1 . I’m a student in my fourth year of a biomedical science degree at Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen, but I also work 38 hours a week at Sainsbury’s to make ends meet. I do three night shifts a week, plus overtime if I can get it. Monday is the most occupied day for me — I work from 10 pm until 8 am on Saturday and Sunday nights, earning just over £100 a night, and then I have to be at my first lecture at 9 am on Monday. By the time I finish lectures, at 2 pm, I’m exhausted, but I know I have to be back at work by 10 pm.
I constantly have to force myself to stay awake, and to be alert, whatever it takes. A packet of Skittles and a Red Bull usually helps. The work I do at Sainsbury’s is very physical like stacking shelves. I’m lucky because I’m an active person and the amount I lift at work is nothing compared with the weights I lift in the gym. I know I have the strength to bear it.
I’m originally from Nigeria. I came here when I was seven, growing up in Croydon, south London. Money was tight. My parents gave me everything I needed, but there was no money to spend on luxuries. I worked hard at school though and, with the help of GT Scholars, I got some of the best A-level grades in my class.
Unfortunately, though I had applied for “settled” British residential status when very young, the Home Office waited until I was in sixth form to approve my application. That meant I wasn’t eligible for a student loan. The only way I could afford to go to university was that if I got a job that would pay for all my living costs and my parents, who work in market research, paid for my tuition fees. In Scotland, that’s about £7,000 a year.
I don’t have much time to socialize because of my job. Ideally, I would also like to have more time to study so I can excel at my course. Yes, I have a lot on my plate, but working hard isn’t new to me. Growing up, my parents and my mentors in the church and at GT Scholars cultivated in me the importance of working hard for what I want in life.
My dream is to do an MA in physiotherapy next year and then get a job working for the NHS. But right now, I’m just focused on trying to get the best grades I can. Whenever I find life hard, I tell myself this is about my future. I don’t need much, but I would like to worry less about money and have more free time. That is what I look forward to the most.
1. Why does the author work long hours and sometimes overtime every week?| A．To help his parents pay off the debts. | B．To pay for his tuition fees. |
| C．To prove his ability to earn money. | D．To pay for his own living expenses. |
| A．responsible | B．qualified | C．feasible | D．anxious |
| A．Sociable. | B．Diligent. | C．Ambitious. | D．Persistent. |
| A．A penny saved is a penny earned. | B．Actions speak louder than words. |
| C．God helps those who help themselves. | D．Where there is life, there is hope. |
2 . The Daffodil Lesson
It was a bleak rainy day, and I had no desire to drive up the winding mountain road to my daughter Caronlyn’s house. But she had insisted that I come see something at the top of the mountain.
So here I was, reluctantly making the two-hour journey through fog that hung like veils. By the time I was how thick it was near the summit. I’d gone too far to turn back. Nothing could be worth this, I thought as I inched along the dangerous highway.
“I’ll stay for lunch, but I’m heading back down as soon as the fog lifts,” I announced when I arrived.
“But I need you to drive me to the garage to pick up my car” Caronlyn said. “Could we at least do that?”
“How far is it I asked.
“About three minutes”, she said I’ll drive--I’m used to it
After ten minutes on the mountain road, I looked at her anxiously. "I thought you said three minutes."
She grinned. “This is a detour（绕道）”
Turning down a narrow track, we parked the car and got out. We walked along a path that was thick with old pine needles. Huge black-green evergreens towards over us. Gradually the peace and silence of the place began to fill my mind.
Then we turned a corner and stooped-and I gasped in amazement.
From the top of the mountain, sloping for several acres across folds and valleys, were rivers of daffodils in radiant bloom. A profusion(大量) of color-from the palest ivory to the deepest lemon to the most vivid salmon-blazed like a carpet before us. It looked as though the sun had tipped over and spilled gold down the mountainside. At the center there was a waterfall of purple flowers. Here and there were coral-colored tulips. Western bluebirds frolicked（嬉戏）over the heads of the daffodils, their tawny breasts and sapphire wings like a flutter of jewels.
A riot of question filled my mind. Who created such beauty?Why?How?
As we approached the home that stood in the center of the property, we saw a sign that read: “Answers to the Question I Know You Are Asking.”
The first answer was “One Woman-Two Hands, Two Feet, and Very Little Brain.: The second was:” One at a Time,” The third:” Started in 1958.”
As we drove home, I was so moved by what we had been, I could scarcely speak. “She changed the world,” I finally said, “one bulb at a time. She started almost 40 years ago, probably just the beginning of an idea, but she kept at it.”
The wonder of it would not let me go. “Imagine,” I said, “if I’d had a vision and worked at it, just a little bit every day, what might I have accomplished?”
Carolyn looked at me sideways, smiling. “Start tomorrow,” she said.
“Better yet, start today.”
1. The passage is mainly about .| A．a successful gardener | B．an inspiring gardening lesson |
| C．a worthwhile travelling experience | D．an unexpected countryside scenery |
| A．the road twisted and turned along the mountain |
| B．the fog crowning the mountain lifted eventually |
| C．the owner of the filed came to answer her questions |
| D．the vast stretch of daffodil field took her breath away |
| A．The beautiful daffodil field was all along the road. |
| B．The author and her daughter planned the journey well. |
| C．The owner of the field spent a lot of time working in the field. |
| D．The author planned to work in the daffodil field the next day. |
| A．East or west, home is best. | B．It is never too old to learn. |
| C．Birds of a feather flock together. | D．Rome is not built in a day. |
