Unfortunately, in 1995 disaster
As you can see, the reason
3 . A year back I received a full scholarship to attend the University of San Francisco. All of my hard work had paid off. My mom had spent a lot in my attending a private high school, so I made sure to push myself: I volunteered, joined different clubs, and graduated with honors.
I was so excited to start a new life. I had totally packed two weeks and wanted to go to college at once before it was time to leave.
Soon enough, the big day came, but it wasn’t like what I had thought. The first two weeks were the most difficult days of my entire life. Every night I would cry myself to sleep.
I was so homesick (想家) and I didn’t know how to deal with my broken heart. To distract myself, I threw myself into my studies and I applied for a lot of jobs. In any remaining free time, I started forcing myself to the gym. I wanted to keep every part of my day busy so I wouldn’t think how lonely I felt.
Soon after, I began to limit food, and then I became worse. Finally, I went to see a doctor. When the doctor weighed me, I was crazy about the number of my weight. So I continued to lower my goal, and convinced that controlling this number was the solution to my homesickness. But when I was told that I had no choice but to spend time on my studies. I quickly started recovery in my mind.
How could I do? I told myself that school was what I was best at. I decided to get rid of my homesickness and took exercise actively. My first term of college had passed by at last and I had gotten straight A’s. That’s why I want to share my story—to help other students feel less lonely.
1. How was the author during the two weeks before she left for the college?| A．She was as normal as before. |
| B．She couldn’t wait to leave for the college. |
| C．She was afraid to leave her home. |
| D．She didn’t enjoy her mother’s company. |
| A．Her weight. | B．Her diet. |
| C．Her homesickness. | D．Her bad study habit. |
| A．achieve my dream | B．earn money by myself |
| C．improve my studies | D．take my attention away |
| A．To look back at her past middle school life. |
| B．To help girls to lose weight. |
| C．To help lonely college students. |
| D．To increase her own confidence. |
4 . My long-distance cycling career of 13 years and 35, 000 kilometres ended as I approached 75. Although I am now no longer strong enough to
The road behind is just memories, some soon to be forgotten, others to be
Real
Long distance cycling brings unbearable exhaustion, long hours of anxiety, even fear and desperation, but these
Most importantly, cycling taught me to know myself better. It eventually dawned on me that I had more
| A．appreciate | B．choose | C．expect | D．stand |
| A．treasured | B．explored | C．created | D．discussed |
| A．boring | B．annoying | C．confusing | D．discouraging |
| A．overcomes | B．greets | C．throws | D．ignores |
| A．loneliness | B．joy | C．convenience | D．panic |
| A．making | B．changing | C．beating | D．finalizing |
| A．reasonably | B．admittedly | C．fortunately | D．hopefully |
| A．battling | B．slipping | C．falling | D．wandering |
| A．owned | B．offered | C．mentioned | D．promised |
| A．fit | B．pale | C．run | D．back |
| A．reflection | B．anticipation | C．satisfaction | D．motivation |
| A．secrets | B．rules | C．decisions | D．dimensions |
| A．reliable | B．flexible | C．inaccessible | D．unforgettable |
| A．toughness | B．curiosity | C．imagination | D．wisdom |
| A．insight | B．knowledge | C．power | D．admiration |
5 . During my career in the past years, I’ve been fired a few times. The last time was about five years ago.
At the time, I co-owned a literary agency. I agreed to take on a giant project for a major client. I worked my tail off about a year, focusing just on this one client. Meanwhile my partner and associates took care of everyone else. We all thought it was a good bet. But in the end, the client fired me and cooperated with an agency who promised to get him a major book deal with a New York publishing house and an appearance on Oprah. I was left high and dry with nothing to show for my year-long investment.
The worst part was that I did not see it coming. I thought I had done a great job, and we had enjoyed a long-term personal relationship. But my client had his eye on bigger things and decided I couldn’t take him there, so he abandoned me without discussion.
The thing I finally learned from this experience was that clients and customers can be changeable. So never put all your eggs in one basket.
This wasn’t the only mistake I’d made in my career. Some of the mistakes I had made got me fired. That got my attention and furthered my education in the school of hard knocks.
Chances are that you are going to be fired at some point in your career. Last May, 1.7 million workers in America were laid off or fired. And according to the Labor Department, that was during month of generally good economic news. The trick — after being fired — is to try to push bitterness aside and learn from it. Failure can be a great teacher, but we have to listen.
1. Why did the author only focus on one project?| A．His client required him to do so. |
| B．He considered it would be a safe bet. |
| C．It can give him an appearance on Oprah. |
| D．There were no other projects in his agency. |
| A．He caused some trouble for his client. |
| B．His client wanted to teach him a lesson. |
| C．He couldn’t satisfy his client’s demands. |
| D．His client was afraid of destroying their friendship. |
| A．He should have spread his risk. |
| B．He should have tried his best to do better. |
| C．He shouldn’t have worked on giant projects. |
| D．He shouldn’t have made friends with his clients. |
| A．To show the importance of failure |
| B．To tell us how to face getting fired. |
| C．To share a most horrible experience. |
| D．To explain why people easily get fired. |
6 . After my cancer diagnosis (诊断), my friend gifted me a lucky bamboo plant in a deep-green pottery bowl. Despite my physical limitations,
As a family physician I was used to
Through surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy (化疗), I
But before long,
As my anxiety eased, I
Now, the lucky bamboo was not just a
| A．looking for | B．picking up | C．digging up | D．caring for |
| A．useless | B．painless | C．selfless | D．helpless |
| A．taking | B．paying | C．showing | D．providing |
| A．gradual | B．positive | C．enormous | D．complex |
| A．connected | B．recommended | C．added | D．sent |
| A．focused upon | B．brought up | C．proved out | D．depended on |
| A．delayed | B．continued | C．avoided | D．considered |
| A．originally | B．possibly | C．surprisingly | D．approximately |
| A．items | B．leaves | C．bamboos | D．seeds |
| A．floor | B．carpet | C．room | D．pool |
| A．affected | B．mirrored | C．tested | D．prevented |
| A．exchanged | B．shared | C．appreciated | D．sought |
| A．instructions | B．orders | C．schedules | D．trends |
| A．flexible | B．strange | C．decorative | D．colourful |
| A．warmth | B．hope | C．aid | D．creativity |
7 . When I was a teenager, my dad did everything he could to discourage me from becoming a brewer (酿酒师). He’d spent his life in local breweries,
So I did as he asked. I went to business school and got a highly paid job at a business- consulting firm.
I remembered that some time before, my dad had been cleaning out the attic and
I agreed. Americans pay good money for inferior beer, I thought. Why not make good beer for Americans using my family way?
I decided to quit my job to become a brewer. When I told Dad, I was hoping he’d put his arm around me and get
As much as Dad objected, in the end he became my new company’s first
Once the beer was made, I faced my biggest
The only way to get the word out, I realized, was to sell direct. I filled my briefcase with beer and hit every bar in Boston. Six weeks later, at the Great American Beer Festival, Sam Adams Boston Lager won the top prize for American beer. The rest is history. It wasn’t supposed to work out this way — whatever does? — but in the end I was
My advice to all young entrepreneurs is simple: Life is very short, so don’t
| A．barely | B．easily | C．sufficiently | D．adequately |
| A．Though | B．Otherwise | C．Still | D．Anyhow |
| A．fear | B．doubt | C．regret | D．desire |
| A．came across | B．picked out | C．put down | D．bring about |
| A．menus | B．cans | C．recipes | D．labels |
| A．exactly | B．particularly | C．roughly | D．basically |
| A．miserable | B．amused | C．excited | D．concerned |
| A．employer | B．customer | C．investor | D．salesman |
| A．inspiring | B．relaxing | C．pushing | D．frightening |
| A．opportunity | B．decision | C．obstacle | D．defeat |
| A．respectable | B．honorable | C．recognizable | D．understandable |
| A．after | B．by | C．as | D．for |
| A．appointed | B．born | C．considered | D．intended |
| A．hesitate | B．need | C．wait | D．rush |
| A．delay | B．dream | C．plan | D．prepare |
8 . Eric Ashby’s fascination with nature began at an early age. His first article, Bird Photography: an Ideal Hobby for Boys, was published when he was just 16 and illustrated with photographs that he’d taken.
His interest in photography had been sparked four years earlier in 1930, when the wildlife photographer Cherry Kearton came to Southsea, Ashby’s home town, to present a show of his work. The 12-year-old Ashby saw the show and immediately started saving his pocket money to buy a camera for filming wildlife in the nearby New Forest. But Ashby’s films did not reach the public due to the World War II.
In 1953, he and his wife Eileen moved to Badger (獾) Cottage, in the heart of the New Forest. It was here that Ashby perfected the techniques that would make him famous through the new medium of television. His patience and technical knowledge allowed him to film badgers at their holes during daylight — the first time this behaviour had ever been captured on camera.
In 1961, at the age of 43, Ashby finally got his big break, when the BBC showed his 45-minute film The Unknown Forest. The film had taken four years to make and received a very positive response from viewers. The nature writer Richard Mabey was hugely impressed and remarked that the film “changed the standards for home-grown wildlife documentaries”.
After the film was shown, he was given the nickname “the silent watcher”. The nickname not only stuck, it became the title of his second film.
In 1963, Ashby made the first British wildlife film in colour, although it took four years before The Major appeared in its full glory, as the BBC did not broadcast (播放) in colour until 1967.
He was awarded the Royal Geographical Society’s Cherry Kearton Medal and Award in 1975 and in 1992 received an MBE. He died, aged 85, on 6 February 2003, but his legacy lives on.
1. What does the underlined word “sparked” mean in Paragraph 2?| A．Revived. | B．Inspired. | C．Assessed. | D．Increased. |
| A．Unique scenes and the new medium TV. | B．Animal knowledge and new standards. |
| C．The positive response from viewers. | D．The recommendation from a nature writer. |
| A．The Major took Ashby 4 years to make. | B．The Major was not broadcast on BBC. |
| C．The Major was another success for Ashby. | D．The Major was the first color film in the UK. |
| A．An Award Winner | B．A Silent Watcher | C．The Life of a Badger | D．The Story in a Forest |
9 . I turned 8 years old the day I skipped school for the first time. It was easily done: Both my parents left for work before my school bus arrived on weekdays, so when it showed up at my house on that cold winter morning, I simply did not get on. The perfect crime!
And what did I do with myself on that glorious stolen day, with no adult in charge and no limits on my activities? Did I get high? Hit the mall for a shoplifting extravaganza (狂欢)?
Nope. I built a warm fire in the wood stove, prepared a bowl of popcorn, grabbed a blanket, and read. I was trilled and transported by a book — it was Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises — and I just needed to be alone with it for a little while. I ached to know what would happen to Jake Barnes and Lady Brett Ashley and Robert Cohn. I couldn’t bear the thought of siting in a classroom taking another exam when I could be traveling through Spain in the 1920s with a bunch of expatriates (异乡客).
I spent that day lost in words. Time fell away, as the room around me turned to mist, and my role — as a daughter, sister, teenager, and student — in the world no longer had any meaning. I had accidentally come across the key to perfect happiness: I had become completely absorbed by something I loved.
Looking back on it now, I can see that some subtle things were happening to my mind and to my life while I was in that state of absorption. Hemingway’s language was quietly braiding itself into my imagination. I was downloading information about how to create simple and elegant sentences, a good and solid plot. In other words, I was learning how to write. Without realizing it, I was hot on the trail of my own fate. Writing now absorbs me the way reading once did and happiness is their generous side effect.
1. Why did the author skip school on that day?| A．Because she’s fascinated by a novel. | B．Because it’s a biting cold winter morning. |
| C．Because her parents left home early. | D．Because she’s anxious to take the exam. |
| A．Reading a fiction by the fire. | B．Travelling with a bunch of expatriates. |
| C．Being occupied by one’s passion. | D．Breaking the rules and regulations. |
| A．Mending. | B．Destroying. | C．Entering. | D．Blocking. |
| A．The author was tired of his roles in the real-life. |
| B．Becoming a writer is the author’s childhood dream. |
| C．The author skipped school when he was 8 years old. |
| D．Writing has a horrible effect on the author’s life now. |
10 . For as long as I can remember, I want to be a performer. But when it was time to go to college and decide what I wanted to be for the rest of my life, it didn’t occur to me to choose drama as my major. Making a living as a performer seems impractical to me. So instead of starting drama I started pre-law, and then went to law school like my two sisters did before me. They seemed happy enough, I thought; they worked about 80 hours a week, but they made good money and could afford expensive cars and fancy apartments in the city.
After law school I got a new job and worked as a lawyer for a big company. I had great benefits, including four weeks of vacation a year, but I never got to use any of my vacation time because there was always too much work to do. I worked from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. six days a week, and when I was finished, all I could do was collapse into my bed until I woke up to do it all over again the next day.
After five years of this lifestyle, I thought I was going to go crazy. I was unhappy and exhausted, I never saw my friends or my family, and I realized I hadn’t been in a play or musical since I started law school. I thought that acting in a small community play might make me feel better, but rehearsals and performances all took place during my work hours. So I made a drastic decision and quit my job.
I got a small part in a local play and then the lead role. Now I make my living from acting, and once in a while, I do some legal consulting for a little extra money. I don’t get paid a lot for my acting jobs, but it’s enough. I had to give up my big apartment and expensive car, but I’m so much happier now. I see my friends and family, I have free time,and I get to do something I love every day.
1. The writer went to law school because .| A．his two sisters went to law school |
| B．he was interested in the practice of law |
| C．a lawyer’s job would bring him a decent and leisure life |
| D．acting jobs were not well-paid enough to earn a living |
| A．Rewarding. | B．Exhausting. | C．Enjoyable. | D．Endless. |
| A．Work consumed almost all his time and energy. |
| B．He didn’t have great benefits. |
| C．He hated working and wanted a break. |
| D．Some rehearsals and performances took place during his work hours. |
| A．To inform us that the writer quit his job. |
| B．To show us how boring it is to be a lawyer. |
| C．To tell the writer’s story of making a living as an actor. |
| D．To share with us the change of the writer’s lifestyle and the reason. |
