Last year, my brother and I went to Miami for a vacation. Some of my
After our plane landed, we went to the hotel. We had made our reservation (预定) six months
The next day, my brother and I went to the beach
2 . It’s always hard to ask for help. It can be embarrassing (尴尬) too — especially if you feel like everyone else is keeping up except you.
Admitting you need help is a sign of strength, not weakness.
It’s easy to tell yourself things like “I should be able to handle (处理) this by myself.”
Getting help can save you a lot of time.
In order to spare your pride, it can be tempting (诱人的) to try to go it alone. But your refusal to ask for help may make you waste a lot of time trying to do things on your own. In some cases, early asking is best. It’s a lot easier to get help when you first see warming signs, rather than after five years. Or, it’s easier to fix a problem that you’ve only screwed up (弄糟) a little.
You aren’t the only one who is struggling.
Someone else is also struggling.
Some people fear that asking for help will bother (打扰) someone else. But studies show asking someone for a favor (帮忙) is more likely to cause the person to like you more. And researchers have confirmed (证实) asking for help could make you more popular.
| A．But those messages won’t do you any good. |
| B．They might not be brave enough to admit it. |
| C．Seeking assistance (援助) gives others an opportunity (机会). |
| D．Asking for help can make you more comfortable. |
| E．You regard yourself as the only one falling behind (落后). |
| F．Never wait until you’ve caused some serious damage (损坏). |
| G．The more often you do it, the more confident (有信心的) you’ll become. |
3 . Guangzhou(Xinhua)-12 people were killed and 20 injured early yesterday morning when they jumped from a burning train car into the path of an oncoming goods train in Southern China. When No. 247 Wuchang-Guangzhou passenger train was passing the Dayaoshan Tunnel in Guangdong Province,South China at 00:17 yesterday,a fire caused by passengers’ smoking broke out on No. 17 car. They wanted to extinguish fire. As the train stopped,some frightened passengers jumped from windows. 12 people were crushed to death and 20 others injured by a northward passing goods train(No. 1766).
1. In which direction did the passenger train travel?| A．Northward. | B．Southward. | C．Eastward. | D．Westward. |
| A．At 00:17 am. | B．At 00:17 pm. | C．At seventeen past one. | D．At seventeen to one. |
| A．In Wuchang. | B．In Guangzhou. | C．In Hubei. | D．In Guangdong. |
| A．A heavy rain. | B．High temperature. | C．Smoking. | D．Fear. |
4 . If you are afraid of insects (昆虫), this might be difficult reading. A fossil (化石) found on a beach in England shows that the biggest insect that ever lived was the size of a small car.
The fossil is of a large millipede (千足虫). This monster could have had hundreds of legs. Its body is similar to the modern millipede. Although the name “millipede” means “one thousand legs” in Latin, few species (物种) actually have 1, 000 feet. The fossil hunters in England said what they found was “certainly the biggest insect that ever lived.” They said the millipede was around 2.7 meters long and weighed over 50 kg. This would have been a frightening sight.
Only two other fossils of this kind have been found before. However, this fossil is the largest and the oldest. The scientistsfound the fossil by chance (偶然). A lecturer at the University of Cambridge’s Department of Earth Sciences said he found a rock on the beach. Ithad recently fallen from a cliff (悬崖). He said, “It was a complete fluke (侥幸) of a discovery. It was an exciting finding.”
He explained that the fossil dates back (追溯到) over326 million years. This was 100 million years before the Age of Dinosaurs. The researchers believe that the millipede had a good food because it was so huge. They said, “While we can’t know for sure what they ate, there were plenty of nuts and seeds available... at the time.” They might also have eaten frogs and lizards, but not humans.
Their disappearance (消失) was possibly linked to global warming or due to being out-competed for food after the rise of reptiles. The fossil hasbeen taken to Cambridge for study. It was so big that it required four people to carry it. Cambridge’s Sedgwick Museum will exhibit the fossil in the New Year.
1. Where was the fossil discovered?| A．In a small car. | B．In the sea water. | C．On a cliff. | D．On the beach. |
| A．It had 1,000 feet. | B．It lived for such a long time. |
| C．It was a very large insect. | D．It was different from the modern millipede. |
| A．The millipede had good food. | B．The millipede liked eating nuts and seeds. |
| C．The millipede weighed less than 50kg. | D．The millipede was about 300 years old. |
| A．A storybook. | B．A newspaper. |
| C．An accident(事故) report. | D．A science-fiction(科幻) novel(小说). |
5 . A woman in California has been regarded as a hero. She used her bare hands (赤手空拳) to fight off a 65-pound mountain lion that was attacking (袭击) her five-year-old son. The animal attacked the boy while he was playing in his family’s front yard, leaving him with injuries (伤害) to his head, neck and chest. The lion was carrying away her five-year-old son. It “dragged (拖) him about 45 yards” across the front yard. Luckily, the boy was in stable condition, recovering from the incident.
The boy’s mother heard the noises from inside the house and ran outside and “started fighting against the mountain lion with her bare hands and got him off her son,” said Foy, a spokesman for California Department of Fish and Wildlife. Her instinct as a mother played the most important role as she dragged her little boy from the mouth of the big cat. “The true hero of this story is his mom,“ Foy added. The mountain lion was later killed by a wildlife officer.
The parents immediately drove the boy to a hospital, where officers were toldabout the attack and sent a wildlife officer to the scene. Once at the house, the officer discovered amountain lion. “Because of its behavior and appearance, the officer believed it was likely the attacking lion and to protect publicsafety he killed it,” the wildlife department said. DNA tests later proved it was really the attacking lion. They said the attack probably happened because the animal was young and was practicing its hunting skills.
After the mountain lion was shot, another appeared there and it was dragged and moved to another place. That mountain lion, found to be part of a National Park Service study, didn’t join in the attack and had no known history of attacking humans, the department said.
1. Why was the woman regarded (认为) as a hero?| A．She killed a mountain lion bravely. |
| B．She saved her son from a lion’s attack. |
| C．She helped officers find the lost lion. |
| D．She protected her son from being injured. |
| A．Natural ability. | B．Creative idea | C．Enough confidence(信心). | D．Strong body. |
| A．It felt too hungry. |
| B．It was angry with the boy. |
| C．It wanted to play with him. |
| D．It was practicing its survival (生存) skills. |
| A．It was killed. | B．It had attacked humans before. |
| C．It did not have known history of attacking humans. | D．It was injured for unknown reasons. |
Cholera used to be one of the most feared diseases in the world, until a British doctor, John Snow, showed how it could be overcome. This illness caused diarrhea, dehydration, and even
Snow began by marking on a map the exact places
Through Snow’s tireless efforts, water companies began to sell clean water, and the threat of cholera around the world saw a substantial decrease.
7 . When we talk about learning a foreign language, we often talk about different methods and do our best to look for ways to improve it, but often forget the most important thing—motivation.
Woody Allen once said, “80% of success in life is showing up.” Now, that is an interesting quote and what do I want to tell with it? It’s really simple, actually.
When you’re not motivated, you won’t show up to learn your target language(or anything else in fact). Unfortunately, it’s not possible to learn a language through osmosis (潜移默化); you need to work, and you need to show up. We try to motivate ourselves for many things, but somehow we only look at methods when learning a foreign language.
That’s why I think being motivated is the most important thing in language learning. It’s possible to learn many things in a short amount of time, but to truly learn a language to fluency you need years of input, study and practice.
So, before you begin, ask yourself: Why do I want to learn this language? Can I actually use it? Are there enough materials to learn it from? Am I sure I still want to be learning this language three years from now? If your answer to those questions is yes, you’re probably motivated enough to go on and learn that language you want to learn.
Now, why do you need to have a strong motivation to learn a foreign language? Simply because it isn’t an easy task. It will take several years to become fluent, and several years more to completely master it. This isn’t something you just do.You need to have a dream, a goal to work towards.
1. What does “quote” in Paragraph 2 mean?| A．A cited statement. |
| B．A punctuation mark. |
| C．An interesting activity. |
| D．A humorous cartoon. |
| A．To see whether you are motivated. |
| B．To check whether you are qualified. |
| C．To prove whether you can learn it. |
| D．To show whether you can succeed. |
| A．Because it’s meaningful to learn a foreign language. |
| B．Because it’s necessary to have a dream. |
| C．Because it’s difficult to master a foreign language. |
| D．Because it’s easy to have a strong motivation. |
8 . In January, a few days after a heavy snowfall, I walked my dog through Toronto’s Don Valley as usual. I found a ring with a Cartier logo in the white
When my daughter came back from Europe, I showed her the ring. My daughter’s
I found hundreds of such names, but never the two
I explained how I found the ring, and only because of my daughter had I discovered their names. They shared how they
| A．snow | B．ice | C．earth | D．grass |
| A．bought | B．lost | C．returned | D．designed |
| A．explained | B．accepted | C．remembered | D．responded |
| A．eyesight | B．intention | C．heart | D．decision |
| A．marks | B．names | C．letters | D．cartoons |
| A．gentleman | B．stores | C．couple | D．friends |
| A．alone | B．together | C．ahead | D．nearby |
| A．strange | B．terrible | C．familiar | D．last |
| A．silent | B．patient | C．sad | D．bored |
| A．imagined | B．mentioned | C．suggested | D．regretted |
| A．address | B．ring | C．number | D．note |
| A．frightened | B．puzzled | C．interested | D．excited |
| A．meet | B．remind | C．contact | D．invite |
| A．valued | B．missed | C．found | D．quit |
| A．poster | B．book | C．gift | D．photo |
9 . I always carry a Rubik’s Cube (魔方) in my backpack. Solving it quickly is a start of a(n)
Holding a Cube, people usually don’t know where to begin. That’s
It was at that time that I taught myself to solve the cube, which made me
The Rubik’s Cube taught me that to
| A．intervention | B．interaction | C．tradition | D．expectation |
| A．generate | B．digest | C．adopt | D．overcome |
| A．exactly | B．mostly | C．barely | D．merely |
| A．inferences | B．comments | C．sense | D．conclusions |
| A．embarrassing | B．surprising | C．rewarding | D．confusing |
| A．assess | B．analyse | C．realize | D．forecast |
| A．eastward | B．westward | C．backward | D．forward |
| A．novel | B．mirror | C．quote | D．fantasy |
| A．ban | B．continue | C．expand | D．start |
| A．strategies | B．conclusions | C．essays | D．plans |
| A．defend | B．link | C．achieve | D．desert |
| A．break down | B．break in | C．break out | D．break off |
| A．apparent | B．easy | C．difficult | D．critical |
| A．convince | B．require | C．warn | D．remind |
| A．regardless of | B．prior to | C．thanks to | D．instead of |
10 . After entering high school, you must wonder how to study well. Here are some good skills for you.
Go to class.
If you want to do well at school, going to class is the first step in studying well. If you miss classes, you will miss what the teacher thinks is important; as a result, you’ll miss what is the most likely to end up on the test.
Take good notes.
Try not to write down everything.
If you are struggling in class, talk to your teacher. He or she may be able to give you more help before or after class. Most teachers have little sympathy(同情) for students who just become worried about failing during the last few weeks of the grading period.
Take part in class discussions.
In order to learn more in class, it is helpful to take part in class discussions. Asking questions and having eye contact with your teachers and classmates can increase your focus during the class discussion.
Form study groups.
Get students together who want to do well in class. Make sure that everyone is familiar with the material because you do not want to spend time re-teaching material to people who do not understand it.
| A．But be careful! | B．Don’t be late for your class． | C．Talk to your teacher if you need help． | D．You should write down all the new terms． | E．So if you want to study well, go to every class． | F．All you need is to put down the main points in your own words． | G．In order to learn more in classit is helpful to take part in class discussions |
