By the time 18-year-old Amy Waldroop returned to her grandmother’s tiny house, it was nearly midnight and she was exhausted. After a full day’s work at a flower shop, she had put in another six hours waiting tables before heading home. This was her typical weekends.
Pushing the key into the lock, she quietly opened the door so as not to wake her younger siblings. She stepped into the front room, and froze. The house was a mess: plates of half-eaten food were scattered in front of the TV; clothes, shoes and exercise books were everyone.
Amy’s eyes welled with tears. “This is just too much for me.” she thought. Terrible memories began to race through her mind. Two years before, her parents lost their lives in an accident, leaving Amy and her siblings for their grandma, Helen, who had spent half of her life in a wheelchair. The life burden fell on Amy’s shoulders, which was too much for a girl.
Life moved on. One day, walking across the school grounds, Amy found a table littered with university brochures. She browsed through pictures of spacious campuses and happy peers, all of it looking unachievable for her, given the current situation and financial conditions. But her teacher gave her unexpected hope, saying“ You could attend university for free. It would take a scholarship, though, and for that you’d need much better grades.”
During her final year of high school, Amy diligently attended classes, then went to work after school, returned to her grandmother’s house, cared for her sisters and brothers and went through homework till the early hours of the morning, struggling for her dream university.
One afternoon, she walked home from school, holding a sheet of paper tightly. It was a letter from the University of California, informing her that she would be offered a scholarship and was admitted to the university. It was what she’d been longing for, a place where she could study to become someone special-a nurse, perhaps, or maybe even a lawyer.
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Yet the letter only made Amy struggle inside.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________The next afternoon, Amy spotted the wrinkled letter she threw into the dustbin on the table when arriving home.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________In my childhood, under the influence of my el der brother and my peers in the neighborhood, I tried a number of outdoor activities. Of course, I was not so taken by all of them. whether I was doing them for the first time or continuously. However, fate had its own plans in store. You never know when an outdoor activity will change my life.
The name of this activity is “fishing”. About ten years ago, I didn't really like the idea of sitting on the bank of a lake or river, spending long hours under the sun's ultraviolet rays, which can cause sunburns and skin damage, and anxiously anticipating some fish to be kind to take my bait(诱饵). In fact, I used to think of this outdoor activity as some kind of “hide-and-seek-game” that is popular with most young kids, except that it was much harder because I could see my “prey (猎物)” only after catching it.
However, all that changed when I paid a visit to my aunt in the countryside during a summer holiday. I was finally convinced by one of my cousins to accompany him to a nearby lake in order to do some fishing practice with him. In fact, he even assured me that fish would eat my baits. So I agreed and went to the lake expecting to catch some fish. Before throwing my fishing line into the water, my cousin did some tricks attaching some sort of food to my fishing pole.
Learning to fish in a river or lake can be challenging for the beginners like me. The act of dropping a line is easy, but being a successful fisher is hard. That's why they call it fishing but not catching But with practice and patience, it can become easier over time. Patience is essential in lake fishing. It may take some time to find the right spot or lure (鱼饵) that will attract fish.
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My cousin had to repeatedly remind me to keep patient.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________When we finally left the lake, I had caught three fish!
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Crab Lessons
My son Geordi was a rather spirited boy. Very little held his attention for long. He spent most of his spare time thinking up new ways to scare me half to death. Like the time he decided to “surf” on a tiny plastic table that was meant to hold a few drinks rather than a six-year-old boy. Geordi had just begun learning about the ocean in school and was surprisingly fascinated by it. We lived in Delaware, so any discussion about the ocean usually included horseshoe crabs, which crowded our coasts to mate in the late spring.
As part of the lesson, Geordi’s teacher brought horseshoe crab shells (壳) to school for the children to touch and examine. Hearing that horseshoe crabs had been around for over 300 million years, even before the dinosaurs, Geordi thought that was officially the coolest thing he had ever heard. He could not stop talking about it for days, and I decided it was time for us to take a drive to the Delaware Bay.
As we stepped out from the car, strong wind nearly blew my poor forty-five-pound child to the ground. Being a six-year-old mischievous (调皮的) boy, Geordi saw this as an opportunity to showcase his amazing talents, which included falling down, getting up, falling down and, yes, getting up again. This, of course, was always complete with giggles (咯咯笑). The drama came to a sudden stop as Geordi spied the dozens of army-truck-looking creatures in the sand. The next sound effect was “Wow!” as his body froze and his eyes widened with wonder.
Geordi ran around excitedly, not knowing which one to check out first. He settled on a horseshoe crab that was on its back, legs waving wildly in the air, desperate for water. “Mom, look at this one!” he screamed. “He’s cool!” I pointed out the different body parts of the crab for him, and he listened quietly and absorbed the information. He said, “I really liked him. I think I will name him Spike because he had all those really cool, spiky (尖的) things on his back.” Then I picked up the crab, turned it over to its proper position and placed it at the edge of the water.
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2.请按如下格式作答。
Geordi asked what I was doing.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Geordi spotted many more horseshoe crabs on their backs.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________4 . Who can imagine life today without an Automated Teller Machine (ATM)? They are available in considerable numbers throughout the world.
The first ATM was the brainchild of an enterprising Turkish-American inventor Luther George Simjian. When the idea of an automated banking machine struck him, he registered 20 patents before any bank agreed to give it a trial run. It is easy to assume that the inventor of such a popular machine was laughing all the way to the bank.
It was not until 1967, nearly 30 years later, that Barclays Bank, in a careful launch, rolled out a self-service machine in London, England, which proved successful.
Experts quickly determined that public acceptance of ATMs counted on convenience, simplicity, speed, security and trust.
Public acceptance of deposits (存款) by machine was significantly slower than customers’ usage of ATMs for withdrawals. In general, it seems that customers sometimes still prefer and trust an over-the-counter transaction (交易) for deposits.
A.Location, in particular, was a key factor. |
B.His cash machine, however, didn’t prove durable. |
C.The device was relatively primitive, at least by today’s standards. |
D.However, cash machines posed some interesting, unanswered questions. |
E.An interesting factor was the issue of bio-statistics for customer identification. |
F.Devices originally dismissed by the public are now recognized as essential institutions. |
G.Soon afterwards, many other banks became admittedly champions of the cash machine. |
1. Why was the man in England?
A.He was on business there. | B.He was visiting there. | C.He moved there. |
A.In India. | B.In England. | C.In Canada. |
A.Being too old. | B.Living a full life. | C.Coming to power suddenly. |
6 . “When we think of curiosity, we often think of the need for immediate answers,” said Abby Hsiung, Ph. D. , a postdoctoral researcher at the Duke Institute for Brain Sciences and lead author of a new research paper. “But we found that when people were more curious, they were actually more pleased to wait.”
“When we watch TV shows or football games, we’re watching that information develop over time, uncertain about how it’s all going to end,” said Hsiung. “I wanted to know if higher curiosity would push people to seek, or to avoid getting an immediate ‘spoiler’ (剧透).”
Hsiung drew inspiration from short cooking videos that are popular on social media. “These videos caught my attention because even though they’re so short, they manage to develop a description and suspense (悬念), so that you’re attracted and curious about how the pizza will all come together.” So Hsiung got out her digital paintbrush and made a lot of 30-second animated line drawing videos that, like the cooking videos, eventually ended up as something highly recognizable, like a hamburger or a dog.
More than 2,000 adults from across the U. S. then watched 25 of these short line drawing videos online. Participants in Hsiung’s study were asked along the way how curious they were, how they felt, and to guess what the drawing would become. Viewers also had a spoiler button to skip ahead to see the final drawing. Hsiung and her team were surprised to find that when people were curious, they refused to hit the spoiler button and kept watching the drawings unfold. It was when people were less curious that they tended to go for an instant answer.
The study also found that curiosity increased at different stages of watching these videos. “We saw higher curiosity during moments when it seemed like the drawing could turn into anything and also when participants were starting to really home in on a single answer,” said co-author Jia-Hou Poh, Ph. D. , a postdoctoral researcher at the Duke Institute for Brain Sciences.
1. What is the popular belief concerning curiosity?A.It fuels the urge for answers. | B.It leads to endless patience. |
C.It stresses the need to wait. | D.It brings the pleasure of waiting. |
A.The evolution the TV shows displayed. | B.The fantasy the short cooking videos shared. |
C.The way the short cooking videos developed. | D.The popularity the short cooking videos achieved. |
A.Make drawings to take a shortcut. | B.Answer some questions while watching. |
C.Press the spoiler button to finish the task. | D.Hunt for an answer as quickly as possible. |
A.The influence of patience on curiosity | B.Curiosity delays eagerness for the answer |
C.Curiosity arises from the patience of waiting | D.The way to hold back the urge for an answer |
1. What instrument did the speaker play when she was young?
A.The piano. | B.The guitar. | C.The violin. |
A.In London. | B.In Sydney. | C.In New York. |
A.They’ll meet famous performers. |
B.They’ll have a brighter future. |
C.They’ll get a chance to travel the world. |
A.Three. | B.Four. | C.Seven. |
“Don’t bug me! Hug me!” Bumper Sticker Lee Shapiro is a retired judge. He is also one of the most genuinely loving people we know. At one point in his career, Lee realized that love is the greatest power there is. As a result, Lee became a hugger. He began offering everybody a hug. His colleagues dubbed him “the hugging judge”, which is opposed to the hanging judge. The bumper sticker on his car reads, “Don’t bug me! Hug me!”
About six years ago Lee created what he called his Hugger Kit. On the outside it reads “A heart for a hug.” The inside contains thirty little red embroidered hearts with stickers on the back. Lee will take out his Hugger Kit, go around to people and offer them a little red heart in exchange for a hug. Lee has become so well known for this that he is often invited to keynote conferences and conventions, where he shares his message of unconditional love.
At a conference in San Francisco, the local news media challenged him by saying, “It is easy to give out hugs here in the conference to people who self-selected to be here. But this would never work in the real world.” They challenged Lee to give away some hugs on the streets of San Francisco. Followed by a television crew from the local news station, Lee went out onto the street. First he approached a woman walking by. “Hi, I’m Lee Shapiro, the hugging judge. I’m giving out these hearts in exchange for a hug.” “Sure,” she replied. “Too easy,” challenged the local commentator. Lee looked around. He saw a meter maid who was being given a hard time by a traffic police, who was giving a ticket to her for illegal car parking. He marched up to her, camera crew in tow, and said, “You look like you could use a hug. I’m the hugging judge and I’m offering you one.” She delightedly accepted it. The television commentator threw down a more hug challenge to Lee.
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2.请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
He had never before hugged people who were severely terminally ill as Leonard.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Doctors said it was the first time that they had seen Leonard smile.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________9 . Architects often spend months or even years perfecting a design to express their ideas more clearly, convey additional information, or outline the right proportions for a building. However, the urgent issue of climate change is placing new demands on their work. For example, in July, Super Typhoon Doksuri battered China, affecting more than 2.66 million people in Fujian Province alone.
Green architecture that conserves energy and reduces carbon dioxide emissions offers a solution, and concerted efforts have been made in diverse research fields over the past three decades to minimize heat loss. In addition, new buildings have to be tailored to the needs of people’s lifestyles.
Ren Jun, a professor at Tianjin University’s School of Architecture, who designed the first near-zero energy house in China in December 2019, said, “You can construct low-energy, environmentally-friendly houses, but if the interior design and environmental quality don’t meet residents’ requirements, these properties won’t be suitable to live in.”
The near-zero energy house, located-in Banbidian village in Beijing’s southern district of Daxing, won the International Design Award in the United States in January last year. The 400-square-meter property, which stands at the entrance to the village, runs on solar power gathered from rooftop panels, with the addition of a small amount of power from the grid (电网).
Ren said the first obstacle to conserving energy in the property was heat retention, which he attempted to achieve by keeping the indoor temperature at a certain level. The property is divided into five areas: a solar garden in the front yard, a central lounge, a water courtyard, a sponge zone, and a back room. For the exterior walls, Ren used three types of insulation (隔热层), including plastic foam, each about 25 centimeters thick.
Ren also looked for ways to deal with emissions at the house. He decided to install a ventilator, which pipes air that is polluted and replaces it with fresh air from outside in every room at the property.
Ren said it would take three to five years before more ultralow or near-zero energy buildings appeared in Chinese cities.
1. Which is not an important factor for designing green houses?A.Energy consumption. | B.Carbon emission. |
C.People’s lifestyle. | D.Architecture style. |
A.The house consumes little electricity. |
B.The house is deliberately designed to keep heat. |
C.The house is equipped with many intelligent facilities. |
D.The house is the first International Design Award-winning building in China. |
A.He designed the house in five stories to trap heat in it. |
B.He applied 75 centimeters of plastic foam to exterior walls. |
C.He tailored the interior design to the demand of local people. |
D.He installed a ventilator to cut down carbon dioxide emissions. |
A.Green Homes Offer Hope amid Climate Change |
B.Green Houses Feature Near-Zero Energy Consumption |
C.Ren Jun Won the International Design Award |
D.China Strives for Low Carbon Strategy with Green Houses |
10 . The true test of an effective team is one where the members operate as a self-managing team. The
I followed up with one of our customers to see first-hand what a very successful team looked and felt like. Here is their story on what they do to
This team
The reason why I know this information is that when you have the opportunity to see how a team really works, you want to
As I stayed and communicated with the team members to find out how they worked together, they described to me their requirements for team development.
They said, “Each member has a good time, and we are in tune (协调) with each other, and we have a great
Their hard work and effort paid off as they became known as “the stars” of the company. They were described as “
It is clear that this team developed to compete for the goal instead of against each other. This team has stayed
A.leader | B.learner | C.waiter | D.customer |
A.defend against | B.look into | C.leave out | D.serve as |
A.set out | B.stand out | C.work out | D.run out |
A.accounts for | B.concentrates on | C.consists of | D.cares about |
A.conditions | B.habits | C.states | D.attitudes |
A.bothered | B.reminded | C.trained | D.observed |
A.far from | B.in return for | C.apart from | D.in case of |
A.pay | B.mood | C.diet | D.rent |
A.delivery | B.smell | C.quality | D.shape |
A.compare | B.uncover | C.adjust | D.keep |
A.taste | B.bite | C.review | D.sense |
A.limitation | B.prejudice | C.purpose | D.complaint |
A.special | B.normal | C.hesitant | D.ridiculous |
A.pity | B.security | C.pride | D.tense |
A.self-centered | B.self-employed | C.self-funded | D.self-driven |