1 . Many graduation ceremonies look different. But for Melody, it looked different because of the classmate who graduated alongside her—her grandmother, 75-year-old Pat Ormond. They both went to the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga (UTC) and graduated together.
Pat took her first college class 42 years ago. After one semester, she dropped out to move to Chattanooga, where she spent the next several decades working as an accountant and raising a family. While she did take an occasional class at UTC, she said her family continued to encourage her to go back to finish her degree, especially after she retired. She agreed when her granddaughter decided to move to study psychology at UTC after a year at Berea College. They both entered UTC with enough college credits to make graduating together a possibility.
Pat and Melody graduated on November 20 as part of UTC’s 2020 class. The achievement has also made Pat somewhat of a celebrity.
“We are so proud to have graduates like Melody and her grandmother, Pat Ormond, in the UTC class of 2020,” said Steven, UTC Chancellor. “Together, they personify the determination, commitment and love for lifelong learning we encourage in every UTC graduate.”
Pat hopes that she can be an example to other non-traditional college students who want to get their degrees. “Learning never stops,” Pat said. “That’s something that my father taught me when I was young. No matter what you do, learning never stops.” Pat isn’t planning to stop anytime soon. She’s already working on another degree—a bachelor’s degree in history.
Meanwhile, her granddaughter, who is hunting for jobs, is interested in getting a master’s degree in clinical psychology so she can become a lawyer. But she says she’s in no rush. Her grandmother has taught her that she has plenty of time.
1. What was special for Melody’s graduation ceremony?| A．It looked different from others. |
| B．Her grandmother was 75 years old. |
| C．She celebrated it with all her classmates. |
| D．Her grandmother graduated alongside her. |
| A．Represent. | B．Follow. |
| C．Repeat. | D．Identify. |
| A．They are anxious to be celebrities. |
| B．They support and encourage each other. |
| C．They never stop creating opportunities. |
| D．They prefer attending non-traditional colleges. |
| A．Passion gives life power. |
| B．A good beginning is half done. |
| C．It’s never too late to learn. |
| D．Love can change everything. |
My father’s comb was jade green. I heard he bought it when he married Mum, which made the comb(梳子)two years older than I was. Every night, he would smile, hand me the comb and say, “Be a good girl and help Daddy clean it, OK?”
I was more than happy to do it. At age five this mundane task brought me such joy. I would excitedly turn the tap on, then brush the comb with a used toothbrush as hard as I could. Satisfied that I’d done a good job, I would proudly return the comb to Dad. He would smile at me and place the comb on top of his wallet.
About two years later, Dad left his sales job and started his own wholesale business. I started primary school. That was when things started to change. He didn’t come home as much as he used to—just a couple of times a week. And when he did come home, it was always late and I’d already be in bed. I started to get mad. I stopped waiting for him to come home, and stopped going downstairs to check on him.
Today, I’m no longer a kid. I’ve graduated from college and got a job. Dad’s business has got back on track. Things are better now. Yet the uncomfortable silence between Dad and me continued.
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。
Two days before my birthday last year. Dad came home early.
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But this time, I noticed something different when I had a closer look at my father.
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3 . My best friend travelled to stay with my family last weekend. When she arrived, she went straight to the kitchen and, without asking, ate some dried fruit. She wasn’t being rude. I knew she would do this. We’ve known each other for almost 20 years. She can eat anything she wants from my kitchen. Indeed, I bought her favourite fruits and snacks at the shop that morning.
Our long weekend together was simple. I was recovering from surgery and couldn’t go to shopping malls. But there were no quiet moments. We’ve lived in different cities for almost a decade. Reunions demand conversation.
Our personalities are matched, to be sure, and a shared history is indescribably (难以形容地) valuable. We were competitors at high school before bonding. Then we discovered the many interests that we had in common. Our friendship developed itself quickly. We stayed companions and supported each other through law school and through our first jobs. Our friendship is a friendship for the ages.
There is something special about friends who know everything about you. They are rare. They have seen your achievements, your desperation and your boring routine of the in-between. It’s special to unpack feelings without wasting time filling in the blanks. As my long weekend shows, with such friends we don’t have to do well, but we simply have to be ourselves. We drop the act, the performance and the public version of ourselves. The special friendships are those which never fail to delight us, whose continuation is worth the extra effort, despite distance and difference in our separate lives. I had the very great joy of this reminder last weekend. I’m lucky to have found this friend, and to see a future where her companionship remains. Being together is perfection.
1. What can we infer from paragraph 2?| A．They talked constantly about their lives. | B．They enjoyed going shopping. |
| C．They had a boring weekend. | D．They quarrelled at times. |
| A．They help each other achieve success in their fields. |
| B．They’re best friends despite different hobbies. |
| C．They inspire each other to be their best selves. |
| D．They’re comfortable just being themselves. |
| A．Real friends are easy to make. |
| B．Good friendships need devotion. |
| C．Special friendships may fail to delight us. |
| D．Distance and difference bring a friendship. |
| A．To express thanks to her best friend. | B．To share the friendship she treasures. |
| C．To describe what her best friend is like. | D．To explain how she offers help to her friend. |
The heavy snow last winter caused long delays at Heathrow Airport. One afternoon, hundreds of unlucky passengers, who had been expecting
“I want a first class seat on this
The young agent replied
This did not please the man. He screamed at the young agent so that the passengers
The agent smiled,
Long ago, there lived two brothers who were very poor. They lived in small houses at opposite sides of their wheat field. Each year the brothers divided the grain they had grown into two equal parts. Although they worked hard from sunup to sundown, they hardly had enough to eat. In spite of this, they were happy because of their great love for each other.
But one year, Simon, the younger brother felt a great sadness. He was worried about his older brother, Ruben. Ruben was alone in the world, with neither wife nor children. “Who will care for him when he gets old and can no longer work? If only he had some money to save for his old age! It isn’t fair that we share the harvest equally. But he will not accept gifts from me. What shall I do?” he thought.
At the same time, Ruben was sitting under a tree, thinking deeply. He thought his brother, Simon, needed to support a family. “I have no family. It isn’t fair that we share the harvest equally. Surely he deserves more than I! I must think of a plan to help him.”
That midnight, Ruben went quietly to his barn (粮仓) where he filled a sack (麻袋) with wheat and put it on his shoulder. Then he crossed the field to his brother’s house and secretly placed his wheat with Simon’s.
注意：1.续写词数应为150左右;
2.请按如下格式作答。
The next morning Ruben was very surprised.
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But this time unexpectedly they chose the same moment to carry their sacks.
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6 . Why are certain people so memorable, while some fade from our memories in time?
Several examples come to mind with my youngest son, Ken. He was always more comfortable around his dad’s friends than his own. He loved to spend time with them, fish with them, listen to their stories and just be with them.
He has experienced the loss of several really meaningful friendships over the past few years, and it has been very painful for him. One, Dr. George, was a neighbour and fishing buddy who would call to see if Ken could go fishing with him. Dr. George always said Ken was the son he never had and that it meant everything to him. He died very suddenly while fishing with all of his best buddies a few years ago. The huge hole that left in so many lives simply cannot be filled—for Ken it was immensely painful.
There was another fishing buddy of his dad’s, Frank, who was always fun to be around. Ken was very young then, but really enjoyed getting along with “the guys” when they were fishing. Frank and his family went to the Kens in the same week we did one year and the memory remains to this day. Cheerful and happy, he was able to laugh at himself and accept everyone’s abilities or lack of them, all qualities that impressed Ken so much.
When he became deadly ill, Ken drove from his home in North Carolina to Florida for an overnight visit with him. He died a short time later. The day after his funeral (葬礼), Frank came to Ken in a dream and asked if he would take care of his wife, Carol. To Ken this was very meaningful, and today they share a special bond that Frank somehow knew would be important for them both.
When you are raising children, you realise that some people become very important to them, draw them in, accept and respect them. It changes them.
1. According to the author, some people are unforgettable to us because of .| A．their great achievements |
| B．their consideration and kindness |
| C．good relationships between them |
| D．successful cooperation between them |
| A．adoptive son |
| B．biological son |
| C．best friend |
| D．hateful enemy |
| A．spent a joyful week with Frank one year |
| B．felt the greatest pain to George’s death |
| C．seemed to get along better with adults |
| D．was glad to get tolerated by Frank |
| A．Frank wanted her to marry Ken |
| B．Ken met Frank in a dream |
| C．Frank regarded Ken as his son |
| D．Ken was a cultured gentleman |
7 . Music to My Ears
Robby was 10 for his first piano lesson in my class. Much as he tried, he
Over the months he tried and tried while I listened and encouraged him. At the end of each lesson he’d always say, “My mom’s going to hear me play some day.” But it seemed hopeless.
I only knew his mother from a
Weeks later I informed the students, including Robby, of the coming recital(独奏). To my surprise, Robby asked me if he could be included. I told him he really did not qualify because he had dropped out. He said his mom had been sick and unable to take him to lessons but he was still
“I’ve just got to play!“ he
Then came the recital night. The gym was
The recital went off smoothly. Then Robby came up on stage. His clothes were wrinkled and his hair was messy. ”Why didn’t his mother at least make him comb his hair for this special night?“ I thought.
Robby pulled out the piano bench and began. I was not prepared for what I heard next. His fingers were
In
Robby explained, “Well, Miss Hondorf…remember I told you my mom was sick? …
There wasn’t a
| A．lacked | B．had | C．showed | D．got |
| A．conversation | B．performance | C．distance | D．picture |
| A．guilty | B．sad | C．anxious | D．glad |
| A．acting | B．performing | C．practicing | D．recording |
| A．insisted | B．suggested | C．complained | D．threatened |
| A．lined | B．packed | C．piled | D．covered |
| A．hesitating | B．dancing | C．touching | D．crawling |
| A．chaos | B．tears | C．silence | D．return |
| A．Gradually | B．Suddenly | C．Frequently | D．Actually |
| A．dry | B．curious | C．bright | D．wet |
8 . Another person’s enthusiasm was what set me moving toward the success I have achieved. That person was my stepmother.
I was nine years old when she entered our home in rural Virginia. My father introduced me to her with these words: “I would like you to meet the fellow who is
My stepmother walked over to me,
That statement began a friendship between us. No one had ever called me smart, my family and neighbors had built me up in my
She changed many things. She persuaded my father to go to a dental school, from which he graduated with honors. She moved our family into the county, where my father’s career could be more
When I turned fourteen, she bought me a secondhand typewriter and told me that she believed that I could become a writer. I know her enthusiasm, and I
My brother and stepbrothers became a physician, a dentist, a lawyer and a college president.
What power
You can communicate that power to anyone who needs it. This is probably the greatest work you can do with your enthusiasm.
1.| A．favored | B．distinguished | C．mistaken | D．rewarded |
| A．dragged | B．shook | C．raised | D．bent |
| A．perfect | B．right | C．wrong | D．impolite |
| A．opinion | B．image | C．expectation | D．mind |
| A．helpful | B．meaningful | C．successful | D．useful |
| A．considered | B．suspected | C．ignored | D．appreciated |
| A．belief | B．request | C．criticism | D．description |
| A．cleverest | B．wealthiest | C．strongest | D．healthiest |
| A．enthusiasm | B．sympathy | C．fortune | D．confidence |
| A．deliberately | B．happily | C．traditionally | D．constantly |
9 . Cala didn’t like us. Any of us. We didn’t do anything to offend her and she didn’t know us but that didn’t matter, she still didn’t like us.
As new teachers in the Emirati school, we Westerners greeted her every day. She ignored us. She came into our rooms and bypassed us as she shook hands with all the non-Westerners. Whenever we saw her, she avoided eye contact with us. Eventually, we stopped trying to befriend her.
I won’t say her nationality but her friends had been fired from the school, we had been employed in their places and that was enough for her to have nothing to do with us.
Well after 16 months in the school we had a secret-friend gifting. To my surprise, I drew her name from the glass jar and that meant she was my secret pal. My role was to buy her a gift and say something about her when we publicly acknowledged who our secret pal was.
I decided to gift her a coloured bangle(手镯). I added a postcard and wrote “Love and Blessings, Rose-Marie.”
Then came the day. We all gathered in the meeting room. When you received your gift, you said a few kind words about your secret friend and passed the gift to them. What could I say?Everyone knew she didn’t like the Westerners. She taught music in the school so I said “My secret pal is someone who brings music to our ears every day.” She came forward with a huge warm smile. She hugged me and kissed me on both cheeks and accepted my gift.
Since then, she smiles often. We hug and shake hands when we meet. I have seen her wear my gift several times and I am so pleased.
1. Why didn’t Cala like the Western teachers?| A．They stopped befriending her. |
| B．They were newcomers. |
| C．They replaced her friends’ position. |
| D．They had once offended her. |
| A．With the help of her friends. |
| B．Through her love and blessings. |
| C．By showing her talent in music. |
| D．Through her sincerity and wisdom. |
| A．Exciting. | B．Complex. |
| C．Beautiful. | D．Surprising. |
| A．Do nothing by halves. |
| B．A good act will be well rewarded. |
| C．Nothing is impossible to a willing heart. |
| D．Without confidence there is no friendship. |
1.提出邀请；
2.简单介绍活动；
3.表达你的期望。
注意：
1.词数80左右；
2.可以适当增加细节，以使行文连贯。
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