1 . When I first moved away from home to study, I started out living in student housing. We all had our own rooms, but every floor shared a kitchen and a common room. There was no supervision from family members, and we were expected to take care of ourselves. I had a neighbor who had, like most of us, just moved away from home. It was his first time on his own, and he felt unhappy.
We had to teach this poor boy EVERYTHING. It started with the mystery of why the plates in the cupboard were always greasy (有油渍的). It turned out that the boy didn’t know he had to use hot water to wash the dishes; he just washed them in cold water and put them back.
He spent the first six months complaining about how he was always running out of money. This was because he didn’t know how to cook. The rest of us lived on the usual student diet and treated ourselves to a pizza on weekends. However, he got fast food every single day. I could feed myself for a month on his weekly meal budget. Moreover, he had no idea how to wash clothes with a washing machine. I had to take him shopping for laundry detergent (洗衣粉) first because he didn’t know what it was. He thought he could just put ordinary soap in the washing machine.
To his credit, the boy was very grateful for the help and very depressed that no one had taught him how to do all these things before he moved out.
One day, the boy’s mother came to visit. He happily introduced all of us to his mother. After we graduated, I was invited to his wedding. He introduced me to his new wife as “the one who taught me how to be a man”.
1. What does the underlined word “supervision” in paragraph 1 mean?| A．Difference. | B．Guidance. | C．Escape. | D．Hope. |
| A．He lacked common sense in housework. | B．He got married to the author. |
| C．He always washed dishes in hot water. | D．He didn’t get along well with his mother. |
| A．He often cooked expensive meals. | B．He bought himself a pizza every month. |
| C．He treated his neighbors on weekends. | D．He didn’t know how to spend reasonably. |
| A．Worrying. | B．Poor. | C．Close. | D．Disappointing. |
2 . I used to procrastinate (keep leaving things that should be done until later). Years ago, a neighbor kid kicked a football and shattered a small basement window of our house. We were a family of six living on a small salary at the time, so I boarded it up, thinking I’d get to it someday. However, the frame was rusted shut. I couldn’t fix it.
Over the years, I’d sometimes get estimates from window companies. The plan was to upgrade to energy-efficient windows for the whole house. $15, 000. It was simply out of reach. One contractor explained that whoever replaced it would need to cut and shape by hand, a labor-intensive and expensive process.
Honestly, the thought of that window ate at me for years. Every time I went down there, every time I went to the hardware store, it kept troubling me. I knew I needed to address it, but I had built up the process (and the price) so much in my mind that I was unable to act.
Then my wife had a job change, and we needed to move. A potential buyer couldn’t get a loan on the property if there was a broken window. So I pulled off the boards to face this thing head-on. It had been at least 5 years.
I grabbed some rust remover, sprayed all around the rusted frame, and gave it a strong pull. To my astonishment, it moved for the first time. I pulled the window out and took it downtown. It was a $12 fix.
I could have fixed the problem for $12 the same day it happened. But I let it haunt me for years, shutting out light and letting in bugs. It didn’t need to be the most efficient. It just needed to be a window.
OK, this isn’t really about my window. I mean the story is true, but it’s also a decent fable. Many of us, especially those with anxiety, tend to live with broken windows of one type or another for years.
After I posted my story online, many shared their stories with me. One commented, “This reminded me of a statement, ‘We suffer more in imagination than in reality.’” Another responded, “This is why my business partner tells me, ‘Perfect is the enemy of done.’”
Step forward, and you’ll find a solution.
By Nathan Howe
1. Why did the author delay fixing the broken window for years?| A．He developed a tolerant attitude. |
| B．He was convinced that the window was beyond repair. |
| C．He thought there was no harm if leaving the window broken. |
| D．He believed the whole process to be troublesome and expensive. |
| A．It frightened me terribly. | B．It puzzled me deeply. |
| C．It motivated me slightly. | D．It worried me continuously. |
| A．His wife’s job switching. |
| B．The super effective rust remover. |
| C．The obstacle to getting the house sold. |
| D．The window’s letting in bugs but not light. |
| A．You don’t have to fix it all now; just start by starting. |
| B．Make a list of the things you are putting off and start with the hardest. |
| C．Doing the thing is often less painful than thinking about doing the thing. |
| D．An imperfect solution now is better than a perfect one that will never happen. |
3 . I’ve been in an 18-year love-hate relationship with a black walnut tree.
It’s a unique tree. In late September or early October, falling fruits as hard as baseballs threaten the skulls (头骨) of you, your children, your neighbors and those that reside next door to them. Umbrellas in the yard are a must while dining in early August, and as for me, I wear my bike helmet while working in the garden.
The black walnut also releases a chemical substance through its roots as a competitive strategy. It’s poisonous to several common plants. There have been many new plant varieties that I brought home with hopes that maybe the black walnut would accept them, but they failed to flourish.
What does work are native plants that naturally grow in the area. Native plants are important to have around since they provide beneficial pollinators (传粉者) like birds, bees and butterflies with seeds and contribute to a healthy and biodiverse environment. Native plants for this area are generally easy to grow, so they experience less stress.
Have I thought of getting rid of this giant pain in my tiny backyard? Yes, however, getting rid of this tree standing at 50 feet with an 87-inch trunk is next to impossible. It’s also protected under the law. Rightfully so. Trees are important to the urban forest and for all of those that inhabit it.
Sometimes I think about my life without the black walnut. I can’t imagine a spring without the birds who arrive every year and loudly sing their songs before dawn. I’d miss falling asleep on lazy weekend afternoons as I look up into its leaves.
Every spring, I wonder what the season holds: What are the chances of being knocked unconscious while barbecuing? Like any good relationship, I’ll never be pleased. I’m stuck with this tree, so I’ll listen to its needs and give it the space it requires. In return, my walnut offers a habitat for wildlife and a reminder.
1. Why does the author wear a bike helmet while working in the garden?| A．To protect the injured skull. | B．To prevent herself from sunburn. |
| C．To avoid being hit by the nuts. | D．To reduce the chance of getting bitten by bees. |
| A．It attracts beneficial pollinators. |
| B．It lets out poison to drive away pests. |
| C．It produces a chemical fatal to some plants. |
| D．It competes for nutrition with similar species. |
| A．The volume of its fruits may bring inconvenience. |
| B．The tree outcompetes the native plants in the garden. |
| C．The tree is home to numerous birds and other creatures. |
| D．The presence of the tree takes up much space of the garden. |
| A．it’s better to give than to take |
| B．trees and plants have their own ways to flourish |
| C．even a good relationship is not always trouble-free |
| D．acceptance, instead of resistance, is the better way to be |
4 . I’m a talker. I am keen on debating, gossiping and teasing when I have people to talk to. Under lockdown, however, I’ve only had my partner, Peter.
We not only lived, worked and travelled together, we mostly socialized together, too. Under the first UK lockdown, our already closeness began to feel uncomfortable. While talking to Peter, I could see his attention drift.
For the first time in our 10 years together, we needed to be alone. I tried to manufacture this by going on walks on my own, but a short walk wasn’t doing the job. I had hiked in remote spaces all over the world but always in a pair or group — for safety reasons. I considered my options and hit upon an idea: the semi-solo hike.
Could we do a circular hike but walk in different directions? This would give us the space and peace of a solo hike — done by a person alone. It felt like a promising way out, and he agreed to give it a try.
We started with a four-mile loop (环路) from Reeth. At the start, we parted ways. At first, I was aware of how close we were, which lessened the appeal. As I gained ground, however, I found myself very much alone. I set my own pace, and I decided to take my time.
I sat on a rock and breathed out. That moment — with the weak sun through the clouds and the breeze blowing — felt extraordinary to me. I was born and raised in London and had never imagined leaving until I met an outdoorsman. Now, my former life as a city girl felt crazy. In remembering what I had gained, I felt the tension leave me. There, in the chilly air, I no longer needed to talk. The semi-solo hike gave us a shared experience with added room to breathe.
I didn’t see Peter on the way but reunited back where we started, both pleased.
The semi-solo hike is admittedly silly in theory, but for me it has been a lifeline. It has given me the gift of time alone and, in a year of constant closeness, the joy of reuniting.
1. What motivated the author to adopt the semi-solo hike?| A．Peter’s disinterest in her words. |
| B．Her habit of venturing into the wild. |
| C．The lack of privacy under lockdown. |
| D．Her desire to engage in outdoor exercise. |
| A．Their routes coincide sometimes during the hike. |
| B．They depart in a separate way to different destinations. |
| C．They hike in each other’s company throughout the journey. |
| D．They start and return to the same place by a different route. |
| A．Fearless and refreshed. | B．Free and relaxed. |
| C．Tense and depressed. | D．Upset and embarrassed. |
| A．An appropriate distance creates beauty. |
| B．There are more solutions than difficulties. |
| C．Access to nature is better than social circles. |
| D．Hiking helps improve interpersonal relationships. |
5 . Alex Elman runs a big business — something hard to imagine after she lost her sight in her twenties. But Elman says that losing her sight helped her focus on finding success.
Elman's father planted a hillside vineyard in western Massachusetts in 1981. It's where Elman fled during the darkest period of her life. When she was 27 years old, she went blind due to complications from Juvenile diabetes (青少年糖尿病)17 years ago. She recalled, "I hid in my home. I hid in the place, to me, that was the safest place in the world."
Elman is now the founder of Alex Elman Wines, a growing collection of organic wines from all around the world: Chianti from Italy, Torrontes from Argentina. Elman doesn't work alone. Her assistant, a guide dog named Hanley, is something of a wine taster, and quite a beggar. Hanley travels to all of the wineries that Elman does, from South America to Europe.
At first, Elman resisted the idea of a seeing-eye dog. Now it's hard to imagine her life, or her business, without him. She said, "When someone tells me something is organic and I don't really believe it because I taste something funny on it, I'll put it in front of his face and if he likes the wine, he'll actually go in and sniff it. If it's not right, he'll turn his head away ... He gets in the dirt with me. He scratches around. He makes sure that we see earthworms and butterflies. That's how we know that the soil is actually organic, that there are no chemicals."
Elman told CBS News she believes the loss of her vision was a gift. She said, "It allowed me to pay attention to what I thought was important and also to be able to teach people that the broken hang nail is not a big deal, you know what I mean? Don't sweat the small stuff. Don't sweat the big stuff either."
1. From Para.2, we know that Elman _____.| A．got through her hard days in the vineyard |
| B．liked playing hide-and-seek during her childhood |
| C．suffered from juvenile diabetes from 27 years old |
| D．lost her sight while helping with farm work in 1981 |
| A．it is a guide dog | B．it is capable of drinking |
| C．it wins permission to be with Elman | D．it travels all over the world |
| A．make Hanley drink it | B．turn to Hanley for advice |
| C．order Hanley to head away | D．have another taste herself |
| A．There is no royal road to success. |
| B．A single tree does not make a forest. |
| C．The eye is blind if the mind is absent. |
| D．When life gives you lemons, make lemonade. |
6 . McCoy was looking for a safe place to do drugs when something clearly out of place caught his eye: a luxurious brown leather handbag.
McCoy, 36, could relate all too well. One of his few possessions, the sleeping bag he used in an abandoned house, had recently been stolen. Remembering how angered he’d been by his own loss, he resolved to return the purse to its owner.
He began right away, starting with the address on the bill found in the handbag. After traveling much of the day and finally approaching the address on the bill, he was stopped by a woman, who asked whether she could buy the purse. McCoy refused, saying he was searching for its owner. “But I am the owner,” the woman said. “That’s my purse.”
A month earlier, Kaitlyn Smith, 29, a sales representative for a medical device company, had woken up to find her apartment broken into and her purse stolen. Now she came across a tall, messy-looking man holding it tightly. She could instantly tell he wasn’t in good shape.
At Smith’s urging, McCoy told her his story. He’d been in charge of a landscaping business until 2012, when a car accident left him addicted to drugs.
Smith, amazed this stranger had gone to such great lengths to return her bag, asked whether there was anything she could do to help. “I’m a drug addict,” McCoy warned. “I don’t want to intrude on your life; I’m probably gonna let you down.”
Unafraid, Smith gave him her phone number, saying, “If you want to go to rehab (戒毒所), call me.” She then drove him back to his neighborhood and left, thinking that would be the end of it. Two days later, she got a call.
Smith realized that McCoy was serious about getting better, so she dug into her savings account and bought McCoy a plane ticket to Florida. While there, he would call her to let her know how he was doing. “We were getting to know each other,” Smith says. “His scared, desperate voice turned into a healthy, lively one.” After 28 days at a rehab program at Johns Hopkins Hospital, McCoy is drug-free. He lives at a residential recovery center in Baltimore, and a GoFundMe page set up by Smith has covered his rent, groceries, and incidentals. His life is back on track, all because one crime victim could understand another’s loss.
1. What drove McCoy to look for the owner of the handbag?| A．The urge to find a business partner. | B．The resolution to recover his sleeping bag. |
| C．His own unfortunate experience. | D．His anger over the poor living condition. |
| A．Enthusiasm. | B．Resistance. |
| C．Hostility. | D．Gratitude. |
| A．McCoy was a victim of an identity theft. |
| B．Smith offered McCoy a ride home at his request. |
| C．McCoy looked unhealthy when he bumped into Smith. |
| D．Smith covered McCoy’s living expense in the recovery centre. |
| A．Drug-abuse Can Heal. | B．Lost and Found. |
| C．Mutual Communication Matters. | D．Good Deeds Repaid. |
7 . The Christmas of 1988, my husband and I had four children. Peter was eleven, Leigh-Ann nine, Laura six and Matthew only two. When Santa arrived, Matthew parked himself on Santa’s lap and remained impressed greatly by him for the rest of the evening. Anyone who had their picture taken with Santa that Christmas also had their picture taken with little Matthew.
Little did any of us know how precious those photos with Santa and Matthew would become. Five days after Christmas, our sweet little Matthew died in an accident. When our first Christmas without Matthew approached, it was hard for us to get into the holiday spirit.
Then, on December 13, we were just finishing dinner when we heard a knock on the front door. When we went to answer it, no one was there. On the front porch was a card and gift. The gift-giver just wanted to help us get through a rough time by cheering us up with his or her name unknown, like a fairy.
In the gift bag was a cassette of favorite Christmas music, which was in a little cardboard Christmas tree. We put the cassette in our player and, song by song, the spirit of Christmas began to warm our hearts, and the thoughtfulness of our “fairy，touched our hearts.
That was the beginning of a series of gifts from the clever giver, one for each day until Christmas. Each gift followed the theme of “The Twelve Days of Christmas” in a creative way. The kids especially liked “seven swans a-swimming,” which was a basket of swan-shaped soaps plus passes to the local swimming pool. “Eight maids a-milking” included eight bottles of chocolate milk in glass bottles with paper faces. Every day was something very special.
The ingenuity and thoughtfulness shocked us as we enjoyed each surprise. We were so caught up in the excitement and curiosity of what would possibly come next, that our grief didn’t have much of a chance to rob us of the spirit of Christmas. What our fairy did was absolutely miraculous.
We give thanks for our fairy who was, we finally realized, our very own Christmas angel. We never did find out who it was, although we have our guess. We actually prefer to keep it that way.
1. The photos taken with little Mathew became valued because __| A．Mathew is the youngest child of our family |
| B．they are the photos taken on Christmas Eve |
| C．Mathew seated himself on Santa’s legs |
| D．we lost Mathew five days after the Christmas of 1988 |
| A．“Seven Swans a-swimming” was a soap with swans coined. |
| B．We received 12 gifts before the very first Christmas without Mathew. |
| C．We were still in no mood for preparing for Christmas with a cassette. |
| D．It was Santa who secretly sent us the unexpected gifts. |
| A．delicacy | B．responsibility | C．originality | D．attraction |
| A．Mathew’s Present. | B．An Angel among Us. |
| C．Christmas Day. | D．Five Golden Rings. |
8 . In university I had a part-time job at a shop that sold doughnuts and coffee. Situated on a block where several buses stopped, it served the people who had a few minutes to wait for their bus.
Every afternoon around four o'clock, a group of schoolchildren would burst into the shop, and business would come to a stop. Adults would glance in, see the crowd and pass on. But I didn’t mind if the children waited for their bus inside. Sometimes I would hand out a bus fare when a ticket went missing — always repaid the next day. On snowy days I would give away some doughnuts. I would lock the door at closing time, and we waited in the warm shop until their bus finally arrived.
I enjoyed my young friends, but it never occurred to me that I played an important role in their lives — until one afternoon when a man came and asked if I was the girl working on weekdays around four o'clock. He identified himself as the father of two of my favorites.
“I want you to know I appreciate what you do for my children. I worry about them taking two buses to get home. It means a lot that they can wait here and you keep an eye on them. When they are with the doughnut lady, I know they are safe.” I told him it wasn’t a big deal, and that I enjoyed the kids.
So I was the Doughnut Lady. I not only received a title, but became a landmark.
Now I think about all the people who keep an eye on my own children. They become, well, Doughnut Ladies. Like the men at the skating rink (滑冰场) who let my boys ring home; Or the bus driver who drove my daughter to her stop at the end of the route at night but wouldn’t leave until I arrived to pick her up; Or that nice police officer who took pity on my boys walking home in the rain when I was at work — even though the phone rang all the next day with calls from curious neighbors. “Was that a police car I saw at your house last night?”
That wasn’t a police car. That was a Doughnut Lady.
1. According to the passage, the author sometimes _______.| A．called the children’s parents to pick them up |
| B．provided schoolchildren with warm shelters |
| C．did business with the children’s help |
| D．sold bus tickets to the children |
| A．she hadn’t found it hard to get along with the children |
| B．she hadn’t made a lot of money from the children |
| C．she hadn’t spent plenty of time with the children |
| D．she hadn’t done anything very significant |
| A．are always ready to help others |
| B．provide free doughnuts for the poor |
| C．work in the doughnut store for a while |
| D．are curious about the happenings around |
| A．taking responsibility is a virtue |
| B．devotion co-exists with reward |
| C．running a business requires skills |
| D．acts of kindness are never too small |
At six o'clock she came home, let herself in and at once smelt cigarette smoke. Cigarette smoke in her house? How? How? Had someone got in? She checked the back door and the windows. All were locked or fastened, as usual. There was no sign of forced entry.
Over a cup of tea she wondered whether someone might have a key that fitted her front door — “
It was just after four o'clock when the front door bell rang. Mrs. Clarke was making a cup of tea at the time. The bell rang again, and then she heard her letter-box being pushed open. With the kettle of boiling water in her hand, she moved quietly towards the front door. A long piece of wire appeared through the letter-box, and then a hand. The wire turned and caught around the handle on the door-lock. Mrs. Clarke raised the kettle and poured the water over the hand. There was a shout outside, and the skin seemed to drop off the fingers like a glove. The wire fell to the floor, the hand was pulled back, and Mrs. Clarke heard the sound of running feet.
1. Mrs. Clarke looked forward to Thursday because .
| A．she worked at a club on the day |
| B．she had visitors on Thursday |
| C．she visited a club on Thursday |
| D．a special visitor came on Thursday |
| A．A key to all the doors. |
| B．A key only to the woman’s door. |
| C．A key only its master can use. |
| D．A key not everyone can use. |
| A．because she didn’t want to miss the club again |
| B．to see if the thief was wandering outside |
| C．to the club but then changed her mind |
| D．in an attempt to trick the thief |
| A．needed a piece of wire to open it |
| B．could be opened from inside without a key |
| C．couldn’t be opened without a key |
| D．used a handle instead of a key |
