1 . In 2013, I realised that I needed a break from the office work, so I set out travelling. But I had no idea how much the decision would change me for the rest of my life!

Before travelling, I was always worried about what other people think of me. How I looked and dressed was really important to me. I was always worried about putting on weight, getting darker, wondering if I was good-looking enough to socialise and be one of the people I used to hang out with. It doesn’t matter now. I’m more confident with my colour, my weight, and how I dress.

I used to compete a lot even when I was still a kid. I always wanted to impress people with how smart I was, how I could handle any task… But now, why should I feel like I need to compete? I only need to impress myself. My life is already complete; I just have to make sure that whatever I do will be positive (积极的) and make me a better person.

I was a 24-year-old Filipina with a successful career (事业) and had all of the things I could buy. But when I started travelling, I was no one. I had to learn a lot of things when travelling and I loved it!

I thought the only skills I needed to improve were Microsoft Office and networking. Well, I can now proudly say that I know how to fix beds in a hotel style, how to cook breakfast for a lot of guests, and how to work in a restaurant!

Besides the skills I’ve learned volunteering, I have completed several certifications (资格证) to start making money to support my new lifestyle. I am now a yoga teacher, an Ayurveda massage therapist (按摩师) and an English teacher. Now, with the new skills and certifications, I can work wherever I want!

1. Why did the author start travelling?

A．To escape from her then job.	B．To make herself a better person.
C．To look for an interesting lifestyle.	D．To experience different kinds of jobs.

2. How did travelling change the author’s life?

A．It improved her social skills.	B．It made her more impressive to people.
C．It changed the way she saw herself.	D．It helped her realise the true meaning of life.

3. How is the text mainly organised?

A．By time.

B．By space.

C．By comparisons.

D．By examples.

2 . 语法填空

This is the village     1     I was brought up,     2     is surrounded by trees and mountains. I still remember the days     3    I played with my little friends. We often went to a nearby river,    4    we caught fish. But we usually went home late. That’s the reason     5     I often was scolded by my parents. Although there were only three hundred people there, the people enjoyed     6     (them) and got along well     7     each other. They worked in the field,    8    a variety of crops were planted. The only school was     9     (locate) in the centre of the village,    10    which many students graduated.

3 . Very occasionally, I escape to the city. Boarding the train, I watch the North Sea flash by and disappear. I like to stare out of its window and look for deer standing in fields, or the sight of a red kite in the sky.

    1     The rough edges of Northumberland become smoother and softer the further south I travel, until the fields are swallowed by buildings.

    2     In other words, they do not fully understand my choice. At the same time, they glance over my shoulder at the wide beaches and distant hills. But while the middle of nowhere holds its own charm, I always find a trip to the city nourishing in its own special way. The city codes of life in the south feel familiar to me: standing on the right of the escalator (自动扶梯), always moving. Sitting on the train, I watch tired faces, beautiful faces, wise faces, and young faces.     3    

When I am here, the possibilities who I could become feel endless. The streets are filled with sights and sounds that leave me breathless and hungry for more.     4     Somehow lost in the beauty and attraction all around me, I am filled with the feeling that I can be whoever I choose.

At home, most of the diversity lies in the landscape. The beautiful vastness of Northumberland feeds my reflective soul and taps into my creativity, but I am an outgoing person who enjoys being with others.     5     In it, there are more chances that I can get along with people. Both the ones I already know and those I have yet to meet may be whom I get along with.

Following an escape, I return to writing alone at my desk, watching the sky burn pink outside as candles shine and daughters sleep inside.

A．I absorb all in and feel less ordinary.

B．It is this that I miss the most about the city.

C．Choosing to escape now is definitely not a wise choice.

D．Some people are confused about the concept of escaping to a city.

E．With the train travelling forward, what is shown in front of me varies.

F．Many of the conveniences of the cities cannot be enjoyed in the villages.

G．I wonder what lives these people are leading and form stories in my head.

4 . It was April 1, 2011. I was filming and skiing in the Tetons, a mountain range in Wyoming. I was with my friends Jeremy and Xavier, both experienced snowboarders.     1     I was the last person to ski. Jeremy and Xavier were watching me from a safe area.

Suddenly, I heard someone scream (尖叫). I turned around and saw the whole mountain start to move behind me. It was an avalanche (雪崩). Tens of thousands of tons of snow were coming straight down the mountain behind me.     2     It was so heavy that I couldn’t breathe. And then it pushed me forward again and up, out of snowpack (积雪).

I looked down into the bottom of the valley.     3     However, they looked tiny to me because I was so far away. “OK, I’m going all the way to the bottom!” I thought.

Then the snow pushed me again down the mountain. I thought the force of the snow would destroy me, because it was so powerful.     4     And I just popped right out of the snow at the bottom of the valley.

It took Jeremy and Xavier about twenty minutes to reach me. They couldn’t believe it when they saw me. I was so lucky.

Has the experience changed me? Do I think about life differently? I don’t know, maybe.     5     Life is a gift, so use it wisely.

A．I could see trees that were 30m tall.

B．They thought that I couldn’t survive.

C．But finally, I felt the avalanche slow down.

D．I’ve been skiing since I was eight years old.

E．But I do know that it’s important to live your life with meaning.

F．I felt the snow push forward, hundreds of meters, and then cover me.

G．That day, we had finished a steep track and we were going down another mountain.

5 . 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。

Jim was a boy adopted by a       1     (warm-heart) couple who lived in the country side.He was deserted in a       2     (newly-make) building.Many       3     (passer-by) stood there, but didn’t want to give him some       4     (leave over). The couple found the     5    (good look) baby and brought him to their     6            (three story) house.After Jim grew up, he took     7    a full-time job and tried his best to help the       8    (home) people.He wanted to reward the society through his own       9     (behave). He thought doing a favour to others can made their life more     10     (convenience).

6 . 选用方框内合适的单词及短语并用其正确形式完成下面短文（每项限用一次）。

obviously, identity, hairstyle, selection, a variety of, experiment, sensible, nowadays

Avatars are often cartoony pictures with facial features like the     1     , the clothing, and accessories (配饰) that allow you to personalize your picture.     2     a lot of websites give you the chance to represent yourself with an avatar rather than a picture of yourself. Can people judge your personality from an avatar you create?

This question was addressed in a(n)     3     by some researchers. Thousands of people took part and were offered a wide     4     of avatars to choose from based on the instructions given. The results were somewhat beyond people’s expectations. In general, the aspects of avatars that people thought were most important for judging a person’ s personality did not accurately describe their     5    .

According to the research, the main reason is that some people generally try to select avatars that represent themselves correctly while others aim to show themselves in     6     different ways to the electronic world from what they appear in real life.

So, what did the results mean? Generally, people     7     prefer to draw inferences (推论) about characteristics from avatars. However, the aspects of the avatars that they use to make judgments about someone’s personality are not necessarily     8    . Thus, people may overestimate (高估) their ability to learn something about others from avatars.

7 . 听下面一段较长对话，回答以下小题。
1. When did the old lady finish her college education?

A．At the age of 84.

B．At the age of 86.

C．At the age of 87.

2. Why did the old lady once drop out of college?

A．She failed the exams.

B．She was forced to work.

C．She was tired of school life.

3. What is the woman?

A．A student.

B．A writer.

C．A teacher.

8 . Dr. Esther Ngumbi, now a professor of Entomology (昆虫学) at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, was born in a rural farming community along the Kenyan Coast.     1     There were no societal role models to inspire girls to reach for the stars. Luckily, her parents were teachers and struggled to raise enough money to pay for their children’s school fees.

Her parents would go to town to get their pay checks, but eat nothing before coming back in the evening, hungry and tired. She knew that they were able to buy food in town, but they chose not to spend money on themselves so that Esther and her brothers and sisters could go to school.     2     It inspired her to pursue her academic career goals and fight against challenges however tough they seemed.

    3     She went through high school and eventually college and attained a Bachelor and Master of Science at Kenyatta University. On a beautiful summer day of August 6, 2011, she attained what at times seemed to be an unrealistic dream: a PhD in Entomology from Auburn University.     4    

She cried on her graduation day as she thought of her community in Kenya and many girls in her community.     5     It was during that day that she told herself she would do everything she needed to do, and give the girls more opportunities to break down the poverty barrier, be educated, and achieve great things.

She has devoted all of her passion, efforts, heart and resources to bringing sustainable change in her community and she has become a role model for girls in her community.

A．This had a powerful effect on her.

B．Education for girls was considered unimportant there.

C．Once she started to do experiments in the lab, she was devoted to them.

D．She became the first woman in her community to obtain a PhD degree.

E．She was a real leader for many young African girls in similar situations.

F．They had the potential to be a scientist too, but just lacked the opportunity.

G．She studied hard and gained a lot, hoping she’d help her family and community.

9 . 课本原文填空。

“Life is precious.... To a person nothing is more precious than their life, and if they entrust me with that life, how could I r    1     that trust, saying I’m cold, hungry, or tired?” These words of Dr Lin Qiaozhi give us a look into the h    2     of this amazing woman, and what carried her through a life of hard c    3    .

As a five-year-old girl, Lin Qiaozhi was deeply a    4     by her mother’s death. At age 18, instead of following the t    5     path of marriage like the m    6     of girls, she chose to s    7     medicine. “Why should girls learn so much? Finding a good husband should be their f    8     goal!” her brother complained, thinking of the high tuition f    9    . She responded, “I’d rather stay s    10     to study all my life!”

10 . 语法填空

“I have been very happy over the past 10 years. Living in the midst of the woods and lush greenery makes me feel     1     (relax). People here are very friendly and life is beautiful.” That’s how Yuan Hui, 34, described his past ten years as a volunteer teacher in a remote mountainous region of Hubei province.

Upon his graduation from Nanjing University, one of the top universities in China, Yuan     2     (offer) a job at a company in Nanjing. Surprisingly, he rejected it and then traveled more than 1,000 kilometers to Jiangjiawan village in Hubei’s Enshi Tujia and Miao autonomous prefecture (县), desiring     3     (realize) his dream of becoming an     4     (educate).

He intended to become a different kind of teacher and make his classroom fun and informative.     5     , he did not want to be a full-time teacher as he thought that not having a full-time contract (合同) with a school would give him more freedom to try new teaching styles.

Yuan has made his classes unusual and interesting by using methods     6     were different from the common teaching approach. For example, when he taught a poem about a swordsman, he brought a plastic sword to class and urged the students to give fencing (击剑) performances while     7     (recite) the poem. The whole class then decided which student was the best swordsman.

In addition to teaching academic subjects, Yuan focuses     8     the all-around development of his students.     9     (Encourage) by Yuan’s story, several university students     10     (come) to the village to teach during their summer vacations since 2016. The conditions at local schools have improved considerably.