1 . The person who set the course of my life was a school teacher named Marjorie Hurd. When 1 stepped off a ship in New York Harbor in 1949, I was a nine-year-old war refugee, who had lost his mother and was coming to live with the father he did not know. My mother, Eleni Gatzoyiannis, had been imprisoned and shot for sending my sisters and me to freedom.
I was thirteen years old when I entered Chandler Junior High. Shortly after I arrived, I was told to select a hobby to pursue during“club hours.” The idea of hobbies and clubs made no sense to my immigrant ears, but I decided to follow the prettiest girl in my class. She led me into the presence of Miss Hurd, the school newspaper adviser and English teacher.
A tough woman with salt-and pepper hair and determined eyes, Miss Hurd had no patience with lazy bones. She drilled us in grammar, assigned stories for us to read and discuss, and eventually taught us how to put out a newspaper. Her introduction to the literary wealth of Greece gave me a new perspective on my war-torn homeland, making me proud of my origins. Her efforts inspired me to understand the logic and structure of the English language. Owing to her inspiration, during my next twenty-five years, I became a, journalist by profession.
Miss Hurd retired at the age of 62. By then, she had taught for a total of 41 years. Even after her retirement, she continually made a project of unwilling students in whom she spied a spark of potential. The students were mainly from the most troubled homes, yet she alternately bullied and charmed them with her own special brand of tough love, until the spark caught fire.
Miss Hurd was the one who directed my grief and pain into writing. But for Miss Hurd, I wouldn't have become & reporter. She was the one who sent me into journalism and indirectly caused all the good things that came after.
1. What does the underlined sentence in Paragraph 2 most probably mean?| A．Hobbies and clubs did not interest the author. |
| B．The author turned a deaf ear to joining clubs. |
| C．Hobbies and clubs were inaccessible to immigrants like the author. |
| D．The author had no idea what hobbies and clubs were all about. |
| A．Stepping on the American soil for the first time. |
| B．Being exposed to Greek literary works. |
| C．Her mother's miserable death. |
| D．Following the prettiest girl in his class. |
| A．Miss Hurd employed a unique way to handle these students. |
| B．Miss Hurd's contribution was recognized across the nation. |
| C．Students from troubled homes preferred Miss Hurd's teaching style. |
| D．The students Miss Hurd taught were all finally fired. |
| A．How the author became a journalist. |
| B．The importance of inspiration in one's life. |
| C．The teacher who shaped the author's life. |
| D．Factors contributing to a successful career. |
2 . For many parents, raising a teenager is like fighting a long war, but years go by without any clear winner. Like a border conflict between neighboring countries, the parent-teen war is about boundaries: Where is the line between what I control and what you do?
Both sides want peace, but neither feels it has any power to stop the conflict. In part, this is because neither is willing to admit any responsibility for starting it. From the parents’ point of view, the only cause of their fight is their adolescents’ complete unreasonableness. And of course, the teens see it in exactly the same way, except oppositely. Both feel trapped.
In this article, I’ll describe three no-win situations that commonly arise between teens and parents and then suggest some ways out of the trap. The first no-win situation is quarrels over unimportant things. Examples include the color of the teen’s hair, the cleanliness of the bedroom, the preferred style of clothing, the child’s failure to eat a good breakfast before school, or his tendency to sleep until noon on the weekends. Second, blaming. The goal of a blaming battle is to make the other admit that his bad attitude is the reason why everything goes wrong. Third, needing to be right. It doesn’t matter what the topic is—politics, the laws of physics, or the proper way to break an egg—the point of these arguments is to prove that you are right and the other person is wrong, for both wish to be considered an authority—someone who actually knows something—and therefore to command respect. Unfortunately, as long as parents and teens continue to assume that they know more than the other, they’ll continue to fight these battles forever and never make any real progress.
1. Why does the author compare the parent-teen war to a border conflict?| A．Both are about where to draw the line. |
| B．Both can continue for generations. |
| C．Neither has any clear winner. |
| D．Neither can be put to an end. |
| A．The teens tend to have a full understanding of their parents. |
| B．The teens agree with their parents on the cause of the conflict. |
| C．The teens cause their parents of misleading them. |
| D．The teens blame their parents for starting the conflict. |
| A．give orders to the other |
| B．know more than the other |
| C．gain respect from the other |
| D．get the other to behave properly |
| A．Solutions for the parent-teen problems. |
| B．Examples of the parent-teen war. |
| C．Causes for the parent-teen conflicts. |
| D．Future of the parent-teen relationship. |
3 . I’m an American-born Chinese. I wouldn’t say I’m more American than Chinese or vice versa. My character was equally molded by both cultures. For a long time, I was comfortable with being from two cultures. I was fluent in “Chinglish”.
However, as I grew up, something unexpected rose, causing a parallel tension between the two corresponding cultures. During Chinese events when I was in China, the host would sometimes make fun of America. My relatives would look at me and laugh, asking me how I felt. But how could I respond to a question like that? If I said I was uncomfortable, it would just make me seem even more American in their eyes. But I couldn’t pretend to laugh either. So, I often just stayed quiet and smiled.
Sometimes, I’d leave China feeling less Chinese than when I went in.
This past summer, on my way back to Rochester, a man at the airport kept asking my father and I where we were from. When I told him I was from the United States, he didn’t seem to believe me.
He then went on to ask the terrible question, “But like where are you really from, like, where were you born?” And no matter how specific our answers were, the man still seemed a little doubtful. He then went on to ask us if we knew where Tampa, Florida was and if we knew anything about it. It’s moments like these when I realize that sometimes my appearance makes it hard for me to seem fully American.
These experiences made me question if I was more Chinese or American.
I felt like I was neither. So, if I wasn’t completely one culture or the other, what was I? In China, I would feel more American, while in America, I would feel more Chinese. There was no balance between my two cultures.
But this doesn’t mean that I don’t embrace (拥抱) both my identities. I love both my Chinese cultural identity and my American one. I just need to learn to love them together.
1. How did the author feel about his identity at the very beginning?| A．Special. | B．Confident. | C．Confused. | D．Ridiculous. |
| A．Because he found it hard to remain quiet and have a big smile. |
| B．Because he was unable to speak fluent Chinese at his hometown. |
| C．Because he had lost face in front of his relatives and friends. |
| D．Because he was treated as an American by his Chinese relatives. |
| A．His cultures. | B．His experience. | C．His look. | D．His air tickets. |
| A．Being Culturally Homeless | B．A Boy with Two Identities |
| C．A Chinese Boy Born in American | D．Better Chinese than American |
4 . Clothing rental is a hot new industry and retailers (零售商) are demanding to get on board in hopes of attracting green shopper.
But is renting fashion actually more environmentally-friendly than buying it, and if so, how much more? Journalist and author Elizabeth Cline investigated (调查) this question and concluded that it's not as sustainable as it seems.
Take shipping, for example, which has to go two ways if an item is rented — receiving and returning. Cline writes that consumer transportation has the second largest carbon footprint of our collective fashion habit after manufacturing.
She writes, ''An item ordered online and then returned can send out 20 kilograms of carbon each way, and increases up to 50 kilograms for rush shipping. By comparison, the carbon impact of a pair of jeans purchased from a physical store and washed and worn at home is 33.4 kilograms, according to a 2015 study by Levi's.''
Then there's the burden of washing, which has to happen for every item when it's returned, regardless of whether or not it was worn. For most rental services, this usually means dry cleaning, a high impact and polluting process. All the rental services that Cline looked into have replaced perchloroethylene (氯乙烯), a carcinogenic (致癌的) air pollutant, still used by 70 percent of US dry cleaners, with alternatives, although these aren't great either.
Lastly, Cline fears that rental services will increase our appetite for fast fashion, simply because it's so easily accessible. There's something called ''share washing'' that makes people waste more precisely because a product or service is shared and thus is regarded as more eco-friendly. Uber is one example of this, advertised as ''a way to share rides and limit ear ownership.'' and yet ''it has been proven to discourage walking,bicycling, and public transportation use.''
Renting clothes is still preferable to buying them cheap and throwing them in the dustbin after a few wears, but we shouldn't let the availability of these services make us too satisfied. There's an even better step — that's wearing what is already in the closet.
1. What is Elizabeth Cline's attitude toward clothing rental?| A．Approving. | B．Unfavorable. |
| C．Objective. | D．Enthusiastic. |
| A．rental services are on the rise |
| B．clothing rental will be as successful as Uber |
| C．renting clothes might waste more than expected |
| D．renting clothes might make people lose interest in fast fashion |
| A．give up renting any clothing |
| B．purchase inexpensive clothes |
| C．rent clothes rather than buy them |
| D．make full use of clothes we've possessed |
| A．Clothing rental is a new fashion. |
| B．Clothing rental is retailers' preference. |
| C．Renting clothes is not that eco-friendly. |
| D．Renting-clothes business is in a dilemma. |
A group of musicians from China, Germany and Switzerland joined hands in a special concert to celebrate the 100-day countdown to the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics. The event, also known as China Media Group(CMG) China-Europe Music Festival,
It’s part of a program of special events running up to the Winter Olympics, which will begin on February 4, 2022. Thomas Bach, president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC),
The concert
Bach added, “The beautiful performances by this talented group of international artists show that inspirational moments are possible when we are dreaming together. This is
CMG President Shen Haixiong said, “Sport and music are the common language of all mankind. Artists from different countries perform wonderfully
6 . A 29-year-old woman Chelsea Haley of Marietta, Georgia, who adopted (收养) a former student and his brother, is now celebrating being completely debt-free. She has paid off a total of $ 48,683.41 — the amount she owed in credit cards and student loans with interest. “It doesn’t feel real yet,” Haley, mom of Jerome, 17, and Jace, 6, told the press.
Haley was teaching in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, in 2015, on a two-year commitment to Teach for America, which is an organization that finds recent college graduates to work in low-income schools. Her son, Jerome, was in her 4th-grade class at the time.
When Haley saw Jerome having difficulty in progressing academically, she started spending time with him — going to his football games, buying him school supplies and more. Soon, Haley adopted Jerome together with his brother. “Being their mom is the greatest blessing of my life,” Haley said.
Haley went to all the expense of adopting the two boys. She also borrowed money to afford taking care of them, which increased the difficulty for her to pay their student loans. Determined to rid herself of debt, Haley took on part-time jobs. On top of being a teacher, she was teaching an individual student or a small group in her spare time a couple of days a week. On Fridays, she was paid extra to stay late at the school and work as the building manager. Haley also delivered (送) groceries. She sold her home and moved back to live with her parents on Nov. 6. Her goal is to save money for a new house and prepare Jerome for college. Both boys are doing well in school.
“It allows me to focus on the boys’ future,’’ Haley said. “Earning and saving money for them, and not spending money saved in the past.”
Her advice for making a determined effort to free us of debt is never to ignore your spending and stick to a plan.
1. How did Chelsea Haley feel when she had just paid off the debt?| A．Unforgettable. | B．Unbelievable. |
| C．Unpredictable. | D．Unacceptable. |
| A．As soon as Jerome first became her student at school. |
| B．Immediately she came to the school Jerome studied in. |
| C．When she found Jerome had difficulty studying further. |
| D．After she had decided to adopt Jerome and his brother. |
| A．Why Haley returned to live with her parents. |
| B．Why Haley kept herself busy making a living. |
| C．What part-time jobs Haley did to earn money. |
| D．How Haley managed to pay off her debt finally. |
| A．Making a practical plan. | B．Relying on your savings. |
| C．Getting help from parents. | D．Borrowing friends’ money. |
Traveling abroad is gaining more
8 . AQUILA Children’s Magazine is the most intelligent read for curious kids. Full of enthusiastic articles and challenging puzzles, every issue covers science, history and general knowledge. AQUILA is a quality production, beautifully illustrated with contemporary artwork throughout.
Intelligent reading for 8-12-year-olds
Cool science and challenging projects
Inspires self-motivated learning
Exciting new topics every issue
AQUILA is created and owned by an independent UK company. It has 28 pages, printed on high-quality paper and there are no advertisements or posters. Instead it is full of well-written articles, thought-provoking (令人深思的) ideas and great contemporary artwork. Each monthly issue is centred around a new topic.
AQUILA works as a superb learning extension to current primary (or KS2 and KS3) curriculum (课程), but it is much more than that! Entertaining and always surprising, AQUILA is recommended because it widens children’s interest and understanding, rather than encouraging them to concentrate only on their favourite subjects. It gives children a well-rounded understanding of the world, in all its complexity.
The concepts in AQUILA can be challenging, requiring good comprehension and reading skills. Eight years is usually a good age to start. Some gentle interest from an adult is often helpful at the start.
In 2021 AQUILA will have been in publication for 29 years, but it has never appeared in newsstands or shops. We are subscription only.
AQUILA Subscription
UK：12 Months￡55－4 Months￡30
Europe：12 Months￡60－4 Months￡35
World：12 Months￡70－4 Months￡35
Birthdays
Select the Birthday option, write a gift message and choose the birthday month. We will dispatch to arrive at the start of the month you have entered. The package posts in a blue envelope marked “Open on your birthday”.
1. What is special about AQUILA?| A．It is available in shops. | B．It is for kids of all ages. |
| C．It prints readers’ artwork. | D．It has no advertisements. |
| A．Articles on modern art. | B．Family reading materials. |
| C．Knowledge beyond school subjects. | D．Ideas on improving reading skills. |
| A．Foreign language learners. |
| B．Children with learning difficulties. |
| C．Parent-child reading lovers. |
| D．Curious kids with good comprehension. |
9 . Who needs friends? According to most psychologists (心理学家) we all do, especially nowadays when so many other aspects (方面) of modern life are changing. It seems that having friends keeps us both healthy and happy.
The number of TV series about groups of friends shows just how important friendship is to us. Psychologist Dorothy Rowe says that many of us now turn to our friends, instead of our families, for advice, comfort and security. One woman named Rebecca she interviewed even told her that if she had got to choose between her husband and her friend, she would choose her friend.
Since our friends mean so much to us, it is not surprising that the happiest marriages are also friendships. “Once the romantic stage of a relationship has passed, it is friendship that holds people together,” says Rowe. If the couple do not make some change, they will either get tired of each other and break up or stay together and seek friendship with others.
But is friendship equally important to women and men? According to author Rhonda Pritchard, women are more likely than men to have close friends. “ You tell a friend things that you’d never tell a partner”，says one woman she interviewed. For men, friendship is usually based on doing things together rather than the private conversations that are typical of women friend. Men share time and activities like building a fence or a business, running, riding a bike, fishing or watching football, but they don’t often share their feelings.
Although many women find their relationships with a husband or boyfriend is not enough, many men say that their partner is their best friend. Even women who are very happily married are likely to become very unhappy without a close friend and can even find the breakup of a close friend as painful as the end of a marriage.
Lasting friendships can provide a lot of the same support that families provided in the past, but the perfect situation is to have your family there for as well. Friendships and family relationships can both change, but a friend will not consider you when making really important decisions in the same way that a family member will.
1. What did Rebecca think about friendship?| A．Families are reliable forever. | B．Her friend means more to her than her husband |
| C．One needn’t have too many friends. | D．Friends are as important as families. |
| A．they are encouraged by their partners. |
| B．they are not fairly treated by their partners |
| C．they don’t get what they need from their partners. |
| D．they think their friends are more romantic. |
| A．Women often do things together. |
| B．Women often talk about business with friends. |
| C．Men seldom talk about their feelings. |
| D．Men often talk to their friends about work and family. |
| A．feel as upset as when a marriage ends. | B．share feelings with their partners. |
| C．treat their partners as friends. | D．turn to their husband for comfort. |
| A．why；that | B．because；that | C．why；because | D．because；why |
