light blue uniform, turns on her tablet computer and begins to teach at the bedside.
Founded in 1954, the Hong Kong Red Cross Hospital Schools initially provided services in only one public medical institution. Now, it is a special education institute funded by the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government, with 26 school units attached to 19 public hospitals. Its services are mainly divided into three fields — general specialty, psychiatry, and homebound teaching programs. The first two provide services for hospitalized students to reduce their difficulties in returning to school, while homebound teaching is aimed at students who need to stay at home to recover for a long period. Teachers are assigned to different hospitals or students’ homes and shift on a regular basis. Depending on the situation, teachers will carry out small group or one-on-one bedside teaching, and each session lasts about 30 minutes.
“Teaching children in a hospital? I was curious and keen to know more about it,” Ko recalls, explaining she first learned about the school from a newspaper report in 2009 when she had just finished her master’s degree in language. Ko, who also studied special education, applied for a teaching position at the school and was hired as a Chinese language teacher.
Teachers in hospitals have to meet students with different medical conditions and face all kinds of challenges every day, but Ko regards these experiences as training, which have led her to have a deeper appreciation of life. Over the years, Ko has received a lot of greeting cards from parents and students showing their appreciation. Looking at these warm words of encouragement, she silently sends her best wishes to the students. “I hope they can soon recover and go back to school, and continue to pursue their dreams,” she says.
1. What is Ko doing?| A．Teaching at home. | B．Teaching online. |
| C．Teaching in a hospital. | D．Teaching in a regular classroom. |
| A．It was founded by the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government. |
| B．It offers teaching services for students both in hospital and at home. |
| C．It runs on money raised from the public. |
| D．It assigns teachers to the same hospitals or students’ homes. |
| A．Because she was curious about teaching. | B．Because she knew a lot about the school. |
| C．Because she just graduated from university. | D．Because she could apply what she had learned. |
| A．Passionate and dedicated. | B．Responsible and diligent. |
| C．Genuine and aggressive. | D．Self-centered and sensitive. |
2 . French explorer Jacques Cartier is known mainly for exploring the St. Lawrence River and giving Canada its name.
Like many other European explorers, Jacques Cartier went to North America looking for gold and perhaps a shortcut to Asia.
Jacques Cartier was born on December 31, 1491 in Brittany, a province of France. In about 1534, the king of France asked him to lead an expedition(远征) to the New World in search of riches and a new route to Asia.
Cartier and his men were among the first Europeans to winter in what is now Canada.
Cartier once again crossed the Atlantic in 1541.
| A．A second voyage came in May 1535. |
| B．Instead he found the Saint Lawrence River. |
| C．The bitter cold surprised them, and some of the men died. |
| D．He made three voyages of exploration in dangerous waters. |
| E．Cartier was considered one of the most devoted explorers of the period. |
| F．He explored further and found what he thought were gold and diamonds. |
| G．In the spring of 1534 Cartier sailed across the Atlantic Ocean to what is now Canada. |
3 . Dear Editor,
Please publish more articles about women scientists. Women scientists have made outstanding contributions to the world. These women make excellent role models. More young women may choose science as a profession if women read featured articles on female scientists like Marie Curie and Rachel Carson. Both women were encouraged to study science, and they both accomplished great things.
With her father’s encouragement, Marie Curie made the world a better place through her scientific accomplishments. She studied the emission (放射) of rays from uranium (铀), a feature she called “radioactivity (放射性)”. Later, Curie and her husband, also a scientist, processed the mineral pitchblende before separating two radioactive elements (元素). With this discovery, Marie Curie earned her doctorate, and shortly thereafter, both she and her husband were awarded the 1903 Nobel Prize in physics. In 1911 Marie Curie won the Nobel Prize in chemistry for her work with the newly discovered elements; this work laid the foundation for Xrays and atomic physics.
When Rachel Carson was young, her mother encouraged her to study nature. As an adult, she became known as the mother of the modern environmental movement. After studying marine biology and zoology in college, Carson worked as a government scientist and wrote several books on how all living things relate to each other. In 1951 her book The Sea Around Us made scientific knowledge about the sea accessible to the general readers and remained on the bestseller list for eightysix weeks. In 1962 Carson wrote Silent Spring, a book that helped lead to improvements in the use of chemical pesticides (农药)．
Humans have benefited greatly from the work of Marie Curie and Rachel Carson. What if these women had not been encouraged to become scientists? I believe that we need to encourage young women to enter the field of science. With that goal in mind, I sincerely hope your magazine can publish more articles about the contributions that women make to science.
Sincerely,
Annie Bastien, Grade 7
Capistrano Middle School
1. According to the text, Marie Curie ．| A．achieved success with her father’s help | B．separated two radioactive elements alone |
| C．made contributions to the study of Xrays | D．won the Nobel Prize twice with her husband |
| A．She was a physicist and chemist. | B．Her books had a great influence on the public. |
| C．She was inspired by her father to become a scientist. | D．Her role as an environmentalist was rarely known by people. |
| A．She aims to become a scientist. | B．She likes reading and writing stories. |
| C．She has a great interest in women scientists. | D．She wants to publish articles in the magazine. |
4 . Narrative (叙事) poems — which simply mean “story poems”— are among the oldest forms of literature. Before there were printed books, people would tell stories through narrative poems, using rhythm, repetition and vivid language to make their tales easy to remember and share.
Choose a topic. Pick a story that you really want to tell.
Skip the buildup. Narrative poems don’t waste words introducing characters or explaining the scene — most dive right in. Try starting your narrative poem in the middle of the action scene.
Sweat the small stuff (小事). The best narrative poems use exact, descriptive words that bring out a story’s details and paint a rich picture.
| A．Repeat yourself. |
| B．Think of the five senses. |
| C．Try to divide your poem into several parts. |
| D．So readers can be brought immediately into the heart of your story. |
| E．Many older narrative poems have a set rhythm and rhyme structure. |
| F．A lot of older narrative poems tell beautiful love stories in everyday language. |
| G．It could be something that happened to you or something that’s completely fictional. |
5 . A list of Benjamin Franklin’s inventions reveals a man of many talents and interests. His natural curiosity about things and the way they work made him try to find ways to make them work better.
Ben had poor vision and needed glasses to read. He got tired of constantly taking them off and putting them back on, so he decided to figure out how his glasses would let him see both near and far. He had two pairs of glasses cut in half and put half of each lens (镜片) in a single frame. Today, we call them bifocals (双光眼镜).
Everyone knows the story of Ben’s famous kite flight. Although he made important discoveries and advancements, Ben did not “invent” the electricity. He did, however, invent the lightning rod which protects buildings and ships from lightning.
In colonial America, most people warmed their homes by building a fire in a fireplace even though it was dangerous and used a lot of wood. Ben figured that there had to be a better way. His invention of an iron furnace stove allowed people to warm their homes less dangerously and with less wood. The furnace stove that he invented is called the Franklin Stove. Interestingly enough, Ben also established the first fire company and the first fire insurance company in order to help people live more safely.
As a postmaster, Ben had to figure out routes for delivering the mail. He went out riding in his carriage to measure the routes and needed a way to keep track of the distance. He invented a simple odometer (里程表) and attached it to his carriage.
Later, other famous inventors, like Tomas A. Edison and Alexander Graham Bell, followed in Ben’s footsteps by trying to find ways to help people live better.
1. How many things invented by Benjamin Franklin are mentioned in the text?| A．3. | B．4. | C．5. | D．6. |
| A．Franklin invented the bifocals because of his poor vision. |
| B．Franklin invented the odometer to make his riding easier. |
| C．Franklin first invented the electricity and then the lightning rod. |
| D．Franklin invented the odometer when he worked in a post office. |
| A．They had a strong desire to make life better. |
| B．They were excellent students at school. |
| C．They were born in the same age. |
| D．They made people’s life simple. |
| A．The Life of Benjamin Franklin |
| B．Benjamin Franklin, A Great Inventor |
| C．A Man of Many Talents and Interests |
| D．How to Help People Live Better |
6 . A jobless man applied for a job as an office boy at a big company. The HR manager interviewed him and then watched him cleaning the floor as a test.
“You are employed,” the HR manager said. “Give me your email address and I’ll send you the application to fill in, as well as the date when you may start.”
The man replied, “But I don’t have a computer or an email account.”
“I’m sorry,” said the HR manager. “We can’t accept persons who do not use email.”
The man left with no hope at all. With only ten dollars in his pocket, he decided to go to the supermarket and buy 10 kg tomatoes. He then sold the tomatoes from door to door. In less than two hours, he succeeded to double his capital. He repeated this three times, and returned home happily with 60 dollars.
The man realised that he could survive in this way, and started to go every day early, and return late. Thus, his money doubled or tripled every day. Shortly, he bought a cart, then a truck, and then he had his own delivery vehicles. Five years later, the man was one of the biggest food retailers (零售商人) in the US.
He started to plan his family’s future and decided to have a life insurance. He called an insurance broker(经纪人) and chose a protection plan.
When the conversation ended, the broker asked him his email address. The man replied, “I don’t have an email account.”
The broker answered surprisingly, “You don’t have an email account, but you have succeeded to build an empire. Can you imagine what you could have been if you had an email?” The man thought for a while and replied, “Yes, I’d be an office boy at a company!”
1. Why couldn’t the man have the job at the big company?| A．Because he was lazy. |
| B．Because he didn’t pass the test. |
| C．Because he didn’t have an email account. |
| D．Because he didn’t clean the floor. |
| A．tomato | B．money | C．time | D．operation |
| A．He is one of the biggest food retailers in the world. |
| B．He started his career as an office boy in the supermarket. |
| C．He didn’t give up though he failed the interview. |
| D．He didn’t want to accept the job at the big company. |
| A．Misfortune may be an actual blessing. |
| B．Where there is a will, there is a way. |
| C．Accidents will happen. |
| D．No pains, no gains. |
7 . Peter Whittle helps people get their time back. From behind the counter (柜台) of his repair shop, he brings to life 19th-century pocket watches, old European clocks, and modern Rolexes.
Digital watches and cell phones may have replaced traditional timekeepers for many, but in the 20 years since he opened Whittle’s Watcn Works, the demand for his services has only grown. Open three days a week, Whittle’s shop takes in more than 1,000 watches a year, sometimes 10 in one day.
Sixty years ago, there were more than 50,000 independent watchmakers in America. These days, the number has dropped to fewer than 6,000, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
“People say no one wears watches anymore,” Whittle said. “But at home, somewhere in a drawer, you might have your mother’s watch or your grandfather’s watch. And one day, you might find that you want to get it repaired.”
Whittle said he’s been busy since the day he opened. He doesn’t advertise, and seldom has an online presence, but people knock on the door even when the closed sign is up. During office hours he wears a long white coat that makes him look like a doctor, which he is, in a way. Whittle’s services can cost very little, or hundreds. Working on Rolexes, each with about 225 pieces inside, costs an average of $700.
Joseph Caprara, a watch collector, has been coming to Whittle’s for more than ten years. Of the dozens of timepieces he’s brought to Whittle, one of the most memorable was an inexpensive watch his mother wore. “What he’s really doing sometimes is restoring memories, Caprara said. “Sometimes a watch is worth a lot more to a person than what you’d think.”
Though the great increase of cell phones has led to fewer people wearing watches, Jordan Ficklin, executive director of the American Watchmakers-Clockmakers Institute, sees hope for the industry in newer devices like Apples watches, which he says are bringing back that sense of a physical connection with a watch. And like traditional timepieces, the marketing around computerized watches often links the device to emotional experiences: a non-athlete training for a first marathon, a parent monitoring a child’s illness, people whose watches have become a basic part of their life.
1. What do we know about Whittle’s Watch Works?| A．It is going well. | B．It opens five days a week. |
| C．It needs online advertising. | D．It has fewer and fewer customers. |
| A．It is demanding | B．It is disappearing slowly. |
| C．It still has a market. | D．It should charge higher than before. |
| A．They are a waste of money. | B．They have gone out of fashion. |
| C．They are likely to rise in value. | D．They keep old memories alive. |
| A．They fail to sell well. | B．They will replace traditional watches. |
| C．They have a huge influence on cell phones. | D．They can also create emotional ties with customers. |
8 . How Arts Promote Our Economy
When most people think of the arts, they imagine the beautiful painting, a wonderful piece of music, or an awardwinning performance in the theater.
A successful arts neighborhood creates a ripple effect(连锁反应) throughout a community. In 2005, when the Bishop Arts Theatre was donated to our town, the location was considered a poor area of town. After investing more than $1 million in reconstructing the building, we began producing a full season of theater performances, jazz concerts, and yearround arts education programs in 2008. Nearly 40 percent of jazz lovers live outside of the Dallas city limits and drive or fly in to enjoy an evening in the Bishop Arts District.
It is wrong to suppose arts groups cannot make a profit(利润).
| A．The arts create jobs that help develop the economy. |
| B．But arts groups bring more value to our communities. |
| C．Another group of people is needed to help market the event. |
| D．But in order to stay in business, arts groups must produce returns. |
| E．No doubt the theater has contributed to the area’s development and economic growth. |
| F．Arts play an important part in improving our mood (心情) and our relationship with others. |
| G．Now, more and more young people dream of becoming a singer but they don't think of the pains that they will take. |
9 . British English and American English have many differences. The difference also exists in the letters of the alphabet (字母表). Or, more specifically (具体地), the last letter of the alphabet. Z is pronounced as “zed” in Britain while in America, it is pronounced as “zee”.
“Zee” showed up on the scene in modern English. Dr. Adam Crowley, an associate professor of English in Husson University’s College of Science and Humanities, suggests that the popularity of “zee” grew because it rhymes (押韵) with so many other letters, like B, C, and P.
After the Revolutionary War, Americans were trying to set up an identity separate from the British, and words and language played a big role in this.
And then, there’s The Alphabet Song. In the song, z is pronounced as “zee”.
| A．“Zed” came first. |
| B．Noah Webster led this movement. |
| C．The pronunciation sounds foreign to Americans. |
| D．But it’s not just the United Kingdom that uses “zed”. |
| E．There’s no other letter that ends with the “-ed” sound. |
| F．The song is so popular that it easily gets stuck in your head. |
| G．In the United Kingdom, though, “zee” never really became popular. |
Most people know that Charles Darwin was the father of evolutionary biology. However, what is not widely known is what sort of person he was.
In his autobiography (自传), Darwin described himself as a rather “naughty” child. He stole fruit from the trees on the side of his parents’ house, made up wild stories, and tried to be the center of attention in the family.
Even worse, it seemed that Charles Darwin was a lazy young man and a slow learner at grammar school. He was a rather shy student but he did take great pleasure in showing off his athletic skills to the other schoolboys. It is not known how well Darwin did at school, but we could say that he was likely to be an unremarkable student.
When Darwin was nine years old, his father sent him to a boy’s boarding school. At this school, Darwin learned classics, ancient history and Greek, all of which he found boring. He was not inspired much by his schooling. He found his only pleasure there was reading Shakespeare’s historical plays, the poems of Byron, Scott, and Thomson. His increased interest in natural science was encouraged by events outside his formal education.
As Darwin grew older, collecting became his major hobby. It became very clear that Darwin was not taking his studies seriously.
1. We can infer from paragraph 1 that when Darwin was a child, his father thought _____.| A．he was not a common child | B．he would become a great man |
| C．he didn’t care about his family | D．he wouldn’t achieve anything |
| A．had a gift for language | B．liked to be the center of attention |
| C．was “naughty” when he was a child | D．was a very good storyteller |
| A．able | B．honest | C．ordinary | D．ugly |
| A．Darwin thought classics, ancient history and Greek boring. |
| B．Darwin was inspired much by his schooling. |
| C．Darwin disliked reading Shakespeare’s historical plays. |
| D．Darwin’s interest in natural science was encouraged by events in his formal education. |
