At Piedmont Middle School, a kid could run track or play tennis, but everyone wanted to be on the soccer team. Piedmont and the surrounding towns were pretty small, so instead of having separate girls and boys teams, each school had one team made up of both girls and boys. Laura had dreamed of earning glory for the team Los Halcones ever since the first grade when her older brother Toni won in the county middle school championship. Now he was away at college on a soccer scholarship. The day she joined the team as a sixth-grader, she felt like she could fly.
But, unfortunately, her joy didn’t last. She spent most of the season on the bench.
Walking to the car after the last game of the season, Laura tried to smile at her mother. Having spent yet another game sitting on the bench, Laura hadn’t even broken a sweat. “Well, at least you don’t have to wash my uniform,” she joked, but she could feel tears in her eyes. Her mother said, “You still have chances. Don’t lose heart. Toni once made the same mistake. And now you can watch soccer videos to learn more skills when sitting there.” Laura could only shake her head.
Lying in bed that night, Laura thought back to her first game, the day of her huge mistake.
“Pass, pass, pass!”
“Clear that ball!”
Voices yelled from every side. Laura ran nervously in front of the goal (球门) as both teams rushed down the field. She knew the children in green were her teammates. Those in blue were on the other team. At that time, a boy on the opposing team had the ball when a battle for that ball broke out a few feet from her. Green and blue uniforms swirled (打转) around her, and Laura could barely keep track of the ball. Then, suddenly, it came her way!
“Laura, I’m open!” one of her teammates called from near the sideline. Then Laura kicked the ball.
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。
But the ball went in the completely wrong direction!
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Sitting on the bench for game after game, Laura decided to tell Toni that she wanted to quit.
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Tripod’s story started one spring morning as I was finishing a morning surgery at the veterinary clinic (兽医诊所) I owned. I was writing up medical records of the surgery patients when my receptionist (接待员) stuck her head into my office. She told me there was a big cat lying outside with a seriously injured front leg. What’s worse, nobody knew whom it belonged to.
Then I sent two of my pre-vet students to pick up the poor cat while I went back to my record-keeping. But it wasn’t long before I heard the students returning with this newest patient who seemed to be in pretty bad condition.
I carefully checked up the injuries which seemed to be caused by the pressing of a heavy object. With the extremely horrible smell, I knew from years of experience this cat didn’t have an owner. “Well, then,” I sighed, “I’m not sure whether we are able to bring this cat back to life, but let’s give him our best shot anyway. Afterwards, let’s see if we can find a home for him. ”
Just then, when one of the students began touching the cat’s head gently, somewhere deep in the cat’s throat, a weak purr (呼噜声) began. As the student continued to pet the cat, I noticed the cat’s breathing became less laboured (缓慢而困难的).
When I performed the complicated operation, I whispered, “You’re a fighter, aren’t you, boy? You deserve a chance to live.” However, after the surgery, he lost one leg, and still struggled with life and death. Over the next few weeks, Tripod, the cat, went through many ups and downs, but I was sure about his resilience (快速恢复的能力). News about Tripod spread. A number of customers stopped by regularly to check on the progress of his recovery, including Mrs Melson, a pet lover.
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。
The day finally came when I decided Tripod had really recovered.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Though unwilling to part with Tripod, we were happy to see Mrs Melson come for him.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________1. How were the elephants prevented from escaping?
| A．By holding them with chains. |
| B．By tying a rope to one of their legs. |
| C．By keeping them in cages. |
| A．To remove his confusion. |
| B．To learn how to train animals. |
| C．To know about the camp. |
| A．It’s not right to tie the elephant with a rope. |
| B．It’s important to learn from successful people. |
| C．People should believe in themselves in pursuing dreams. |
I stared at myself in the mirror: blue tights, yellow vest, a fish tail trailing behind me, and large eyes sitting at op my head. I raised my eyebrows and sighed.
“Mom, I don’t think this costume is right,” I said. “Maybe the makeup will add something,” Mom replied hopefully.
Somehow Mom had convinced me to play the Fish Footman in Alice in Wonderland. I can’t say it’s been the time of my life.
“What if I forget my lines?” I hesitated.
“Oh Riley, is that what you’re afraid of? I know you’ve been rehearsing for two months, you were the first off-book in your scene, and I couldn’t be prouder of you.” Mom said, kneeling down and hugging me.
The next day we pulled into the parking lot, and I stepped out of the car, wearing the questionable costume. I shrank inside myself, but Mom pulled me toward the makeup room. When the makeup was done, I looked at myself in the mirror. My jaw dropped.
“Mom! I can’t go onstage like this!” I cried.
“Why not?”
“I’d be a laughing stock (笑柄)! ”
“Riley, look around you! You’re not the only one in an odd costume.”
“What if we just sneak out? No one will miss me.” I whispered.
Mom’s lips disappeared into a thin line, and I knew I had gone too far. “Riley, I’m going to watch you go out on that stage tonight. And that’s the end of it.” Then mom disappeared into the audience. I sat there, alone and bored, as the play began and the curtain rose on.
The two boys dressed as Two of Clubs (梅花2) near me chatted casually about this and that. Suddenly, they asked, “You’re awfully quiet. Is this your first show?” I tried to respond, but my voice caught in my throat and refused to escape. I coughed and nearly yelled, “YES!”
The Ace of Diamonds (方块A) sitting nearby laughed. “The audience will certainly hear you if you talk that loud. But you might have to clear your throat first, she chuckled. I gave them a weak smile.
“Don’t worry about us,” the Ace said. “We’re only teasing.”
“Yeah,” the Two said. “When you’ve done as many shows as we have, projecting will be second nature to you.”
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:
When my name was called, I stepped onto the stage uneasily.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Paragraph 2:
Suddenly I was determined to make a lasting impression.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________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.
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。
My cousin had to repeatedly remind me to keep patient.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________When we finally left the lake, I had caught three fish!
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________My parents would not let me go to school that morning. “Why not?” I argued. “I have exams. I have work in Spanish class that I can’t miss!” My mother gave me a sad look. “You have to get a checkup (身体检查),” she explained. I screamed, “NO!” My father pulled me over to the couch. “Alison,” my father said in a tone that was quiet but powerful. “You’re in the state of malnutrition (营养不良). And you know that. You can have all in the world, but if you don’t have your health, you have nothing.” For some reason, I believed him. I hadn’t wanted it to be this way.
I was a girl who didn’t like doing sports but was fond of snack food. I weighed 50kg at my age of 14. Most of the time, I avoided parties with my friends, afraid of how ugly they would think I looked. One day, I found a slim girl on TV was so attractive that I wanted to look like her. I forced myself to do exercise and started going on a diet for a good-looking body shape. During the summer, I did weekly weigh-ins (称重) and kept a strict diet. I memorized the calories of almost everything that I may eat. My only goal was to lose weight. Later, when it became too cold to run outside, I restricted my calories even more to make up for not being able to burn them.
Gradually I lost my weight a lot. But things turned out to be worse. My hands were especially dry, peeling and wrinkled. My sister called them old people’s hands. Once, I went shopping with my mom.While we waited in line to pay for our items, I felt I was going to faint (昏厥). I felt dizzy and standing was getting harder and harder.
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。
As my mom tried to figure out which exit we should go through, she noticed my pale face.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Incidents (发生的事情) like the one in the store were in my thoughts as my parents had a talk with me that morning—the morning when I refused to see the doctor regularly.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________1. What color might the woman’s dress be?
| A．White. | B．Cream. | C．Silver and gold. |
| A．100. | B．200. | C．300. |
| A．Balloons. | B．Drinks. | C．Chair covers. |
| A．A company gathering. | B．A birthday party. | C．A wedding ceremony. |
1. Where does the conversation probably take place?
| A．On the street. | B．At the man’s home. | C．In a camera shop. |
| A．One. | B．Two. | C．Three. |
| A．Cameras are old-fashioned. |
| B．People buy things on the Internet. |
| C．There are fewer photographers. |
| A．Go to a camera shop. |
| B．Take care of his friend’s kids. |
| C．Take pictures for a wedding. |
9 . The human voice is delicate. The vocal cords (声带) can easily get damaged by stress, infections, or overuse. According to a 2005 study, 30%of the population will experience a voice disorder at some point in their life.
In a study published in the journal Nature Communications this week, a group of bioengineering researchers from the University of California have put forward an attractive solution. They have designed and tested a soft patch (贴片) that can be stuck onto a person’s neck, where it will pick up muscle movements when speaking, process the signals and translate them into speech.
Even though the team’s device is an early prototype, it has the potential to offer a great improvement on current alternatives. When a person loses their voice today, the easiest fix is to type, text, or write notes to communicate. Typing can be slow and inconvenient, says Jun Chen, the paper’s lead author, and writing is only possible in good lighting. A patch would theoretically clear all these hurdles.
When the throat muscles move under the silicone (硅酮) patch, the resulting magnetic-field variations can be converted into electrical signals. In a test with eight participants, the researchers captured the signals arising as the subjects spoke and lip-sounded five different sentences. They then trained a machine-learning model to recognize the distinct shapes of the electrical signals associated with each sentence. This device then predicted which of the five sentences the participants spoke with more than 90%accuracy, whether aloud or in silence.
In addition to stretchiness, the patch remains sticky on sweaty skin, and can be used continuously for 40 minutes without heating up.
For now the device can only recognize the five phrases it was trained on. Plus, individual difference in vocal cords means the algorithm has to be personalized to each user. To make it practical at scale, the researchers will need to collect a lot more data.
1. What is the attractive solution to voice disorder?| A．Transplanting a patch into the human throat. |
| B．Strengthening the muscle through exercise. |
| C．Sticking a patch on the neck to produce sounds. |
| D．Reproducing sound through an artificial throat. |
| A．Barriers. |
| B．Conveniences. |
| C．Devices. |
| D．Memories. |
| A．To turn the words on the patch into sound. |
| B．To predict the meaning of the sentences. |
| C．To produce an answer from its word banks. |
| D．To predict the sentences from electric signals. |
| A．To improve its work efficiency. |
| B．To get it to work automatically. |
| C．To expand its scale of coverage. |
| D．To seek its possible alternatives. |
1. When was Lockley House built?
| A．In the sixteenth century. | B．In the seventeenth century. | C．In the eighteenth century. |
| A．Books. | B．Guns. | C．pictures. |
| A．Play tennis. | B．Have a swim. | C．Enjoy some concerts. |
| A．Visiting an old building. | B．Describing a famous queen . | C．Seeing a collection of old books. |
