2 . J. K. Rowling frequently shows there is magic every day. Her Harry Potter series has helped people through times of stress and depression and she is always there to deliver wise words of encouragement.

She is one celebrity who is very active on Twitter. So when a single dad named Matt Burke sent her a message thanking her for the series, she noticed. Her series had helped strengthen his relationship with his 9­year­old daughter Bailey.

He included a link to his article titled Being a Broke Parent. He explained how he hadn’t found a level of financial stability that allowed him to pay bills on time and take his daughter on more activities and events. The family also doesn’t have the Internet or TV, which means there’s no “digital babysitter” and he has to rely on his own creative ways to bond with his daughter. Since he received the series, the main thing that has occupied them these days is reading books together.

Burke admits that he thought he was “too cool” for the books when they first came out and he was in his twenties, but he’s loving reading them now. “We switch off chapter by chapter reading them out loud，“Burke explains.” This not only allows her to get more used to reading aloud in front of someone, but it gets me directly involved in something she loves, and it gives me the chance to be very dramatic when I read my chapters and bring myself into the characters in the book, which has proven to be a ton of fun.”

After hearing Burke’s story, Rowling said how honored she was when Harry Potter was a part of his family’s life and offered Burke more books. Besides, people are also offering to send Burke more books as gifts. For Burke, this experience, far more than gifts, will be what he treasures.

1. Why did Burke thank J. K. Rowling according to the text?

A．She guided him how to write a good story.

B．She encouraged him when he was in trouble.

C．Her books helped him through times of confusion.

D．Her books helped him improve his bond with his daughter.

2. What is implied in Burke’s words in paragraph 4?

A．He has found it interesting to read the series.	B．He was too old to understand the series better.
C．He has chosen a better way of reading the series.	D．He hopes to play a role in the drama in the future.

3. Which word can best describe Burke’s experience according to the text?

A．Useless.

B．Normal.

C．Valuable.

D．Boring.

4. What is the main idea of this text?

A．J. K. Rowling chooses to help improve kids’ health.

B．J. K. Rowling gives a magical gift to a single father.

C．J. K. Rowling has a deep influence on others’ growth.

D．Burke comes to know J. K. Rowling through her series.

3 . 阅读下面材料，根据其内容和所给段落开头语续写两段，使之构成一篇完整的短文。

Last Saturday, David was taking a walk in the park near his home when he noticed a woman with a boy of about eight years old. When David passed them, he heard the woman yell. “How stupid you are! You’re good at nothing.” David stopped and looked at the little boy. The boy said nothing. He just stood there, looking upset.

David was reminded of his English teacher Mrs Brown in middle school. After he entered a middle school, David lacked self-confidence because he was often made fun of by others. He was often told that he was good at nothing, which David behaved. But one day it all changed.

One day, in an English writing class, Mrs Brown asked them to read a novel. They were asked to write a new chapter of the novel after they finished reading it. A few days later, David handed in his story. He didn’t give it much thought. But the next day, to his surprise, the comment “well done” from Mrs Brown came into view the moment he turned to the page where the story was written. When David read that, he almost burst into tears. He never expected to be praised one day. He suddenly gained some self-confidence.

That day after he returned home, he wrote a short story and gave it to Mrs Brown the next morning. And again he was praised. David became very interested in writing. He often wrote short stories and asked Mrs Brown to read them improve writing skills. One year later, David joined the school newspaper and became an editor of it. He was no longer that boy who lacked self-confidence. He gained his confidence, and was hopeful about his future.

He succeeded in entering a college and kept writing. Several years after graduating from college, he had his first book published. With some more books coming out, he became famous as a writer in his country. And he owed his success to Mrs Brown’s encouragement. Without her encouragement, his life might be very different now.

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。

Inspired by his own life story, David decided to do something for that boy.

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The mother was ashamed when she heard that.

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5 . 阅读下面材料，根据其内容和所给段落开头语续写两段，使之构成一篇完整的短文。

My Best Teaching Experience

Tyler was only in my senior class for a semester. He had been suspended (使停学) many times in previous years because of his anger issues. When he entered my class, I thought the worst.

Tyler sat in the back row. Every time I talked to the class, I would ask students questions, calling them by name. Unfortunately, every time I called on Tyler, he would respond with a joke. If he got an answer wrong, he would become angry.

About a month into the year, I was still trying to connect with Tyler. I can usually get students involved in class discussions or at least have them sit quietly and attentively (专心地). By contrast, Tyler was often loud and sometimes rude.

He had been in so much trouble over the years. He expected his teachers to know about his past; about how many times he had been sent to the office or suspended from school. I had found that these sorts of referrals (移交) were not very effective and that students would return from the office behaving worse than before.

One day, Tyler was talking over me while I was teaching. I stopped my lesson and said, “Tyler, why don’t you join in our discussion instead of having one of your own?” With that, he got up from his chair, pushed it over and yelled something. I can’t remember what he said other than that he included some impolite words. I sent Tyler straight to the office, and he received a week’s suspension.

To this point, this was one of my worst teaching experiences. Tyler’s anger was almost too much for me. The week Tyler was suspended from school was a wonderful time, and we got a lot accomplished as a class. However, the suspension week would soon come to an end, and I was fearful of his return.

续写要求：
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。

On the day of Tyler’s return, I stood at the door awaiting him.

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A spark of surprise flashed across his face.

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6 . Traci Ruble, a psychotherapist (心理治疗师), felt worried that people today were experiencing loneliness and a shortage of personal connections. She understood that with busy lives and challenging jobs, people were unable to make these connections.

So on a spring day in 2015, Ruble and a small number of volunteers set up chairs on sidewalks in 12 locations around San Francisco, California and invited people passing by to sit for a few minutes and chat. This was the beginning of Sidewalk Talk, an organization whose mission is to create public spaces of connections where the people are.

Today, the organization has more than 4,000 volunteers in 40 cities. Around 25 percent of the volunteers are licensed therapists (持证治疗师). They come from different backgrounds and are a mixed group. Volunteers receive training from the organization.

Listening activities are held several times a month along with other organizations. In San Francisco, Sidewalk Talk partners with Lava Mae, a non-governmental organization (NGO) that brings mobile showers to homeless people.

Sidewalk Talk gives people a chance to speak and be listened to but it is not therapy, according to Ruble. “I’m not interacting as a therapist out there. I’m not there to solve someone’s problems,” she said. “I’m there to practice being human.”

Ruble stressed that therapy is one-sided and that therapists are taught to avoid self-disclosure(自我表露) but by “being human” she could carry out interactions by sharing her own life and showing empathy (同感) with the people she talks with.

According to a report, 31 percent of all Americans experience serious loneliness including 61 percent of young adults. To fix that, rebuilding community relationships is very important. While listening activities will not solve the loneliness problem, these chats could help someone have a brighter day. Knowing that there are empathetic people who are willing to fully listen and share your feelings could make all the difference to a lonely person.

1. What can we learn about Sidewalk Talk?

A．It is largely made up of licensed therapists.

B．It encourages people to share and reconnect.

C．It was set up with the help of other organizations.

D．It aims to improve people’s language expression ability.

2. Why does Ruble stress “being human”?

A．It leads to a healthier life.

B．It helps people solve problems.

C．It makes chats go more smoothly.

D．It allows people to receive support.

3. What does the last paragraph mainly show us?

A．The power of good community relationships.

B．The seriousness of the loneliness problem.

C．The results of being an empathetic person.

D．The need for Sidewalk Talk’s activities.

4. What is the best title for the text?

A．Taking listening to the streets

B．Dealing with loneliness by volunteering

C．Building powerful connections between people

D．Enjoying having deep conversations with strangers

7 . 假定你是李华，上周五你所在的城市遭受了暴风雪袭击。为了市民的出行安全，放学后你班自愿上街清理积雪。请根据此事，用英语写一篇活动报道，内容包括：
1.活动目的；       2.具体经过；     3.自己的感受。
注意：1.写作词数应为80个左右；   2.请在答题卡指定位置作答。

Students Sprang into Action to Clear Snow

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8 . 阅读下面材料，在空白处填入适当的内容 (1个单词) 或括号内单词的正确形式。

For those lacking sleep at night, a nap (小睡) can often be a perfect solution. Naps improve your performance, which is     1     you feel refreshed after taking one. The length of your nap     2     (determine) the benefits. A 20-minute nap is the most     3     (suit) to improve moving skills and attention, while an hour to 90 minutes of napping helps solve creative problems. Just set an alarm     4     (get) the right amount of sleep.

Short naps can help relieve tension, which decreases your risk of heart disease. Get the most health benefits     5     your nap by doing it right. Stick to a regular napping schedule during right     6     (hour) , between 1: 00p. m. and 3: 00 p. m. The time is right for a nap as this period of time is usually after lunch,     7     both your blood sugar and energy start to dip. So, keep eyes shut and nap in a dark room as soon as possible during this period.

For anyone suffering from     8     sleepless night it’s hard to be happy the next day. Napping can help erase the bad mood for lack of sleep. A short nap is a (n)     9     (wise) choice than drinking black coffee, since     10     (consume) caffeine in the afternoon or evening can badly affect your nighttime sleep.

9 . Is there a friend of yours who always sings out of tune but never realizes it? Don’t blame them-they may have amusia (失歌症), a disorder in the brain.

Apart from singing out of tune, people with amusia may also find it hard to recognize music they’ve heard before without the help of song lyrics. Amusia can range from difficulty in recognizing melodies to a total inability to distinguish between different musical notes, according to Live Science. However, people with amusia can recognize common environmental sounds as well as the high and low sounds in human voices, meaning that this inability can be specifically related to music.

In many cases, people who have amusia are born with it, as 46 percent of these individuals’ relatives were found to have similar conditions, according to a 2017 study. Brain imaging shows that their brains receive and respond to music pitch (音高) information, but it is not reaching conscious awareness, meaning that the mind can’t understand the information.

Scientists at the University of Otago in New Zealand also think that amusia is related to people’s spatial (空间的) processing skills. They invited people with amusia, musicians and students from non-musical backgrounds to perform a task related to spatial imagination. They were asked to judge whether pairs of images are the same object rotated (旋转) or mirror images.

The result showed that the amusia group made more mistakes than the other two groups. Amusia might be related to the way the brain stores information about the high and low notes in melodies, according to the study.

Although those who aren’t confident about their singing skills often say they are “tone-deaf”, people with amusia only make up about1. 5 percent of the population, as estimated by the2017 study. “Like dyslexics (诵读困难者) can learn how to read, those with amusia should be able to improve their ability to recognize tones if they start early enough,” Isabelle Peretz, a professor of psychology from the University of Montreal in Canada, told Live Science.

1. According to the article, what do people with amusia find easy to do?

A．Recognizing melodies.	B．Recognizing tunes.
C．Identifying human voices.	D．Distinguishing between different musical notes

2. What did the 2017 study tell us about amusia?

A．Amusia is a result of brain damage.	B．Amusia is common among children.
C．Many individuals with amusia are born with it.	D．Those who are tone-deaf often suffer from amusia.

3. What did the study by scientists at the University of Otago show?

A．People with amusia have strong spatial imagination skills.

B．People with amusia struggle to judge the shape of images

C．Amusia may be related to one’s level of music education.

D．Amusia may be linked with how the brain stores note information.

4. How can people with amusia improve their musical ability, according to Peretz?

A．Learn how to read earlier in life.	B．Start to explore and learn music early.
C．Seek medical treatment.	D．Sing frequently with friends.

10 . When 19-year-old Emily Bhatnagar from Maryland, USA, found out her father had stage four thyroid (甲状腺) cancer, her response was a little different than you might expect. To honour her father, who she also describes as her best friend, she decided to start a book drive called For Love and Buttercup, collecting books for kids with cancer.

“It was very much an overnight idea,” she explains. “I posted a message on an app called Nextdoor asking my neighbours for used book donations. I was only expecting a few here and there, but the response was truly incredible, and it was just the push I needed to co-exist with my grief rather than letting it consume me.

“It was absolutely heartbreaking to watch my dad go through cancer and see him lose a little bit of himself each day, but the book drive allowed me to develop a newfound sense of purpose combined with an even greater sense of compassion (同情) to help others in any shape or form. I wanted to help kids. They’ve always held a soft spot in my heart.”

Using tips she earns from working at her parents’ bread shop, Emily has bought many books out of her own pocket. In addition, she receives donations through her Amazon wish list, which can be found in the bio of the book drive’s Instagram account.

Emily and her older brother spent a whole summer driving around town, loading boxes of books into their car. “It was such an honour knowing people have carried these books all their lives through generations, and they wanted to gift it to my cause.”

The project has seen huge success, with For Love and Buttercup donating over 15,000 books and being recognized by The Washington Post, Forbes, The President’s Volunteer Service Award and Lady Gaga’s Born This Way Foundation.

1. Why did Emily decide to start a book drive?

A．To show respect for her sick father.	B．To raise money for kids with cancer.
C．To recycle used books from neighbours.	D．To draw more attention from the media.

2. What can we learn about Emily from Paragraph 3?

A．Emily didn’t give up in the face of difficulties.

B．Helping kids brought Emily great joy and pride.

C．Emily was well aware of what her life was all about.

D．Emily’s story deeply touched the hearts of kids she had helped.

3. What can be inferred from the last two paragraphs?

A．The book drive was highly thought of.

B．The book drive earned Emily fame and fortune.

C．Emily was honoured to know many kind people.

D．Emily received a lot of support from the news media.

4. What is the text mainly about?

A．A father’s moving story of fighting cancer.

B．People’s responses to a girl’s act of kindness.

C．A girls’ courage to conquer challenges in life.

D．A book drive launched to collect books for kids with cancer.