1 . For more than a century, the Mississippi Delta has been a popular destination for immigrants. Recently, I was assigned to learn more about one immigrant group: the Chinese in Greenville, a small city along the Mississippi River. There I met Raymond Wong. whose family has long been part of the community.
The first wave of Chinese immigrants came to the Mississippi Delta soon after the Civil War, and the pace picked up by the early 1900s. The Chinese initially came to pick cotton, but they quickly started opening grocery stores, mostly in the African-American communities where they lived.
“On my street alone, there were no less than four grocery stores. I’m talking about a minor street,” Wong recalls. “I was raised in a grocery store. All my family — six of us — lived in a couple of rooms at the back of our store. As soon as I could calculate money I had to work in the store.”
In 1968, Wong’s father opened a Chinese restaurant, one of the first in the town. “The restaurant existed for 40 years.” Wong says. Wong remembers a time of big excitement when his family finally could afford to buy a house in a white neighborhood. Then suddenly, that conversation stopped.
“When people found out that we were moving in, they started throwing bottles in the driveway,” Wong says. “We ended up building a house directly behind the grocery.”
And the future? It’s probably not in the Delta. Wong remembers the question his son raised when he was still in high school: “Dad, do you want me to take over the store when you retire?” Wong’s response was immediate: “No. I want you to live better than me.” That’s the story of the typical Delta Chinese.
1. What did the Delta Chinese originally do shortly after the Civil War?| A．Working in cotton fields. | B．Running restaurants. |
| C．Importing Chinese food. | D．Opening grocery stores. |
| A．Raymond Wong had a fun and care free childhood. |
| B．The store owners’ children were very talented in math. |
| C．There was intense competition among the grocery stores. |
| D．The Wong family was among the most successful families in Greenville. |
| A．Because the house owner raised the price. | B．Because their business failed unexpectedly. |
| C．Because they did not have enough money. | D．Because the white people did not accept them. |
| A．Embarrassed. | B．Insecure. | C．Unconcerned. | D．Optimistic. |
2 . What is a GPA?
A GPA, or Grade Point Average, typically ranging from one to four, is a number reflecting your course performance on average. It’s used by universities to determine whether students meet academic standards and by students to enhance job prospects or secure admission into post-graduate programs.
Example: Academic Transcript of Jane Smith Winter 2023 | |||||
Courses | Letter Grade | Grade points | Credit hours | Total points | GPA |
Creative Writing | A+ | 4.0 | 3 | 12 | - |
Psychology | A- | 3.7 | 3 | 11.1 | - |
History | B+ | 3.3 | 3 | 9.9 | - |
Computer Science | F | 0.0 | 2 | 0 | - |
Total | - | - | 11 | 33 | |
How to calculate a GPA?
● Determine the letter grade and the number of credit hours for each course you take in a term:
● Translate the letter grade to grade points using your school’s grading system:
● Multiply the grade point s by the credit hours for that course;
● Add up all the credit hours for the courses:
● Divide the total number of grade points by the total credit hours and you get the GPA.
What are the consequences of failing college courses?
● Every failing grade (F) significantly impacts your GPA for that academic year, limiting clubs, organizations and program choices, as competitive programs require top GPAs.
● Most financial aid programs require a specific GPA. A sharp drop in GPA due to several course failures may lead to removal from financial aid programs, unless you retake the courses and pass.
1. What is Jane Smith’s GPA this term?| A．3.3. | B．3.0. | C．2.8. | D．1.0. |
| A．School removal. | B．Loss of financial aid. |
| C．Choice limitation. | D．Disqualification from sports. |
| A．An academic course guide. | B．A campus job fair poster. |
| C．A graduate application form. | D．An athletic team schedule. |
| A．ticked all the right boxes. | B．was on the edge of my seat. |
| C．had a frog in my throat. | D．was in my own right. |
4 . Once upon a time, a daughter complained to her father that her life was unhappy and that she was tired of struggling all the time.
Her father, a chef, took her to the kitchen. He filled three pots with water and placed each on a high fire. Once the three pots began to boil, he placed potatoes, eggs and coffee beans in them. After 20 minutes, he took them out, putting the potatoes and eggs in a bowl and the coffee in a cup.
Turning to his daughter, he said, “Look closer, and touch the potatoes.” She did and noted that they were soft. He then asked her to take an egg and break it. After pulling off the shell, she observed the hard-boiled egg. Finally, he asked her to taste the coffee. Its good smell brought a smile to her face.
“Father, what does this mean?” she asked. He then explained that the potatoes, the eggs and the coffee beans were in the same adversity (逆境) — the boiling water. However, each one reacted differently.
The strong and hard potato became soft and weak in boiling water. The egg was fragile, with the thin outer shell protecting its liquid until it was put in the boiling water. Then the inside of the egg became hard. However, the coffee beans were unique. After they were exposed to the boiling water, they changed the water and created something new. “Which one do you want to be like,” he asked. “When adversity knocks on your door, how will you respond?”
In life, challenges happen to us all, but the only thing that truly matters is what happens within us.
1. What can we infer from this story?| A．The girl liked the coffee best. |
| B．The father was good at cooking. |
| C．The girl didn’t like the potatoes and eggs. |
| D．Different people have different reactions to adversity. |
| A．thick | B．hard | C．strong | D．easily-broken |
| A．Challenges and responses. | B．Adversities and a chef. |
| C．A chef and coffee beans. | D．Father and daughter. |
5 . Climate change, not human hunting, may have destroyed the thylacine(袋狼) , according to a new study based on DNA from thylacine bones.
The meat-eating marsupials (有袋动物) died out on mainland Australia a few thousand years ago, but survived in Tasmania, an island of southeast Australia separated from the mainland, until the 1930s. Until now, scientists have believed the cause of this mainland extinction was increased activity from native Australians and dingoes (Australian wild dogs).
Scientists behind the University of Adelaide study, which was published in the Journal of Biogeography on Thursday, collected 51 new thylacine DNA samples from fossil bones and museum skins. The paper concluded that climate change starting about 4,000 years ago was likely the main cause of the mainland extinction.
The ancient DNA showed that the mainland extinction of thylacines was rapid, and not the result of loss of genetic diversity. There was also evidence of a population crash in thylacines in Tasmania at the same period of time, reducing their numbers and genetic diversity.
Professor Jeremy Austin said Tasmania would have been protected from mainland Australia’s warmer, drier climate due to its higher rainfall. He argued that climate change was “the only thing that could have caused, or at least started, an extinction on the mainland and caused a population crash in Tasmania.”
“They both occurred at about the same time, and the other two things that have been talked about in the past that may have driven thylacines to extinction on the mainland were dingoes and humans. So the only explanation that’s left is climate change. And because that population collapse happened at the same time that the species went extinct on the mainland, our argument is there’s a common theme there and the only common theme is that there is this change in climate.”
1. What did scientists believe in the past according to the passage?| A．Marsupials were all meat-eating animals. |
| B．Dingoes should be removed from Australia. |
| C．Thylacines had no enemies on mainland Australia. |
| D．Human activities may cause the extinction of thylacines. |
| A．Tasmania has more dingoes. |
| B．Tasmania has more native activities. |
| C．Tasmania has a higher temperature. |
| D．Tasmania has more rainy days. |
| A．change | B．aging | C．decline | D．increase |
| A．The result of warmer climate in Australia |
| B．The ways of protecting meat-eating animals |
| C．The cause of disappearance of thylacines |
| D．The effect of climate change on wildlife |
| A．force | B．energy | C．strength | D．power |
| A．give away | B．give in | C．give off | D．give up |
1. Where does the speaker work most of the time?
| A．In libraries. | B．At a college. | C．At home. |
| A．Teach courses at colleges. |
| B．Work part-time in a library. |
| C．Type letters for other people. |
| A．Keep up writing books. |
| B．Travel around the world. |
| C．Start a new job working with lots of people. |
