1 . John Cruitt, 62, spent decades tracking down his third-grade teacher.
He wanted to talk with Cecile Doyle about 1958 — the year his mother, who was seriously ill, passed away.
Her death came just days before Christmas. Cruitt had been expecting to go home from school and decorate the Christmas tree.
Doyle tells Cruitt at StoryCorps in Monroe, N. Y. “And you just don’t know how you’re going to go on without that person.”
When Cruitt returned to school, Doyle waited until all of the other children left the room at the end of the day, and told him that she was there if he needed her.
“Then you kissed me on the head,” Cruitt says. “And I felt that things really would be OK.”
“Well, Cruitt, I’m so glad that I could be there with you for that time,” says Doyle, 82.
Decades after his mother’s death, Cruitt began to think more and more of Doyle. He finally wrote a letter:
Dear Mrs. Doyle,
If you are not the Cecile Doyle who taught English at Emerson School in Kearny, N. J., then I’m embarrassed, and you can neglect the letter. My name is John Cruitt, and I was in your third-grade class during the 1958-1959 school year. Two days before Christmas, my mother passed away, and you told me that you were there if I needed you. I hope life has been as kind to you as you were to me.
God bless you.
John Cruitt
Doyle says his letter, which arrived in February, could not have come at a better time. Her husband, who passed away this August, was struggling with Parkinson’s disease.
“Well the funny thing is, when I finally wrote to you again after 54 years, I typed the letter — I was afraid my penmanship wasn’t going to meet your standards,” Cruitt says as Doyle laughs.
“John, what can I say — I’m just glad that we made a difference in each other’s life.”
1. Before Cruitt wrote the letter, he ________.| A．knew Doyle’s husband had passed away |
| B．believed Doyle was leading a happy life |
| C．considered it embarrassing to write to Doyle |
| D．was unsure whether Doyle could receive the letter |
| A．was a gift coming late |
| B．came at just the right time |
| C．lifted her confidence greatly |
| D．served as a reminder of her husband |
| A．pen repairer | B．pen friend | C．handwriting | D．biography |
2 . Think about things around you when you get up in the morning: the alarm clock, toothbrush, toile, coffee maker, and shower heads… What do these things have in common? They are all inventions. They come in all shapes, sizes and varieties. And their inventors were from diverse backgrounds. Sure, many scientists have made discoveries and turned those discoveries into inventions. However, that doesn’t mean you must be a scientist to be an inventor.
We often hear that necessity is the mother of invention, and it means that people often identify one of their needs and then try to meet that need. Sometimes the only way to meet that need is to invent a new product!
Think about all of the musical instruments in the world. Now think of all the products that go along with those instruments. Instead of scientists, many of those products were invented by musicians. They discovered a need and then invented a product to satisfy it. They may have thought scientifically about the product. They may have had help from a scientist, but many people have shown that inventors can come from any background.
Non-scientific approaches can help develop new inventions. Although thinking scientifically is often a necessity, it can also be helpful to think out of the box. We often get used to doing things the same way and thinking that some ideas won’t work, which makes us stop thinking about new things. But if we keep thinking, we might discover something amazing. That is why some inventors can come from a variety of non-scientific backgrounds. For example a poet and an astronomer both look at the sky, but they see it differently. The poet might have ideas about a problem the astronomer would never consider.
See? You don’t have to be a scientist to be an inventor. Somehow, everyone can invent something.
1. What is the main idea of the first paragraph?| A．Inventions can be made by anyone, not just scientists. |
| B．Inventions are mainly the result of scientific discoveries. |
| C．Inventors must have scientific backgrounds. |
| D．Inventors is good at inventing daily things. |
| A．Remember. | B．Invent. | C．Find. | D．Develop. |
| A．the need for a solution leads to invention |
| B．music is very important in our lives |
| C．inventions come from scientific thinking |
| D．music can help scientists become inventors |
| A．It is helpful for people to keep thinking. |
| B．It is not important for people to think scientifically. |
| C．People need to think about things in new, different ways. |
| D．People need to get used to doing things the same way. |
| A．We should take a look at the sky. |
| B．It’s not easy to write a piece of music. |
| C．We should try to solve scientific problems. |
| D．It’s possible for everyone to invent things. |
| A．confirmation | B．assistance | C．contribution | D．shortage |
Rock climbing is not an easy sport. It requires not only physical strength, but also complete mental concentration. But don’t tell 20-year-old Sasha diGuilian that. This fearless girl who has been controlling the sport ever since she entered this field, is just getting warmed up.
The youngster says that she began climbing even before she could walk. As a baby, she was constantly escaping from her bed and as a young child always leading her friends to the nearest rocks or hills. Then at the age of seven she attended her brother’s birthday party at a local rock climbing gym and knew she had found her gift for rock climbing.
Soon after, she joined the local center in her home town of Alexandria, Virginia and began climbing — first once a week, then twice and soon, almost every day. Her moment came at the age of nine when she won her first climbing competition by taking part in an event that she hadn’t even known, until she went to the gym for her normal climbing routine(常规). Her competitive nature and love for the sport immediately reached the peak and she began training seriously, but this time outside the gym — climbing real mountains.
As a youngster, she won the Junior Continental Championships from 2004 to 2010. Then, as soon as she was old enough, she went on to win the Pan American Championship, the US National Championship and in 2011, at just 18 years of age, was crowned Female Overall World Champion in Arco, Italy .
She is also the youngest woman to have completed a 5.14d graded climb. It is something that even most experienced climbers fear to try, because a small slip could result in a severe injury or even death.
1. What does rock climbing require?(no more than 10 words)2. What did Sasha diGuilian realize when she attended her brother’s party at a rock climbing gym? (no more than 8 words)
3. What did Sasha do when her competitive nature and love for the sport reached the peak? (no more than 5 words)
4. What is the main idea of Paragraph 4?(no more than 8 words)
5. What sport do you like best and why?(no more than 20 words,)
5 . Thomas, 13, and his friends Mark and Josh had a fantastic idea. Why not play a game of football ... on a trampoline（蹦床）?
At first, it was great fun. Then Mark stumbled（绊倒）, landing directly on Thomas’s leg. Thomas howled in pain.
Even if you’ve never been injured on a trampoline, chances are you know someone who has. There were nearly 95,000 trampoline-related injuries, in 2012 alone.
These injuries are such an enormous problem that the American Academy of Pediatrics （AAP）, a group of doctors who specialize in treating children and adolescents, said in a 2012 study that trampolines should never be used at home or on playgrounds. Never.
“This is not a toy. It’s a piece of equipment,” says Dr. Michele LaBotz, an author of the AAPstudy.
Indeed, when trampolines were invented in the 1930s, they were intended for use by professional acrobats（杂技演员）. Over time, trampolines caught on with the public, and now 900,000 are sold each year, most of them for recreational use.
Part of trampolines’ appeal is that despite the risks, they provide good exercise. You get a heart-pumping aerobic（有氧的） workout, like you do when running or dancing. And young people need all the exercise they can get.
Still, trampolines can be dangerous — and not just for kids who fall off. Kids are also getting hurt on the springs and when they strike against each other. Serious injuries to the head and neck have been reported. One out of every 200 trampoline injuries leads to permanent brain damage.
Bouncing on a trampoline is clearly risky. But then, every athletic activity involves risk. Kids fall off bikes and skateboards all the time. As with any sport, kids on a trampoline can protect themselves. For instance: Never allow more than one person on a trampoline at a time. （About 75 percent of injuries result from having multiple jumpers at once.） And always have adult supervision.
1. According to the 2012 study by the AAP, ________.| A．kids can protect themselves on a trampoline |
| B．trampolines shouldn’t be used for entertainment |
| C．trampolines are more popular among young kids |
| D．kids shouldn’t trampoline without adult supervision |
| A．Trampolines were used to train the public. |
| B．People realized the danger of trampolining. |
| C．Trampolines became popular among the public. |
| D．People worried about kids playing on trampolines. |
| A．Uncertain. | B．Unconcerned. | C．Opposed. | D．Objective. |
| A．the history of trampolines | B．why kids shouldn’t trampoline |
| C．the advantages of trampolining | D．whether kids should trampoline |
| A．that | B．whether | C．when | D．how |
1.你尊敬和爱戴的人物；
2. 尊敬和爱戴的原因：人物的性格，品质，事迹等。
注意：
1. 词数100左右；
2. 短文题目和首句已为你写好。
The Person I Respect
We have a lot of respectable people around us.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________A small town in southwest Britain is banning plastic bags in an attempt to help the environment and cut waste — a step that environmentalists believe is a first for Europe.
Shopkeepers in Modbury, population 1,500, agreed to stop handing out disposable plastic bags to customers on Saturday. They said paper sacks and cloth carrier bags would be offered instead.
Last month, San Francisco became the first U. S. city to ban plastic grocery bags. Internationally, laws to discourage the use of plastic bags have been passed in parts of South Africa and Ireland, where governments either tax shoppers who use them or fine companies that hand them out. Bangladesh already prohibits them, and so do at least 30 remote Alaskan villages.
Modbury, about 225 miles southwest of London, has also declared a bag amnesty (宽限期), allowing local people to hand in plastic bags that have piled up at home. They will be sent for recycling.
The Modbury ban was the idea of Rebecca Hosking, who saw the effect of bags on marine life while working in the Pacific as a wildlife camerawoman. She said response in the town so far had been “really positive”.
“Modbury is quite an old-fashioned town and a lot of people have wicker baskets to go out shopping anyway,” Hosking told Sky News Television.
The Worldwatch Institute, an environmental research agency, states that 100 billion plastic bags are thrown away each year in the United States alone. More than 500 billion are used yearly around the world.
1. Why doesn’t Modbury allow the use of plastic bags?（no more than 10 words）2. What would be provided instead of plastic bags by shopkeepers in Modbury?（no more than 10 words）
3. What does the underlined word in paragraph 3 most probably mean?（1 word）
4. How will the plastic bags handed in by people of Modbury be dealt with? （no more than 6 words）
5. What is your opinion of disposable plastic bags? And why? （no more than 25words）
10 . My l4-year-old son, John, and I spotted the coat which was hanging at a secondhand clothing store in Northampton Mass. All the other coats drooped (低垂)
John wore the coat to school the next day and came home
When I mentioned this incident to his teacher and
John and I both know we should never
For John it is a time when it is as easy to try on different approaches
| A．unless | B．once | C．until | D．while |
| A．uneasy | B．expected | C．unbelievable | D．acceptable |
| A．teenagers | B．adults | C．women | D．strangers |
| A．color | B．price | C．style | D．size |
| A．taking | B．holding | C．bringing | D．wearing |
| A．casually | B．comfortably | C．carefully | D．quickly |
| A．happiness | B．change | C．smile | D．matter |
| A．doubt | B．fight | C．argument | D．war |
| A．thoughtful | B．handsome | C．hopeful | D．curious |
| A．gradually | B．generously | C．admittedly | D．entirely |
| A．wondered | B．confirmed | C．concluded | D．discovered |
| A．present | B．mark | C．word | D．result |
| A．this | B．them | C．it | D．one |
| A．showed off | B．turned out | C．came across | D．turned up |
| A．taking up | B．looking up at | C．checking up | D．coming up |
| A．trust | B．mistake | C．exchange | D．regard |
| A．But | B．Though | C．Since | D．So |
| A．explaining | B．connecting | C．involving | D．matching |
| A．on | B．to | C．of | D．with |
| A．where | B．why | C．how | D．when |
