I’m standing on the shoulder of a not-busy-enough road outside of Cortland, New York trying to hitchhike(搭顺风车)back to campus seventy-five miles away, deep in a sophomore slump(二年级低迷期). I haven’t been to classes in two weeks and I’m considering dropping out.
I hold up a cardboard sign with “Oneonta” on it.
“Hey, buddy,” someone shouts in a brown car across the road heading in the opposite direction. “You go to college in Oneonta?”
“Yes, ” I say. “Oneonta State.”
“Wait a minute,” the driver says. He turns his car around and pulls to the shoulder in front of me. I walk over to the driver’s window and see a woman holding a baby sitting beside him.
“It’s getting late,” he says. “Traffic’s thinning out.” He glances at his watch and turns to the woman next to him. They exchange a knowing look.
“Get in,” he says. “We’ll drive you.”
“Are you sure?” I ask. “You were headed in the other direction.”
“We’re just out for a ride,” he says. “We don’t mind driving you.”
I walk to the passenger’s side of the car and climb in. I can’t believe it. This man is going to drive me an hour and a half out of his way and then drive back again.
“I’m Aaron,” he says. “This is my wife, Sylvia, and my son, Zack.”
“Hi,” I say. “I’m Dave.”
I settle in as Aaron and Sylvia decide on the route. They agree quickly, and we’re off.
“So what are you taking in college?” Aaron asks. The question is innocent, but I know it will lead to others.
“English,” I say. “Secondary education.”
“So you’re going to be a teacher?”
“Yes.” I am surprised how quickly and definitively(决定性地)I answer.
“That’s fantastic!” he says. “Did you hear that, Sylvia? Dave’s going to be a teacher.”
“I did,” she says. “Aaron’s dream was to be the first in his family to go to college, but he couldn’t afford to go.”
“You have quite an opportunity,” Aaron says. “Your future is bright.”
Paragraph 1:
As we drive on, Aaron asks me about my college life.
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Paragraph 2:
I watch the car until the tail lights disappear.
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AIDS is caused by a virus called HIV. The immune system of those who have AIDS
3 . Every year, my high school’s Chinese club sponsors an event to celebrate Chinese New Year called “China Night.” During the evening, we show
For this year’s event, I played cello (大提琴) in a string quartet (弦乐四重奏). We
During one particular break, I told my friends to meet me at one of the
Through attending China Night, I was surprised to see how enthusiastically my community
| A．ancient | B．famous | C．traditional | D．initial |
| A．arts | B．exhibitions | C．fairs | D．performances |
| A．played | B．enjoyed | C．read | D．practiced |
| A．skilled | B．important | C．eager | D．positive |
| A．move | B．exist | C．combine | D．break |
| A．pride | B．humor | C．security | D．responsibility |
| A．discussing | B．replacing | C．appreciating | D．sharing |
| A．food | B．phone | C．ticket | D．book |
| A．strange | B．friendly | C．shy | D．different |
| A．sell | B．try | C．bring | D．cook |
| A．predicted | B．argued | C．worried | D．imagined |
| A．seriousness | B．satisfaction | C．calmness | D．puzzlement |
| A．change | B．difficulty | C．achievement | D．experience |
| A．abandoned | B．considered | C．accepted | D．discriminated |
| A．open | B．free | C．easy | D．careful |
4 . Last weekend, I said goodbye to another dear old friend. We had 12 fine years together, but our relationship was becoming dysfunctional(不正常的). Unwanted emissions and serious health problems were the final straw, leaving me with no choice but to make a trip to the knacker’s(收废汽车者的)yard.
I am now car-free for the first time in 20 years, and it feels strange. When I gave up meat, I did so mainly for environmental reasons, and I didn’t miss it at all. I would like to say the same about my car, but I can’t. It was first and foremost a financial decision: keeping the old car on the road was getting too expensive.
But doing the right thing for the wrong reasons is still doing the right thing — I now have a chance to rethink how I move myself and my family around, and can try to find a more environmentally friendly means of transport.
Going car-free is, I think, a lifestyle change that many of us are going to make over the next few years, as car ownership becomes increasingly unnecessary, expensive and socially unacceptable. However, it is easier said than done. Now my car is gone. I still need to get around. But how? I already cycle to work and use public transport when appropriate. But there are some occasions when a car seems to be the only way.
I won’t buy one: I have joined a car-share program and will use taxis more often. I will hire a car if I need to drive a long distance. But then I am still travelling in fossil-fuelled cars(燃油汽车), like when I quit meat and ended up eating more cheese. I fear I may have swapped one environmental problem for another.
I am also afraid to think about the ultimate fate of my car. I have just offloaded more than a ton of metal, plastic, rubber, fabric, electronics, oil and petrol that will end up in a landfill. There are millions of similar vehicles in the UK alone that will have to go somewhere.
Maybe I am overthinking it. According to Charlie Wilson, a climate scientist at the UK’s Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research, getting rid of a private car is no doubt a positive step to reduce CO2 emissions.
He points to research by the OECD’s International Transport Forum. “They showed that moving from a private vehicle fleet(车队)to a shared vehicle fleet can greatly cut the number of vehicles you need to deliver the mobility that we need and want. If that vehicle fleet is electrified, you can also bring CO2 emissions close to zero.”
So in other words, just get rid of your car.
1. What do we know about the author’s car?| A．It was old. | B．It was green. |
| C．It was his first car. | D．It was a second-hand car. |
| A．He did both for the wrong reasons. | B．He thinks both help him save money. |
| C．He considers both are right decisions. | D．He did both out of concern for the environment. |
| A．He may have to spend more on travel. |
| B．His lifestyle might be changed completely. |
| C．He might get bored with public transportation. |
| D．His decision may fail to help the environment. |
| A．It is wise to do away with old private cars. |
| B．It is very easy to deal with old private cars. |
| C．Electric cars are the solution to traffic problems. |
| D．The OECD plays a key role in promoting car-sharing. |
5 . It is likely that anyone who pays attention to fitness trends has heard the term “muscle confusion”. It was invented and popularized in the past decade by the creators of various weight-training programs, particularly P90X.
P90X advises participants to adjust their routines all the time, threading in different combinations of exercises and rarely, if ever, repeating any particular workout. The theory for the inconstancy is that unfamiliar routines should perplex our bodies and muscles and prevent them from getting into a settled state or reaching a training plateau (a time of little change after a period of progress). Instead, our muscles supposedly will respond to the unfamiliar demands of the workouts by continuing to adapt.
That idea has some appeal and many supporters but little independent scientific backing. So, for a new study, which was published in PLOS One, a group of of researchers from Spain and the United States who long had been interested in the impacts and specifics of resistance training decided to try to confuse a few muscles and see what would happen.
They divided 19 healthy young men who already lifted weights into two groups, after testing their muscles’ size and strength and completing an online questionnaire about their interest in and motivation for exercise.
Then one group began a standard, weight-training routine, performing the same exercises in the same order each week. The other group, though, did a different workout each session, picking exercises randomly from a database of 80. These routines continued for eight weeks at a university gym, after which the men returned to the lab for new muscle tests and a repeat of the online questionnaire.
The researchers then compared results and, quite unexpectedly, found that it is no easy job to make muscles feel confused since overall the men’s gains in muscular size and strength were almost exactly the same. Our muscles are not discouraged or bored by unvarying routines, says Brad Schoenfeld, a co-author of the study.
There was one notable difference between the groups, however. Those men completing the ever-changing workouts reported showing more enthusiasm for exercise at the study’s end than the other group. “The differences in drive scores at the end were significant,” he says, suggesting that “from a purely motivational standpoint, variety matters.”
1. The underlined word “perplex” can be replaced by ______.| A．pull | B．relax | C．strengthen. | D．confuse. |
| A．Whether their workouts varied. |
| B．Whether they received two muscle tests. |
| C．Whether exercises were completed at a gym. |
| D．Whether they lifted the same amount of weight. |
| A．It is simple to confuse our muscles. |
| B．Men dislike ever-changing workouts. |
| C．Regular exercise makes one feel enthusiastic. |
| D．Changing workouts helps improve motivation. |
| A．Will P90X benefit health? | B．How can muscles be built? |
| C．Will muscle confusion work? | D．How should workouts be done? |
6 . I have been the senior digital producer at News Corp since August 2018. At the completion of my Bachelor’s degree in Journalism at the University of Queensland, I joined the Sunshine Coast Daily as a journalist. After five years with the paper, I moved to Yahoo7 as a news producer. In 2017, I took up a new role at SBS as its evening news editor. Then I joined News Corp.
As a content producer at News Corp, not a day is the same, which is something I love about my job as it’s never boring. It’s certainly taught me to be flexible as it includes a constant mix of reporting and producing news stories. One minute I’ll be reporting on the national or world issue of the hour, and the next I’ll be focused on making our print stories sing online.
While working hard as a digital producer, I’m sad to see readers’ unwillingness to pay for quality journalism online. There are plenty of fantastic Australian journalists working hard to bring issues to the surface, and many put their reputations on the line to do so. It’s sad that the attitude now is that news should always be free.
Of course among all the resources there’s some fake news. Fake news keeps me on my toes! I always fact-check everything — for my own work and when doing others’ job for a short time. I always take the extra five minutes to do the proper research I need. It will save me time and trouble in the long run.
Finally, a great story must be easy to read and without errors from start to finish, and have the strongest possible headline and photo to sell it. If you’ve worked hard on a story and want to make sure it’s read, think smart and spend time building it properly for online publication. If you spend hours on a story and then rush the last step, you’re wasting your time as no one will see it.
1. What was the author’s first job after graduation like?| A．It required lots of nighttime work. | B．It lasted for only a couple of months. |
| C．It fitted in with her major at university. | D．It was concerned with digital production. |
| A．She has quite flexible working hours. |
| B．She has to move between different tasks. |
| C．She has to report the same issues over and over. |
| D．She focuses more on print stories than online stories. |
| A．They should be more polite. | B．They should be more patient. |
| C．They should be more thankful. | D．They should be more generous. |
| A．Lets me get mad. | B．Makes me watchful. |
| C．Gets myself into trouble. | D．Lets me work with others. |
1. What is Belfast famous for?
| A．Making ropes. | B．Building ships. | C．Selling tea. |
| A．Visit the zoo. | B．Attend a concert. | C．Go to a garden. |
| A．City Hall. | B．Ulster Hall. | C．Ulster Museum. |
| A．Board a warship. | B．See some plants. | C．Enjoy some local music. |
1. What was Smith House built as at first?
| A．A student flat. | B．A local museum. | C．A private house. |
| A．Wash the clothes. | B．Play sports. | C．Have some food. |
| A．On the ground floor. | B．On the first floor. | C．On the second floor. |
| A．Hold parties at weekdays. |
| B．Use the computer room at night. |
| C．Come back to the house after 11pm. |
1. In which direction is the library?
| A．North. | B．South. | C．West. |
| A．The bookshop. | B．The stadium. | C．Churchill Building. |
| A．At 9 am. | B．At 10 am. | C．At 3 pm. |
It was a very exciting day for my sister and me. As soon as our dad got home, he was going to give us a special gift. It wasn’t our birthday or anything; our dad had just felt like getting us something special.
The car pulled up, and Dad got out carrying a large bag. He walked up to the door and handed us the bag. Mindy and I looked into the bag together and pulled out the most beautiful red purses we’d ever seen, one for Mindy and one for me.
“I love it!” I said, as I gave my dad a big kiss. Mindy did the same. Mindy always copied me. We had our new purses, but they were empty. Mindy wanted to put something in them — something exciting. So we looked around the house to see what we could find. We couldn’t find much until we walked into our mom and dad’s bedroom. I looked inside one of Dad’s dresser drawers and found what looked like a lot of money.
“Mindy, look what I found!” She came running,“What, what is it?” I pointed inside the drawer. “It’s money. We can stick all this money inside our new red purses.” Mindy looked confused. “That’s mom and dad’s money. We can’t take that.”
I started to put the money into my purse, and Mindy copied me. Our purses were as stuffed as could be. We ran out of our parents’ room and headed for ours. “Let’s hide our purses in our dresser drawer,” I said. As soon as we did this, I heard a loud yell (喊叫). “Honey, our money is missing,” my mother shouted. My dad was frantic (发狂的), and I could hear him pacing downstairs. “I know I put the money in our drawer. Where could it be?”
I heard footsteps coming up the stairs toward our room. Soon, both our parents were standing in front of us.
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。
“Did you happen to find some money?” my father asked.
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“It was Mindy’s idea to put something special into her purse,” I said.. ___________________
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