“Want to go to the pool tomorrow?” Rosa asked Stephanie during recess. The pool at the YMCA was one of their favorite places, where they learnt and practiced swimming.
Rosa and Stephanie did everything together. They rode the school bus together. They sat together during lunch. They took dance lessons together and they even went to the same summer camp. Their classmates called them “twins”. They were best friends. Most of the time.
Sometimes, though, when Stephanie was with other friends, she ignored Rosa or treated her like a little kid, even though they were the same age. Rosa and Stephanie had played together since they were babies, but sometimes Stephanie didn't act like a friend.
Today was one of those times.
“Sorry. I’m already going to the pool,” Stephanie said. “Toni and Vanessa and I are going.” She gave a broad smile, but in Rosa’s eyes, it wasn’t her nice smile. Saying nothing more, she walked straight away to join Toni and Vanessa, and Rosa was left standing alone, with her face burned and an angry tension coming into her limbs.
After school, at dance class, Stephanie talked and giggled with the other dancers as they stretched in front of the mirror. When Rosa came in, Stephanie didn’t say hello to her, but just another smile. Rosa hesitated for a while about whether she should join them, but she still felt too upset.
Then she noticed Kiara, the new girl. Rosa joined her and began stretching, too. Kiara smiled and Rosa smiled back. The two girls began to talk. Rosa discovered that Kiara was not the quiet girl she had thought she was. Kiara talked a lot — about her little brother, about the tree house her uncle had built and even about swimming. “I love swimming,” Kiara said. “I will hold a pool party at the YMCA. Would you like to come?” “Yes. It’s awesome.” Rosa responded. She tried not to check the mirror to see if Stephanie had noticed. She hoped Stephanie felt left out.
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 the dance class, when Rosa boarded the bus, Stephanie was waiting in their usual seat.
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When Rosa saw Stephanie in low spirits, her heart sank.
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2 . Pollution
Pollution happens when the environment is dirtied, by waste, chemicals, and other harmful substances(物质).Pollution is a problem all over the world. But it is especially bad in large cities with a lot of industries and cars.
Wildfires, volcanoes, and industrial chemicals cause some air pollution. But most air pollution comes from burning fossil fuels (矿物燃料）These include coal, oil and natural gas. The burning of fossil fuels may release harmful gases. Air pollution may cause such diseases cancer and asthma. It also leads to polluted rain that can harm living things
Causes of water pollution are easy to see. People dump(倾倒) garbage and dirty water into river, lakes and oceans. Factories or cities sometimes release poisonous chemicals, and other wastes into water. These chemicals may make the groundwater unfit to drink.
Littering, or throwing garbage on the ground, is a form of land pollution. Litter can destroy the habitats of plants and animals. The buildup of dangerous chemicals in the ground is another form of land pollution. The chemicals may come from farms or factories.
Many governments, environmental groups, and ordinary people are working to control pollution. Governments have passed laws to keep people from releasing dangerous chemicals into the environment
| A．Farmers use chemical to help crops grow. |
| B．This type of pollution may be seen in big cities. |
| C．They also can harm fish and other forms of life. |
| D．These chemicals can spread to plants and animals. |
| E．In addition, air pollution may be a cause of global warming. |
| F．There are three main forms of pollution: air, water, and land. |
| G．Some companies and people are trying to use fewer fossil fuels. |
My mother was a supporter of physical punishment, but for all her talking she has never spanked (打屁股) my siblings, and me only once. Instead she found ways of punishment that left a more lasting memory than giving us a spanking. One of the most memorable of these occasions occurred when I was four.
In the early 70’s my mother attended college during the day and I was in day care. One day at day care I watched an extremely tired mother attempt to pick up her daughter. The little girl asked, “Momma, are we going to McDonald’s for dinner?” The mother replied, “Honey, not tonight. Momma has to run a few errands (差事) and then we have to go home and cook dinner for Daddy.” “But I wanna go.” “Susie, I said not tonight. Maybe, if you are a good girl, we can go tomorrow.” Susie immediately dropped to the floor, kicking and screaming, “I want to go to McDonald’s.”
No amount of pleading (恳求) or scolding her mother tried stopped Susie’s tantrum (发脾气). Finally her mother gave in, “Okay, Susie, let’s go to McDonald’s.” Susie stopped yelling. With a smile on her face she grabbed her mother’s hand and they left. To say I was amazed would be inaccurate (不准确的); I was delighted that anything I wanted could be had by throwing a tantrum.
That day my mother picked me up early from day care because we were going to a store to purchase some Christmas items. I was excited by the lights and decorations, and as we walked through the toy section on the way to the counter, I saw a toy I had to have. It was a white and red telephone whose bells rang as it was pulled along on a string. Looking lovingly up at my mother I asked, “Mama, can I have that telephone? ”
She replied, “Baby, not now, but if you are a good girl, maybe Santa will bring it to you.” “But Mama, I want that telephone right now.” Her eyes narrowed and her hand tightened on mine. “Becky, you can’t have that telephone today, but if you misbehave, you can have a spanking.”
注意：
1. 所续写短文的词数应为150左右；
2. 应使用5个以上短文中标有下划线的关键词语；
3. 续写部分分为两段，每段的开头语已为你写好；
4. 续写完成后，请用下划线标出你所使用的关键词语。
Paragraph l:
By now we were standing in the long holiday line to pay the bill, and I figured it was a good chance.
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Paragraph 2:
“Mama, stop. Mama, get up,” I tearfully pleaded.
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Happy Endings
Perry Piccolo was a rich kid who led a very nice, comfortable life, protected from most of the bad stuff in the world. One day, Perry went to the cinema to see a film he'd been dying to see. The problem was that he arrived a bit late, just as the last ticket was being sold to a very poor boy. The boy had been saving for weeks to buy this ticket. Realizing there was no ticket left, Perry was very angry, and started shouting and protesting, demanding that the boy hand his over.
“But why should I give you my ticket? I arrived before you did and I've paid for it.” said the boy.
“Because I'm more important than you! Look! I'm rich and you are poor. Don't you see？” Perry replied.
At that moment, a very distinguished looking man came over to Perry and offered him a ticket, saying, “Of course, my boy. You have more of a right than him to see this movie.”
Then Perry, in the most showy_and_superior way, walked off from the boy and entered the cinema. When he got inside the auditorium, Perry looked around and was pleased to see that the place was filled with other rich children like himself. He made his way to a seat. However, as soon as Perry sat down, he disappeared and was somehow teleported onto the cinema screen. He realized he had turned into a movie character, playing the central role in many stories. And in all those stories Perry started out with a lot of bad luck: a couple of times his parents disappeared, other times his house burned down and he lost all his money. In some stories he had to travel to countries where he didn't understand the language, in others he had to work straight from childhood, to help support all his brothers and sisters. Sometimes he found himself in a situation where everyone treated him like a fool, or like someone who had no feelings ...
注意：
1.所续写短文的词数应为150左右；
2.至少使用5个短文中标有下划线的关键词语；
3.续写部分分为两段，每段的开头语已为你写好；
4.续写完成后，请用下划线标出你所使用的关键词语。
Paragraph 1：
In all these stories, Perry had to struggle terribly to survive and overcome his difficulties.
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Paragraph 2：
When all this came to an end, Perry found himself back in his seat.
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1.询问近况；
2.求助意图；
3.期待回复。
注意：
1.词数80左右
2.可适当增加细节，以使行文连贯。
参考词汇：
经典原版英语文学作品；original English classic
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7 . Modern medicine’s ability to keep us alive makes it tempting to think human evolution may have stopped. But if we look at the rate of our DNA’s evolution, we can see that human evolution hasn’t stopped – it may even be happening faster than before.
Evolution is a gradual change to the DNA of a species over many generations. It can occur by natural selection, when certain traits created by genetic changes help an organism survive or reproduce. Such genes are thus more likely to be passed on to the next generation, so they increase in frequency in a population. Gradually, these changes and their associated traits become more common among the whole group.
By looking at global studies of our DNA, we can see evidence that natural selection has recently made changes and continues to do so. Though modern healthcare disrupts a key driving force of evolution by keeping some people alive longer, in countries without access to good healthcare, populations are continuing to evolve. Survivors of infectious disease outbreaks drive natural selection by giving their genetic resistance to offspring. Our DNA shows evidence for recent selection for resistance of killer diseases like Lassa fever and malaria. Selection in response to malaria remains in regions where the disease remains common.
Humans are also adapting to their environment. Gene change allowing humans to live at high altitudes have become more common in populations in Tibet, Ethiopia, and the Andes. The spread of genetic changes in Tibet is possibly the fastest evolutionary change in humans, occurring over the past 3,000 years. This rapid increase in frequency of a mutated gene that increases blood oxygen content gives locals a survival advantage in higher altitudes, resulting in more surviving children.
Diet is another source for adaptations. Studies show that natural selection favoring a change allowing adults to produce lactase – the enzyme (酶) that breaks down milk sugars – is why some groups of people can digest milk. Over 80 per cent of northwest Europeans can, but in parts of East Asia, where milk is much less commonly drunk, an inability to digest lactose is the norm. Like high altitude adaptation, selection to digest milk has evolved more than once in humans and may be the strongest kind of recent selection.
Yet, despite these changes, natural selection only affects about 8 per cent of our genome. But scientists can’t explain why some genes are evolving much faster than others. We measure the speed of gene evolution by comparing human DNA with that of other species. One fast-evolving gene is human accelerated region 1 (HAR1), which is needed during brain development. A random section of human DNA is on average more than 98 per cent identical to the chimp comparator, but HAR1 is so fast evolving that it’s only around 85 per cent similar. Though scientists can see these changes are happening – and how quickly – we still don’t fully understand why fast evolution happens to some genes but not others.
1. Which of the following statements may the author agree with?| A．Evolution occurs among several people overnight. |
| B．Genes may change and some are beneficial to people’s lives. |
| C．Evolution is done when the whole population possesses a certain gene. |
| D．The changed genes leading to higher survival rates are chosen deliberately. |
| A．explains | B．causes | C．upsets | D．heals |
| A．some people can resist infectious diseases like malaria |
| B．children in Tibet tolerate living environments with thin air |
| C．northwestern Europeans digest lactose better than East Asians |
| D．the human gene HAR1 resembles that of a chimp to a lesser extent |
| A．What Is Natural Selection? |
| B．Are Humans Still Evolving? |
| C．Why Will Certain Genes Evolve? |
| D．How Do Mutated Genes Function? |
8 . It’s late in the evening, time to close the book and turn off the computer. You’re done for the day. What you may not realize, however, is that the learning process actually continues in your dreams.
It might sound like science fiction, but researchers are increasingly focusing on the relationship between the knowledge and skills our brains absorb during the day and the often strange imaginings they generate at night. Scientists have found that dreaming about a task we’ve learned improves performance in that activity (suggesting that there’s some truth to the popular idea that we’re “getting” a foreign language once we begin dreaming in it). What’s more, dreaming may be an essential part of understanding, organizing and retaining what we learn.
While we sleep, research indicates, the brain replays the patterns of activity it experienced during waking hours, allowing us to enter what one psychologist calls a neural (神经的) virtual reality. A vivid example of such replay can be seen in a video researchers made recently about sleep disorders. They taught a series of dance moves to patients suffering from sleepwalking and related conditions. They then videotaped the subjects as they slept. Lying in bed, eyes closed, one female patient on the tape performs the dance moves she learned earlier.
This shows that while our bodies are at rest, our brains are drawing what’s important from the information and events we’ve recently encountered, then integrating that material into the vast store of what we already know. In a 2010 study, researchers reported that college students who dreamed about a computer maze (迷宫) task they had learned showed a 10-fold improvement in their ability to find their way through the maze compared with participants who did not dream about the task.
That study’s chief researcher Herbert Smith suggested that studying right before bedtime or taking a nap following a study session in the afternoon might increase the probability of dreaming about the material. Think about that as you go to sleep tonight.
1. What happens when one enters a dream state?| A．The body continues to act as if the sleeper were awake. |
| B．The neural activity of the brain will become intensified. |
| C．The brain once again experiences the learning activities of the day. |
| D．The brain behaves as if it were playing a virtual reality video game. |
| A．It replaces old information with new material. |
| B．It processes and absorbs newly acquired information. |
| C．It regroups information and places it in different files. |
| D．It systematizes all the information collected during the day. |
| A．Staying up late before finally going to bed. |
| B．Having a period of sleep right after studying. |
| C．Having a dream about anything you are interested in. |
| D．Thinking about the chances of dreaming about the material. |
| A．How study affects people’s dreams. |
| B．Why people learn more after sleeping. |
| C．What time students should study and sleep. |
| D．How dreaming may lead to improved learning outcomes. |
The fourth Thursday in November is called Thanksgiving Day, which has been one of the most important festivals in the United States. The theme is thankfulness for peace and happiness of family life during the past year. People usually eat roast turkey and pumpkin pie to celebrate the holiday.
There are always moving stories about Thanksgiving Day. Though the stories have different leading roles, the topics of them are the same: showing the sincere appreciation to their loved people, such as parents, siblings（兄弟姊妹），friends, teachers and so on.
I also have a moving story that happened on Thanksgiving Day. At first it sounded like a thanksgiving story, but the more I reflected on it, the more appropriate it seemed for any time of the year. The story went like this: when Thanksgiving Day was coming, a teacher gave her class an interesting task-to draw a picture of something for which they were thankful.
Most of the class might be considered economically disadvantaged, but still many would celebrate the holiday with turkey, corn, pumpkins and other traditional things of the season, like all of those symbols drawn on the holiday decorations and greeting cards. These, the teacher thought, would be the subjects of most of her students art.
All students drew their pictures as the teacher thought, except one boy-Peterson. He made a different kind of picture. Peterson seemed to be a strange student in the class. As other children played during break, he usually chose to quietly stand close by the teacher's side. They didn't know what had ever happened to him and nobody could guess how Peterson felt behind his sad eyes. He didn't like to play with the other students nor talk with them.
When the little boy was asked to draw a picture of something for which he was thankful, he drew a hand. There was nothing else but an empty hand on the picture. It was different from other pictures.
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。
His abstract picture caught the imagination of his classmates.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________When the children went on to discuss other pictures,the teacher paused at the boy's desk.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________经理将会被一名在销售方面经验更丰富的人所取代。
