We Survived Getting Swallowed by a Whale
Respect and revere (敬畏) nature. I’m Julie, 56 years old, living in San Luis Obispo, California, about four miles from the beach. Every few years, the humpback whales come into the bay for several days while migrating.
In November 2020, the whales were around, so I took out my yellow double kayak (皮划艇) to watch the wildlife. I paddled out the pier (长堤) and saw seals, dolphins, and about 20 whales feeding on silverfish. They sprayed through their blowholes. Each one is huge, about 15 metres long. Sometimes they turned side fins as if waving at me. It was incredible.
At the time, my friend Liz was with me. We had met 28 years earlier. I asked Liz if she wanted to see the whales. I really wanted to share the magnificent experience with her.
“No way,” she said. She’s terrified of whales and sharks. I promised that the craft was stable and safe enough. Moreover, humpback whales couldn’t swallow down kayaks for their throats were tight even though they had enormous mouths and white-wall-like internal mouth structures, not to mention that we got paddles and life jackets. After some persuasion, Liz finally agreed.
We set off at about 8:30 the next morning. There were already about 15 other kayakers in the bay. One hour later, I spotted two whales right past the pier, swimming toward us. We were in awe, feeling amazed to be so close to a creature that size.
When whales swam down after breaching (跃身激浪), they disappeared in ripples. I figured if we paddled there, we’d be safe since they’d just left. We followed them at a distance—or what I thought was a distance. I later learned that it’s recommended to keep 90 metres away, or about the length of a football field. We were probably 18 metres away.
All of a sudden, a swarm (群) of fish started jumping out of the water into our kayak. Their movement sounded like crackling glass. Now I knew we were too close. I was terrified. Then our kayak was lifted out of the water—about two metres—and tipped back into the ocean. I figured the whale was going to drag us down somehow, and I had no idea how deep.
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。
I didn’t realize that Liz and I sitting in the kayak were in the whale’s mouth.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Thankfully, the whale spitted us out, people paddling to help, shooting videos.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________1. Why did the speaker go on the tour?
| A．It was the prize of a competition. |
| B．John asked her to go with him. |
| C．It was her travel plan. |
| A．The drinks. | B．The food. | C．The waiters. |
| A．Disappointing. | B．Amazing. | C．Terrible. |
| A．She rode an elephant. |
| B．She went to the mountains. |
| C．She relaxed in the hotel. |
3 . How many bosses could rely on their employees threatening to quit in mass if they were abruptly forced out? Sam Altman received such a show of support from more than 700 staff after he was fired from Open AI that he was swiftly restored to his position by the board. But this level of loyalty is not typical and may not always be a good thing.
Management experts say staff who are loyal to their employer are inclined to invest more time and effort in their jobs, helping to create an engaged and higher performing workplace. In turn they receive pro notions and pay rises. They have a greater sense of belonging and potentially a longer career at the same organisation. But it is not all rosy. People who are too loyal are more likely to take actions that are deemed wrong to keep their jobs and protect their employer, according to a 2021 academic paper. They might overlook wrongdoing and be less likely to expose corruption. Loyalty is sometimes seen as such a force for good that it can be used to justify bad behavior.
Often companies and senior bosses are the real winner a of employee loyalty. Research led by Matthew Stanley at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business published this year, found that managers were more likely to exploit loyal individuals. Stanley recruited almost 1,400 managers to read about a fictional 29-year-old employee called John, who worked for a company that was trying to keep costs down. They had to decide how willing they would be to ask John to work longer hours and take on more work without more pay. Researchers created various situations including labelling John as loyal versus other traits such as honest and fair. Managers were more willing to ask loyal John to take on the burden of unpaid work.
However, Consultancy Gallup’s latest state of the workplace report showed that half of the 122, 416 employees who took part in a global survey were looking out for new work. “You can’t guarantee anyone will stick around these days,” says a consultant who advises boards. This is particularly true of younger generations. They trust their bosses less and are not as patient when it comes to career progression, seeing little benefit in keeping their heads down and following orders if they do not see results quickly.
1. What does the author want to say by mentioning Sam Altman in Paragraph 1?| A．Open AI’s staff loyalty is quite high. |
| B．Staff loyalty’s rosy side in the work. |
| C．Sam Altman could count on his employees. |
| D．This level of loyalty is not always good. |
| A．Through global surveys concerning a fictional employee named John. |
| B．By creating different situations to ask John ta take on more unpaid work. |
| C．By asking managers to make decisions about work arrangements of John. |
| D．By recruiting managers to read fiction about work traits like loyal and honest. |
| A．Loyalty can be used by management to exploit employees. |
| B．Younger generations are more patient towards their employers. |
| C．Employees who are loyal are more likely to report wrongdoing. |
| D．Loyalty to an employer always leads to a positive work environment. |
| A．How Job Loyalty Affects the Work Environment? |
| B．Why Staff Loyalty is Not Always a Good Thing? |
| C．Are Loyal Employees More Likely to be Promoted? |
| D．Does Work Loyalty Help Career Progress More Quickly? |
An egg sandwich in hand, I quickly grabbed my bag and climbed into the honking car. I took out my physics notes and started skimming through them once more.
Today was a very important exam-of physics. For me, it is a really hard subject and I had worked really tough and intended to do my best in it.
I entered the queue outside the assigned classroom where the invigilator(监考老师)was checking our pencil cases. All the seniors and juniors were mixed and we were sitting in an English letter order. Upon looking at my name, I was surprised to see someone else sitting on my seat. She was a senior.
“Um. . . excuse me, I think you got the wrong seat… ” my squeaky(细的)voice faltered(支吾).
She stared in front in a bored way. I had the feeling she was deliberately ignoring me. I had enough trouble socializing with people, so I decided to leave the matter to the invigilator. The invigilator came soon enough.
“Katie, dear, you need to move one seat back for Aliya here, ” the invigilator explained.
The girl, Katie, shifted and I settled down. The girl in front of me turned around and rolled her eyes at me. Now, I was puzzled. What was wrong? I had annoyed two people at the same time?
These thoughts drifted away as I started focusing on the paper. Minutes passed when out of the blue,there was a tap on my shoulder.
The girl behind me, Katie, whispered, “Quick! Change places with me.”
I froze. It took me a moment to process her words. Without even waiting for a response, she grabbed my arms, pulled me up and made me sit on her seat, exchanging our papers too. Then she and the girl in front of her started to exchange some notes. I didn’t know what to do. I fought hard to collect enough courage and raised my hand, but the invigilator was busy with another candidate.
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。
Suddenly the door opened with a bang and in came a teacher.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________“As for you, Aliya, ” he turned to me, “complete your paper here. ”
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Tom is a special child. Ever since he was little, dogs have been his greatest passion. He often growled (低吼) and barked and sometimes moved around the house on all fours. His parents brought in a little brown female dog named Lynn. Tom was on cloud nine. One day, this little boy, together with Lynn, was sitting quietly down by the side of the street when suddenly a giant dog walked across him. He was a little surprised and started screaming as loudly as he could! All of this frightened Lynn away immediately.
Tom’s parents tried to see what the chances were of Lynn coming home on her own. But five days later, there was still no sign of Lynn. The boy didn’t just have tears streaming down his cheeks — his parents were saddened too.
The woods behind their home stretched for over 50 miles! Together with their neighbors, they searched for over a month. But Lynn was gone. Tom’s parents wanted to choose a new puppy for him. But no dog could replace Lynn for him.
Tom was not the same boy. He locked himself in his room. He seemed to have lost his love for dogs. He could not focus his attention on his classes so he didn’t want to go to school. He would easily get angry with people around him. Tom changed from a happy, smiling boy to an upset and annoying kid.
Tom’s parents wanted him to stay home and he had been studying at home ever since. His parents accompanied him almost every day, but staying home didn’t help much. The boy’s mother worried a lot. One rainy afternoon, she saw him staring out the window. “I miss Lynn so much. I wonder if everything is okay with her?” It had been a long time since his beloved dog ran away, but Tom’s despair was as great as the day it happened. Days later, Tom walked out the front door with his head down and sat by the side of the street.
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。
A huge brown dog crossed the street and stood in front of the crying boy.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Tom ran after Lynn and entered the woods.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Growing up in Simplicity, Louisiana, near Lake Charles, I developed a love for fishing, though I didn’t have a fishing pole. I only had a length of fishing line with a bobber (浮子) and a barbless hook (无倒钩的鱼钩) tied to the end, always in my pocket ready for any fishing opportunity.
This spring, De Wilde’s, Simplicity’s biggest store, decorated its main window with a fishing pole. It was a shining fishing pole made of fiberglass. I wanted that pale in the worst of ways.
Opportunity knocked when, two weeks after Easter, De Wilde’s announced a fish-catching contest. Although such contests were common in Simplicity, this one held a special attraction for me — the very fishing pole displayed in the window was the prize. The rules were simple: the person returning to De Wilde’s with the largest fish before 7 o’clock on the contest day won.
I decided to participate. However, on the day of the contest, I woke up late to the glaring sun. I quickly put on my T-shirt and jeans, stuffed the rolled line into my pocket and hurried barefoot to the riverside. Despite a later start than others, I suck to my plan: heading to my usual lucky spot, convinced that a big fish awaited me there.
Upon reaching my spot, I climbed upstairs, pulled out the line, and sat down, legs hanging over the water. I dug out some worms and put one on to my barbless hook and let it drop into the water. It sank from sight; the red and white bobber was the only sign that something was up. I waited and waited because that was the best thing and only thing if you were going to catch the contest-winning fish. With sunlight peeking through the underbrush and dancing on the dark water, I changed the worm on the hook for the eighth time, but still, no fish bit.
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。
Just as the sun dropped, the bobber slowly slipped down in the water and disappeared deep.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Holding the largest fish in my bleeding hands, I arrived at DeWilde’s at 7:10 with torn jeans.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________7 . There has been a recent wave in Hollywood where studios take popular animated (动画的) films and “improve” upon them by changing them into live-action remakes. The thought that live-action movies are better because they follow the laws of the natural world degrades the style of animation.
The beauty of animation is that its use of caricatures (漫画) and exaggerations (夸张) reflects an amazing amount of creative depth in characters stories that reality cannot. Looking at the bigger picture, it becomes clear that the true purpose of Disney’s ever growing list of live-action remakes is not to comment on the value of animation, although it indirectly does, but a quick way to take advantage of nostalgic (怀旧的) fans.
For evidence, look no further than Disney’s 2019 The Lion King live-action remake, a retelling of the 1994 animated classic. It broke several box office records, raking in a whopping $543.6 million globally in box office sales alone. However, in comparison to the original, the audience satisfaction with the remake decreased greatly on Rotten Tomatoes. This is similar to the the remakes of Beauty and the Beast, Cinderella, Dumbo, Aladdin, and the countless other live-action remakes Disney has produced within the last 5 years. This means that Disney no longer needs to come up with new and original content because they can make a big profit just by taking beloved stories and remaking them.
In fact, Disney looks at itself as a business, and therefore considers making a profit as one of their main aims.
The problem with this mentality (心态) is that, while Disney makes a huge profit, audiences, artists, and art suffer. They may no longer create new stories or art styles, but rather serve as money-making machines that require directors to produce the same stories with a fresh coat of paint every 10 years or so. If this cycle continues, artists will be held back from creating new lovable characters and stories full of creativity. The feeling of nostalgia when we see old Disney films could possibly never happen-to newer generations if this cycle does not stop.
1. What does the author think of live-action remakes?| A．They slow down Hollywood development. |
| B．They’ve failed to become a popular art form. |
| C．They are poor at showing the beauty of nature. |
| D．They destroy the artistic expression of animation. |
| A．It bases its stories on reality. | B．It uses many special effects. |
| C．It explores characters fully. | D．It brings back fans’ memories. |
| A．To tell us Disney has given up its originality. |
| B．To show Disney has focused more on making money. |
| C．To prove too many remakes have been produced. |
| D．To show audiences have high expectations of remakes. |
| A．It reduces Disney’s incomes. | B．It demands more from directors. |
| C．It hurts new-generation audiences. | D．It causes artists to be less creative. |
1.表达哀思；
2.对娃哈哈集团的希望和建议。
condolences—慰问；吊唁
Dear Ms. Zong,
I’m Li Hua from Hangzhou Foreign Language High School.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________9 . The scent of hot bread drifting from the shops along the Street of Flour was sweeter than any perfume Arya had ever smelled. She took a deep breath and stepped closer to the pigeon. It was a plump one, speckled brown, busily pecking at a crust that had fallen between two cobblestones, but when Arya’s shadow touched it, it took to the air.
Her stick sword whistled out and caught it two feet off the ground, and it went down in a flurry of brown feathers. She was on it in the blink of an eye, grabbing a wing as the pigeon flapped and fluttered. It pecked at her hand. She grabbed its neck and twisted until she felt the bone snap.
Compared with catching cats, pigeons were easy.
She tied the pigeon to her belt and started down the street. A man was pushing a load of tarts by on a two-wheeled cart; the smells sang of blueberries and lemons and apricots. Her stomach made a hollow rumbly noise. “Could I have one?” she heard herself say. “A lemon, or…or any kind.”
The pushcart man looked her up and down. Plainly he did not like what he saw. “Three coppers.”
Arya tapped her wooden sword against the side of her boot. “I’ll trade you a fat pigeon,” she said.
“The Others take your pigeon,” the pushcart man said.
The tarts were still warm from the oven. The smells were making her mouth water, but she did not have three coppers... or one. She gave the pushcart man a look, remembering what Syrio had told her about seeing. He was short, with a little round belly, and when he moved he seemed favor his left leg a little. She was just thinking that if she snatched a tart and ran he would never be able to catch her when he said, “You be keeping your filthy hands off. The gold cloaks know how to deal with thieving little gutter rats, that they do.”
Arya glanced warily behind her. Two of the City Watch were standing at the mouth of an alley. Their cloaks hung almost to the ground, the heavy wool dyed a rich gold; their mail and boots and gloves were black. One wore a long sword at his hip, the other an iron cudgel. With a last wistful glance at the tarts, Arya edged back from the cart and hurried off. The gold cloaks had not been paying her any special attention, but the sight of them tied her stomach in knots. Arya had been staying as far from the castle as she could get, yet even from a distance she could see the heads rotting atop the high red walls. Flocks of crows squabbled noisily over each head, thick as flies. The talk in Flea Bottom was that the gold cloaks had associated themselves with the Lannisters, their commander raised to a lord, with lands on the Trident and a seat on the king’s council.
1. The story is set in a place where ______.| A．people raised pigeons | B．only privileged people lived |
| C．people sold and bought food | D．the watchmen received training |
| A．metaphor | B．overstatement |
| C．personification (拟人) | D．rhetoric rhyme |
| A．Remembering people’s appearance so that you can recognize them. |
| B．Perceiving people’s intention so that you can properly talk to them. |
| C．Understanding people’s living conditions so that you can help them. |
| D．Knowing people’ strengths and weaknesses so that you can beat them |
| A．Arya was more hunger than terrified in the story. |
| B．The Lannisters was a big enemy of the gold cloaks. |
| C．The atmosphere of the castle was agreeable and welcome. |
| D．The authority treated the executed people’s dead bodies in a cruel way. |
Spotted lanternflies (斑点灯笼蝇) are an invasive species. Since 2014, they have been seen all across the eastern United States. The insects are harmful to many plants, and can disturb entire ecosystems. State officials have urged people to kill spotted lanternflies wherever they see them.
When Joy saw the pests in her school courtyard, she thought she had to do something. “I’ve always wanted to take environmental action,” she says, “and show people that no one is ever too small to make a difference.”
So she started a club called Squash (压扁). Its mission is to kill spotted lanternflies around the school. More than 20 students have joined. At first, they trapped the pests in empty water bottles and then squashed them. In a single day, the club managed to kill more than a hundred spotted lanternflies.
Joy wanted to do more. With research, she discovered a plant called milkweed. It’s nutritious for pollinators (传粉昆虫) such as monarch butterflies but poisonous to spotted lanternflies. Joy thought that using milkweed along with the traps made specifically for spotted lanternflies would be a better way to kill them. The issue was that they didn’t have enough money to buy milkweed and the traps.
The kids were hoping to raise money for their school to address the big problem. Their goal was to raise $200, the cost of the equipment needed to kill spotted lanternflies around their school. They got part of the way there, with about $75. They decided to attract more fundraisers. “We discovered that if you find your voice,” Joy says, “you can do much more.”
In May, Joy and other students from Squash gathered in Columbus Park, in New York City. They set up a table with lemonade, cookies, and origami figures for sale. The money will be used to buy milkweed and the traps.
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。
To attract more attention, the students divided their work into various roles.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________As the day progressed, the students’ efforts paid off.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
