1 . Colorado’s Grays Peak rises 14,278 feet above sea level, high enough that trees can’t grow towards the top, though there are plenty of bushes, rocks, etc. It was in this unforgiving place that Bev Wedelstedt was unlucky enough to have a bitter experience.
It was August 2018, and Wedelsted,56, was on her way back down the trail (小路) with three friends. A storm was upon, and they were anxious to get off the mountain. When they approached a rocky drop of a couple of feet, Wedelstedt decided that instead of shaking down on her hip — the safe way to go — she would leap. Then she landed on her left leg and heard a snap (劈啪声).
Every step after that was painful. Before long, she had to stop. As one friend ran down to get help, a number of other hikers, all strangers, attempted to help her down the narrow trail by walking on either side of her to support her weight, but that proved slow and dangerous.
Finally, one hiker, Matt, asked her, “How do you feel about a fireman’s carry?” Before she knew it, he lifted her over his shoulder. Matt clearly couldn’t carry her all the way down by himself. So six hikers and one of her friends followed. Three hours and two mountainous miles later, this human conveyor belt finally met the ambulance men, who took Wedelstedt to the hospital.
Now Wedelstedt has mostly recovered from her ill-fated hike, but she knows she’ll never shake one thing from that day: the memory of the band of strangers who came to her rescue. “I told them I wanted to meet a lot of guys, but this isn’t the way I wanted to do it. I’m still in awe now,” she said.
1. What is the writing purpose of the first paragraph?| A．To call on readers to have a trip there. |
| B．To introduce the scenery of Grays Peak. |
| C．To show the difficult situation for hikers. |
| D．To describe Wedelstedt’s favorite travel. |
| A．Walking down the rocky mountain. |
| B．Supporting Wedelstedt to walk. |
| C．Leaping from the mountain top. |
| D．Keeping Wedelstedt on the trail. |
| A．By giving her encouragement. | B．By supporting her on both sides. |
| C．By following her all the way. | D．By carrying her by turns. |
| A．She is still scared nowadays. | B．She will forget the sad event. |
| C．She has a fresh good memory. | D．She is respectful to the strangers. |
2 . “The ant and the zebra” sounds like the title of one of Aesop’s fables (寓言). Like all good. fables, this one has a moral, which is that human intervention in nature has unpredictable consequences. Unlike the Greek originals, though, this fable is real.
The story plays out in Laikipia county, Kenya, where the big-headed ants, an invasive (入侵的) species have gradually been replacing the native acacia ants. As Mr Kamaru, a Kenyan biologist from the University of Wyoming, and his colleagues report in Science, the an t invasion has triggered a complicated chain of consequences which has helped zebras at the expense of buffaloes, thus neatly illustrating a phenomenon called trophic cascade (营养级链).
It works like this. A kind of tree — whistling-thorn trees — provides the ants with shelter and food. The ants, meanwhile, protect the trees by seeing off the chief threat to them, the local elephants, which are not keen to eat trees, crawling with biting insects. However, big-headed ants are not so good at keeping the elephants at bay (陷入困境). The elephants move in and chew the trees, removing much of the area’s cover. That throws the local lions into confusion, which often use this cover to hide when hunting zebras. To compensate (补偿), the lions switch to hunting buffaloes, which are more dangerous, but run slower.
Mr Kamaru has put numbers to the process too. In invaded areas, elephants break trees five to seven times as often as in uninvaded ones. And in those uninvaded places, zebra kills are almost three times as frequent as those in the invaded ones. Indeed, between 2003 and 2020, as the big-headed ants spread, the proportion (比例) of local lion kills where the victim was a zebra fell from 67% to 42%. On the contrary, over the same period, the proportion of buffalo kills rose from zero to 42%. Whether the buffaloes blame the ants for their misfortune, no one knows.
1. What is the second paragraph mainly about?| A．How human activities impact nature. |
| B．What the phenomenon of trophic cascade is. |
| C．How the big-headed ants invade a county in Kenya. |
| D．Why the story about different species is significant. |
| A．Lions. | B．Buffaloes. | C．Elephants. | D．Zebras. |
| A．To show the results. | B．To explain the reasons. |
| C．To analyze the process. | D．To give some examples. |
| A．The Misfortune of Animals | B．The Secrets of Nature |
| C．How Zebras and Ants Become Friends | D．How Ants Persuaded Lions to Eat Buffaloes |
3 . It happened towards the end of secondary school before the state exams every Irish teenager has to sit if they want to go to university. Our only objective for an entire year was to memorize as much information as possible in order to deal with one exam after another. Our teacher’s only objective was to repeat all that information.
And it was just another day of that when it happened. I didn’t know why, but the teacher suddenly went off script, broke off what he was saying and considered us for a moment.
Then he spoke about how we were going to leave school soon, and head into the world, separately, forever. He said we wouldn’t be able to grasp it yet, but our horizons were about to expand in ways we wouldn’t believe. As a teenage boy, I thought it was inspiring to hear an adult address us like this, not as kids to whom he needed to pass information, but as humans with whom he wanted to share something like wisdom.
What stayed with me was the image he used. He said our awareness would be like a flame in a dark cave. The brighter and larger the flame grew, the more of the cave we would see. But with every bit of light, there would come a growing awareness of the vastness of the cave, of just how little of it we were actually seeing, and of how much more space and opportunity was left for our flame to grow.
According to him, life isn’t about reaching firm conclusions anyway, but about opening yourself to the possibility that you might be wrong, and that there’s always more to learn. Every awkward mistake can be a feeding of that flame.
What my teacher said passed by quietly in a sunlit classroom, but it kicked open a door in my mind, a door through which much of my subsequent life has flowed.
1. What can we learn about the author in the first paragraph?| A．He had difficulty with exams. | B．He was not confident of himself. |
| C．He didn’t get on well with teachers. | D．He had a boring secondary school year. |
| A．What we have already known. | B．How far we want to see. |
| C．How we would grow up. | D．Where we should go. . |
| A．Humble. | B．Inspiring. | C．Dynamic. | D．Generous. |
| A．To stay respectful to teachers. | B．To be content with what we have. |
| C．To be open to all the possibilities. | D．To make up for the past mistakes. |
4 . When faced with a big challenge, maybe you’ve heard this advice before: “Be more confident.”
Then where does confidence come from? There are several factors that affect confidence. Firstly, what you’re born with, such as your genes. Secondly, how you’re treated.
● Find a quick fix.
●
● Practice failure. Face it. You’re going to fail sometimes. Studies show that those who fail regularly and keep trying anyway are better equipped to respond to challenges and setbacks in a constructive way.
| A．Promote feelings of power. |
| B．But what is confidence? |
| C．But how can we become confident? |
| D．Believe in your ability to improve. |
| E．This includes the social pressures of your environment. |
| F．They learn how to try different strategies, ask others for advice, and carry on. |
| G．There are a few tricks that can give you an immediate confidence boost in the short term. |
5 . In 1985, Vanessa Foster and her husband hopped on a flight to Alaska without any plan. When they
“I hopped out and
As they walked down the
“When he heard we were
The
“I really appreciate his kindness toward a couple of
| A．escaped | B．came | C．won | D．landed |
| A．car | B．map | C．horse | D．tent |
| A．lesson | B．bike | C．ride | D．treat |
| A．gave up | B．pulled over | C．checked out | D．sat down |
| A．rushed | B．preferred | C．appealed | D．referred |
| A．wandered | B．searched | C．played | D．drove |
| A．asked | B．invited | C．became | D．needed |
| A．hill | B．plane | C．bank | D．highway |
| A．break | B．pick | C．clean | D．eat |
| A．Currently | B．Occasionally | C．Finally | D．Frequently |
| A．little | B．black | C．unpleasant | D．blue |
| A．jobless | B．hungry | C．tired | D．cold |
| A．story | B．scenery | C．experience | D．book |
| A．forget | B．miss | C．hate | D．forgive |
| A．writers | B．thieves | C．animals | D．strangers |
When I was working, I happened to hear two of my co-workers talking about a great college for poor people in Virginia. It was Hampton Institute. The school was established to provide opportunities for poor but worthy applicants who could work out all or part of the education, and at the same time be taught some trade or skills. On hearing the news, I decided at once to go to that school.
I always wanted to go to college. But when I graduated from high school two years ago, I was told by my parents that they could not afford the fees and eventually I found a job in a coal-mine in Malden, West Virginia.
The next day, I started for Hampton. I had only a small, cheap bag that contained the plain clothes I could get. The distance from Malden to Hampton is about five hundred miles. I had never been far away from home. Soon, it began to grow painfully evident that I did not have enough money to pay my tickets to Hampton. But I refused to give up.
By walking and begging rides along the way, I finally reached Hampton Institute a few days later, tired and dirty. Without a second thought, I went to the head teacher for assignment to a class.
Having been so long without proper food, a bath, and change of clothing, I seemed like a worthless young man. I did not, of course, make a very favourable impression upon her, and I could see at once that there were doubts in her mind about the wisdom of admitting me as a student. I tried to impress her in all the ways I could with my worthiness. After some time, the head teacher said to me, “A classroom near my office needs sweeping. Take the broom and sweep it while I am preparing an examination for you.”
注意：1.续写词数应为 150个左右；2.请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
How happy I was when she left!
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________When I was through, I reported to the head teacher.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________1.推荐的礼物；
2.说明理由。
注意：1.写作词数应为80个左右；
2.请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
Dear Lucy,
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Best wishes
Yours,
Li Hua
It’s a fitting discovery in the Year of the Dragon: A team of
While the kind of ancient animal was first identified in 2003, the latest discovery is much
“The fossil is so
“We are certain that the new discovery will interest the public across the globe due to its striking appearance,
The animal’s neck has 32 separate vertebrae (椎骨) — longer than
9 . Stanford researchers have found that students from middle school to college are struggling to assess the credibility of the online articles. Here are a few practices recommended by the researchers.
Look at the quotes in a story. Or rather, look at the lack of quotes. Most reliable publications quote multiple sources who are professionals in the fields they talk about.
Search for the images in the story. Pictures should be accurate in illustrating what the story is about. However, this often doesn’t happen. If people who write the news story don’t even leave their homes or interview anyone for the story, it’s unlikely that they take their own pictures.
Stop the spreading of misinformation. If you see your friends sharing obviously unreliable information, kindly tell them it’s not real.
| A．Check your articles |
| B．Pay attention to the spelling of the website address |
| C．Then you need to dig around more to see if they can be trusted |
| D．If you do these steps, you’re helping yourself and the publisher |
| E．Do a little detective work and search for the photos in a search engine |
| F．If it’s a serious issue, they are usually supported by more reliable sources |
| G．Don’t shy away from these warnings even if they might be uncomfortable |
10 . In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s short story The Birth-Mark, a chemist called Aylmer marries a young woman, Georgiana, whose only imperfection is a red spot on her left cheek. He considers it a “terrible flaw”. So she asks him to use his skills to remove it. At length Aylmer creates a medicine that has the desired effect: to kill her without pain.
Hawthorne’s story illustrates the harm of perfectionism. It is Thomas Curran’s starting-point for a study of what he calls a “hidden epidemic(流行病)”. He thinks the endless efforts for higher standards is mainly a disaster. As a social psychologist at the London School of Economics, Mr. Curran describes himself as “a recovering perfectionist”. Drawing on both academic research and his own experiences, he makes a convincing case.
Mr. Curran distinguishes between two sorts of perfectionism. The first, which looks inward, is the unforgiving self-criticizing of the hardworking employees. A second version, directed towards others, is commonly found in bosses who have unrealistic expectations of their staff and sharply criticize their supposed failings. Its victims tend to feel lonely. Often they think about harming themselves.
Having noted the potential negative effects, Mr. Curran suggests some causes. These include a lack of job security, unreasonable requirements by helicopter parents and the unhealthy advertising, which fuel consumption and anxiety.
“The economy”, he claims, “is based on our discontent. Social media flood users with images of finely sculpted bodies, seemingly perfect dresses and unbelievably romantic weddings.”
His greatest attack, though, is directed at society. In this he draws on the thinking of Michael Sandel, a philosopher at Harvard. Especially in the book, The Tyranny of Merit, Professor Sandel has argued that using achievements as a sorting machine leads to a society that is divided into just winners and losers, while ignoring the common good. Like Mr. Curran, Professor Sandel has a good point.
1. Who can be considered as the second type of perfectionist by Thomas Curran?| A．Aylmer. | B．Georgiana. | C．Michael Sandel. | D．Nathaniel Hawthorne. |
| A．not have winners or losers | B．provide job security for everyone |
| C．be free from advertisements | D．not be driven just by anxiety |
| A．Unfair. | B．Convincing. | C．Misleading. | D．Gentle. |
| A．The Imperfection of Our Society | B．A Review of The Tyranny of Merit |
| C．Comments on Thomas Curran’s Study | D．Effective Ways to Deal With Perfectionism |
