Special#2，Please
My flight arrived in San Diego around midnight, and by the time I drove home and got into bed it was nearly 2:00 a. m. I was tired and jet-lagged when I dragged myself out of the bed. Nevertheless,I had to be up bright and early that morning: I was the opening keynoter(主旨发言人) at a national conference.
In short, I needed to recover quickly. A hearty breakfast in the early morning sun was what I needed. I headed for Carlos & Annie’s, a popular restaurant located in the heart of the seaside town.
“I’d like steak and eggs, please,” I said to the waitress after I had finally found a table in the restaurant. “Oh, I'm sorry,” she apologized. “We're out of Special#2. We've served the last of our steaks. How about Special#14?” “Oh, no steak and eggs?” I couldn't seem to accept it.
I'm not sure if it was my heartfelt sigh that caught Carlos, the owner's attention. His warm, caring brown eyes seemed determined to pinpoint the best solution. He then said, “You know, I think I did see one final steak back
there.”Pressing my luck,I quickly declared, “Wow,that would be great. But you know, I’m not sure if I want a breakfast stenk at all. What I really want is a steak—one that’s two inches thick, tender and juicy, served medium rare.” “Not to worry,” Carlos assured meand left. The young waitress gave me a wink(眨眼) and said with a knowing smile, “Carlosis being Carlos again!” I did not give her words much thought.
Then, I noticed Carlos as he left the restaurant through the side door and walked into a neighborhood grocery store across the street. Carlos exchanged morning greetings with everyone he knew and even helped the owner of the bookstore next door by holding the items that filled her arms. Then he reentered the restaurant with a bag in his hand.
注意：1. 续写词数应为150左右；
2. 请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
Paragraph 1: Within minutes，an exact Special#2 was in front of me.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Paragraph 2: I was about to leave when I learned Carlos had already sold the restaurant.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________2 . Although literacy appeared independently in several parts of the prehistoric world, the earliest evidence of writing is the cuneiform Sumerian script on the clay tablets of ancient Mesopotamia, which, archaeological detective work has revealed, had its origins in the accounting practices of commercial activity. Researchers demonstrated that preliterate people, to keep track of the goods they produced and exchanged, created a system of accounting using clay tokens as symbolic representations of their products. Over many thousands of years, the symbols evolved through several stages of abstraction until they became wedge-shaped (cuneiform) signs on clay tablets, recognizable as writing.
The original tokens were three-dimensional solid shapes — tiny spheres, cones, disks, and cylinders. A debt of six units of grain and eight head of livestock, for example, might have been represented by six conical and eight cylindrical tokens. To keep batches of tokens together, an innovation was introduced whereby they were sealed inside clay envelopes that could be broken open and counted when it came time for a debt to be repaid. But because the contents of the envelopes could easily be forgotten, two-dimensional representations of the three-dimensional tokens were impressed into the surface of the envelopes before they were sealed. Eventually, having two sets of equivalent symbols — the internal tokens and external markings — came to seem redundant, so the tokens were eliminated, and only solid clay tablets with two-dimensional symbols were retained. Over time, the symbols became more numerous, varied, and abstract and came to represent more than trade commodities, evolving eventually into cuneiform writing.
The evolution of the symbolism is reflected in the archaeological record first of all by the increasing complexity of the tokens themselves. The earliest tokens, dating from about 10,000 to 6,000 years ago, were of only the simplest geometric shapes. But about 3500 B.C.E., more complex tokens came into common usage, including many naturalistic forms shaped like miniature tools, furniture, fruit, and humans.
1. Which of the following is NOT mentioned about clay envelopes?| A．They contained batches of tokens. | B．They could be reused frequently. |
| C．They had markings on the outside. | D．They could be used to record debts. |
| A．Later tokens were made of many different materials, but earlier ones were made only of clay. |
| B．Later tokens often looked like the commodities that they represented, but earlier ones did not. |
| C．Later tokens represented agricultural products, but earlier ones represented finished products. |
| D．Later tokens were based on pictographs, but earlier ones were based on naturalistic forms. |
| A．Sumerian script, the earliest known form of writing among prehistoric writing systems, was first used on clay tablets for accounting purposes. |
| B．Although the earliest Sumerians engaged in commercial activity and practiced accounting, they were not as literate as people in other parts of the prehistoric world. |
| C．Archaeologists have discovered that literacy was developed in several parts of the world, including ancient Mesopotamia. |
| D．Archaeological detective work has revealed the commercial accounting practices of the Sumerians of ancient Mesopotamia and provided a written record of their intense commercial activity. |
| A．Evidence of the Earliest Writing | B．A long history of tokens |
| C．Evolution of the symbolism | D．Origins of the symbols |
3 . The Poseidon Effect
Late one autumn day at the local swimming pool in Ancenis, France, an 18-year-old named Jean LeRoy came for his regular evening swim in the 25-metre pool.
When people are drowning, they don’t usually shout and
Luckily for him, the swimming pool was
Machines like Poseidon completely change how we live. Think of your life before the answering machine was invented. Think of your grandparents’ lives before the television and the airplane were introduced. The change will be just as great. It is
Soon, machines will recognize our faces and our fingerprints. They will
| A．splash | B．cry | C．yell | D．scream |
| A．soon | B．quietly | C．silently | D．simply |
| A．in | B．within | C．over | D．on |
| A．No matter how | B．However | C．Whoever | D．Whatever |
| A．established | B．installed | C．set | D．equipped |
| A．show | B．film | C．propagate | D．outline |
| A．postulated | B．made | C．programmed | D．relayed |
| A．whether | B．when | C．while | D．if |
| A．alarmed | B．beeped | C．warned | D．alerted |
| A．healthy | B．normal | C．safe | D．well |
| A．always | B．merely | C．readily | D．already |
| A．watch out | B．take care | C．look back | D．go over |
| A．terrorists | B．invalids | C．senators | D．tyrants |
| A．will send | B．to send | C．send | D．sending |
| A．recorded | B．checked | C．monitored | D．supervised |
First as a wife, then as a mother, and later as a grandmother, for as long as Teressa could remember, she had always lived for others and never for herself. Being selfless is not everyone’s cup of tea, but for Teressa, that’s how she had spent all her life.
When Teressa was a little girl, she had big dreams. She spent hours in her room reading famous authors’ poetry. “I want to be a poet, Mommy! And I want to recite my poems on stage!” she said to her mother, who would smile back and assure her that her dreams would come true one day. But unfortunately, that did not happen.
Teressa’s poems were locked in her closet (壁橱) as life kept throwing new responsibilities at her. After her dad died, she had to look after her mother. Then after getting married came kids, and then the kids’ kids. And somewhere, Teressa’s talent, poems, and dream of performing on stage were left far behind.
One Sunday afternoon, her children and grandchildren were visiting her, and she had spent five hours preparing a big meal for them!
As the doorbell rang, Teressa opened her door. She smiled and hugged everyone as they entered. Brian was the youngest in the family. He loved Grandma Teressa. After enjoying dessert after lunch that day, Brian sat with Teressa looking at one of their family albums. “Can you bring me the album from my closet, honey?” Teressa asked. While searching for the album, Brian discovered a pile of papers behind her clothes.
“Granny!” he came running to her. “Are these yours? Do you write poems?” he asked. “Oh,” Teressa hid the papers nervously in the album. “Well, sometimes, honey. I wanted to read them on stage one day, but I never had the opportunity. Anyway, forget about that. Let’s go through the pictures.”
But Brian didn’t forget about his grandma’s poems. One week later, he visited her with an envelope, and as Teressa read the letter inside, her eyes were filled with tears.
注意：1.续写词数应为150左右；2.请按如下格式在答题纸的相应位置作答。
Brian had signed Teressa up for a talent show.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________After the interview, Teressa was offered an opportunity to write for the local newspaper.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Mr. Mosop’s Chickens
Mr. Mosop had a lot of chickens. But Pili Pili was rare and precious. I remember the day he brought her back to the village. “Her name shall be Pepper — Pili Pili,” he said, gently stroking (抚摸) her black-and-white feathers. He promised me, “Next time I get a chicken, you may choose a greater name.” Pili Pili was the pride of our village. But now she was missing. Everyone in the village joined in the search for her.
After school the next day, I ran all the way home. “Did they find Pili Pili?” I was out of breath. Mama sighed. “Yes, on the other side of the fence.” She nodded at the low fence of bushes that surrounded our village. Grace, my little sister, opened her eyes wide.“Ahyena (鼠狗) ATE Pili Pili! Only her FEATHERS are left!”
I ducked into our house. I took my notebook out of my bag as well as my most treasured possession: a box of markers. On a piece of paper I made a rough picture of our village and the smooth, blue hills all around it. Then I drew Pili Pili, the famous black-and-white chicken, standing strong and elegant. I was so busy drawing that I didn’t notice Grace had joined me on the floor. She was drawing something, pressing the tip of my purple marker flat.
“No, Grace!” I yelled, grabbing my marker. “What is that?”
“A hyena,” Grace said, and then ran outside to show Mr. Mosop her drawing. I followed.
The old man was weeding. He looked sad. Grace ran over and threw her arms around his neck. “Did you cry?” Grace burst out. I rolled my eyes but Mr. Mosop laughed. “Me? An old man, cry over a chicken?” He smiled softly as we handed him our pictures. “Thank you, girls.”
The following day when I came home from school, Grace met me at the door of our house. “Mr. Mosop has gone to market to buy a new chicken!” She pulled at the sleeve (袖子) of my school uniform. “What do you think he will call it?”
注意：1. 续写词数应为 150 左右；
2.请按如下格式在答题纸的相应位置作答。
I suddenly remembered the promise Mr. Mosop had made.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Mr. Mosop looked at me and asked, “Have you thought of a name?”
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
6 . Rachel Maclean’s toy shop on Ayr high street appears like any other in a town centre at first sight. Step inside and you will notice that familiar promotional entreaties (恳求) are backwards: Don’t Buy Me, Nothing Must Go. Everything is upside down and nothing is for sale.
Matilda Coleman, six, picked up one of the toys—a blonde-haired, blue-eyed Disney princess(公主), and turned her upside down. Underneath the skirt was a pale-faced witchy (女巫的) version. The girl liked it, and then was confused that the toy wasn’t available to buy. Maclean’s work playfully breaks the grasp that consumer culture has on modern minds.
“What art can do best is to make you look at things that you’re very used to in a different way,” said Maclean (b.1987), a Glasgow-based multi-media artist who has rapidly established herself as one of the most distinctive voices in the UK. “Sadly the decline of our city centres is something that is common these days, so I want to bring people into a space where they can reflect on it in a fun way.”
“When the shop first opened, everyone was interested in finding out what it was,” said Parker, a local teenager. “It has lots of different themes about identity, consumerism, capitalism, but they are silent messages and everyone has different thoughts about it.”
Maclean has taken over this former butcher’s shop in Ayr as part of Jupiter Plus, a new arts and education initiative, which aims to reluyenate empty high street shops in towns and cities in Scotland with free art exbibitions and workshops for young people. People’s immediate joy at seeing something happening in here is abivious and it drives conversations about how they remember the high street and how the space could be used again.
1. Why is Matilda Coleman mentioned in paragraph 2?| A．To illustrate consumer culture. | B．To show the girl’s passion for toys. |
| C．To erase doubts about Maclean’s work. | D．To highlight the features of Maclean’s shop. |
| A．By giving examples. | B．By using quotes. |
| C．By making comparisons. | D．By sharing experiences. |
| A．Expand. | B．Refresh. | C．Replace. | D．Surround. |
| A．She has a creative mind. | B．She respects others’opinions. |
| C．She makes profits in a different way. | D．She draws public attention to education. |
7 . In this period of anxiety about the size of our waists and what we consume, simple dietary rules are appealing.“Eat like our ancestors”is a particularly catchy slogan (口号) to live by.
But who are these ancestors we are supposed to follow? Are they our great-great-grandparents, cooking healthy things? Or are they hairy animals we imagine “cavemen“ to be? The popular ancient diet blames modern health problems on the birth of agriculture, claiming that we should stick to eating meat, nuts and berries.
This kind of stone age trend is based on the false assumption that palaeolithic (旧石器时代的) peoples all ate the same food, regardless of their location. Nevertheless, England’s 9,000-year-old Cheddar Man would not have eaten the same foods as his contemporaries on the Kenyan plain. The amount of meat peoples ate, and how much was obtained by hunting, are also up for debate.
Moreover, the stone age trend is focused on what’s perceived to be good for our bodies, without any concern for the rest of nature, including other humans whose livelihoods are threatened by western overconsumption. Were I to eat like my Punjabi farming great-grandparents, my diet would be based on the wheat and milk products that people in the Punjab have relied on for probably at least the last two thousand years. But delicious and “original” as it might be for me to follow its lead, the morals of industrially farmed milk products in the 21st century make the situation more confusing and complicated.
Now, probably more than ever before, what we eat connects us to the fate of other beings, human and non-human, and to the fate of our planet. A dogmatic (武断的) approach to this would be a mistake. Better to preserve what’s worth keeping and remain clear-eyed about our cooking past, much of which is unknowable, immoral and impossible to follow in any case.
1. What does the text concern?| A．An ancient study. |
| B．An immoral case. |
| C．A balanced diet. |
| D．A popular belief. |
| A．To illustrate an opinion. |
| B．To present a fact. |
| C．To clarify a concept. |
| D．To introduce a theory. |
| A．The eating behavior of our great-grandparents. |
| B．The connection between food choice and nature. |
| C．The relationship among eating,hunting and farming. |
| D．The impact of food overconsumption on the environment. |
| A．Punjabi diet:popular again |
| B．Should we eat like our ancestors? |
| C．Is the fate of the planet in our hands? |
| D．Our cooking past:a complicated history |
8 . Some women say the voice in their head gets kinder as they enter midlife, while other women become more critical of themselves. The difference in views appears to be related to the ability to accept age-related changes to their body, researchers have found.
In 2013, Professor Paxton, of the Universityof La Trobe’s Department of Psychology, was interviewed on ABC Melbourne about body image and well-being in women entering midlife. The ABC posted on their Facebook page the topic of the program and the question: Does the voice in your head get kinder as you get older?
The study found 56 percent of comments suggested the voice in women’s heads did get somewhat kinder with age. This view was associated with women accepting the age-related changes in their body as normal. “If they gained weight or they got wrinkles, it was a normal part of aging and they felt fine about it and it didn’t disturb their sense of self,” Professor Paxton said, “They were more likely to value health and well-being as opposed to appearance.”
On the other hand, 40 percent of comments suggested the voice did not get any kinder with age. This view was associated with women finding it difficult to accept being so different from the youthful ideal of women that is upheld in advertising and in the media. Women who expressed this view were concerned about how “invisible” they had become as a consequence. “They reacted negatively to the changes in their bodies as they aged and were very much aware that in our culture, youthful bodies are idealized,” Professor Paxton said.
Understanding why some women are preoccupied with body image in midlife more than others is important given that having a bad body image can lead to physical and mental health problems, Professor Paxton said. This can include self-consciousness and anxiety, eating disorders, and an unwillingness to show oneself in public, which can reduce the amount women exercise or socialize. “They become unsociable and don’t fulfill their full potential. Those sorts of things can make a person very unhappy.”
She said the insights from studies like this support the use of cognitive (认知的) behavioral therapy (治疗) designed to help women in midlife who have a preoccupation with body image to change negative thought patterns. This would involve discouraging them from comparing themselves to younger women, and encouraging acceptance of bodily changes related to age, and “self care” behaviors that improve health and well-being.
1. What causes the difference in women’s opinions on body image?| A．Women’s self-acceptance. | B．Professors’ advice. |
| C．The impact of Facebook. | D．Personal health. |
| A．Introduced. | B．Tested. | C．Advocated. | D．Praised. |
| A．By trying to show themselves in public. | B．By adopting a new thinking model. |
| C．By doing as much exercise as possible. | D．By comparing themselves to younger women. |
| A．To show public responses to the changes in their bodies. |
| B．To explain that health is more important than appearance. |
| C．To criticize views on body image expressed in the media. |
| D．To give advice to middle-aged women on bodily changes. |
| A．A camera. | B．A computer. | C．A phone. |
10 . The idiom “a big fish in a small pond” describes a person who is very well known or important in a small group but is not known or important outside that small group.For example,a high-performing high school student in a small town could be a big fish in a small pond.
Here is another example. A young singer was famous in his small town. He wanted to move to a big city to grow his singing career.
The Merriam-Webster online dictionary explains another way to use the idiom. It can also describe a situation where one person has more power, influence, knowledge,or experience than others within a small group. So sometimes we use this expression to describe people who want to stay in a small pond just to feel more important.
| A．His family supported him but also warned him. |
| B．He may feel overly-confidentor overly-important. |
| C．Now, some people like being a big fishin a small pond. |
| D．People have been using this expression since the early 1800s. |
| E．Their position is not questioned by the other fish in the pond. |
| F．A pond is a small body of water,which is usually smaller than a lake. |
| G．His pond just got much larger and is now filled with many more fish. |
