2 . My name is Alice. Early last year, I was troubled by an anxiety that crippled ( 削弱 ) my ability to do anything. I felt like a storm cloud hung over me. For almost a year I struggled on, constantly staring at this wall that faced me. My perfectionist tendencies were the main root of this: I wanted to be perfect at whatever I did, which obviously in life is not possible, but it consumed me.

One day, I attended a presentation by wildlife conservationist Grant Brown at my high school. His presentation not only awed and inspired me, but also helped emerge an inner desire to make a difference in the world. I joined a pre-presentation dinner with him and that smaller setting allowed me to slowly build up my courage to speak one-on-one with him—an idea that had seemed completely impossible. This first contact was where my story began.

A month later, Brown invited me to attend the World Youth Wildlife Conference. Looking back, I now see that this would be the first in a series of timely opportunities that my old self would have let pass, but that this new and more confident Alice enthusiastically seized. Shortly after I received his invitation, applications to join the Youth for Nature and the Youth for Planet groups were sent around through my high school. I decided to commit to completing the applications, and soon I was a part of a growing global team of young people working to protect nature. Each of these new steps continued to grow my confidence.

I am writing this just six months since my journey began and I’ve realised that my biggest obstacle ( 障碍 ) this whole time was myself. It was that voice in the back of my head telling me that one phrase that has stopped so many people from reaching their potential: I can’t. They say good things come to those who wait; I say: grab every opportunity with everything you have and be impatient. After all, nature does not require our patience, but our action.

1. What was the main cause for Alice’s anxiety?

A．Her inability to act her age.	B．Her habit of consumption.
C．Her desire to be perfect.	D．Her lack of inspiration.

2. How did Grant Brown’s presentation influence Alice?

A．She decided to do something for nature.	B．She tasted the sweetness of friendship.
C．She learned about the harm of desire.	D．She built up her courage to speak up.

3. The activities Alice joined in helped her to become more ________.

A．intelligent

B．confident

C．innovative

D．critical

4. What can we learn from this passage?

A．Practice makes perfect.	B．Patience is a cure of anxiety.
C．Action is worry’s worst enemy.	D．Everything comes to those who wait.

3 . 阅读下面短文，在空白处填入1个适当的单词或括号内单词的正确形式。

Whenever you have to write a paper, a letter, or any other document for work or school, you probably head toward the computer. Now, most people reach for     1     (keyboard) faster than they pick up pens. In a Scottish primary school, however, Mr. Norman Lewis is taking a different approach. He feels that neat handwriting     2     (be) still an important skill, so he has his students write not only by hand but also     3     old fashioned fountain pens.

Fountain pens     4     (use) in schools long ago and have been regaining popularity lately because they are refillable. Today, a writer     5     (simple) throws an empty pen away and gets     6     new one.

So far, Mr. Lewis is pleased with the results of his experiment. He reports that his students are taking more care with their work, and their self-confidence has improved as well. He is happy with the     7     (improve) he sees in his students’ writing     8     in his own writing. He knows that computers are here     9     (stay) and that they will not disappear. However, he believes that the practice with fountain pens helps students to focus, to write faster, and they can feel proud of     10     (they).

4 . I have a drawer full of letters to Santa. Each year my children would write up their Christmas wish lists. They were polite requests for the latest game or toy. As the children got older, they would give Santa some hints(提示)on where to buy their presents.     1    

Those letters taught my children a valuable lesson about writing: It has a purpose. Sometimes our purpose is to achieve something;other times it may be to entertain, inform, or persuade.     2     And when writing doesn’t seem to have any purpose or get any kind of meaningful response, then it can be hard to get excited about doing it.

Christmas is a great time of year for children to communicate with others through writing. When children write for real audiences and real purposes, they can learn to choose their words accordingly.     3     You write “Dear Santa” because you don’t know him personally and you want to show him respect.

    4     Texting, online messaging, live chats while playing video games all mean that they are constantly producing written messages. However, because they are usually writing to family and friends, they use informal language most of the time.

There is nothing wrong with this kind of writing. It suits the audience and the purpose and gets the job done.     5     This type of writing won’t be rewarded by the school examiner, nor by a future employer or a potential client. The very best communicators are those who know how to adjust their language to match their audience.

A．It isn’t that these young people can’t write.

B．But it is always purposeful-or at least it should be.

C．The age of pen-and-paper letter writing may have passed.

D．As a result, each year they received something they wanted.

E．You write “Hi Nanna and Pop” because you are close to them.

F．As technology develops, young people are writing more than they ever have.

G．But if this is the only kind of writing young people do, it will cause problems.

5 . We all know that unpleasant feeling when we’re talking about something interesting and halfway through our sentence we’re interrupted. But was that really an interruption? The answer depends on whom you ask, according to new research led by Katherine Hilton from Stanford University.

Using a set of controlled audio clips (录音片段), Hilton surveyed 5, 000 American English speakers to better understand what affects people’s perceptions of interruptions. She had participants listen to audio clips and then answer questions about whether the speakers seemed to be friendly and engaged, listening to one another, or trying to interrupt.

Hilton found that American English speakers have different conversational styles. She identified two distinct groups: high and low intensity speakers. High intensity speakers are generally uncomfortable with moments of silence in conversation and consider talking at the same time a sign of engagement. Low intensity speakers find it rude to talk at the same time and prefer people speak one after another in conversation.

The differences in conversational styles became evident when participants listened to audio clips in which two people spoke at the same time but were agreeing with each other and stayed on topic, Hilton said. The high intensity group reported that conversations where people spoke at the same time when expressing agreement were not interruptive but engaged and friendlier than the conversations with moments of silence in between speaking turns. In contrast, the low intensity group perceived any amount of simultaneous (同时) chat as a rude interruption, regardless of what the speakers were saying.

“People care about being interrupted, and those small interruptions can have a massive effect on the overall communication,” Hilton said. “Breaking apart what an interruption means is essential if we want to understand how humans interact with each other.”

1. What does Hilton’s research focus on?

A．What interruptions mean to people.

B．Whether interruption is good or not.

C．How to avoid getting interrupted.

D．Why speakers interrupt each other.

2. What do participants of the study need to do?

A．Record an audio clip.	B．Answer some questions.
C．Listen to one another.	D．Have a chat with a friend.

3. What do low intensity speakers think of simultaneous chat?

A．It’s important.	B．It’s interesting.
C．It’s inefficient.	D．It’s impolite.

4. What can we learn from Hilton’s research?

A．Human interaction is complex.

B．Communication is the basis of life.

C．Interruptions promote thinking.

D．Language barriers will always exist.

8 . 阅读下面材料，根据其内容和所给段落开头语续写两段，使之构成一篇完整的短文。

Last summer, Hilda worked as a volunteer with dolphin trainers at a sea life park. Her job was to make sure the tanks were free of any items so that the trainers could train the dolphins to fetch specific items. However, one day after cleaning, one of the dolphins, Maya, presented Hilda with a candy wrapper from the tank. When Katherine, the trainer, saw this, she blamed Hilda for her carelessness. Upset but not discouraged by this event, Hilda decided to do some spying on Maya.

The next morning, Hilda arrived at the park early. She put on her scuba gear (水下呼吸器) and jumped into the tank for her usual, underwater sweep. Finding nothing in the tank, she climbed out of the water just in time to see Katherine jumping in on the other side. After what happened yesterday, Hilda knew what she was doing. She watched as Katherine performed her underwater search, but Hilda wasn’t surprised when she surfaced empty-handed.

During the tank sweeps, Maya had been swimming playfully, but now the dolphin stopped suddenly and swam to the back part of the tank where the filter (过滤) box was located. She stuck her nose down behind the box and then swam away. What was Maya doing back there? Hilda wondered. She jumped back into the water and swam over to take a look behind the box, and her question was answered. Hilda then swam across the tank following Maya’s path and emerged from the water to find Katherine removing her scuba gear. As Katherine turned around, her mouth dropped open. There was Maya at the edge of the tank with a comb (梳子) in her mouth waiting for her treat.

“Maya! Where did you get that?” demanded Katherine, taking the comb and throwing her a fish. “I know where she got it,” declared Hilda climbing out of the tank with a handful of items still wet from their watery, resting place. “What’s all this?” Katherine asked, obviously confused.

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。

“This is Maya’s secret,” Hilda said with a big smile.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Now Katherine realized what had been going on.

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10 . Common Mistakes New Runners Make

Running is a great way to get in shape and just about everyone can do it. However, many make a number of common mistakes, which can interfere (妨碍) with training or lead to injury.     1     , keep these things in mind to help you increase your chances of running success.

·Doing too much too soon

One of the biggest mistakes new runners make is doing too much too soon. Slowly easing into a training program will help reduce the risk of injury, so you can continue on with your new running routine     2     .

·     3    

Beginners might think they need to run every day (or nearly every day) to meet their fitness or weight-loss goals, but this couldn’t be further from the truth. Running is a high-impact activity which can be really hard on your body. So it’s important to give your body a rest between workouts.

·Not wearing the right equipment

    4    , it’s important that you wear properly for your workouts. The most important piece of equipment for running is a good pair of running shoes, so be sure to do some research before you purchase a pair. Visit a running specialty store and ask an employee to fit you for a shoe.

•Running through pain

    5     If something hurts when you run, you need to stop and treat the pain. Remember: It doesn’t make you less of a runner if you listen to your body to keep it healthy.

A．Not taking rest days

B．If you’re just starting out

C．Comparing yourself to others

D．Running can be uncomfortable at times

E．It’s important not to use the same muscles

F．While it may be true that you don’t need expensive equipment to take up running

G．Experts suggest increasing your running distance by no more than 10% each week