Holidays are not necessarily for fun or rest. Doing something meaningful can also gain special pleasure. When the final bell rang, the students were reminded that there was no school on Monday—the Labor Day. “Enjoy your extra day off” said the teacher to her class.
An extra day off unsuited Kayla just fine. She loved breaks. She wanted to go out to play with her friends. When the school bus dropped Kayla off, she ran into the house happily.
“How was school, Kayla?” asked her mom.
“It was great, Mom. I am excited about no school on Monday.”
“You just started back to school two weeks ago. Already in need of a break, huh?” asked Kayla’s mom with a laugh.
Kayla slept in the next morning. Saturday was her favorite day of the week. I trained most of the day, so Kayla enjoyed playing videogames inside. On Sunday, her friends came over and they played basketball for several hours.
Then it was Labor Day, you know, the extra day off that Kayla was so looking forward to. But Kayla was awakened early that morning by her dad. He told Kayla that in honor of Labor Day, the family would be cleaning both inside and outside the house. Kayla couldn’t believe it. This was a holiday. A day when she was supposed to be enjoying freshly squeezed lemonade while playing in her tree house. As Kayla wiped here yes, she began to wonder if this was just a bad dream.
“Kayla, your breakfast is ready. We have a lot of work to do today. Let’s get a move on,” said Kayla’s mom. As she sat down at the kitchen table, Kayla asked her parents，
“Are you serious about working today? Isn’t Labor Day a holiday?”
“Yes, Kayla. It is,” replied her dad. “But your mom and I thought working hard today would make you appreciate why Labor Day was observed in the first place.”
注意：1.所续写短文的词数应为150左右;2.请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
At first Kayla felt disappointed at her parents’ plan for the holiday.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________But things began to change as she was doing the chores.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________2 . SEED Madagascar Volunteer
Whether your passion is sustainable community development or vital- conservation work, we can offer you an unforgettable experience. No particular skills are required to volunteer in a short term with us and training is given locally, but if you do have particular experience in areas relevant to your program, all the better!
Who it’s for
High schoolers, university and college students, corporate team building groups are all welcome.
At a glance
·Program length: 2—4 weeks
·Start dates: flexible, please discuss with our team
·Group size: 10—30 participants
·Activities: construction/conservation/English teaching—combined as required
·Location: Anosy region, Southeast Madagascar
What’s included
·Transport costs for the duration of the program from Day 1 collection at Fort Dauphin airport to drop-off at the program’s end
·Use of our beautiful campsites and facilities
·All meals while on program (Optional meals out at Fort Dauphin restaurants are extra.)
·Full training for building and construction tasks and conservation field research techniques
·Malagasy language lessons
Additional costs
| International flights(leave/return to the UK) | £680—£1,000 |
| Internal flights (from Antananarivo to Fort Dauphin) | £280—£400 |
| Comprehensive travel insurance | £60—£150 |
| Tourist visa | £20 |
| Medical preparations | £30—£80 |
| Personal equipment | £0—£100 |
Get started
Contact us today via our online form: Online enquiry form
1. What should you bear in mind if you want to apply for SEED Madagascar Volunteer?| A．It lasts for four weeks. | B．It doesn’t have fixed start dates. |
| C．It requires relevant experience. | D．It is intended for high school students. |
| A．Comprehensive travel insurance. |
| B．Conservation field research techniques. |
| C．Short term training for different languages. |
| D．Transport from Antananarivo to Fort Dauphin. |
| A．£560. | B．£680. | C．£1,360. | D．£2,000. |
It was an art lesson. Rachel sat at the desk watching her classmates busy preparing the water jars and paints. She understood why Mrs. Weston asked her to sit down and got Lisa to fetch everything for her. It was always a disaster when Rachel tried to do art!
Rachel sighed and reached out to dip her brush in some black paint and—oh, no! She knocked over the jar. The water spread across the desk and drowned the paper. Lisa called Mrs. Weston to see what Rachel had done. Rachel went red in the face. She jumped to her feet to get a cloth. Her chair fell over backwards. She turned round and her paintbrush caught Lisa across the face, giving her a black moustache. Lisa was so surprised that she fell back against a wire bookstand. It came crashing down and the books went all over the floor.
How clumsy (笨拙的)! Rachel thought as she went home on the bus. The bus stopped outside her house. She jumped up and her elbow (肘部) knocked a woman’s hat right over her eyes. Oh, no! Rachel said sorry, got off and ran indoors. Mum wasn’t in the kitchen but lay in bed as she caught an awful cold. Rachel offered to make a cup of tea but Mum would rather wait for Dad. Rachel sighed. She understood Mum was afraid that she would spill (溅出) it.
“But would you go to Mrs. Willow for some cold medicine?” asked Mum. Rachel turned to the door at once. “But Mrs. Willow’s house is full of beautiful things, so if she asks you to come in, you’d better say no.” Rachel sighed and ran out.
Mrs. Willow was an old lady with white hair and sharp blue eyes living in an old house. She opened the door and invited her in. Rachel said why she came and that she preferred to wait outside remembering her mother’s warning. Mrs. Willow insisted Rachel come inside. Rachel took a deep breath and stepped in. She looked round Mrs. Willow’s sitting room and saw at once why Mum had been worried.
Paragraph 1:There were beautiful things everywhere — pretty vases and pots.
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With a smile, Mrs. Willow comforted her saying it had been broken before.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________4 . When I was a kid,I was the girl who kept the training wheels on my bike as long as possible.Even my younger sister had got rid of them much earlier than me.But as I began to grow older,this changed.
All this happened on the Bike Safety Day.It is supposed to be a fun day at school when all of us kids bring our bikes to school and the school provides us with the opportunity to ride outside and learn proper bike safety.Sounds like fun,right?No.In fact,it caused me to panic.What was I going to say when my friends asked me about my training wheels?
With the pressure of everyone seeing my training wheels,I determined to let them go.This was the first big change I’d ever made on my own.
I went to my parents and told them all about my dilemma.They were more than happy to help.We went outside and got my bike.Instead of running away and hiding behind,I stood in front of my bike and took great pride in my decision as my dad removed the training wheels.
I got on and steadied myself.My heart raced but my feet and hands were calm.My dad started to push before my feet even moved and suddenly I was off.The fear faded away and a relaxed mind came into its place.It was crazy to think how quickly I learned something that took so long for me to even try!
My confidence soared (高涨).This was going to be the start of a brand new world for me.My accomplishment would carry me forth to new goals and wins.I realized that if I set my mind on doing something,I could achieve it.
1. What does the school expect the students to do on Bike Safety Day?| A．Have their bikes checked. |
| B．Ride outside for fun. |
| C．Acquire bike safety skills. |
| D．Remove the training wheels. |
| A．The author’s friends. | B．The author’s parents. |
| C．The safety problems. | D．The training wheels. |
| A．She felt extremely embarrassed. |
| B．Everything turned out to be easy. |
| C．She ended up falling down. |
| D．Her sisters followed her example. |
| A．Patience. | B．Determination. |
| C．Pressure. | D．Concentration. |
5 . It can be tough to pull kids away from their computers and mobile devices these days. While they’re playing games, wouldn’t it be great if they could be learning at the same time? Good educational apps offer fun challenges that teach specific grade-level skills. Here are four that combine fun and learning.
Understanding Math($3.99; iOS)
Understanding Math goes beyond basic comprehension to gain a deeper understanding of the whys and hows of math. The app tracks your child’s progress to determine strengths and weaknesses in different skill areas, and you can customize(订制)your child’s learning experience to suit the needs.
Word Creativity Kit($2.99; iOS)
Word Creativity Kit aims not only to make creative writing fun but also build up grammar rules. The app presents a series of words from seven categories, such as space or fantasy. Kids add their own words to finish the complete thoughts that these words have inspired.
Barefoot World Atlas($4.99; iOS)
Barefoot World Atlas helps kids learn about geography and world cultures with a touch of the screen. Each region features a set of sub-topics, from wildlife and natural features to native people, landmarks, and architecture. These facts and illustrations are delivered in photographs, sounds, and hundreds of mini videos.
My Grades & Homework($0.99; iOS)
A combination of grades and homework tracker, My Grades & Homework can help your child stay organized and on top of the progress in school. A convenient calendar and course list format and offer a glance at your child’s assignment schedule that he or she might not normally get from standard homework planners.
1. Which app is beneficial to children’s writing skills?| A．Understanding Math. | B．Word Creativity Kit. |
| C．Barefoot World Atlas. | D．My Grades & Homework. |
| A．They need purchasing when downloaded. |
| B．They help children improve their grades. |
| C．They make studies fun because of mini videos. |
| D．They inform parents of their children’s progress. |
| A．To wish readers to bring in more similar apps for children. |
| B．To encourage parents to allow their students to play apps. |
| C．To design the educational apps to combine fun and learning. |
| D．To introduce four educational apps for readers to buy and use. |
6 . There is more of a connection between food and culture than you may think. On an individual level, we grow up eating the food of our culture. It becomes a part of who we are. Many associate food from our childhood with warm feelings and good memories and it ties us to our families, holding a special and personal value for us. Food from our families often becomes the comfort food we seek as adults in times of frustration and stress.
On a large scale, traditional food is an important part of culture. It also operates as an expression of cultural identity. Immigrants bring it wherever they go, and it is a symbol of pride in their culture and means of coping with homesickness.
Many immigrants open their own restaurants and serve traditional dishes. However, the food does not remain exactly the same. Some materials needed to make traditional dishes may not be readily available, so the taste and flavour can be different from what they would prepare in their home countries. Additionally, immigrants do not only sell dishes to people from the same countries as them, but to people from different countries. Therefore, they have to make small changes in the original dishes to cater to a wider range of customers. Those changes can create new flavours that still keep the cultural significance of the dishes.
We should not only embrace our heritage (传统) through our culture’s food, but also become more informed about other cultures by trying their food. It is important to remember that each dish has a special place in the culture to which it belongs, and is special to those who prepare it. Food is a window on culture, and it should be treated as such.
1. What’s the function of food mentioned in the text?| A．To help motivate homesickness. |
| B．To show cultural identity. |
| C．To reflect a country’s history. |
| D．To show a community’s superiority. |
| A．The specific traditional food. |
| B．The national culture. |
| C．A traditional expression of food. |
| D．The old-fashioned taste. |
| A．To attach cultural importance to their dishes. |
| B．To announce the beginning of their life on foreign soil. |
| C．To make the dishes popular among customers. |
| D．To present their own food culture in a new way. |
| A．Negative. |
| B．Balanced. |
| C．Unfair. |
| D．Unchangeable. |
7 . If Mars were the popular kid in school, Venus (金星) would be the unwelcome one sitting in the corner, largely ignored. Venus has nearly the same mass and size as Earth, but being closer to the sun, it gets nearly twice as much heat from the sun.
However, instead of having a climate that is just a warmer version of Earth’s, Venus’s surface and atmosphere are unbearable: clouds of sulphuric acid (硫酸) blanket the planet, while at ground level, it is hot enough to melt lead. Despite this, there is now a sign that Venus may harbour life. Jane Greaves at Cardiff University, UK, and her colleagues recently detected (发现) phosphine (磷化氢) in Venus’s atmosphere, with one potential explanation that it is the by-product of biology. That is because the only way this gas is made on Earth is in laboratories or by microbes (微生物). Though this doesn’t mean it was produced by life on Venus, attempts to find non-biological explanations for its presence have so far failed. Our best way of confirming or rejecting the possibility of life on Venus is to go and have a proper look. While Mars has been the focus of interplanetary (行星间的) exploration efforts lately, the phosphine discovery lets people look at Venus in a new light. As NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine tweeted: “It’s time to prioritize Venus.”
In the months and years to come, computer simulations(模拟) will be used to further study the possible chemistries of the atmosphere on Venus. More laboratory experiments will be conducted to try to identify other ways the phosphine there could be produced. However, there is no guarantee that these efforts will reveal the true nature of this substance on Venus. A newly-proposed strategy is to directly sample the atmosphere and surface of Venus. By doing so, we would be able to take direct measurements of phosphine.
The discovery of phosphine in Venus’s atmosphere is a great accomplishment. The scientific efforts may be just what we need to finally refocus on this neglected world. Possibly, the quiet kid in the corner may get the last laugh
1. Which description about Venus is NOT true?| A．It has the unbearable surface and atmosphere. |
| B．It has nearly the same mass as Earth. |
| C．It is almost as large as Earth. |
| D．It has a warmer Earth-like climate. |
| A．This kind of gas is very common. | B．There might exist signs of life. |
| C．Many products can be made with it. | D．Experiments were once conducted there. |
| A．The necessity to analyse phosphine. |
| B．The power of computer simulations |
| C．The importance of observations. |
| D．The approaches to exploring phosphine |
| A．Casual | B．Doubtful. | C．Supportive. | D．Unclear. |
8 . While the arts can’t stop the COVID-19 virus or the social unrest we see in the world today, they can give us insight into the choices we make when moving through crises and chaos. The arts invite everyone to think in new ways.
We often experience works of art as something that’s pleasing to our senses without a full understanding of the creative effort. Great art often shows us contradictions and crises, and we can learn a great deal from their resolutions. Through our understanding of art, we can gain a deeper understanding of how we might overcome our own challenges. In understanding extremes of contrast, we can see the beauty in art with themes that are not simply pleasing for their magnificent features or qualities.
Beethoven offers a wonderful example of moving artfully through crises and chaos. He composed his Symphony No.9 as his hearing loss became more and more pronounced. The opening of the symphony seems to come out of nowhere, from near silence in the opening to a full expression of what many consider to be the joy of freedom and universal brotherhood with Schiller’s Ode to joy (欢乐颂). Beethoven appears to have created a work of art that not only freed him from his personal struggles, but one that also speaks to the joy of living together in peace and harmony.
Have a dialogue between the two opposing parts and you will find that they always start out fighting each other until we come to an appreciation of difference—a oneness of the two opposing forces. The arts offer many lessons that can help us gain the knowledge we need to move more confidently in today’s competitive and uncertain environment. An openness to arts-based solutions will give you more control over your future.
1. What value does art have beyond pleasing people’s senses?| A．It brings people inner peace. | B．It contributes to problem-solving. |
| C．It reduces the possibility of crises. | D．It deepens understanding of challenges. |
| A．It celebrates freedom and unity. | B．It aims to show crises and chaos. |
| C．It opens with Schiller’s Ode to Joy. | D．It is unfinished due to his hearing loss. |
| A．Leaving things as they are. | B．Making a choice between them. |
| C．Separating them from each other. | D．Engaging them in a conversation. |
| A．How COVID-19 changes art | B．Moving artfully through crises |
| C．Essentials of Symphony No.9 | D．How to appreciate arts in new ways |
Many years ago, my father, who was 80 at that time, arrived for his regular two-week visit at my home in Karachi. He lived with my elder brother in Lahore most of the time and for ten years had stuck to his habit of going for an hour-long morning walk to keep fit. In Lahore, he would walk around a park that is quite close to my brother’s house. Naturally, he was keen to continue his morning walk while with us in Karachi.
Our preferred park is a 2 km walk from my house and it has a l km walking track. I could not drive him there every day as I had to leave for the office at the same time he wanted to set out. Since there are hardly any footpaths in Karachi, my father said he was delighted to walk on the road as he was certain there wouldn’t be much traffic in the morning.
I was less confident so I suggested it would be safer if he changed his walk time to the evening. That way I could take him to the park after work. However, my father-a determined person-said that he could not change his routine for just a few days and insisted that he would be leaving the house every day at 7 am and returning by 8 am. He started doing this and stuck firmly to his schedule. So one day when he had not returned by 8:30 am, my wife, Qaisa, phoned me in a panic. Worried, I immediately drove home, taking the same route that my father would have taken for his walk.
Not spotting him anywhere, I went to the police station to report my father’s disappearance. The station house officer advised me to wait until midnight before filling the report. Since it was only 10 am, I drove back to the park, in the hope of discovering some trace, but in vain. Totally at a loss for what to do next, I returned home and waited impatiently, walking back and forth in the house.
注意：1.所续写短文的词数应为150左右；
2.续写部分分为两段，每段的开头语已为你写好。
Paragraph 1：
At 10:35 am the doorbell rang and my father stood outside the door smiling, accompanied by a young man.
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Paragraph 2：
After knowing what had happened, I showed my appreciation of his kindness.
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Sometimes, we all need that one person to believe in us if we ever want to change our lives. Thankfully, one homeless man’s note was about to get found by someone willing to help turn his life around.
Anthony Johnson is a 36-year-old who had been living without a home in England. Sadly, his time on the streets meant that Anthony struggled to find work. He soon decided to leave a note at a bus shelter asking anyone to give him a chance so he could make his life worth living.
It turned out that Anthony had once got caught up with the wrong crowd. Although he has turned his life around, Anthony had no way of making money and couldn’t afford a home. To top it off, Anthony had also been battling his mental health in the last few years and just needed a chance to make it for himself.
It wasn’t until 16-year-old Charlotte Howard saw the note that everything started to change. Charlotte wanted to help Anthony in his quest to turn things around and decided to start a GoFundMe page. Here, the teen hoped to raise almost $400-$130 to buy a trailer and the rest to cover the cost of the repairs.
It didn’t take long for Charlotte’s post to take the nation by storm, and the page soon had more donations than the teen ever imagined. In just six days, Charlotte had blown her initial goal out of the water as the page had received more than $2,300 in donations. It was way more than either of the pair ever expected.
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。
Unbelievably, the generosity didn’t end there.
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Charlotte Howard came up with a new idea about how to use the rest of the money.
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