1 . In 1990, Hal Donaldson was 23 years old, fresh out of college and found himself in Calcutta, India, where he was asked to interview Mother Teresa.
Donaldson says about the great woman famed for feeding the hungry, “She wasn’t wearing shoes and her ankles were swollen. She sat down with me and was very polite.” After the interview, Mother Teresa asked him, “What are you doing to help the poor?” Donaldson admitted that he was young and wasn’t focused on helping others. With a smile on her face, Mother Teresa said, “Everyone can do something.”
Those words deeply struck Donaldson and forced him to face hard truths about himself.
Hal Donaldson grew up in the San Francisco Bay area. When he was 12 years old, his parents were hit by a drunk driver; his father died, and his mother was seriously injured. To make ends meet, they went on welfare. Donaldson says, “I had holes in my shoes and clothes. When you’re teased at school for that, you just want to escape.”
He managed to do just that. Donaldson got into college and turned his focus to making money for himself. He says, “I was just trying to find my way out of insignificance.” However, it’s easy to overlook others along the way. I was the guy that would see a homeless person and cross the street, so I didn’t have to confront (面对) him. My focus was on climbing to the top instead of helping those trying to climb with me.
Donaldson returned home from India with a different thought. He traveled to eight cities in America and stayed on the streets and listened to stories of the homeless. “My heart broke,” he says. “I knew I could no longer just live for myself.”
Inspired by Mother Teresa’s words and the stories he’d heard across America, Donaldson loaded a pick up truck with $300 worth of groceries and handed them out to anyone who needed help. In 1994, Donaldson created the nonprofit organization, Convoy for Hope, which works with communities across America and around the world. Their work focuses on feeding children, women’s empowerment, helping farmers and disaster services.
1. What did 23-year-old Hal Donaldson do in India?A.He interviewed Mother Teresa. |
B.He fed the hungry with Mother Teresa. |
C.He attended an job-interview for a college. |
D.He did something to help the poor. |
A.He was born with disability. | B.He led a hard life as a child. |
C.He was well treated at school. | D.He survived as an orphan. |
A.Self-centered | B.Sympathetic | C.Popular | D.Generous |
A.He preferred traveling to volunteering. |
B.He suddenly fell in love with journalism. |
C.He turned his focus to living for himself. |
D.He gradually devoted himself to helping others. |
2 . A famous magazine, Amusement Today, does a survey among park lovers every year both in the US and overseas, based on which, “Top 5 List of the Best Amusement Parks in the World” has come out as follows:
Disneyland, California
Disneyland is a theme park in Anaheim, California, the US. More than 515 million guests have traveled to this American landmark from around the world since the park first opened to guests on July 17, 1955. The park consists of many world-famous sections, such as Main Street, Adventure land, New Orleans Square, and so on.
Magic Kingdom, Disney World, Florida
Magic Kingdom is a theme park within the Walt Disney World Resort in Lake Buena Vista, Florida, near Orlando opened on October 1, 1971. It is the most famous theme park in Florida. The park’s design and attractions don’t make much difference from Disneyland Park in Anaheim.
EPCOT, Disney World, Florida
EPCOT is the second theme park built at the Walt Disney World Resort near Orlando, Florida. The park opened on October 1, 1982, and was named EPCOT Center from 1982 to 1993. It was the largest Disney theme park in the world until 1998, when Disney’s Animal Kingdom opened.
DisneyMGM Studios, Florida
MGM’s streets are the home for some great moviethemed attractions with a history of less than 30 years. With the addition of the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror and the Rock and Roller Coaster, the park is now home to Disney World’s most thrilling rides.
Universal Studios, Florida
Go behind the scenes, beyond the screen and jump right into the action of your favorite movies at Universal Studios, the number one movie and TV theme park in the world.
1. Which of the following theme parks have similar attractions?A.Disneyland & Magic Kingdom. |
B.Disneyland & Universal Studios. |
C.EPCOT & DisneyMGM Studios. |
D.Magic Kingdom & Universal Studios. |
A.Magic Kingdom, Disney World, Florida. |
B.DisneyMGM Studios, Florida. |
C.EPCOT, Disney World, Florida. |
D.Disneyland, California. |
A.To attract tourists to these theme parks. |
B.To increase the sales of Amusement Today. |
C.To introduce world’s best amusement parks. |
D.To compare attractions in different theme parks. |
3 . After I made it to the city center, I started to feel it might be easy for a foreigner to deal with the great size of Beijing. With growing confidence, I decided to take the subway to the hotel, not realizing that the network didn’t go that far. Impressed with the cleanliness of the station, I bought a ticket and boarded the first subway that came along.
After a few minutes I asked in English a young man seated next to me where I should get off closest to the Friendship Hotel. Wearing a smart business suit and tie, he would surely speak English, wouldn’t he? Unfortunately, he couldn’t understand me but seemed very friendly. I showed him the room card with all the information of the Friendship Hotel in Chinese characters. He looked at it, and then his eyes moved quickly to the carriage (车厢) subway map. Next, he raised three fingers of his right hand.
In Australia, raising fingers at someone is not usually nice, but this man wasn’t smiling. At the next station he showed me two fingers. Now in Australia, that’s really rude, but I got the message. When we stopped at the third station, he didn’t just point to the door, but got up, took me out of the train, and led me to the top of the stairs, and out onto the street. Then he stopped a taxi and told the driver where to take me.
All this came from a man who couldn’t speak my language, and I couldn’t speak his. I was now speechless, especially when he refused my offer of money. I felt a little embarrassed having even thought he would accept a tip.
This experience made it clear I had to learn some Chinese quickly or my adventures might start turning into misadventures.
1. Why does the author decided to take the subway?A.Because he believed in his ability to deal with the trip |
B.Because the network covered most of the stops |
C.Because he lived near the city center |
D.Because he had a good impression of its cleanliness |
A.still remained puzzled | B.understood the author well |
C.answered the author directly | D.pointed at the subway map |
A.helpful. | B.impolite. | C.warm-hearted. | D.responsible. |
A.To prove the importance of being careful |
B.To introduce a young man who didn’t know English |
C.To complain some cultural misunderstanding |
D.To describe one of his adventurous experiences |
4 . To figure out if we can die of boredom, we first have to understand what boredom is. For help, I called James Danckert, a psychologist who studies boredom at the University of Waterloo in Canada. “A lot of people think about being bored as being lazy. And it’s absolutely not that,” he says. “Bored people want to be engaged with their world, eager to do something satisfying and exciting. But any attempt to do so is failing.”
That means boredom is usually very upsetting. And it can have physical consequences. In one of his experiments, Danckert made people extremely bored by showing them a video of two people hanging clothes to dry. He found that when people got bored, their hearts beat faster and their levels of a hormone called cortisol (皮质醇) went up, compared to when they watched another video that made them sad. These physical changes were signs that boredom was stressing them out. “It’s not like having a full-on panic attack,”Danckert says. But it’s certainly enough to make boredom unpleasant.
Let’s come back to if boredom can kill you. Back in the 1980s, scientists asked people who worked for the British government a whole bunch of questions, including how bored they felt in their daily lives. The study tracked the participants over time. When any one of them died, the survey recorded the cause of death. In 2010, two researchers matched up these causes of death with the participants’ level of boredom. It turned out that people who said they were more bored were also more likely to have died of heart disease. “We know that prolonged exposure to stress is bad for your health,” Danckert says. A single boring day can’t kill you. But if you’re always bored, the stress could add up into something dangerous.
“Oh no,” you might be thinking. “School is boring, my friends are boring, everything is boring! What’s going to happen to me?” Don’t worry, Danckert says, “As you get older, you get less bored,” mainly because you gain more independence and have to get busy to achieve your long-term goals. And trust me: that’s anything but boring.
1. According to James Danckert, people feel bored because ______.A.they are too lazy to do anything | B.they can’t fully understand boredom |
C.they are too frightened to have a try | D.they can’t gain excitement in life |
A.Doing housework will make people bored. |
B.Physical changes can lead to extreme boredom. |
C.People’s heart rate increases with boredom. |
D.Watching something sad is a boring experience. |
A.Continued. | B.Short. | C.Sudden. | D.Active. |
A.Depending on friends. | B.Setting long-term goals. |
C.Keeping yourself occupied. | D.Trusting people around you. |
5 . I’m a strong believer that learning different languages makes you look incredibly good when you’re in a foreign country and can understand and speak the language. The list below is 4 apps that will help you learn a foreign language! You can download them for free.
Babbel- Learn languages
Babbel is an excellent language tool to help you progress step by step with learning a new language. It helps you learn grammar along the way as you work your way through the tasks and assignments. You need to pay a monthly subscription (订阅费), but this will still be cheaper than taking physical lessons with a tutor!
Duolingo-Learn Language Free
The app has many languages to choose from and will work through the basics all the way to advanced words and sentences. It’s all completely free too! It’s incredibly well designed, looks great and will help you learn, remember and progress with just a little bit of time every day.
Tandem-Language Exchange
Rather than have you work through tasks and memorize different things, the app lets you match with people who share your interests but speak the language you want to learn. You can then have text, voice and video conversation with people who want to learn your native language, and in return you learn theirs, all by simply communicating with each other. It’s a great way to learn with only 1$ a day.
Learn English Online-busuu
This app is perfect if you want to learn English. There are all sorts of audio and visual learning aids (you should pay for your VIP membership). You’ll find yourself working through interactive tests and learning tools for vocabulary and dialogue.
1. Which app suits you best if you want to learn through communication?A.Babbel-Learn Language | B.Tandem-Language Exchange |
C.Duolingo-Learn Languages Free | D.Learn English Online-busuu |
A.It is completely free to use. | B.It is specially for English learning. |
C.It is unsuitable for beginners. | D.It is the most effective app. |
A.They cover all languages. | B.They focus on grammar. |
C.They contain many tests. | D.They are free to download. |
6 . Like most people, I was not sure about using virtual reality (VR) (虚拟现实) for travel. However, driven by the chance to experience places and things I could never visit without time, money, and travel, I visited the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry (MSI) to check out their spacewalk VR Transporter. The visit turned out to be the most unforgettable experience that I’d ever had. After an hour or so, I took off the VR headset (眼罩), feeling as if I had actually been staying in space for months.
As we move through the post-COVID era (后疫情时代), international travel and large events have both been slow to return, so Ceek, an APP for virtual events and experiences, has been developed to allow users to travel through time and space with great joy. Mary Spio, Ceek CEO, explains that the combination of sights and sounds is important. “So our users can listen and see everything at the same time.”
The promise of VR is that it helps us rethink what travel even means. “Traveling can be crossing cultures, crossing memories, and can be done in your mind,” says David Askaryan, CEO of the Museum of Future Experiences. He says MOFE’s VR technology create “an experience where the world around you just completely changes for 70 minutes.”
In the post-COVID era, with our vacation days or travel money running short, virtual reality may be the next best way to visit the destinations that have been lighting up our social timeline, or are on our list. As for me, I’m already planning my next VR trip: an underwater VR experience.
1. Why did the writer visit MSI?A.To study space science. | B.To buy VR headsets. |
C.To try VR travel. | D.To learn spacewalk skills. |
A.Travel through space and time with great joy in reality. |
B.Listen and see everything in the world. |
C.Experience a wonderful virtual trip. |
D.Discover the sights and sounds during the post-COVID era. |
A.It focuses on one culture. | B.It provides a new experience. |
C.It helps build up memories. | D.It changes the world around us. |
A.It will become popular. | B.It will happen underwater. |
C.It will be more expensive. | D.It will take days to finish. |
7 . My wife and I moved into our home two years ago. We had a yard with a lot of
Last summer, I found a tiny little plant in the yard that I could not immediately identify. I knew I didn’t plant it and Denise said she didn’t either.
We decided to let it
Weeks passed and as I made my way back to the
That’s when I
We need to believe in ourselves knowing we have the
A.flower | B.insects | C.vegetables | D.rocks |
A.water | B.fertilizer | C.color | D.shape |
A.stop | B.continue | C.improve | D.escape |
A.weak | B.strange | C.lonely | D.pretty |
A.collect | B.tend | C.remove | D.watch |
A.unusual | B.wonderful | C.terrible | D.valuable |
A.passed | B.started | C.left | D.died |
A.air | B.top | C.sun | D.house |
A.hoped | B.realized | C.doubted | D.regretted |
A.fill in | B.put in | C.worry about | D.believe in |
A.forget | B.hate | C.aim | D.wait |
A.wish | B.plan | C.ability | D.idea |
A.faith | B.energy | C.virtue | D.courage |
A.aware | B.afraid | C.proud | D.tired |
A.forgive | B.support | C.upset | D.affect |
My friend Tony and I always walk hoe together after school. Last Monday, however, something happened
We were walking that day when we heard
1. 慎重交友 | 2. 遇险报警 |
How to Keep Safe | |
3. 安全饮食 | 4. 其他(1-2点) |
2. 表达清楚,语句通顺,语意连贯,书写规范;
3. 词数80左右。
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
10 . Big Ben is not the name of a man. It is the name, of a huge (庞大的) clock in London. London is the capital of England. This clock has four faces. So, no matter where you stand, you can read the time on the face of Big Ben. Each face is the size of a double-decker (双层的) bus. The hands are about four meters long. It is about the size of two people standing on top of each other. If you go to London, you may want to visit the Houses of Parliament (国会大厦). There you will find Big Ben sits at the top of the clock tower (塔) in the Houses of Parliament. Maybe you will hear it as well as see it. The huge clock makes such a loud noise. “Ding dong, ding dong,” it goes every quarter of an hour.
The clock was named after a big man. He was Sir Benjamin Hali. This man did much building work in London many years ago.
1. Big Ben is ______.A.a double-decker bus | B.a huge clock |
C.the name of Ben | D.another name of London |
A.ten minutes | B.fifteen minutes |
C.thirty minutes | D.forty minutes |
A.at the top of the clock tower | B.in the Houses of Parliament |
C.on the four faces of the clock | D.under the clock tower |