Alice Moore is a teenager entrepreneur (创业者), who in May 2015 set up her business AilieCandy. By the time she was 13, her company was worth millions of dollars with the invention of a super-sweet treat that could save kids’ teeth, instead of destroying them.
It all began when Moore visited a bank with her dad. On the outing, she was offered a candy bar. However, her dad reminded her that sugary treats were bad for her teeth. But Moore was sick of missing out on candies. So she desired to get round the warning, “Why can’t I make a healthy candy that’s good for my teeth so that my parents can’t say no to it?” With that in mind, Moore asked her dad if she could start her own candy company. He recommended that she do some research and talk to dentists about what a healthier candy would contain.
With her dad’s permission, she spent the next two years researching online and conducting trials to get a recipe that was both tasty and tooth-friendly. She also approached dentists to learn more about teeth cleaning. Consequently, she succeeded in making a kind of candy only using natural sweeteners, which can reduce oral bacteria.
Moore then used her savings to get her business off the ground. Afterwards, she and her father secured their first business meeting with a supermarket owner, who finally agreed to sell Moore’s product — CanCandy.
As CanCandy’s success grows, so does Moore’s credibility as a young entrepreneur. Moore is enthusiastic about the candy she created, and she’s also positive about what the future might bring. She hopes that every kid can have a clean mouth and a broad smile.
Meanwhile, with her parents’ help, Moore is generally able to live a normal teenage life. Although she founded her company early on in life, she wasn’t driven primarily by profit. Moore wants to use her unique talent to help others find their smiles. She donates 10% of AilicCandy’s profits to Big Smiles. With her talent and determination, it appears that the sky could be the limit for Alice Moore.
1. How did Moore react to her dad’s warning? (No more than 10 words)2. What is special about CanCandy? (No more than 10 words)
3. What does Moore expect from her business? (No more than 10 words)
4. How do you understand the underlined part in the last paragraph? (no more than 5 words)
5. How does Moore’s story inspire you to achieve success? Put it in your own words. (No more than 20 words)
It was about eleven o’clock at night, and a large woman was walking alone, when a boy ran up behind her and tried to grab her purse. But the boy’s weight and the weight of the purse caused him to lose his balance, so he fell on his back on the sidewalk.
The large woman simply turned around, picked the boy up by his shirt front, and shook him until his teeth rattled. Firmly gripped and sweat rolling down on his face, the boy whispered. “I’m very sorry, lady, I’m sorry.” But the woman just dragged him up the street. When she got to her door, she dragged the boy inside and turned on the light.
“You go to that sink and wash your face,” said the woman, “Let the water run until it gets warm,” she said. “Here’s a clean towel. I would lake you nowhere. We’ll eat,” said the woman.
“I wanted a pair of shoes,” said the boy. “Well, you didn’t have to grab my purse to get some new shoes,” said the woman. “You could have asked me.” “Madam?” The water dripping from his face, the boy looked at her.
“I was young once and I wanted things I could not get.” She said. Silence. “Now you sit down while I fix us something to eat.”
She heated some beans and ham, made the cocoa, and set the table. The woman did not ask the boy anything. Instead, as they ate, she told him about her job in a hotel. Then she cut him a half of her ten-cent cake. “Eat some more, son,” she said.
When they finished eating, she got up and said, “Now, here, take this ten dollars and buy yourself new shoes. And next time, behave yourself, son, from now on.”
She led him down the hall to the front door and opened it. “Goodnight! Behave yourself, boy!” she said. The boy wanted to say something else other than “Thank you, Madam” to her, but he couldn’t. In fact, he barely managed to say “Thank you” before he shut the door. And he never saw her again.
1. How did the boy feel when he was caught by the woman?2. Where did the woman take the boy?
3. Why did the boy try to grab the woman’s purse?
4. What else might the boy say to the woman besides “thank you” at the end of the story?
5. What was the woman like?
3 . I sill remember my first day of second grade. I was led to a classroom. No teacher yet. Girls talking and laughing. Boys playing games.
I took some paper and a pencil, picked a desk, and went to work. Minutes later, a girl came over and sat on top of my desk.
“What are you doing?” she said.
“I am doing Fun with Number” I replied. Then I rose from my seat to get my pencil sharpener. I had no idea that when I stood, the desk would fall over and hurt her leg.
Her name was Lucy. From that day on we got to know each other, and she became my best friend. Now we have been close friends for more than 60 years. We often get together and recall the past.
Some TV advertisements try to tell us what children need for school, new shoes, clothes, and schoolbags. But really, children’s needs are simple. Besides the basics—to be fed, cared for, and loved—they need the gift of friendship.
For years, I feared how people saw me. But one day, I finally understood I didn’t need to be smart or pretty or popular, but just needed to be kind.
My grandson William recently finished his preschool and received a prize for “friendship”. Even an Olympic medal wouldn’t make me prouder! I think children need to know that they are loved. They need to know they have all they need and that the best way to win friends is to be kind.
1. When and where did the author meet Lucy for the first time?2. What was the author doing when Lucy came over?
3. How do Lucy and the author keep their friendship growing?
4. Besides the basics, what do children need for a happy school life?
There was once a lonely fisherman by the name of Troung Chi. Every evening, as he sailed, he played his flute (笛子) and all who heard his music agreed it was the most beautiful sound they had ever heard. But his face was ugly, and the girls in his village kept away from him. And so he lived alone.
At that time there lived a young lady who was both rich and beautiful. She spent her days sitting in her room, safe, but alone. Every evening she sat at her window and waited for the fisherman to slip past as the sweet notes of his flute thrilled her heart. She swore that she would marry him one day. So she begged her father to permit the boy into the house so that she could look him in the eyes. However, he shook his head and said that a fisherman was too poor.
She lay in her new room and sobbed (啜泣). She sobbed and sobbed until she became so ill that her father feared for her life. At last he compromised. The father sent for the fisherman and asked him to sit beside his daughter’s bed and play his flute. If his music proved to be strong enough medicine to cure her, he would be rewarded with a bag of gold.
Troung Chi sat by the bed and played. His sweet notes reached her inner soul, and the warmth of his love came over her body and revived (唤醒) her. At last she opened her eyes and looked up at him — the fisherman of her dreams.
But oh, he was ugly! How frightful! This was not at all as she had imagined. “Take him away!” she screamed. “I don’t want to look at his ugly face!”
The boy was driven out of the room. The secretary offered him a bag of gold, but he refused it. His heart was broken. He went to his boat, and as he sailed away, he threw his flute into the water. He was never seen again.
After Troung Chi had been gone for some days, the young girl regretted her behaviour. She never married. For the rest of her life she remembered the boatman’s tender love and his beautiful music.
1. Why did no woman want to be the boatman’s wife?2. How did the young girl know of the fisherman?
3. What was the woman’s reaction after she saw the fisherman’s face?
4. Why did the fisherman throw his flute away and never come back?
“Mom, look at this LEGO Star Wars set,” my eight-year-old son Nathan said. “Can I get it for my birthday?” I looked at the LEGO set in question.
“Nathan, this isn’t just a regular LEGO set. It’s an Advent calendar(降临历).” Seeing his questioning look, I explained, “An Advent calendar counts down the days until Christmas. Starting on December 1st, you open one box each day, and each box contains one small LEGO toy.”
“I want this really badly, Mom. Can I get it for my birthday?”
“Yes, but here’s the problem with that. It’s August right now, and your birthday is in September. If we bought this for your birthday, you couldn’t start opening the toys until December 1st. That would be a long time for you before playing with a new toy. Are you sure you want it?” He thought for a minute and said, “Yes, Mom, I really want that Advent calendar.” So we bought the calendar.
On Nathan’s birthday in mid-September, he received many presents, including the Advent calendar. He seemed as surprised and pleased with it as he did with other gifts that were actually a surprise. And then he started to open it.
“Remember that’s an Advent calendar. So we can’t open it yet.” His shoulders slumped(垂下来). “Oh, yeah, that’s right,” he said unwillingly.
We put the box in his closet. I hoped he’d forget about it, but that was wishful thinking.
“How many more days should I wait until I can start opening the toys in the calendar?” he asked the day after his birthday. I gave him a pocket calendar, and we counted how many days there were until December 1st.
After waiting for so long, it was December 1st finally. Nathan’s hands were practically shaking as he opened that first box. “I’m so glad I waited, Mom,” he told me.
People say that Christmas starts earlier and earlier every year. I know these complaints are about the over-commercialization of the holiday, and I see their point. But this year, Christmas came to our house very early, and it was so much fun.
1. What is an Advent calendar used to do? (no more than 10 words)2. Why was the author unwilling to buy the Advent calendar for Nathan at first? (no more than 12 words)
3. How can we understand the underlined sentence in Paragraph 7? (no more than 8 words)
4. Why do people say Christmas starts earlier and earlier? (no more than 10 words)
5. What do you think of Nathan’s birthday present? Why? (no more than 20 words)
It was a dark and stormy night. The ferocious wind shook the windows wildly, as though someone outside were beating on the glass. It was also New Year’s Eve. We were having our annual party and had a house full of people just starting to celebrate.
Suddenly, we heard loud explosions. Looking outside and up into the hills, we saw sparks(火花) flying from electrical transformers(变压器). One area after another went dark up in those hills. Then there was the loudest explosion of them all and our house went dark too. I tried to find every candle we had and lit them. The candles made everything look lovely. But we had problems. We had fifteen people standing around and we still had to cook dinner. How would we do that without electricity?
The barbecue! Why not cook on the barbecue? We men went outside, some holding flashlights and others cooking. We did a wonderful job. The women stayed inside and got the salads ready. Everything was delicious. There were still a few hours to go before the beginning of the new year, so we all sat around the dining room table and sang up until a few minutes before midnight. We couldn’t watch the ball drop in Times Square on television but that wouldn’t stop us from celebrating. I stood on a chair and, with the help of someone’s watch to tell us the time, we all counted down and I dropped a tennis ball! We all screamed Happy New Year. We didn’t need electricity for that!
Nowadays, we still get together with the same group to celebrate the New Year and we still talk about that special night. I don’t think we have ever laughed so much as we did on that New Year’s Eve.
1. What does the underlined word mean in Paragraph 1? (1 word)2. What made dinner preparation difficult according to Paragraph 2? (no more than 6 words)
3. How did the people celebrate on New Year’s Eve according to the passage? (no more than 10 words)
4. How does the author feel about that particular New Year’s Eve? (no more than 8 words)
5. What do you think is the most necessary quality when dealing with an unexpected difficult situation? Please explain why. (no more than 25words)
Lillian Hanson, a college junior, expects to graduate in about two years. Mrs. Hanson, a rather unusual student, plans to go on to take more courses after she gets her degree. What makes Mrs. Hanson different from most of her classmates?
What sets Lillian Hanson apart from the college crowd is her age-73 years. She has been going to college, a few courses at a time, for 27 years.
When Mrs. Hanson graduated from high school, she went to her local bank and asked for a loan for college tuition and fees. The banker gave her no encouragement. He didn’t think that a country girl should be borrowing money to go to college. He thought she should be home doing work in the house or around the farm. So Mrs. Hanson went home and raised a family of nine children instead of going to college. She still lives with her husband on the farm that has been in the family for five generations.
Mrs. Hanson never forgot her dream of getting a higher education. When her children were grown up, she tried again.
She finds the hardest part of going back to school at her age to be sitting in class for long periods of time. Because she is not able to move as quickly and easily as she used to be, Mrs. Hanson often gets up and walks around between classes to keep from getting rigid. At the beginning of a course in using the computer, the other students all stood up to give Mrs. Hanson big applause when she introduced herself and explained why she was there and what her goals were.
1. What makes Lillian Hanson different from most of her classmates? (不多于2个单词)2. Why did the banker refuse to provide a loan for Lillian Hanson? (不多于16个单词)
3. What is Mrs. Hanson’s dream? (不多于4个单词)
4. What does she find the hardest part of going back to school? (不多于8个单词)
If you are in the market looking for a new bike, maybe you would like to consider this bicycle. The brainchild of Israeli inventor Izhar Gafni, the fully functional bike that costs just $ 10 to make, is made entirely of cardboard (硬纸板).
Mr. Gafni came up with the idea after he heard about a working canoe that had been made of cardboard. However, when he suggested the idea to engineers, they all told him that it was impossible. Not ready to accept failure, Mr. Gafni decided to try to build one himself. However, the task turned out to be harder than he had thought. Considering that the cardboard is normally used to make just boxes, there was not much idea on how to even get started.
While being able to get the design right, his biggest difficulty was to create a bike strong enough to carry a rider of almost any size and weight. After experimenting with several choices he found out that by using the Japanese principals of origami (折纸) he could increase the weight the cardboard can bear. Therefore, he made the bike strong enough to carry a real rider. He then had to figure out a coating that would protect the bike in all kinds of weather conditions. While getting it right took a few models, the final result is a new bike coated with a finish ( 抛 光 ) that gives it the look and feel of lightweight plastic. It can carry as much as 485 pounds.
Mr. Gafni is now working with some businessmen to get his cardboard creation into stores by late 2018. Considering that it costs only $10 to make the entire bike, he believes that the finished product could be sold for at least $80- $90, which makes it the coolest, cheapest, most eco-friendly bike in the world!
1. What does the underlined word “brainchild” mean? (1 word)2. What made Mr. Gafni have the idea of making a bike of cardboard? (no more than 10 words)
3. Why did Mr. Gafni use the Japanese principals of origami to make his bike? (no more than 15 words)
4. What are the characteristics of Mr. Gafni’s bike? (no more than 15 words)
5. Please explain how you are encouraged by Izhar Gafni. (no more than 20 words)
The Meaning of Struggle
One day, a man found the pupa of a butterfly. Seeing an opening in the pupa, he realised that the butterfly was ready to emerge. So he sat down and watched as the butterfly struggled to force its body through the little hole. However, minutes passed and the butterfly still couldn’t get out. The struggle was too hard for its weak body. The man then kindly enlarged the hole in the pupa so that the butterfly could finally break free. But instead of flying away, it just dragged itself around weakly, then died. The struggle to break out of the pupa was necessary for the butterfly’s survival because it enabled its wings and body to grow strong. Without the struggle, it was too weak to live. In the same way, we need struggle to grow strong and survive. We must go through some difficult things if we really wish to spread our wings and fly.
1. What does a butterfly do to get out of its pupa?2. Why did the man think he needed to help the butterfly?
3. What happened to the butterfly after the man enlarged the hole in the pupa?
4. What is the lesson behind this story? What else can you learn from it?
Todd cried out in shock and waved his arm at the pale blue screen hovering above the breakfast table. The hologram news paused. “Carolyn,” he called across the kitchen, “did you see this?”
His wife, Carolyn, was collecting her cereal from the breakfast robot. “What is it, honey?” she asked. Todd pointed at the floating blue screen. Carolyn read the headline:
Another prison breakout: faulty robotics blamed.
“Oh, don't worry,” Carolyn chuckled. “That's an old facility. The robots there were bound to break down sooner or later. Plus, I know for a fact that they weren't well maintained,” she added. “Julius was telling me about it. That place isn't as advanced as ours.”
“But the report says that even new, regularly-maintained robots can break down,” Todd protested. “And in a maximum-security prison like yours, one small error could cause a lot of problems.”
Carolyn smiled at him. “You worry too much,” she said. “Now, I'd better be going or I'll be late for work.” She grabbed her bag from the kitchen counter and rushed out of the door. Todd heard the air car start up outside. It was not until an hour later that he noticed that Carolyn had left her emergency call device on the breakfast table.
1. What happened to the prison and what was the cause?2. What kind of job do you think Carolyn has?
3. Are there any sentences that might foreshadow what will happen next? Underline them.
