1 . Elmer Whitaker sighed as he looked over his muddy crops. A terrible ________ had swept through his farm the night before, and his crops were now covered in ________ and destroyed. His neighbor, a kind young man named Thomas, ________ to offer his help.

"What a disaster, “Whitaker said.” My whole family has always survived on the harvests of this field. I feel ________ and don't know what to do now.

Thomas calmed him down and thought for a moment. “I see this not as a disaster but as an ________ ,” he said. Whitaker looked at him ________. “How can it be?” he asked. Thomas smiled ________, “Now you have a chance to try something new. You’ve always grown beans and cabbages. Why not try planting ________ crops that will also fit in this soil? You can diversify and therefore ________ your farm once again.”

Elmer Whitaker considered this. Thomas was right-he had become set in his ways. This disaster could push him to make his farm ________ and sustainable in a new way. “You have ________ me,” Whitaker said. He clapped Thomas on the back. “Thank you for showing me the opportunity in this difficulty. ”

And so Whitaker ________ new crops and soon, the farm was full of life again. Farmers from neighboring towns were ________ with the wonder of Whitaker’s fields, and they began to ________ their crops as well. Elmer Whitaker’s farm has become a ________ of adaptability and hope, telling everyone that in every storm, there is a chance for new growth.

1.

A．force

B．smoke

C．war

D．storm

2.

A．mud

B．grass

C．mist

D．dust

3.

A．went on

B．set off

C．came by

D．burst in

4.

A．special

B．desperate

C．sensitive

D．tireless

5.

A．opportunity

B．agreement

C．intention

D．element

6.

A．as usual

B．in disbelief

C．on purpose

D．with pride

7.

A．innocently

B．gratefully

C．politely

D．cheerfully

8.

A．major

B．traditional

C．different

D．natural

9.

A．restore

B．exchange

C．donate

D．abandon

10.

A．formal

B．diverse

C．realistic

D．obvious

11.

A．informed

B．demanded

C．enlightened

D．promised

12.

A．tasted

B．planted

C．shared

D．received

13.

A．careful

B．troubled

C．familiar

D．impressed

14.

A．diversify

B．remove

C．deliver

D．observe

15.

A．manner

B．dream

C．symbol

D．cause

2 . I was annoyed that my mom had even scheduled the appointment with a doctor for me. As doctors so often do, when he arrived he went straight into the basic small talk about my _______ history.

But then he _______ a question that took me off guard. “So Robin, what are you going to do after high school?” He wrote something at his notes, with not even a glance in my _______. “I don’t know,” I mumbled(嘟哝). I was seventeen. I had no _______ what I was going to do after high school. My high school guidance counselor told me that I wasn’t “college material” and I believed her. Education wasn’t exactly _______ in my family.

“You don’t know? Well, why don’t you go to college to become a _______ like me?” He smiled as he glanced at his watch. I thought he was _______ for even suggesting it. No one in my family had even graduated from college, let alone become a doctor. “I’m not smart enough to be a doctor.”

He looked me straight in the eyes when he _______ said, “Let me tell you something; you don’t have to be smart to be a doctor. You just have to be persistent(坚持不懈的).” Then the doctor hurriedly gathered his things and _______ to his next appointment.

I ________ to think about it when I was at school. What would I do after high-school? Even though I wasn’t college material, that doctor made a(n) ________ on me. I applied to a college and soon found myself walking in the ________ as a new student. I often questioned what I was doing there. Maybe I wasn’t smart enough for college, but I could be persistent.

I was ________ to find that with each individual achievement came newfound ________ in myself. I graduated with a master’s degree in September 2014, two decades after that ________ with my doctor.

1.

A．career

B．health

C．credit

D．growth

2.

A．threw in

B．took in

C．consisted in

D．broke in

3.

A．account

B．activity

C．direction

D．movement

4.

A．idea

B．evidence

C．reason

D．discovery

5.

A．protected

B．explored

C．provided

D．emphasized

6.

A．professor

B．doctor

C．lawyer

D．lecturer

7.

A．crazy

B．anxious

C．violent

D．greedy

8.

A．casually

B．automatically

C．seriously

D．doubtfully

9.

A．got away

B．passed out

C．put down

D．rushed off

10.

A．continued

B．hesitated

C．intended

D．pretended

11.

A．comment

B．conclusion

C．impression

D．burden

12.

A．park

B．campus

C．workshop

D．stadium

13.

A．frightened

B．annoyed

C．surprised

D．discouraged

14.

A．anxiety

B．sympathy

C．guilt

D．confidence

15.

A．argument

B．conversation

C．conflict

D．negotiation

3 . Shortly before he turned 60, Mark Fuhrmann realized what he wanted. He, now, at 65, has just returned from a second voyage. His 6,835 mile-round trip from Nova Scotia took in the great lakes of the US, the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic.

Fuhrmann started these journeys “to kickstart retirement” from the maritime PR business he ran in Oslo for the past 30 years. Before he set off, in June last year, he swapped (交换) his house for a flat, and greatly reduced his possessions. “It was good to get rid of all of those things and say: ‘This isn’t a phase; this is a new season,’” he says.

Amazingly, he didn’t plan his trip, beyond committing to fundraise for Medecins Sans Frontières. “I thought: ‘I’ll try to do 40km each day.’ But I never knew where I was going to lay down my head.”

The challenges were psychological, physical, and sometimes life-threatening. In Florida, he was chased by an alligator (短吻鳄), but narrowly escaped from it. In the Boston area, he saw “a black fin moving towards me like a snake”. He lay his oar (划桨) across his lap and waited. “If a great white shark can swim leisurely, that’s exactly what it did. It just passed me,” he says. Ten minutes later, Fuhrmann pulled his kayak (小艇) into a cove, where he ran into a man who invited him into his home for coffee and apple pie. His whole trip was filled with these switchbacks and moments of connection with strangers, which Fuhrmann experienced as “a call to authenticity”.

What does he mean? “Nature is born within us. If you avoid that, you avoid experiencing something that is vital to who you are as a person. I want real things — life isn’t about having more. I think we need to accept where we are at this stage of life, at 60 or 65.”

“I look at retirement as a season,” he says. He started his latest voyage because “I wanted to have a better understanding of who I was. I wanted to have time for my thoughts to wander, to restart, to discover the value and power within myself.”

1. Why did Fuhrmann get rid of most of his possessions?

A．To make donations to charity.	B．To start a new life in retirement.
C．To make up for his business loss.	D．To collect money for the journey.

2. What does the underlined word “switchbacks” in paragraph 4 probably mean?

A．Blessings.

B．Ambitions.

C．Defeats.

D．Challenges.

3. Which of the following might Fuhrmann agree with?

A．The meaning of life is achieving more.

B．Old people should take things as they are.

C．It is good to have nature-based experience.

D．It is advisable for aging people to play safe.

4. Why did Fuhrmann start his latest voyage?

A．To reflect on his past.	B．To discover his true self.
C．To relax his mind and body.	D．To be free from the noisy world.

4 . 阅读下面短文, 在空白处填入1个适当的单词或括号内单词的正确形式。

The shelves in most supermarkets are full of family-size this and multi-buy that. However, if you’re shopping for one, buying extra     1     (benefit) from price reductions doesn’t make sense. Either your shopping is then too heavy to carry home     2     you can’t use what you’ve bought while it’s still fresh.

Of course, shops are not charities — they price goods in the way     3     will make them the most money. If most of their customers are happy to buy larger quantities, that’s     4     they’ll promote. But that leaves the solo (单独) customers out of pocket and disappointed.

Many supermarkets are no longer doing “buy one get one free” promotions because of the     5     (criticize) that they lead to waste. Consumers prefer money off individual items. However, though it’s nice to get a few cents off a pack of sausages, it would help even more if they could sometimes     6     (offer) in smaller packs. Even the biggest sausage fan doesn’t want to eat them every day.

If your supermarket sells loose produce, then buying smaller quantities is easier. Over the last two years, some supermarkets     7     (start) selling chicken or salad in packs     8     (design) with two halves containing separate portions (份). Then, when you use one section,     9     other stays fresh.

Who knows, perhaps some of the more forward-looking     10     (one) may yet come out with a whole range of “just for you” pack sizes with special offers as well.

5 . Living in the beauty, scenery and peacefulness of Italy, Thomas Hartke and Irene Horbrand, both in their 60s, run A Teira, the only pizzeria open year-round in an Italian village. What started off as a vacation nearly 50 years ago turned into a new life full of unexpected cooking achievements.

“We fell in love with this place in 1975 when we first visited it,” says Hartke. “We came back many times. Then 23 years ago we moved here for good, settling down in a rented house. The locals are friendly and welcoming, there’s a comfortable village atmosphere, and we left nothing behind in Germany: why would we ever go back?”

The couple has always been active. For years they ran the village’s main bar, and then took over the pizzeria in 2016. But running the pizzeria also gave them headaches as permit renewals and day- to-day bureaucracy (官僚主义) can be a trouble. The greatest challenge, however, was making a good-or acceptable—pizza and hoping that locals didn’t find it revolting. Italians tend to get quite upset if someone messes with traditional dishes, especially pasta and pizza, but somehow the locals attracted by the German couple’s mixtures.

“We knew it wasn’t going to be easy to serve pizza to Italians—it’s such an untouchable, blessed food, but we were never scared of trying, and our courage was rewarded,” says Hartke. “Customers really do appreciate our pizzas, they become regulars and there’re not just foreigners. Even locals come here.”

Irene, a former fur designer, had never made a pizza before deciding that was what she and her husband were going to do. Practically overnight she learned how to make a pizza on a TV course in Germany. Each evening, alone in the small kitchen where not even her husband is allowed, she bakes 60 pizzas, from 6 p. m. to 10 p. m.

1. What made the couple settle down in the Italian village?

A．The livable environment there.	B．Quality elderly care services.
C．Unique delicious local food.	D．Their terrible experience in Germany.

2. What is the couple’s attitude to moving to Italy?

A．Doubtful.

B．Determined.

C．Worried.

D．Unclear.

3. What does the underlined word “revolting” in paragraph 3 probably mean?

A．Illegal.

B．Conservative.

C．Cheap.

D．Unpleasant.

4. What can we learn about the couple’s process of cooking pizzas?

A．The husband cooks pizzas following a course.

B．The couple cook the unique pizzas together.

C．The couple make pizzas in the local way.

D．The wife cooks pizzas on her own.

6 . Auke-Florian Hiemstra is a Dutch scientist who studies how wild animals use materials made by humans. “Almost anything can become part of a bird nest,” he says. But he was surprised when someone at a hospital in Antwerp, Belgium sent him a picture of a magpie (喜鹊) nest. The top of the nest had thin metal spikes (刺) pointing out all over. The metal spikes were “anti-bird spikes”, which are usually placed on buildings to prevent birds from landing. But this time, the birds used the spikes to make a nest.

In time, the researchers learned about several other nests in Europe that also used anti-bird spikes. Some were magpie nests; others were made by crows (乌鸦). “These are the craziest bird nests I’ve ever seen,” says Mr. Hiemstra. Magpies and crows are known for being clever. The two kinds of birds are related, and are famous for being able to solve challenging problems.

But the birds didn’t use the spikes in exactly the same ways. The crows used the spikes on the inside of their nests to help make the nests more stable. Magpies have to worry about other birds, including crows, stealing their eggs. Normally, they use thorny (多刺的) branches to build a spiky rounded cover over their nests. But in this case, they appeared to use the spikes like humans do—putting them on top of their nests to keep other birds from landing. Mr. Hiemstra says the magpie nest found in Antwerp had about 1, 500 spikes in it.

It’s common for birds to use all kinds of man-made materials in their nests, which can both help and hurt the birds. For example, chemicals from cigarette butts can keep insect pests away, but they can also poison the birds. Bits of string may help birds build nests, but baby birds can get trapped in them. It’s not clear if spikes in nests cause any problems for the birds. But it’s probably more common than we know.

1. What was Auke-Florian Hiemstra surprised at?

A．Wild animals can use man-made materials.

B．Anything can become a part of a bird nest.

C．Magpies will make nests on top of a hospital.

D．Birds use anti-bird spikes to build their nests.

2. What are crows and magpies famous for?

A．Having a close relationship.

B．Being smart enough to overcome trouble.

C．Making the craziest bird nests by themselves.

D．Going through anti-bird spikes into buildings.

3. Why do crows use anti-bird spikes?

A．To build a cover over their nests.	B．To keep other birds from landing.
C．To further strengthen their nests.	D．To protect their eggs from magpies.

4. What does the last paragraph mainly talk about?

A．The commonness of birds using man-made materials.

B．The risk that birds using man-made materials.

C．The diversity of materials birds might choose for their nests.

D．The advantages and disadvantages of birds using man-made materials.

7 . Important Parts of Every Healthy Workout

Every healthy workout has important parts, each one of which is essential for a productive and safe workout. If you’re not sure where to start, don’t worry. We’ll go over each one of them in detail in this blog post.

Cardio (有氧运动) is a vital part of any workout plan. It helps to get your heart rate up, allowing you to burn more calories than other exercises. It can also provide health benefits such as improved heart health and prevention of diseases.     1    

    2     Not only will it help improve a person’s physical appearance, but it can also have numerous long-term health benefits. Increased muscle mass can help support better posture and even improve daily activities like walking up stairs or carrying heavy things.

Flexibility exercises can help improve your flexibility and reduce the risk of injury.     3     Doing flexibility exercises can also help reduce muscle tension and tiredness and increase range of motion. Make sure to take some time each day to focus on improving your flexibility.

Proper forms make sure you’re doing each exercise correctly to avoid injuring yourself. Using an improper form can lead to serious injury. Before beginning a new exercise routine, make sure to do some research and practice the exercises to ensure you’re doing them correctly.     4    

    5     A cooldown will help prevent soreness afterwards. They can help you get the most out of your workout. Some warm-up exercises could include jogging, rope jumping, or doing some dynamic stretching. For the cooldown, focus on stretching and breathing techniques to relax your body and mind.

A．A good warm-up will prepare your body for the workout.

B．Or you can just have a friend or a personal trainer watch you.

C．Such exercises range from walking and jogging to swimming.

D．Strength training helps to tone your body and build muscle mass.

E．Drinking enough water is essential for any healthy workout routine.

F．This can be especially important for beginners in their fitness journey.

G．Workout with an empty stomach or just after eating will do harm to your health.

8 . 阅读下面短文，在空白处填入1个适当的单词或括号内单词的正确形式，并将答案填写 在答题卡上。

Wenchang, a city in Hainan, is the birthplace of Hainanese chicken rice. Boiled chicken, rice     1     (cook) with chicken oil and dip (调味酱) make up the simple but delicious Hainanese chicken rice,     2     has provided lasting homesickness for overseas Chinese in Southeast Asia.

More than a century ago,     3     large number of Hainan people spread across Southeast Asia,     4     (take) their native dish Hainanese chicken rice with them. As time went by, Hainanese chicken rice     5     (gradual) became a popular dish in Southeast Asian countries, including Singapore, Thailand and Malaysia.

Hainanese chicken rice satisfies the diners     6     represents the taste of home for overseas Chinese from Hainan. It is a vivid reflection of the cultural exchange between people in countries involved in the Belt and Road Initiative, from history     7     reality.

Michael Heng Yee Boon is a second-generation Malaysian. When he was young, chicken rice     8     (serve) only during Spring Festival, and his mother would make it into rice     9     (ball), which stand for “reunion” in Chinese. Having tasted Hainanese chicken rice in both Hainan and Malaysia, Heng says the dish is different in the two places because of different ways the dish is cooked.

It’s a     10     (touch) moment whenever they have Hainanese chicken rice. For them, it’s indeed a part of their cultural roots, and they will continue to pass it on.

9 . 听下面一段较长对话，回答以下小题。
1. What is the woman’s major?

A．Architecture.

B．Engineering.

C．Information technology.

2. What factor does the woman care most about building design?

A．Low costs.

B．Modern styles.

C．Environmental protection.

3. What is the woman’s biggest design idea about?

A．Keeping heat.

B．Generating electricity.

C．Supplying water.

4. What does the man think of the woman’s ideas?

A．Impractical.

B．Wonderful.

C．Outdated.

10 . 听下面一段独白，回答以下小题。
1. How long does a full-time firefighter work in a week on average?

A．10 hours.

B．24 hours.

C．56 hours.

2. What is a firefighter expected to do during his shift?

A．Do some housework.

B．Give lectures on incidents.

C．Eat out with their co-workers.

3. How does the speaker describe a firefighter’s work?

A．Fun but dangerous.

B．Stressful and boring.

C．Challenging but rewarding.