1 . Can you survive an unannounced storm? Although there is expert broadcasting and we are equipped with cell phones, there’re still some instances(情况) when the violent weather takes us by surprise.
While most Atlantic hurricanes form off the coast of Africa giving plenty of early warning, sudden Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico hurricanes form and move rapidly in less than a day’s time, endangering everyone and everything in their path.
Oil workers were trapped off the shore when sudden storms appeared. Natural scientists have been stuck in coastal areas without storm warning. Ten years ago a Texas National Guard group was trapped on the beach by rain-forced flooding and had to ride out(经受的住) a major hurricane during a training exercise. There’ve been a few instances when travelers were trapped on an island or in a coastal area and unable to escape in time.
Escaping from the storm-threatened areas is generally a choice for most of us—but not for all. Each year thousands of islanders across the Caribbean face the danger of hurricanes without so much as a public shelter to hide in. Most ride out the storm in their homes.
But there’re a few things you can do to prepare yourself for some unexpected emergencies. Being prepared for the unexpected may be your best and only defense. If you’re headed outdoors for a few days or weeks, you should always carry a flashlight (手电筒) with extra batteries, a Beidou device (装置), and a basic medical box. If you’re traveling in your car, remember you may suffer high winds. You’d better not stay inside to avoid being blown away along with your car. Keeping your head and your courage up is essential to survival in any type of danger. Let common sense guide you and always be prepared for the worst.
1. According to the text, most Atlantic hurricanes ________.| A．form in the Caribbean Sea | B．develop off the coast of Africa |
| C．come from Gulf of Mexico | D．are from the Pacific Ocean |
| A．People trapped by sudden storms. | B．The bad situations of oil workers. |
| C．The Texas National Guard group. | D．The danger of traveling on an island. |
| A．We can get through the storm because of the expert broadcasting. |
| B．Being prepared for the unexpected is likely to be our best and only defense. |
| C．Escaping from the storm-threatened areas is a choice for all of us in general. |
| D．We should stay inside the car to avoid being blown away in high winds. |
| A．To give some advice. | B．To encourage traveling. |
| C．To give some warnings. | D．To understand the danger of storms. |
| A．Science. | B．Sports. | C．Life. | D．Culture. |
2 . Many years ago, I was fresh out of school and working in Denver. One day, I drove to my parents’ home in Missouri for Thanksgiving Day. Suddenly, I found the gas was running out. I stopped, wondering what I was supposed to do. A car pulled up behind me and an old couple came out. They offered to pull my car to a gas station. When we said good- bye to each other. the husband gave me his business card.
When I arrived home, I wrote him and his wife a thank-you note. I soon received a note saying that helping me had made their holiday meaningful.
Years later, I drove to a nearby town for a meeting in the morning. In the late afternoon, I returned to my car and found that the battery was dead. Then I noticed that the Friendly Ford Dealership — a shop selling cars — was right next door. I walked over and found a salesman waiting beside the door.
“Would you please do me a favor?” I asked and explained my trouble. He quickly drove a pickup truck to my car and started it. He would accept no payment. When I got home, I wrote a note to thank him. I received a letter back from the salesman. He said no one had ever taken the time to write him a note of thanks and it meant a lot.
Although it is easy to say thanks to others, it means so much.
1. Why did the author drive to his parents’ home in Missouri?| A．To repair his car. | B．To see a friend. |
| C．For Thanksgiving Day. | D．For a meeting. |
| A．An old couple helped him go to a gas station. |
| B．He had a word with a policeman nearby. |
| C．He pushed his car to a car dealership. |
| D．He called up his best friend for help. |
| A．The author got a gas from the old couple. |
| B．The author’s car battery was dead. |
| C．The author wrote a letter to the old couple. |
| D．The author bought a car from the dealership. |
| A．moved | B．worried | C．nervous | D．sad |
| A．how to write a thank-you note | B．how to deal with car problems |
| C．the kind-heartedness of old people | D．the importance of expressing thanks |
Both of my parents worked full-time when I was a little girl, so my grandmother would stay at our house during the day. We would watch game shows in the living room. Our favorite was The Price is Right. We would call out our answers along with the players.
When I got older and started going to school, we couldn't watch our game shows regularly. That was okay with me, though, because the one thing I liked better than watching game shows with my grandmother was helping bake. Watching her in the kitchen was amazing: she never seemed to need the recipes but everything she made tasted delicious.
At first I would just sit in the kitchen and watch, even though I didn’t understand what she was doing. As I got older, she let me help with the easy parts, such as measuring the sugar. The day she let me separate the eggs. I felt like I had found complete pleasure.
At last. my parents decided that I could take care of myself, and my grandmother stopped coming over every day. The love of baking, however, stayed with me. I started baking by myself, and even if the cookies ended up being burnt sometimes, more often they turned out pretty well. I tried out new recipes, and whenever I got to a thorny part. I would call my grandmother for advice. Sometimes I would call her just to talk, too. I felt like I could talk to her about anything.
My grandmother passed away ten years ago, but I still think of her every day, Last week, I found a recipe book she made for me. It included her recipes for brownies, cookies, and my favorite, lemon pie stout anything. As I looked through the pages, I thought I could hear her voice. She was the one who taught me not just about baking, but about life.
1. What's the main purpose of the author’s writing the text? (no more than 8 words)2. How did the author think of helping her grandmother bake? (no more than 10 words)
3. Why did the author’s grandmother never need the recipes when baking? (no more than 10 words)
4. What does the underlined word “thorny” mean? (1 word)
5. What has the author learned from her grandmother about life? (no more than 25 words)
4 . Modern technology has a strong influence on every part of our life, including the education in the universities.
Ashok Goel, a professor of Georgia Institute of Technology, says he uses the Internet in almost all of the classes he teaches. Every term over 300 graduate students take his class on artificial intelligence (人工智能). The students never meet in person. All of the classes take place online — through a website, which lets students ask questions and complete their work from anywhere in the world.
Having hundreds of students in a class means Ashok Goel has to answer thousands of questions. He has eight teaching assistants to help him. But even that is not enough to give all the students the help they need.
So, in January, Goel had an idea. He decided to try an experiment. At the start of the spring 2016 term, he added a new member to his teaching team: Jill Watson. She was able to answer questions faster than most other teaching assistants. And she was available 24 hours a day.
It was only at the end of the term that Goel’s students learned Watson’s true identity: she was not a real person like the other teaching assistants. Jill Watson was an AI computer program.
And it seems Goel’s stories will become more common in the universities.
A website called Campus Technology publishes stories about how colleges and universities use new technology. In August, the site published a survey of over 500 professors and their use of technology. Fifty-five percent of the professors asked students to use study materials online before coming to class. And, more than 70 percent combined (使相结合) online materials and face-to-face teaching in their classrooms.
1. What can we learn from Paragraph 2?| A．Goel seldom uses the Internet in his class. | B．The students take Goel’s class online. |
| C．Goel occasionally meets his colleagues. | D．Goel’s students dislike going to college. |
| A．He is not a clever professor. | B．He wants to have a good sleep. |
| C．He does not want to give answers. | D．He has no time to answer all the questions. |
| A．She was a real person. | B．She helped Goel with his work. |
| C．She was one of Goel’s students. | D．She could ask all the questions. |
| A．Who a person is. | B．The name of a person. |
| C．Where a person is from. | D．A person’s contribution. |
| A．Ashok Goel has eight assistants to help him. |
| B．New technology is changing our way of living. |
| C．Modern technology greatly influences college education. |
| D．Teachers will be completely replaced by the computers. |
5 . If you ever have a chance to go to Finland, you’ll probably be surprised to find how “foolish” the Finnish people are.
Take the taxi drivers for example. You can go anywhere on a journey, tell the driver to drop you at any place, say that you have some business to attend to, and that you will pay the taxi driver later. He will agree without any anxiety but just accept your words in good faith (诚意).
The dining rooms in all big hotels not only serve their guests, but also provide outside diners. Hotel guests have their meals free, so they naturally go to the free dining rooms to have their meals, and the most they would do to show their good faith is to wave their registration card (住房卡) to the waiter. With such a loose check, you can easily use any old registration card to take a couple of friends to wine and dine free of charge.
Finnish workers are paid by the hour. If you work in Finland and have agreed with the boss on the hourly rate (费用), then you just say how many hours you have worked and they will be paid accordingly.
With so many loopholes（漏洞) in everyday life, surely Finland must be a country to those who love to take “small advantages”. But the strange thing is, all the taxi passengers would always come back to pay their fare after they have attended to their business, not a single outsider has ever been found in the free hotel dining rooms, workers always give the exact hours they put in. As the Finns always act on good faith and always have an attitude of “right is right” and “wrong is wrong” in everything they do, so living in such a society has turned everyone into a real “gentleman”.
What we regard as “foolish” is actually the Finnish people’s way of life.
1. Which of the following is TRUE about Finland according to the passage?| A．The taxi driver will be angry if you forget to pay your fare. |
| B．Hotels provide their guests meals for free. |
| C．Hotels’ dining rooms don’t serve outside dinners. |
| D．It is very cheap to take a taxi in Finland. |
| A．By the hour. | B．By the day. |
| C．By the week. | D．By the month. |
| A．stupid | B．clever | C．honest | D．lovely |
| A．doubt | B．not caring | C．worry | D．praise |
| A．Old Finnish customs |
| B．How to take “small advantages” |
| C．How to get a job in Finland |
| D．The “foolish” Finns |
6 . My daughter graduated from college this year. I couldn’t be more proud of her. Through countless hours of study, books read, papers written, and tests taken, her hard work has paid off. She is no longer a little girl. She has become a wise, giving, caring, and loving adult. She has learned so much and is ready to start the rest of her life.
I think the things I take most pride in her learning, though, aren’t the ones she learned in the classroom. They are the ones she learned through living her life. My daughter already knows things that it took me much longer to learn. She knows that money can’t buy happiness. She knows that laughter exercises the lungs and love opens up the heart. She knows that doing what you love and loving what you do turns work into play. She knows that children are life’s most precious (珍贵的) gift and that every child should be treated with kindness and love.
My daughter knows that life often isn’t fair, that society often isn’t wise, and that everyone of us will face our share of problems. She also knows, however, that with love in our hearts we can bring learning, laughter, and joy to even the toughest days. She knows that life is a journey taken on a rocky road and that sometimes we stumble. She knows that we can pick ourselves up each time and even help someone else up as well. Most of all she knows that she is still learning, just as we all are. May she always know too just how much I love her.
1. How did the author feel when her daughter graduated from college?| A．Grateful. | B．Satisfied. | C．Calm. | D．Concerned. |
| A．Her daughter is ready to start a new life. |
| B．Her daughter knows a lot about society. |
| C．Her daughter’s knowledge learnt through living her life. |
| D．Her daughter’s achievements in the classroom. |
| A．you should love work as well as play |
| B．it’s important for one to turn work into play |
| C．your work will become interesting if you love it |
| D．what you love and what you do are totally different |
| A．her mother is well educated |
| B．her mother loves her very much |
| C．she is cleverer than her mother |
| D．she has to keep learning all her life |
| A．Fall. | B．Climb. | C．Control. | D．Shock. |
What do you do in a situation like this? You’re eating dinner with friends in a nice restaurant. You’re having a great time when a phone rings at the table next to you. A man takes out his phone and starts talking loudly about problems he’s having with his girlfriend. He talks for almost ten minutes! This happens all the time - on buses, in restaurants, everywhere!
Many people find cell phones useful in their daily lives. But we’ve all sat next to someone talking too loudly on a cell phone. You may want to tell the loudmouth to end the conversation, but let the management take care of noisy customers. You can only control your own behavior. Here are a few rules:
* Off means off! Follow the rules of restaurants and other public places. If a sign says “turn off cell phones”, don’t use your phone.
* Lights off, phone off! Never take calls in a theater or at the movies.
Pay attention! Talking on a cell phone while driving is dangerous. And watch where you’re going when you’re walking down the street and talking on the phone.
As more people use cell phones, things are only going to get worse. So, the next time you’re getting ready to make a call, stop and consider the people around you.
1. What does the passage mainly talk about? (no more than 10 words)2. What does the underlined word “loudmouth” in Paragraph 2 probably mean? (no more than 5 words)
3. Where could you see the sign “Light off, phone off!” according to the passage? (no more than 10 words)
4. What’s the author’s attitude towards someone talking too loudly on a cell phone in public? (1 word)
5. How do you like people who talk loudly on a phone in public? (no more than 25 words)
8 . A group of professional people asked a group of 4-to-8 year-olds this question. “What does love mean?” The answers they got were broader and deeper than anyone could have imagined. See what they think:
“When my grandmother got arthritis (关节炎), she couldn't bend over and paint her toenails (脚趾甲) anymore. So my grandfather does it for her all the time, even when his hands got arthritis. That's love.” Rebecca－age 8
“Love is when you go out to eat and give somebody most of your French fries without making them give you any of theirs.” Chrissy – age 6
“Love is when my mummy makes coffee for my daddy and she takes a sip (一小口) before giving it to him, to make sure the taste is OK.” Danny – age 7
“Love is when you tell a guy you like his shirt, then he wears it every day.” Noelle – age 7
“My mummy loves me more than anybody. You don't see anyone else kissing me to sleep at night.” Clare－age 6
“Love is when Mummy sees Daddy smelly and sweaty and still says he is more handsome than David Beckham.” Chris – age 7
Author and lecturer Leo Buscaglia once talked about a contest he was asked to judge. The purpose of the contest was to find the most caring child. The winner was a four-year-old child whose next door neighbor was an elderly gentleman who had recently lost his wife. Upon seeing the man cry, the little boy went into the old gentleman’s yard, climbed onto his lap (膝上), and just sat there. When his mother asked him what he had said to the neighbor, the little boy said, “Nothing, I just helped him cry.”
1. The children’s answers are mainly based on ________.| A．their own stories |
| B．their family stories |
| C．how they viewed people around them |
| D．what happened around them |
| A．Three. | B．Four. | C．Five. | D．Six. |
| A．her father’s love for her. | B．her grandparents’ love for her |
| C．her friends’ love for her | D．her mother’s love for her |
| A．cheered his neighbour up in a unique way |
| B．gave love a special definition |
| C．comforted his neighbour in the most caring way |
| D．had a good understanding of his neighbour’s sadness |
| A．To report a survey. | B．To explain the meaning of love. |
| C．To report a contest. | D．To show children’s loveliness. |
Mr. Boswell, the owner of a hardware (五金制品) store, was looking for a young man to hire. Several dozen young men responded to his ad, but he eventually narrowed his choice down to three. They are Ted, John and Bob. Then he devised (设计) a final test. He gave each of them a new screwdriver (螺丝刀) with an innovative (创新的) design and told them to deliver it to Mr. Henderson at 314 Maple Street.
After a while, Ted phoned the store to ask whether the number was actually 413, rather than 314. Later, he returned saying there was no house at that address.
When John came back, he reported that 314 Maple was a funeral parlor (殡葬馆) and that Mr. Henderson had lived at 314, but had moved away.
Bob took longer than the other two young men. Like John, he also discovered that Mr. Henderson had moved away but he managed to make sure of his new address and had gone there. Mr. Henderson didn’t remember ordering the screwdriver, but when Bob pointed out its unique features and told him the price, Mr. Henderson decided he wanted the screwdriver and paid for it on the spot.
Who was hired? Bob, of course. He was given a task to do and he did it. We shouldn’t let any difficulty put in our paths and stop us from reaching our goals. The secret to success in our lives is to do the common things uncommonly well. Persistence (坚持) and patience produces payoff in our lives. Even when it doesn’t appear to do so, it produces a payoff in character.
1. By writing the passage, what does the author want to tell readers? (No more than 8 words)2. Please explain the underlined word “deliver” in English. (No more than 3 words)
3. How do you understand the sentence “He eventually narrowed his choice down to three.”? (No more than 15 words)
4. Why did Mr. Henderson accept the screwdriver? (No more than 8 words)
5. What do you think is the secret to success in our lives? (No more than 20 words)
After an exhausting swim practice on a cold winter evening, I received an invitation from my friend Lucy, asking me to attend a dance. At the top of the invitation, Young Angels was written across the page. Young Angels was organizing a dance to raise money for community service projects. I thought it was such a great idea that I not only wanted to attend it, but also wanted to become involved.
This was over two years ago and since then, I have become a lead member in Young Angels of America. At each dance, teens not only have fun with their friends but are also informed about different charities. Knowing that I have taught others how they can get involved makes me feel satisfied and delighted.
The most memorable experience of my time in Young Angels was the Middle School Winter Dance in 2007, when we had a special child help organize the dance and participate in the event. This child was Lily. Lily had a dreadful disease that will eventually kill her. Lily had the best attitude towards life: she enjoyed every moment and made the best of it. Lily got me inspired to help others and never take any moment for granted.
I now have a dream, I want to inspire as many children as possible to volunteer. So many kids don’t realize how easy it is to make a difference to the world. I am only 15 years old and I have organized over five events, getting nearly 1,000 children involved. I want to be the angel to inspire that passion in others to make the difference that I feel as I have made to my community.
1. What’s the purpose of the dance organized by Young Angels?2. How did the author feel about her influence on others?
3. What does the underlined word “dreadful” in Paragraph 3 mean?
4. What is the author’s dream?
5. What do you think of the author’s dream?
