It was so heartbreaking for Devan Bonagura to see 81-year-old Nola Carpenter sitting in the break room of a supermarket where she works. In the short video he shared, the woman appears tired and stares at the floor as if thinking of something. The video finally went popular, earning over 30 million views and causing a movement that would change Carpenter’s life.
It is widely known that retail (零售) workers are heroes. They put up with long hours and angry customers, among a lot of other things. This work is challenging for young people and able-bodied people, so it can really be more difficult to the old. That’s why Bonagura posted the video.
He posted the short video of her with the message “Life shouldn’t be this hard. . . ”and the caption(字幕)“I feel bad”. At last, his followers asked him to find a way to support this woman, and it inspired him to open a GoFundMe campaign titled“Let’s help Carpenter retire (退休)”. The idea was to support Carpenter so that she could retire early.
Although the goal was just $10, 000, 24 hours later over $100, 000 had been collected. Two days later, Bonagura met up with Carpenter and told her how he had posted a video of her and how people had come together to help her. “They see that you’re a very hard worker,” the social media platform told the woman. “We are all super proud of you, and we want to offer you the $110, 000 that has been raised for you.” “T’d accept it, but I’d still have to work until I get the other $60, 000 to pay off the house,” she explained. “The house is what’s holding me at work. ”She then talked about her daily life and how she struggled to help those in need.
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。
Knowing why Carpenter worked so hard at this age, every one was moved
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Reaching her goal, Carpenter won’t retire until the New Year.
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I first started playing soccer on a Wednesday three years ago. My cousin played soccer every Wednesday at the park and he dragged me into playing with him that day. My cousin played soccer really well, which made me want to learn how to play soccer so that I could fit in with him.
Growing up without my father, I wasn’t so interested in sports. But that day as soon as I started playing soccer, I realized I had a new interest. So for almost a year I was playing soccer at the park every Wednesday with adults. However, I didn’t make much progress. I started thinking, “If I keep playing with adults, I might not get better because I could never get the ball.”
However, one day when I felt depressed for what had happened to me, I came across a special soccer payer, a lame man(跛脚的人)who was about 45 years old. Unexpectedly, his disability didn’t affect his skills, desire and courage to play although many people frequently laughed at him. No matter when it was windy or rainy, he always played soccer alone on the court next to our building, without a smile on his face forever. Maybe he and I couldn’t be accepted by a team.
Having no choice but to practice more, I played soccer on his court for ten days. And we almost had no communication. Day after day, my skills were still bad, so I was absent for playing for a long time. Then, I returned to the court without any aim and thought. Amazingly, it was he who asked me actively why I had been absent. We talked a lot. And I realized that a large number of factors affected my playing, such as skills, mood, teamwork, will and courage, etc. At the moment, I knew I was sick in mind and my unfitness seriously impeded(阻碍) the development of my sports.
Pragraph1:
To be honest, sometimes I had an idea to give up soccer, but I couldn’t when I met the special person.
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Paragraph2:
No pains, no gains. At last, my skills on playing soccer allowed me to join a professional soccer team and I attended a soccer competition.
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3 . The Feynman Technique(费曼学习法)is a powerful method that you can use to learn anything faster because it forces you to actively think about the problem instead of passively reading or listening to someone else talk about it. You can take the following five simple steps to study better.
·Find out the topic you want to learn.
·Explain the topic as if teaching a sixth-grader. This step is the heart of the FeynmanTechnique—
.Identify areas of improvement in your explanation. You’ll need to critically(批判性地)review the explanation you cane up with in Step Two
·Improve and optimiez(优化) your explanation. Think about all the knowledge gaps and other areas of improvement you found before.
· Repeat the steps until you’ve achieved mastery of the topic. Keep going through each step you're fully satisfied with your explanation.
| A．Use those to improve your explanation |
| B．To do so, take a critical look at your explanation |
| C．Make sure that your explanation is interest-based |
| D．Your explanations need to be short and to the point |
| E．The Feynman Technique works best with a repeat |
| F．It’s important that you clearly know the topics you’re trying to learn |
| G．Explaining the topic simply enough to be understood by a sixth-grade student |
When coming to this city for high school, I moved into the new house with my parents. We were very grateful to the owner for renting us this house at a cheap price. The house was really comfortable to live in. It was warm inside and full of life outside.
A tree in the front yard attracted my attention, and all I could confirm was that it was a fruit tree. My father thought it was a fig(无花果) tree, and sure enough, as the months went by, the tree grew huge leaves and finally bore the fruit—figs, the size of my fist. How wonderful they were! I took many pictures of the fig tree. And then we wondered how to deal with the figs. My mother thought for a while and said, “Why not try making fig jam?” I responded quickly, “That’s a good idea!”
Jack, one of our neighbors, just visited us and asked if he could pick some figs from our tree. Certainly, we encouraged him to take as many as he liked. In fact, Jack was extremely polite and friendly to us. He introduced himself at the first sight of us. He always waved to me as he came home or as he left for work.
When I picked the figs with him, he told me about how he had been living in the house next door for close to twenty years. He said, “Bruce, the owner of the house you live in now, used to be my best friend. And we had planted this very fig tree a few years before he went to the nursing home.” I was amazed to know that we actually enjoyed the fruit of his work. He told me that he was so impressed by the quality of the fruit this year. I found a fruit box for him to put the figs in. Both of us enjoyed the pleasure of sharing.
When Jack set out for his home, I turned to my parents and advised doing something in return for Jack and Bruce’s kindness and friendliness.
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.
Finally, we decided to invite Jack and his family to dinner that night.
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The next day, our family and Jack visited Bruce in the nursing home.
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Every Saturday afternoon, Jimmy and his dad would go to the park to play baseball. They always walked past a homeless man who always sat at the same street corner. Jimmy’s dad always gave the man some money. “Someday, I’ll pay you back, John!” the man said. “Sure, Wayne,” Jimmy’s dad replied.
One day, Jimmy held his dad’s hand, asking, “Dad, how does that man know your name?” John answered, “Oh, when I was in college, I knew Wayne. He was on the brink (边缘) of a big discovery that could bring him a patent. Anyway, things didn’t go well for him. So whenever I see him, I give him some money. And he tells me he’s using it for lab supplies. I don’t think it’s true, but I pretend I do. And when he tells me he’ll share the profits of his discovery, I tell him I believe it, too.”
Jimmy didn’t understand anything his dad was saying, but he felt the compassion(同情) in his voice. So he stopped his dad and gave him a big hug. Jimmy didn’t know it was his last hug. That night, while Jimmy’s dad was out for his evening run, his heart stopped beating.
The only person Jimmy was living with was his grandmother, Wendy. And they ended up living in an old small house. Life got very tough for them. Although Wendy was old, she found a cleaning job. But her health started to fail and Jimmy was very worried about her.
Jimmy became very quiet. To cheer him up, one Saturday, Wendy went to the park and threw the ball around with Jimmy. After that, they came out. And there at the corner, Jimmy saw his dad’s homeless friend, Wayne.
“Wait, Grandma!” Jimmy cried. “There’s something I have to do!” Jimmy walked up to Wayne and turned his pockets inside out. He said to Wayne, “Sorry, but I only have twenty cents.” “That’s okay. Every cent helps!” Wayne said. “How’s your dad? I haven’t seen him for a while.”
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。
“He’s dead!” Jimmy cried.
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On year later, Wayne drove to Jimmy’s house in a pretty car with a check for $5 million.
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1. When did Mozart begin to compose music?
| A．At the age of four. | B．At the age of five. | C．In his early teens. |
| A．In Milan. | B．In Vienna. | C．In Salzburg. |
| A．He did business. | B．He taught for a living. | C．He composed music. |
7 . Most of us have told a lie at one time or another. Some lies are harmful. Others are mostly harmless. Still other lies may even be created with the best of intentions. But no matter what kind of lie you tell, it takes a great deal of brainpower to keep your lie covered.
People lie for different reasons. Sometimes they do it to make themselves look better. Sometimes they lie to get out of trouble. Some lies are well-intended, which scientists call “prosocial lies”. Maybe you tell your parents that you loved the sweater they gave you for your birthday (even though you were really hoping for a new cell phone). That’s a prosocial lie.
When you tell the truth, your brain doesn’t have to do anything unusual. Lying takes much more work. For example, when you are late for class, you tell a lie that you have to stop by the library and pick up a book. Your teacher may ask to see the book or even ask you to read it. This may result in a series (系列) of lies, causing a lot of brain work done in the prefrontal cortex (前额皮层). It’s the part in charge of working memory. Working memory keeps something in mind just for a little while. When you use self-control to keep from telling the truth, this part comes into play.
Spending so much brainpower trying to keep a story straight means prefrontal cortex has a harder time doing other tasks that require planning, self-control or working memory, such as planning a study schedule. Kid’s prefrontal cortex is not fully developed until around age 25. So they have fewer resources (资源) there to begin with. That is why researchers feel it’s important that kid students find dependable people to whom they can safely tell even painful truths about themselves.
“Nearly all cultures value honesty,” Talwar says. And, she adds, “There are things people can do to help create a culture that strengthens the value of honesty. Rather than punishing people for lying, it is more important to praise them for telling the truth.”
1. What does the first paragraph intend to tell us?| A．Lying steals brainpower. |
| B．Harmless lies are welcome. |
| C．Trust is nowhere to be seen. |
| D．Many lies are well intended. |
| A．They bring tellers a lot of fun. |
| B．They get tellers out of trouble. |
| C．They make receivers feel good. |
| D．They lead receivers to a deep thinking. |
| A．To make them feel safe. |
| B．To improve their control. |
| C．To guide their study schedule. |
| D．To free up their working memory. |
| A．Making people suffer from telling lies. |
| B．Giving people praise for being honest. |
| C．Helping people to lead a creative life. |
| D．Asking people to learn different cultures. |
As a mother, I had two little kids. I had no family to help me where I lived, so I did what any mother would do. Sometimes, I worked over sixty hours a week. I had as many as three jobs at a time. I had no time to take care of myself or accompany (陪伴) my kids and even sometimes had no time to have meals. It wasn’t easy, but I never missed a bill or never had a late payment. The only problem was that I was working myself to death.
One Easter weekend, I worked thirty hours from Friday to Sunday, with little sleep. On Sunday night, I fell into bed tired. My next memory was waking up in an ambulance (救护车) with two nurses beside me. I had no memory of how I got there, and I had a serious headache. They kept asking me what kind of things had happened. There was nothing in my mind. All I remember was being angry and helpless.
They took me to the hospital, and during the days there, they thought that I had been ill because of being too tired. Yet, I kept telling the nurses to call another worker who worked with me in the same place to open the business because I couldn’t get there. When I left the hospital, I began to rethink everything. I had to go on supporting my family, but I was going to find a better way to do it. I needed to be home more for my kids, work fewer hours, and still make ends meet. The only way was to find a better-paying job. Luckily, I did find a better job.
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。
After that, I began to plan my daily life in a new way.
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Every two weeks, my two kids and I would go out to dinner.
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| A．read, written | B．to read, written |
| C．reading, to write | D．to read, to write |
10 . While I was in hospital for back surgery (手术) recently I was looked after by a nurse called Deitrich. She worked the
One night things were
The day I was discharged (出院) we
Deitrich gladly thanked me for my
God bless Deitrich and her church and all the people who want to make a difference for the better in this world!
1.| A．day | B．morning | C．night | D．afternoon |
| A．quiet | B．noisy | C．terrible | D．lost |
| A．supposed | B．replied | C．expected | D．intended |
| A．house | B．office | C．writing | D．charity |
| A．enjoy | B．continue | C．stop | D．remember |
| A．parted | B．walked | C．cried | D．waved |
| A．fact | B．return | C．brief | D．total |
| A．card | B．pay | C．feeling | D．money |
| A．assured | B．asked | C．demanded | D．advised |
| A．choice | B．time | C．power | D．decision |
| A．profit | B．difference | C．appointment | D．trip |
| A．refused | B．gave | C．missed | D．accepted |
| A．would | B．should | C．must | D．can |
| A．church | B．childhood | C．countryside | D．work |
| A．help | B．care | C．support | D．kindness |
| A．words | B．luck | C．wishes | D．chances |
| A．lent | B．delivered | C．donated | D．passed |
| A．called | B．left | C．asked | D．informed |
| A．ever | B．therefore | C．once | D．also |
| A．received | B．wanted | C．kept | D．saw |
