1. What does the woman see?
| A．A birthday cake. | B．A photo. | C．A well-prepared party. |
| A．She is still healthy. | B．She was born in America. | C．She hates to have birthday parties. |
| A．2. | B．3. | C．5. |
Marie had always dreamed of becoming a professional dancer and was preparing for a high-level dance competition which was aimed to draw excellent dancers from all over the country. It was a prestigious (负有盛名的) event, and Marie knew that if she wanted to make a name for herself in the world of ballet, this was her chance. She spent every waking moment practicing, determined to give it her all on the big day.
When the day of the competition arrived, Marie was nervous but excited. She had trained hard for this moment for years and felt confident in her well-prepared dancing. As she walked onto the stage, the bright lights blinded her momentarily, but she quickly regained her composure and began to dance.
The music swirled around her as she moved gracefully across the stage. Her movements were fluid and precise, each step perfectly executed. The audience watched in awe as Marie danced, completely lost in the moment.
But then, it happened. During a particularly difficult jump, Marie landed awkwardly on her ankle and felt a sharp pain shoot up her leg. She tried to ignore it and continue dancing, but the pain was too much. She fell to the floor, clutching her leg in agony.
Paramedics rushed onto the stage to tend to her, and Marie was taken to the hospital. The diagnosis was devastating: she had torn several ligaments (韧带) in her ankle and would need extensive surgery to repair the damage. Marie was held by desperate shock. She had worked so hard to get where she was, and now it seemed like all of her dreams were slipping away. For weeks, Marie was confined to a wheelchair, unable to move without assistance. She felt helpless and alone, wondering if she would ever be able to dance again.
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。
One day, she heard a knock on her hospital room door and in came Jenny, her toughest opponent in the dance competition.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Slowly, she felt more open to accepting Jenny’s help and support.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________3 . On Jan. 3, a netizen (网民) nicknamed “Programmer Humor” published a short story on his micro-blog. It said that there was an old lady who swept nearly every inch of his Internet company. When she passed by a programmer, she took a look at the codes on the programmer’s computer and kindly reminded him, “Be careful, the stack is overfilled!”
Certainly, it is a casual and fictitious (虚构的) story made up by the micro-blogger. However, no one would have guessed that the short blog would eventually cause the first great Internet meme (网络快速爆红现象) of 2011 in China. Suddenly, the mysterious “Sweeping Old Lady” is showing up nearly everywhere and reminding professionals of their mistakes. From 8 a. m. on Jan. 5, some netizens collected stories of the “Sweeping Old Lady” and found she had appeared to give advice in 150 kinds of careers. A netizen even said he had met with a similar situation in real life.
Actually, the “Sweeping Old Lady” is not new figure, but is based on the “sweeping monk (和尚)”in Louis Cha’s famous Kung fu novel of “Tian Long Ba Bu”. The “sweeping monk” is an old monk and does the lowest class of work in Shaolin Temple, but he is actually the No. 1 master in the noel both in Kung fu and in the study of Buddhism.
The “Sweeping Old Lady” is also a great modest master. Lots of netizens wish that they could have such a lady beside them to give them precious suggestions at a key time.
Although there may be 1,000 “Sweeping Old Ladies” in 1,000 people’s minds, it cannot prevent the “Sweeping Old Lady” from becoming the most popular figure on the Internet.
“Programmer Humor” said he is just a programmer in the real world and once he saw the story about the “Sweeping Old Lady,” he wrote it down in his micro-blog because it was funny. He never knew who the original writer of the story was and never thought the story could be so popular.
1. What quality does the “Sweeping Old Lady” have?| A．Honest and knowledgeable. | B．Modest and patient. |
| C．Modest and knowledgeable. | D．Honest and patient. |
| A．She is an old lady good at sweeping the Internet. |
| B．She is just an imaginary figure created by a netizen. |
| C．She is well-know as the old “sweeping monk.” |
| D．She likes to give instructions everywhere. |
| A．The sweeping old lady is always looking down on the people around her. |
| B．We should ask sweeping old lady for advice when meeting with difficulties. |
| C．People want to have a “Sweeping Old Lady” nearby to do the cleaning. |
| D．We shouldn’t judge a person by his or her appearance and we’d better respect everyone. |
| A．She should be praised and respected. |
| B．She shouldn’t mind others’ business. |
| C．She should go in for network. |
| D．She shouldn’t show off before professionals. |
Polly Goodman, 82-year-old, was a rich old woman. Her husband was a businessman and left her a large fortune after his death, so she had no problems supporting herself. The only problem was that her son who was a doctor busy with his work seldom had time to visit her, leaving her living lonely.
One day, Polly was walking along the beach, like she did every evening near her seaside house, when she noticed a young boy and his little sister playing there. As she was passing by them, she heard their mother calling out to them. “Corey! Daisy! Be careful! Stay away from the water!”
Polly noticed their mother resting on a bench, appearing sick and tired. The dark circles under her eyes were quite obvious, and she coughed frequently. Polly always had a desire to have a chat with someone. So she walked carefully towards the mother with a kind smile on her face.
“Hi, I’m Polly. I live by the beach.” Polly said.
The mother looked up at Polly, feeling a little surprised. The mother told Polly she was Lydia and had worked as a waitress. Lydia further said that she and her children had only recently moved to that location because her children had always wanted to see the ocean. Then Lydia stopped to cough heavily. After she calmed down, it seemed she wanted to say something, but stopped as if there was something difficult to tell. Polly did not follow up, saying goodbye and left.
When Polly went to the beach the next day, she saw the kids again, but this time their mother wasn’t with them. She observed them playing by themselves until late in the evening before heading home. The third day came and again the two kids played at the seaside until late in the evening, still without their mother s company. Then the elder brother was about to lead the sister back home. Out of curiosity and care Polly decided to follow them to their house.
注意：1.续写词数应为150个左右；2.请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
Upon arrival, the kids invited Polly inside.
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Polly took the mother to the hospital her son worked in.
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Undoubtedly, Mother Nature is always attractive to kids. In our childhood, how often did we turn a deaf ear to our parents’ advice? Very often! Thus, we landed ourselves in a situation where we greatly regretted our act of not having listened to the advice of the wise.
Such an unforgettable experience I had at the age of 7 gave me an invaluable lesson, after which I deeply understood why my gentle mother was repeating the boring suggestions and I would try to take her suggestions seriously.
In my childhood, I was so crazy about nature that even playing among the colorful flowers in our garden could make my day. Our house was next to the woods which had always stirred up(激起) great curiosity in me in wanting to find out what was within. Every time I saw fascinating butterflies dancing from the woods, my curiosity grew.
But my mother didn’t like me wandering off on my own and always ensured that I was within her sight. Even if she allowed me to explore the surrounding area on my own, it was only to be somewhere near the house. Being as curious as the cat, I always desired to explore the woods. It seemed as if my mother had understood my desire, so she had warmed me on lots of occasions never to enter the woods alone.
“Mom, can I go out and play in the garden?” I asked.
“Sure,” she would reply each time. “Kate, you can play in the garden but you must promise me one thing—only when I’m with you can you go into the woods. There are no cases of animal attacks on humans, but it’s still dangerous for a little kid like you. It’s too easy to get lost in the woods.”
“Sure, you’ve said that many times!” I answered without patience at her repeated reminders.
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。
However, curiosity got the better of me one morning.
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
“Kate?” Behind the trees covered by the rays of the setting sun came my mother’s voice.
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6 . In 1954, Eleanor - my grandma - in great need of income, walked into the Harvard Museum of Comparative Zoology. There she convinced some of the greatest scientists that she was the perfect person for their ant collection.
As a teenager, Eleanor spent hours wandering around the halls of the American Museum of Natural History in New York, flipping through gift shop books about insect mounting (固定于载片上). But that was all her experience in the field.
During her job interview at Harvard, when Philip Darlington, an influential zoologist at that time, asked Eleanor about her specialty, she replied, “Oh, I like everything.”
“He probably realized right then that I have nothing special,” she says. She once worked in a hardware store in New York, and she had no typing skills to be a secretary. She had dropped out of the Tyler School of Fine Arts to marry. But that artistic background was a selling point for the Harvard Job, and she was hired on the spot.
Now artistic background are common for researchers. At that time, however, hiring a woman who had dropped out of art school was certainly a risk. It paid off, Eleanor’s job as a technician required the same quality that art school had demanded. She began each day at the museum mixing glue (胶水). Then she pulled the dead ants from the containers and set them out to dry. Some ants were small-barely 3 millimeters long-requiring patience and a careful hand. Eleanor needed to fix the ant bodies with a spot of glue and write a label for each of them.
The job required her to work quickly, yet correctly. “The average person never really hears about the expertise and the effort that goes into it.” said Wilson, an expert at the Museum. Rushing would risk ruining a rare specimen (标本), but Eleanor could process ants as quickly and many as 200 a day. Wilson said that she was the best technician who ever worked for him.
1. Why was Eleanor hired?| A．She once studied at an art school. |
| B．She’s married and in need of money. |
| C．She was interested in mounting insects. |
| D．She was experienced in the Museum career. |
| A．Eleanor’s payment. |
| B．Eleanor’s effort. |
| C．Eleanor’s artistic background. |
| D．Eleanor’s being hired. |
| A．To prove how painful Eleanor’s job is. |
| B．To highlight Eleanor’s outstanding ability. |
| C．To praise Eleanor’s bravery and creativity. |
| D．To provide evidence of Eleanor’s work process. |
| A．Ambitious. | B．Emotional. | C．Creative. | D．Skillful. |
“I have some good news for you! ”My husband’s promising words on the phone stopped me from setting the table for dinner.
“What?” I barely waited for him to finish. I really waited for him to finish. I really expected some good news. I was so tired. My infant opened his eyes at 2:30 in the morning and kept crying. I could self-diagnose: sleep debt.
“We’ll have a dinner next Thursday.” His words brought hope and happiness to my tired soul. This event would take place in a music building. The more I heard, the more my heart longed for the evening. I hung up and called my parents to ask about babysitting. Five minutes later, the baby was arranged well. Then reality took over. I felt very upset. What would wear? Post-pregnancy pounds left few options. I had neither the time, money, nor the energy to stop for a new dress. Three days before the dinner, I built up enough courage to open the closet door and find something to wear. First, I tried a blue dress but it was too tight. Then, I held my breath, and tried a green one. I couldn’t believe it. It almost fit! Then, I dug through my drawer for something with the words “tummy control (收腹)”.
When that Thursday came, I walked down the stairs wearing my green dress, high heels and jewelry, and my two-year-old son asked in amazement, “Mommy, are you a fairy?” Those words wouldn’t leave until we got in the car. My husband leaned over and said, “Husband and wife, not mommy and daddy.”
At the dinner, there were cloth napkins. Waiters in white shirts and bow ties served us. My husband said, “Thanks for your hard work. You are as beautiful as ever. Sometimes you just need some time that belongs to yourself.” I was moved to tears. I always complained that no one understood me, but actually, my husband knew everything and helped me out.
1. Why was the author so tired? (no more than 10 words)2. Please explain the underlined word in English in Paragraph 4? (no more than 1 word)
3. What made the author upset before the dinner? (no more than 10 words)
4. Seeing the author dressing up, how did her kid react? (no more than 5 words)
5. What do you think of the author’s husband? Why? (no more than 20 words)
8 . Not long ago, Linda was sitting by a hospital bed, feeling anxious. Beside her lay her 88-year-old father. His heart was
What
That day in the hospital, Linda’s eye fell on the
It
In fact, almost any kind of reading to another person can be
| A．broken | B．weak | C．special | D．lost |
| A．worried | B．confused | C．bored | D．embarrassed |
| A．funny | B．angry | C．depressing | D．amazing |
| A．cooperation | B．imagination | C．expectations | D．conversations |
| A．possible | B．desired | C．helpful | D．incredible |
| A．returned | B．adapted | C．grown | D．narrowed |
| A．books | B．flowers | C．soup | D．fruit |
| A．time | B．chance | C．energy | D．courage |
| A．looked for | B．thought of | C．took out | D．picked up |
| A．constantly | B．probably | C．immediately | D．barely |
| A．secret | B．relief | C．burden | D．game |
| A．luckily | B．usually | C．otherwise | D．never |
| A．Listening | B．Reading | C．Sleeping | D．Dreaming |
| A．taught | B．felt | C．recognized | D．introduced |
| A．practical | B．available | C．difficult | D．beneficial |
There was once a troubled family. The parents spoiled their children. The son, John, loved to play video games all day long when summer vacation was around and he did not like to study. The daughter, Emily, on the other hand, loved studying without play. To her, video games were for foolish people who were unable to achieve anything useful. Life went on with parents complaining and not changing anything.
One day two new neighbors arrived in their neighborhood. One lived on the right side of John’s house while the other lived on the left side of John’s house. These two people were twins. They did not communicate with anyone other than themselves. John and his family felt uncomfortable living right between them. Strange sounds came from their houses every midnight until the afternoon. People heard and saw thunder and lightning coming from the house. After a couple of weeks of lightning flashing, machines roaring, this disturbed every household. Everyone could not help but wonder what their new neighbors were doing. It was whispered that they were inventing a time machine in secret.
People were beginning to dislike them. Every moment they heard these noises, they felt like something was going to explode soon. To deal with this problem John and Emily’s parents walked to both houses to speak with the owners. But on each door hung a sign that said, “DO NOT DISTURB!” They tried knocking the door and no one responded or came out from the house. The machine noise kept going but once in a while it did stop for a small break before it continued. They tried nearly every day to get the attention of their new neighbors. But in the end they gave up. They decided to send their kids to get their attention instead. So they made a plan and the kids successfully entered the neighbor’s houses.
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。
Paragraph 1:
Unexpectedly, the kids both experienced a journey to their own future there.
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Paragraph 2:
After returning from the neighbor’s houses, the two kids changed totally.
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10 . My 23-year-old son Dan packed, ready for the journey to work abroad for a year. It was a milestone,
I looked
This wasn’t the first time I had let such an opportunity
Now I stood in front of him, trying to recall all the times I had let go of. How often has that not happened to us all? A son graduates or a daughter is married. But at those ceremonies, we don’t seize the
Here and now, I knew it really mattered; but I still found myself nervous and uncomfortable. Why does it have to be so
I gathered all my courage. “Dan,” I
I was not sure whether he
What I told Dan was clumsy and commonplace. Yet it was
Then he
| A．making | B．leaving | C．marking | D．setting |
| A．closely | B．tightly | C．quickly | D．hurriedly |
| A．hard | B．eager | C．afraid | D．unwilling |
| A．put down | B．take away | C．set off | D．pass by |
| A．excitement | B．confusion | C．devotion | D．creation |
| A．careless | B．selfless | C．wordless | D．hopeless |
| A．places | B．reasons | C．directions | D．cases |
| A．chance | B．clue | C．fortune | D．wonder |
| A．contribute | B．mean | C．lend | D．happen |
| A．hardworking | B．tiring | C．difficult | D．boring |
| A．finally | B．formally | C．exactly | D．repeatedly |
| A．formed | B．written | C．heard | D．caught |
| A．in | B．towards | C．on | D．against |
| A．anything | B．nothing | C．something | D．everything |
| A．searched for | B．worked for | C．headed for | D．applied for |
