A MOTHER’S DAY SURPRISE
The twins were filled with excitement as they thought of the surprise they were planning for Mother’s Day. How pleased and proud Mother would be when they brought her breakfast in bed. They planned to make French toast and chicken porridge. They had watched their mother in the kitchen. There was nothing to it. Jenna and Jeff knew exactly what to do.
The big day came at last. The alarm rang at 6 a.m. The pair went down the stairs quietly to the kitchen. They decided to boil the porridge first. They put some rice into a pot of water and left it to boil while they made the French toast. Jeff broke two eggs into a plate and added in some milk. Jenna found the bread and put two slices into the egg mixture. Next, Jeff turned on the second stove burner to heat up the frying pan. Everything was going smoothly until Jeff started frying the bread. The pan was too hot and the bread turned black within seconds. Jenna threw the burnt piece into the sink and put in the other slice of bread. This time, she turned down the fire so it cooked nicely.
Then Jeff noticed steam shooting out of the pot and the lid starting to shake. The next minute, the porridge boiled over and put out the fire. Jenna panicked. Thankfully, Jeff stayed calm and turned off the gas quickly. But the stove was a mess now. Jenna told Jeff to clean it up so they could continue to cook the rest of the porridge. But Jeff’s hand touched the hot burner and he gave a cry of pain. Jenna made him put his hand in cold water. Then she caught the smell of burning. Oh dear! The piece of bread in the pan had turned black as well.
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。
As the twins looked around them in disappointment, their father appeared.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________The twins carried the breakfast upstairs and woke their mother up.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________2 . Important Things to Know When Dining Out
Cultural dining etiquette (礼节) might surprise you with some of its important rules.
The way you handle chopsticks is important to avoid annoying your companions. When you put them down between bites, always put them down together so they are parallel with the edge of the table in front of you.
In India and the Middle East, it’s considered very rude to eat with your left hand. People in France expect you to eat with a utensil in each hand.
Some of these cultural dining etiquette rules may seem random and strange, but they are important in various countries.
| A．The more friends you make in your lifetime |
| B．The more time you spend in any given country |
| C．Mexicans consider it inappropriate to eat with utensils |
| D．Don’t get caught making an embarrassing mistake at a restaurant |
| E．It’s a good sign for the chef if you make a mess around your plate |
| F．Never stick them upright in your food or cross them as you use them |
| G．It may seem like a simple request to ask for salt and pepper at a meal |
The Xi’an City Wall is the most complete city wall that has survived China’s long history. It
We accessed the wall through the South Gate. The wall is 12 meters high and from here you can see streams of people moving inside and outside the City Wall.
After
We
4 . The Biggest Stadiums in the World
People have been pouring into stadiums since the days of ancient Greece. In around 80 A.D., the Romans built the Colosseum, which remains the world’s best known stadium and continues to inform contemporary design. Rome’s Colosseum was 157 feet tall and had 80 entrances, seating 50,000 people. However, that was small fry compared with the city’s Circus Maximus, which accommodated around 250,000 people.
These days, safety regulations-not to mention the modern sports fan’s desire for a good view and comfortable seat — tend to keep stadium capacities (容量) slightly lower. Even soccer fans tend to have a seat each; gone are the days of thousands standing to watch the match.
For the biggest stadiums in the world, we have used data supplied by the World Atlas list so far, which ranks them by their stated permanent capacity, as well as updated information from official stadium websites.
All these stadiums are still functional, still open and still hosting the biggest events in world sport.
·Rungrado 1st of May Stadium, Pyongyang D.P.R. Korea. Capacity: 150,000. Opened: May 1,1989.
·Michigan Stadium, Ann Arbor, Michigan, U. S. Capacity: 107,601. Opened: October 1, 1927.
·Beaver Stadium, State College, Pennsylvania, U. S. Capacity: 106,572. Opened: September 17, 1960.
·Ohio Stadium, Columbus, Ohio, U. S. Capacity: 104,944. Opened: October 7,1922.
·Kyle Field, College Station, Texas, U. S. Capacity: 102,512. Opened: September 24, 1927.
1. How many people could the Circus Maximus hold?| A．104,944. | B．107,601. | C．About 150,000. | D．About 250,000. |
| A．Michigan Stadium. | B．Beaver Stadium. | C．Ohio Stadium. | D．Kyle Field. |
| A．They host big games. | B．They have become tourist attractions. |
| C．They were built by Americans. | D．They are favored by architects. |
5 . The benefits of regular exercise are well documented but there’s a new bonus to add to the ever-growing list. New researchers found that middle-aged women who were physically fit could be nearly 90 percent less likely to develop dementia in later life, and as they did, it came on a decade later than less sporty women.
Lead researcher Dr. Helena Horder, of the University of Gothenburg in Sweden, said : "These findings are exciting because it’s possible that improving people's cardiovascular （心血管的）fitness in middle age could delay or even prevent them from developing dementia. "
For the study, 191 women with an average age of 50 took a bicycle exercise test until they were exhausted to measure their peak （最大值的） cardiovascular capacity. The average peak workload was measured at 103 watts.
A total of 40 women met the criteria for a high fitness level, or 120 watts or higher. A total of 92 women were in the medium fitness category; and 59 women were in the low fitness category, defined as a peak workload of 80 watts or less, or having their exercise tests stopped because of high blood pressure, chest pain or other cardiovascular problems.
These women were then tested for dementia six times over the following four decades. During that time, 44 of the women developed dementia. Five percent of the highly fit women developed dementia, compared to 25 percent of the women with medium fitness and 32 percent of the women with low fitness.
"However, this study does not show cause and effect between cardiovascular fitness and dementia, it only shows an association. More research is needed to see if improved fitness could have a positive effect on the risk of dementia and also to look at when during a lifetime a high fitness level is most important. " She also admitted that a relatively small number of women were studied, all of whom were form Sweden, so the results might not be applicable to other groups.
1. What is on the ever-growing list mentioned in the first paragraph?| A．Positive effects of doing exercises. |
| B．Exercises suitable for the middle-aged. |
| C．Experimental studies on diseases. |
| D．Advantages of sporty woman over man |
| A．To predict their maximum heart rate. |
| B．To assess their cardiovascular capacity |
| C．To change their habits of working out |
| D．To detect their potential health problems |
| A．It aimed to find a cure for dementia. |
| B．Data collection was a lengthy process. |
| C．Some participants withdrew from it. |
| D．The results were far from satisfactory. |
| A．More Women Are Exercising to Prevent Dementia |
| B．Middle-Aged Women Need to Do More Exercise |
| C．Fit Women Are Less Likely to Develop Dementia |
| D．Biking Improves Women's Cardiovascular Fitness |
6 . You’ve got mail…and it’s a postcard
Paulo Magalhaes, a 34-year-old Portuguese computer engineer, loves to open his mailbox and find a brightly colored picture of Rome’s Colosseum. Or Africa’s Victoria Falls. Or China’s Great Wall.
“I often send postcards to family and friends.” he says to China Daily, “but you can imagine that after a while, you never receive as many as you send, and you realize that not everyone is into it.
Today his hobby has developed into the website postcrossing.com, a social network that has grown to 575,217 registered users in 214 countries and regions since he started it 10 years ago.
Language is certainly a barrier for many people. For postcrossing to work worldwide, a common communication language is needed so that everyone can understand each other. As cool as it may be to receive a postcard written in Chinese, the concept doesn’t work if one doesn’t understand it.
“Many people in China have limited exposure to English.
| A．And that’s totally fine. |
| B．That makes it extra hard to learn and practice it. |
| C．He likes to think of sending postcards as a family-friendly hobby. |
| D．Many love to make a connection with someone from across the world. |
| E．On August 5, the number of postcards exchanged by members topped 31 million. |
| F．Similarly, if you speak only Chinese, receiving a card in Swedish takes part of the fun away. |
| G．In short, he loves postcards, and the excitement of getting a hand-written note from someone far away. |
7 . Today's world is not an easy adjustment for young adults. Key skill set for success is persistence (毅力), a characteristic that researchers say is heavily influenced by fathers. Researchers from Brigham Young University discovered that fathers are in a unique position to help their adolescent children learn persistence.
BYU professors Laura Padilla-Walker and Randal Day arrived at these findings after following 325 American families over several years. And over time，the persistence gained through fathers led to higher achievement in school.
"There are relatively few studies that stress the unique role of fathers，"Padilla-Walker said. "This research also helps to prove that characteristics such as persistence-which can be taught-are key to a child's life success.”
Researchers determined that dads need to practice an "authoritative" parenting style. Authoritative parenting is not authoritarian:rigid，demanding or controlling. Rather，an authoritative parenting style includes some of the following characteristics:children feel warmth and love from their father；responsibility and the reasons behind rules are stressed children are given an appropriate level of autonomy(自主权).
In the study，about 52 percent of the dads exhibited above-average levels of authoritative parenting. A key finding is that over time，children raised by an authoritative father were significantly more likely to develop persistence，which leads to better outcomes in school.
This particular study examined 11 to 14-year-olds living in two-parent homes. Yet the researchers suggest that single parents still may play a role in teaching the benefits of persistence，which is an avenue of future research.
1. What is special about the BYU professors' study?| A．It centered on fathers' role in parenting. |
| B．It was based on a number of large families. |
| C．It analyzed different kinds of parenting styles. |
| D．It aimed to improve kids' achievement in school. |
| A．Ignore their demands. | B．Make decisions for them. |
| C．Control their behaviors. | D．Explain the rules to them. |
| A．Single parents. |
| B．Children aged from 11 to 14. |
| C．Authoritarian fathers. |
| D．Mothers in two-parent homes. |
| A．Three Characteristics of Authoritative Fathers. |
| B．Key Skills for Young Adults to Succeed in Future. |
| C．Children Tend to Learn Determination from Father. |
| D．Family Relationship Influences School Performance. |
During this past year, I’ve had three instances of car trouble. Each time these things happened, I was sick of the way most people hadn’t bothered to help. One of those times, I was on the side of the road for close to three hours with my big Jeep. I put signs in the windows, big signs that said NEED A JACK (千斤顶), and offered money. Nothing. Right as I was about to give up, a Mexican family in a small truck pulled over, and the father bounded out.
He sized up the situation and called for his daughter, who spoke English. He conveyed through her that he had a jack but that it was too small for the Jeep, so we would need something to support it. Then he got a saw (锯子) from the truck and cut a section out of a big log on the side of the road. We rolled it over and put his jack on top, and we were in business.
I started taking the wheel off, and then, if you can believe it, I broke his tire iron. No worries: He handed it to his wife, and she was gone in a flash down the road to buy a new tire iron. She was back in 15 minutes. We finished the job, and I was a very happy man.
The two of us were dirty and sweaty. His wife prepared a pot of water for us to wash our hands. I tried to put a $20 bill in the man’s hand, but he wouldn’t take it, so instead I went up to the truck and gave it to his wife as quietly as I could. I asked the little girl where they lived. Mexico, she said. They were in Oregon so Mommy and Daddy could work on a fruit farm for the next few weeks. Then they would go home.
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。
When I was about to say goodbye, the girl asked if I’d had lunch.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________After they left, I got into my Jeep and opened the paper bag.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________9 . Most young people are always on their phones, which may upset many people.
Each teen spent at least an hour of one-on-one time with their oldsters. Based on their
Some of the oldsters actually wanted to take part in e-commerce (电子商务), and needed help to
In addition to arranging group lessons for all of the seniors to
The eighth graders earned their “Silver Award,, for their job. After experiencing the
| A．Otherwise | B．Therefore | C．However | D．Besides |
| A．service | B．praise | C．invitation | D．donation |
| A．keep | B．untie | C．share | D．unlock |
| A．technological | B．medical | C．psychological | D．physical |
| A．record | B．teach | C．recall | D．investigate |
| A．get back | B．set up | C．check out | D．pay off |
| A．patience | B．luck | C．fun | D．trouble |
| A．write | B．phone | C．text | D．read |
| A．sweet | B．simple | C．rare | D．common |
| A．play | B．live | C．talk | D．review |
| A．amazed | B．experienced | C．confused | D．respected |
| A．success | B．arrangement | C．change | D．pressure |
| A．performances | B．clinics | C．clubs | D．competitions |
| A．organized | B．managed | C．visited | D．funded |
| A．needed | B．refused | C．enjoyed | D．deserved |
| A．bring up | B．bring about | C．bring in | D．bring back |
