1 . My father was Chief engineer of a merchant ship, which was sunk in Word War II. The book Night of the U-boats told the story.
Memories
In September, 1940, my mother, sister and I went to Swansea, where my father’s ship was getting ready to sail. We brought him a family photograph to be kept with him at all times and keep him sale.
Then I remember my mother lying lace down, sobbing. She had heard from a friend that the ship had been sunk by a torpedo.
I can remember the arrival of the telegram, which in those days always brought had new. My grandmother opened it. It read, “Safe, Love Ted.”
My most vivid memory Is being woken and brought down to sit o my father’s knee, his arm in a bandage.
He was judged unfit to return to sea and took a shore job in Glasgow for the rest of the war. For as long as I can remember, he had a weak heart. Mother said it was caused by the torpedoes. He said it was because of the cigarettes. Whichever, he died suddenly in his early 50s.
Ten years later I read Night of the U-bouts and was able to complete the story.
Torpedo
One torpedo struck the ship. Father was in the engine room, where the third engineer was killed. He shut down the engines to slow the ship making it easier for it to be abandoned.
By the time he got on deck he was alone. Every lifeboat was gone except one which had stuck fast. When he tried to cut it free it swung against the ship, injuring his hand and arm. He had no choice but to jump — still with the photograph in his pocket.
Three days later, he and other survivors were safe in Glasgow. All 23 with him signed the back of the photograph.
In my room is the book and the photograph. Often, glass in hand, I have wondered how I would have dealt with an explosion, a sinking ship, a jump into a vast ocean rind a wait for rescue? Lest we forget, I have some more whisky and toast the heroes of the war.
1. We can infer that the mother and children went to Swansea ________.| A．to meet a friend | B．to see the father off |
| C．to take a family photo | D．to enjoy the sailing of the ship |
| A．he was still alive. | B．His knee was broken. |
| C．His ship had been sunk. | D．He had arrived in Glasgow. |
| A．weak heart | B．taking a shore job |
| C．failure to return to sea | D．injury caused by a torpedo |
| A．He lost his arm. | B．He repaired the engines. |
| C．He managed to take a lifeboat. | D．He was the last to leave the ship. |
| A．A group of forgotten heroes | B．A book describing a terrifying battle. |
| C．A ship engineer’s wartime experience. | D．A merchant’s memories of a sea rescue. |
阅读下面短文，根据所读内容在文后第76至第85小题的空格中填上适当的单词或短语。
注意：每空不超过3个单词。
Host family accommodation, or living with host families, remains popular among language travel students for its unique advantages. These days, host families are trying to offer more in terms of quality, for they still have something to worry about.
Host family accommodation is often seen as the number-one choice for its advantages in language study, cultural communication and cost of living. Staying alongside host families enables students to get enough practice for the short time of their studying so that their language acquisition is likely to become faster. Living in host families also has the advantage of students of being able to spend a lot of time communicating with their “host parents”, and get to know the local way of life, people and culture. Another advantage is that host family accommodation can sometimes be the least expensive. It attracts students for it ensures them a family type of living at a low cost.
The advantages, however, have not prevented host families from worrying. On one hand, some host families are losing their unique selling point. The problem is that the majority of boasts in big cities, now generally single and young, have less time available for students, but the selling point for host family accommodation is communication practice. On the other, students’ expectations have risen. They are becoming more demanding and asking for more than ever from their accommodation, as they come mainly from high socio-economic groups in their own countries.
To get out of the difficult situation, host families are now making efforts to improve the quality of service. They are trying to make living conditions better, including broadband Internet service, private bathroom, and access to plenty of hot water for long showers. They are also providing students with structured family activities.
It is believed that host family accommodation will keep the popularity vote with language travel students.
阅读下面短文，根据第73至第75小题的具体要求，简要回答问题。
The north magnetic pole(磁极)is no longer a resident of Canada.It has drifted across the Canadian Arctic and is now angling toward Siberia.
Not to be confused with the geographic North Pole—the northern extremity of the Earth’s axis(地轴),the north magnetic pole(where the Earth’s magnetic field is directed downward)is moving due to natural changes in the Earth’s magnetic field,a process that originates about 3000 kilometers below our feet,in the outer core(核心)of the planet.But scientists are now noticing that the magnetic pole has picked up its pace.
Over the past century,the pole has been migrating at an average speed of about 10 kilometers per year,says Larry Newitt,head of Geomagnetic Laboratory at Natural Resources Canada in Ottawa.Since the 1970s,this speed has increased to about 50 kilometers per year.
Scientists are wondering why the speed is increasing,says Newitt.One hypothesis(假说)relates it to “magnetic jerks”,sudden shifts(变化)in the rate of change of the magnetic field.There have been three jerks in the past four decades,each one correlating to an increases in speed.
If the north magnetic pole continues at its current rate,it could reach Siberia by 2056.
“For most of recorded history,the pole has been a part of Canada,and now it’s not,”says Newitt.“It may be a blow to our collective psyche,but other than that,it doesn’t have a major effect on most people’s existence.”
1. Find in the passage a word closest in meaning to the underlined word “angling”.
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2. What could happen to the north magnetic pole by the middle of the 21st century?(回答词数不超过8个)
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3. What is the main idea of the passage?(回答词数不超过8个)
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For most high school students, free periods are useless. From what I have seen, few do homework, instead many are on their phones and talking, making it impossible for those who actually want to do work to complete any. As a senior next year, I think extra periods should be used to take optional subjects.
Our school offers many classes. Now is the time to experiment in different fields of study. We will never know if we are interested or talented in a subject if we don’t try it.
In my 8th grade, I was told that I had to take an art class as a graduation requirement; so in the 9th grade I took Studio and Art. One of the projects was to build a clay pot, but I built mine incorrectly, so it broke in the kiln (窑). I found out that I have no artistic ability at all, and now I know for sure that I do not want to be an artist. However, the class was one of my favorites that year. I was able to try new activities and test my ability.
Walk out of our comfort zone and try new things! College is when we should focus on a specific major, but high school is when we have to figure it out.
Half of all college students change their major at some point. By doing that hundreds of dollars are wasted on classes that they would have never needed to take. So use our extra periods to find out what we want to do in college. The classes we choose can impact us in future. Taking optional subjects will enrich our mind. It will also show colleges we are diverse students.
1. How should we use our extra periods in the author’s opinion?(No more than 9 words) (2 marks)
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2. Why does the author think we should experiment in different fields of study?
(No more than 17 words) (2 marks)
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3. Why did the clay pot show the author’s lack of artistic ability?
(No more than 10 words) (3 marks)
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4. According to the author, how will taking optional subjects impact up in the future?
(No more than 13 words) (3 marks)
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Have your parents ever inspected your room to see if you cleaned it properly? Imagine having your entire houses, garage, and yard inspected at any time -- with no warning. Inspections were a regular part of lighthouse (灯塔) living, and a keeper's reputation depended on results. A few times each year, an inspector arrived to look over the entire light station. The inspections were supposed to be a surprise, but keeper sometimes had advance notice.
Once lighthouses had telephones, keepers would call each other to warn that the inspector was approaching. After boats began flying special flags noting the inspector aboard, the keeper's family made it a game to see who could notice the boat first. As soon as someone spotted the boat, everyone would do last-minute tidying and change into fancy clothes. The keeper then scurried to put on his dress uniform and cap. Children of keepers remember inspectors wearing white gloves to run their fingers over door frames and windowsills looking for dust.
Despite the serious nature of inspections, they resulted in some funny moments. Betty Byrnes remembered when her mother did not have time to wash all the dishes before an inspection. At the time, people did not have dishwashers in their homes. In an effort to clean up quickly, Mrs. Byrnes tossed all the dishes into a big bread pan, covered them with a cloth and stuck them in the oven. If the inspector opened the oven door, it would look like bread was baking. he never did.
One day, Glenn Furst's mother put oil on the kitchen floor just before the inspector entered their house. Like floor wax, the oil made the floors shiny and helped protect the wood. This time, though, she used a little too much oil. When the inspector extended his hand to greet Glenn's mother, he slipped on the freshly oiled surface. "He came across that floor waving his arms like a young bird attempting its first flight," Glenn late wrote. After he steadied himself, he shook Glenn's mother's hand, and the inspection continued as though nothing had happened.
1. What does Paragraph 1 tell us about the inspection at the light station?
| A．It was carried out once a year. |
| B．It was often announced in advance. |
| C．It was important for the keeper's fame. |
| D．It was focused on the garage and yard. |
| A．one of the members saw the boat |
| B．a warning call reached the lighthouse |
| C．the keeper put on the dress uniform and cap |
| D．the inspector flew special flags in the distance |
| A．result in some fun |
| B．speed up washing them |
| C．make her home look tidy |
| D．be a demand from the inspector |
| A．an empty pan |
| B．many clean dishes |
| C．pieces of baked bread |
| D．a cloth covering something |
| A．to try his best to keep steady |
| B．to show his satisfaction with the floor |
| C．to extend a warm greeting to Glenn's mother |
| D．to express his intention to continue the inspection |
6 . Write NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS for each answer.
Not all print dictionaries are the same, as you will notice when you select one. To make a wise selection, you should know how to distinguish among three kinds of print dictionaries: pocket, desk, and unabridged. You should also know the copyright date of your dictionary, and check is special features.
A pocket dictionary is small. Generally, it contains no more than 75000 entries, making it hardly to carry to class and efficient to use. However, a pocket dictionary doesn't contain enough entries to be adequate for college reference homework. In addition, the information about each word in a pocket dictionary is generally limited. A desk dictionary is medium sized, generally containing over 100,000 entries as well as extra features. For college work, you should own a current desk dictionary. An unabridged dictionary is a complete dictionary. Abridged dictionaries, such as pocket and desk dictionaries, are shortened. Because unabridged dictionaries contain nearly all English words, they are large and heavy. They are often used by schools and libraries.
If the copyright date of your current dictionary shows that it was published five or more years ago, consider investing in a more recent edition. English is a dynamic language that admits new words and recognizes changes in meaning, spelling, and usage of familiar words. This is reflected in an up-to-date dictionary.
In selecting a dictionary, check the features it offers besides vocabulary definitions. Many editions contain signs, symbols and foreign words. Some also contain CD-ROMs and access to special online features.
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7 . In its early history, Chicago had floods frequently, especially in the spring, making the streets so muddy that people, horses, and carts got stuck. An old joke that was popular at the time went something like this: A man is stuck up to his waist in a muddy Chicago street. Asked if he needs help, he replies, “No, thanks. I've got a good horse under me.”
The city planner decided to build an underground drainage (排水) system, but there simply wasn't enough difference between the height of the ground level and the water level. The only two options were to lower the Chicago River or raise the city.
An engineer named Ellis Chesbrough convinced me the city that it had no choice but to build the pipes above ground and then cover them with dirt. This raised the level of the city's streets by as much as 12 feet.
This of course created a new problem: dirt practically buried the first floors of every building in Chicago. Building owners were faced with a choice: either change the first floors of their buildings into basements, and the second stories into main floors, or hoist the entire buildings to meet the new street level. Small wood-frame buildings could be lifted fairly easily. But what about large, heavy structures like Tremont Hotel, which was a six-story brick building?
That's where George Pullman came in. He had developed some house-moving skills successfully. To lift a big structure like the Tremont Hotel, Pullman would place thousands of jackscrews (螺旋千斤顶) beneath the building's foundation. One man was assigned to operate each section of roughly 10 jackscrews. At Pullman's signal each man turned his jackscrew the same amount at the same time, thereby raising the building slowly and evenly. Astonishingly, the Tremont Hotel stay open during the entire operation, and many of its guests didn't even notice anything was happening. Some people like to say that every problem has a solution. But in Chicago's early history, every engineering solution seemed to create a new problem. Now that Chicago's waste water was draining efficiently into the Chicago River, the city's next step was to clean the polluted river.
1. The author mentions the joke to show ______.| A．horses were fairly useful in Chicago |
| B．Chicago's streets were extremely muddy |
| C．Chicago was very dangerous in the spring |
| D．the Chicago people were particularly humorous |
| A．get rid of the street dirt | B．lower the Chicago River |
| C．fight against heavy floods | D．build the pipes above ground |
| A．change | B．lift |
| C．repair | D．decorate |
| A．It went on smoothly as intended. |
| B．It interrupted the business of the hotel. |
| C．It involved Pullman turning ten jackscrews. |
| D．It separated the building from its foundation. |
| A．popular life styles and their influences |
| B．environmental disasters and their causes |
| C．engineering problems and their solutions |
| D．successful businessmen and their achievements |
| Forget Cyclists, Pedestrians are Real Danger We are having a debate about this topic. Here are some letters from our readers. ■Yes, many cyclists behave dangerously. Many drivers are disrespectful of cyclists. But pedestrians are probably the worse offenders. People of all ages happily walk along the pavement with eyes and hands glued to the mobile phone, quite unaware of what is going on around them. They may even do the same thing while crossing a road at a pedestrian crossing or elsewhere. The rest of us have to evade (避让) them or just stand still to wait for the unavoidable collision. The real problem is that some pedestrians seem to be, at least for the moment, in worlds of their own that are, to them, much more important than the welfare of others. ——Michael Horan ■I love the letter from Bob Brooks about cyclists (Viewpoints, May 29). I am afraid they seem to think they own the roads. I was walking across Altrincham Road one morning when a cyclist went round me and on being asked what he was doing he shouted at me. The government built a cycle lane on the road but it is hardly used. The police do nothing. What a laugh they are! The cyclists should all have to be made to use the cycle lanes and wear helmets, fluorescent (发荧光的) jacket and lights at night and in the morning they should pay some sort of tax and be fined for not wearing them. ——Carol Harvey ■Cyclists jump on and off pavements (which are meant for pedestrians), ride at speed along the pavements, and think they have a special right to go through traffic lights when they are on red. I was almost knocked down recently by a cyclist riding on the pavement when there was a cycle lane right next to him. Other road users, including horse riders, manage to obey the rules so why not cyclists? It's about time they had to be registered and insured, so when they do hit a pedestrian or a vehicle, or cause an accident, at least they can be treated and there might be an opportunity to claim. ——JML Write to Viewpoints of the newspaper. |
1. Michael Horan wrote the letter mainly to show that _______.
| A．drivers should be polite to cyclists |
| B．road accidents can actually be avoided |
| C．sine pedestrians are a threat to road safety |
| D．walking while using phones hurts one's eyes |
| A．be provided with enough roads |
| B．be asked to ride on their own lanes |
| C．be made to pay less tax for cycling |
| D．be fined for laughing at policemen |
| A．Very few drivers are insured. |
| B．Cyclists ride fast on pavements. |
| C．Pedestrians go through red traffic lights. |
| D．Horse riders disrespect other road users. |
| A．accidents | B．vehicles |
| C．pedestrians | D．cyclists |
| A．real source of road danger |
| B．ways to improve road facilities |
| C．measures to punish road offences |
| D．increased awareness of road rules |
Kids and Ponds
Years ago there was a group of kids who would hang around at some local ponds in the woods near their houses in Warwick, Rhode Island. In summer they caught frogs and fish. When winter arrived they couldn’t wait to go skating. Time passed, and the ponds became the only open space for the kids to enjoy themselves in that neighborhood.
One day, a thirteen-year-old boy from this group of kids read in the local newspaper that a developer wanted to fill in the ponds and build over a hundred small houses called condominiums. So the boy went door to door and gathered more than two hundred signatures to stop the development. A group of citizens met and decided to support him.
At the meeting of the town planning board, the boy was quite nervous at first and spoke very softly. But when he saw the faces of his friends and neighbors in the crowd and thought about what was happening to their favorite ponds，his voice grew louder. He told the town officials that they should speak for the citizens. He also insisted that they should leave enough space for children. A few days later，the developer stopped his plan.
Nine years later, when that teen was a senior in college, he was informed that the developer was back with his proposal to build condominiums. Now twenty-two years old, he was studying wetlands ecology. He again appeared before the town planning board. This time as an expert witness, he used environmental protection laws to explain restrictions on development in and around wetlands and the knowledge of wetlands ecology to help improve the development. Finally some condominiums were built, but less than half the number the developer wanted. The ponds where those kids used to hang around were protected by a strip of natural land，and are still there today.
1. What did the kids like to do at the local ponds in winter?(No more than 6 words) (2 marks)
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2. How did the boy win the citizens’ support?
(No more than 10 words) (2 marks)
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3. What did the boy tell the town officials?
(No more than 16 words) (3 marks)
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4. What helped the boy to protect the ponds successfully nine years later?
(No more than 12 words) (3 marks)
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Yet, despite these benefits, many of us return home with a feeling that our last vacation was OK - but not great. In order to change this, some mistakes should be avoided. A classic one for vacation planners is attempting to maximize value for money by planning trips that have too many components (组成部分)• Perhaps you’re planning a trip to Europe, seven cities in 10 days，and you realize it will cost only a little more to add two more destinations to the list Sounds fine in theory, but hopping from one place to the next hardly gives an opportunity to experience what psychologists call mindfulness - time to take in our new surroundings, time to be present and absorb our travel experiences. Another mistake is that we worry too much about strategic issues such as how to find a good flight deal，how to get from A to B，or which destinations to add or subtract from our journey. These issues may seem important, but our psychological state of mind is far more important.
Actually, vacation happiness is based on the following top rules. First, choose your travel companions wisely, because nothing contributes more significantly to a trip than the right companions. Second，don’t spend your vacation time in a place where everything is too expensive so as to maintain a positive mood. Third, shop wisely, for meaningful experiences provide more long-term happiness than physical possessions.
