| A．The advantages of reality TV shows. | B．The disadvantages of reality TV shows |
| C．Their experiences in reality TV shows. | D．Their different views on reality TV shows. |
| A．Ordinary people. | B．Famous people. |
| C．Stupid people. | D．Popular people. |
| A．Most of the situations are not real. | B．Some of them are too touching. |
| C．They are full of tension and drama. | D．She will never get into such situations. |
| A．They are amusing but sometimes harmful. |
| B．They are a form of “gossip entertainment” |
| C．They can entertain and sometimes educate people. |
| D．They can make people know more about nature. |
1. What do we know about the weather last week?
| A．It was dry. | B．It was stormy. | C．It was cold. |
| A．Driving slowly. | B．Avoiding going out. | C．Preparing enough food. |
| A．Heavy rainfall. | B．Extreme cold. | C．Strong winds. |
| A．A weatherman. | B．A sports journalist. | C．A finance news host. |
1. What will Todd Messegee be responsible for?
| A．Writing a play. | B．Directing a play. | C．Starring in a play. |
| A．Practice the play. |
| B．Attend a lecture on acting. |
| C．Perform on stage formally. |
| A．Signing up early. |
| B．Receiving top-level training. |
| C．Developing complex characters. |
| A．Making a plan for a play. |
| B．Recruiting actors for a play. |
| C．Announcing arrangements for a play. |
Dora is a seven-year-old girl. One day, when she visited her friend Alice, she saw a beautiful bird in a cage on the balcony of the house. Alice told her it was her new pet. “How beautiful it is!” Dora said. “I also want to have such a bird as my pet.”
That day when Dora returned home, she told her mother about Alice’s bird. Then she asked, “Mom, can I also get a bird?” “Of course, you can,” her mother replied. “But you need to wait because I have no time to go to a pet store these days.” Dora agreed. One day, when Dora was back home from school, she saw a cage in the living room. In the cage was a beautiful blue bird. Her mother was standing next to the cage, smiling. “Oh, a bird!” Dora shouted happily. She ran to it and looked at it happily. “It’s a birthday gift for you,” her mother said. “Thank you, Mom. I love it so much!” Dora shouted excitedly.
The following day, Dora invited her friends to come over to see her bird. All of her friends said it was a really beautiful bird and Dora was very glad to hear that. She and her friends played with the bird for a long time that day. Her friends all wished they could have such a bird as their pet.
Sadly, a few weeks later, Dora became sick. The doctor told her parents that she got the flu and had to stay at home. In order not to make her friends sick, her parents asked her friends not to come to play with her. Dora felt very sad. How she wished her friends would come and visit her! But she knew her parents were right. She’d better stay alone. Since Dora had no one to play with, she could only play with her bird. However, she felt that her bird didn’t seem to be happy either.
注意：1. 续写词数应为 150 左右;
2. 请按如下格式在答题卡上的相应位置作答。
Paragraph 1:
Dora watched her bird in silence and found it looking out of the window.
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When her mother came inside, Dora told her mother about her decision.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________5 . If you search the internet these days, you’ll likely run across some strange-looking, yet cheerful cartoon characters. These computer-generated people have small heads and exaggerated bodies.
In 2017 Facebook paid a design team to develop a positive illustration system.
Why did Alegria art become popular so quickly? There are many reasons. As websites depended on illustrations to fill space, Alegria-type art became increasingly useful.
For many, however, Alegria is a nice visual language that represents happiness. From children hugging to couples dancing, the images are all about positive energy.
| A．The style is flat, simple and easy to create. |
| B．For some consumers, though, that’s a problem. |
| C．One of the designers took that message to heart. |
| D．For the netizens, Alegria helps build trust on the big companies. |
| E．No wonder Alegria is now the most popular style of illustrations for books. |
| F．All in all, it seems that Alegria is the perfect name for this playful, fun art style. |
| G．They’re created in bold colors with arms and legs that resemble giant wet noodles. |
6 . In America, the “Big Dig”, a highway project that resulted in a mess of traffic in the centre of Boston for years, came in five times over its initial budget. Even the Germans get huge projects wrong. Conception to operation of Berlin Brandenburg Airport has taken 30 years, with seven missed opening dates. The airport ended up costing $8.2 billion. However, the original estimate was about $2.7 billion.
Huge projects like Berlin Brandenburg Airport are the subject of an amusing new book called How Big Things Get Done by Bent Flyvbjerg and Dan Gardner. Mr. Flyvbjerg sets up a database of over 16, 000 projects and data analysis reveals that only 8.5% of the projects meet their initial estimates on cost and time, and 0.5% of them achieve what they set out to do on cost, time and benefits.
Over-optimistic time and cost estimates originate from both psychological and political perceptions: the reliance on intuition (直觉) rather than data, and a problem that Mr. Flyvbjerg calls “strategic misrepresentation”. This is when budgets are intentionally reduced in order to get things going. And once the projects are under way, they will not be stopped, because money spent on them will thus be wasted.
Mr. Flyvbjerg speaks highly of Pixar’s methodical approach to developing and testing films in great detail before they go into production. He also tells the story of how Frank Gehry’s well-developed architectural models helped ensure the success of the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao. Narrowing down the producing window of a project before it is actually carried out reduces the probability of unexpected events.
Big customized projects are particularly likely to run into trouble. However, the more a project can be divided into standardized processes, the better its prospects are. Projects run into problems for specific reasons as well as general ones: Britain’s trouble is not something that China has to worry about, for instance. But the iron law is that if you plan strictly and standardize where possible, you are less likely to dig yourself into a hole.
1. How does the author introduce the topic of the passage?| A．By making a contrast. | B．By giving an explanation. |
| C．By presenting examples. | D．By showing an experience. |
| A．Projects’ success rates can be estimated. |
| B．Projects’ desired outcome can’t be achieved. |
| C．Most projects suffer overspending and delays. |
| D．Most projects lack comprehensive data analysis. |
| A．Failures in decision-making. | B．Methods of reducing massive costs. |
| C．Strategies for getting work done. | D．Reasons behind inaccurate estimates. |
| A．Planning thoroughly in advance. |
| B．Analyzing specific and general reasons. |
| C．Focusing on efficiency of projects. |
| D．Drawing lessons from former experiences. |
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.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________8 . See Me
The sun prepared to rest for the evening. Saying goodbye to the clan (家族), I headed back to camp. I looked forward to setting my
“Photo, photo”, a voice behind me called. A young Surma boy followed closely at my heels as I breathed a tired sigh. Over the past four days, many in the camp had wanted their photograph
As I looked at him, an idea flashed before me. I knelt in the cornfield and instructed the boy how to
In an effort to cheer him, I said, “You were great.” Others from his clan gathered around, cheering and clapping. The boy’s face broke into a smile. I intuitively took shots of the moment. That photograph turned out to be better than the arrangement I’d imagined because it was
Reflecting on my experience, I realized I had been caught up in my own ideas and wants. When I agreed to take the shot, I was looking for a particular end
| A．camera | B．wallet | C．luggage | D．plan |
| A．printed | B．taken | C．framed | D．developed |
| A．doubt | B．joy | C．hope | D．despair |
| A．pose | B．move | C．operate | D．stand |
| A．patience | B．enthusiasm | C．temper | D．control |
| A．gave up | B．looked up | C．spoke up | D．cheered up |
| A．angry | B．amused | C．shocked | D．upset |
| A．personal | B．natural | C．graceful | D．skillful |
| A．request | B．reminder | C．result | D．review |
| A．admired | B．heard | C．understood | D．seen |
| A．A record of the school year. | B．A book that is just for seniors. |
| C．A book designed specially to print students’ titles. | D．A record of students’ development. |
| A．Students’ photos. | B．Teachers’ photos. |
| C．Descriptions of students’ academic results. | D．Descriptions of after-school activities. |
| A．All the students and teachers vote. | B．Students sign each other’s yearbooks. |
| C．Students in a yearbook club choose. | D．Students who are soon graduating vote. |
I stood in the restaurant kitchen, my eyes wide, arms hanging awkwardly, ready to work but unsure of what to do. “You will be trained first,” my manager Aaron said, “and do remember to check every detail!” With these words, he walked away.
A workmate threw me a dish brush and said, “Let’s get started.” He introduced me to the basics of washing dishes and demonstrated the process. This was the beginning of my part-time job, a new stage where I was both eager to learn and anxious about the challenges ahead.
On a Friday night, Aaron swiftly entered the kitchen. “Who has just bused (收拾) the back right table?” he shouted, his voice sharp with urgency. My hands, slippery with bubbles from the bowl I was washing, nearly let it slip through my fingers. I wanted to say I was guilty, but Aaron’s cold stare didn’t promise a happy reward for the guy who admitted. Finally, a mix of fear and my own conscience pushed the response out of my mouth.
“I did, Aaron.”
“What were you thinking? Get back out here and look at what you missed!” His words forced me forward. I grabbed a rag (抹布) and followed him out to table twenty-two. As we made our way through the restaurant, he said something about rags, but I didn’t hear clearly with other conversations going on around us.
I quickly realized the true issue was the mess beneath the table. A nearly full cup of beer had tipped over, creating a small lake on the floor. It was a significant mistake on my part. “Take care of it!” Aaron tuned and stormed off to the front of the restaurant.
I dropped down to clean up the beer. That was when another problem occurred. I had brought only one rag. One already wet rag. It did nothing but increase the size of the lake. “More rags,” I thought. Immediately, I rushed into the kitchen and hurriedly grabbed five dry rags, hoping Aaron wouldn’t notice my brief absence.
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。
I had just rushed out when I found Aaron standing in my way.
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After cleaning up the mess, I reflected on Aaron’s words.
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