1 . Thein Shwe is sitting with one of his students, 14-year-old Nur Hakim, outside a small classroom built of wood. Thein Shwe has been working at this non-formal primary education centre since it was first set up five years ago. He says, “I love teaching. I was a personal tutor (家庭教师) before. When I learnt that this centre was looking for teachers, I applied.”
Thein Shwe is very popular among his students. Even Nur Hakim, who at first was very shy, becomes more confident as his teacher smiles, nodding to encourage him. I come from a poor family, says Nur Hakim. “My father died when I was a baby.”
Nur Hakim’s father, who was a factory worker, was the main provider. Since his father’s death, his mother has had to support the family of six by herself. Nur Hakim was not attending school until the age of 12, when he got the chance to attend this non-formal primary education centre. “I love English and I love my teacher because he is always on time and teaches us well,” says the boy.
Nur Hakim says he hopes to join Grade 5 students next year in a nearby government school. Nur Hakim holds on to his dreams. “I want to be a doctor,” he says. “In my village, I see a lot of illnesses.”
Thein Shwe admits he finds it difficult to support his family working as a volunteer. But Thein Shwe talks more about the successes and difficulties he has faced keeping his students in class. He says over the four years, about 80% of the students continue on to the government school or vocational (职业的) training.
When Thein Shwe is asked about his main success as a teacher, he needs no time to think. “It’s being able to keep the poorest children in school,” he says.
1. What can we learn about Thein Shwe?| A．He started teaching when he was 14. |
| B．He used to work in a government school. |
| C．He has worked as a volunteer teacher for five years. |
| D．He helped set up the non-formal primary education centre. |
| A．Be a worker like his father. | B．Work in the field of medicine. |
| C．Teach in a government school. | D．Be a volunteer teacher like Thein Shwe. |
| A．Teaching kids useful life skills. |
| B．Providing chances of education for poor kids. |
| C．Changing children’s attitude towards education. |
| D．Sending his students to schools of higher education levels. |
2 . For the brave in the armed forces, being sent away from home for months at a time is just part of the duty. However, it's never an easy one to perform especially for those with children. So when I found out I was going to be stationed in South Korea for a year, I was nervous about how my five children, particularly my eldest daughter Abigail, would take the news since it meant I wouldn't be home to see her graduate from high school.
Incredibly, Abigail told me not to worry and even suggested we live stream the event among family members when I leaked the news. “We've been lucky you haven't had to be sent abroad yet. Anyway we can get connected through the Internet. See me on your phone on my spot,” Abigail said. She stepped into many of my roles when I was gone. I wanted to find a way to thank her and show her how proud I was of her. I started planning the special surprise when my request to return home a few weeks early to attend Abigail's graduation ceremony was approved.
When my time in South Korea finally came to an end, I flew home, rented a car, and stayed in a hotel. And on Abigail's graduation day, I hid in an office behind the stage waiting until I heard my daughter's name called. I just kept thinking “Don't cry. Don't trip in your heels. Don't fall over.” At last！Abigail was up on stage. I slipped up behind her, whispered in her ear, and around she turned! “I was just thinking, like, ‘You aren't supposed to be here. What? What? How？’ It was the biggest shock...I'm pretty sure my dad made people he didn't even know cry. Emotional for everyone,” Abigail cried.
You know what followed: Embraces, kisses, tears, laughs, flowers, wishes...Aren't they what a family has in store?
1. What worried the author most?| A．His duty in South Korea. | B．His five children's safety. |
| C．His eldest daughter's study. | D．His absence from a big event. |
| A．Plan. | B．Celebrate. | C．Prepare. | D．Broadcast. |
| A．Embarrassed. | B．Overjoyed. | C．Nervous. | D．Satisfied. |
| A．A soldier's personal sacrifice. | B．A father's love for his family. |
| C．The meaning of family bond. | D．The way to plan a big surprise. |
3 . When most high school students complain about having to wake up extra early，they're usually referring to a swim practice before class or the last minute study before a test. But that was never the case for Corey Patrick，who woke up at 4：30 every morning last year in order to arrive on time at Tarrant High School in Alabama.
Patrick had attended Tarrant City Schools since his fourth grade，but things got difficult when his family moved to a town 14 miles away. Even though his family didn't have any forms of transportation，Patrick didn't want to miss out on his senior year with friends，so he woke up at 4：30 every morning in order to make it to a 5：41 a．m.bus that would help him get to Tarrant on time.And just as he had done every other school day of the year，Patrick got up one morning to start the journey from his home to his high school; the only obvious difference that morning was that he was wearing his graduation gown (毕业礼服)，which made that day's bus driver，DeJuanna Beasley, take some photos of him. She then shared them online with these words，“You tell me this isn't determination.He got on my bus to go to his graduation，and no one was with him.Sometimes it's all in what you want out of life.I was so proud of this young man.”
That was soon shared by many people online，and it caught the attention of radio host Rickey Smiley，who surprised Patrick by giving him a car later. Smiley confirmed that he would make sure that Patrick received help with getting his driver's license. A GoFundMe was also created for Patrick，which has raised over $20,000. And Patrick has got a scholarship (奖学金) to Jacksonville University，where he plans to study computer science.
1. Why was Patrick different from most students when it comes to rising early?| A．It had something to do with study. |
| B．It was a part of daily life for him. |
| C．He was unwilling to get up early. |
| D．He spent more time in studying. |
| A．Patrick dressed poorly on his graduation day. |
| B．It took Patrick an hour to get to the bus stop. |
| C．The driver was moved by Patrick's story. |
| D．There was no school in Patrick's town. |
| A．Patrick's request for help on the Internet. |
| B．The difficulties that Patrick experienced. |
| C．The information about Patrick's university. |
| D．The message published online by the driver. |
| A．GoFundMe. | B．Rickey Smiley. |
| C．Patrick's high school. | D．Jacksonville University. |
4 . A job is more than just a job, especially to the older generation. "It's not the money that matters, but the sense of selfworth," 56yearold Cheng Wonlan said. So, every day Ms Cheng carries a bag of parcels, letters and documents of all shapes and sizes and does her rounds in North Point. She's a courier(快递人员).
Five years ago, Ms Cheng was a nurse at a private clinic. She had worked there for almost 30 years but was made jobless when the doctor migrated(移居). It was extremely difficult for her to find another job. "People do not trust my ability when they learn how old I am, "she said. After two years of searching, the mother of two eventually found another nursing job. But then after two years, she quit. Why?
"My colleagues were young and they didn't understand me because of my age. They often asked me, ‘You are so old；what are you working for？' I was very unhappy." she said. So while the rest of her family left for work, she was left to lonely boredom at home. The urge to work drove her to suffering. Then, one of Ms Cheng's neighbours told her about Employee's Retraining Board (ERB) offering retraining courses for older people on specific occupations, such as convenience store assistants, junior clerks and so on.
"I was interested in courier work. I didn't think my age was a barrier because I was fit and healthy. So I thought why not give it a try." she said. Upon graduation from the ERB, Ms Cheng was offered a job by the Speeding Shuttle Courier Service Company Limited. But then Ms Cheng was faced with a conflict: she was caught between honour and employment.It took Ms Cheng 24 hours to make up her mind and eventually came to the conclusion that there was nothing wrong or embarrassing about doing the job.So she took heart and went off to work as a courier.
Ms Cheng's employer is delighted with her, "Ms Cheng has been working with us for two months and has shown a good responsible attitude to work."Anthony Chong, who runs the company, said.Currently, Mr Chong has 60 couriers working for his company：five of them are over fifty, four of whom have been through the ERB plan.Mr Chong said he hired older people because they were able and reliable."Age is not an important factor but attitude is.Many old people are more capable than the youngsters.They will not run from difficulties but the young ones will." he said."It is not easy to recruit (招募) young people since they shy away from hardship and challenges."
1. Why was it difficult for Ms Cheng to find another nursing job?| A．Nursing clinics were hard to find. |
| B．People thought that old people couldn't be trusted. |
| C．People thought she was too old to take on a new job. |
| D．People didn't think she had enough working experience. |
| A．the other staff made her feel uncomfortable |
| B．it was too difficult |
| C．she was too old to do the job |
| D．she was bored with changeless jobs |
| A．finding jobs for older people |
| B．teaching new skills to older people |
| C．training older people to be couriers |
| D．providing older people something to do in their spare time |
| A．are able and reliable |
| B．are more likely to give up than the older ones |
| C．are fitter and stronger than the older ones |
| D．are less experienced than the older ones |
5 . While a man was passing by an elephant, he suddenly stopped. The elephant was held by only a small rope. The farmer ties the rope to the elephant's front leg. No chains, no cages. The man was very confused. He wanted to know why the elephant didn't run away.
He visited the farmer and asked why the elephant just stood there and didn't run away. "Well," the farmer said, "when it was very young and much smaller, we used the same size rope to tie it. At that age, the rope was strong enough to hold it. Of course it couldn't run away. When it grew up, it still believed the rope could hold it. So it never tried to run away."
The man was very amazed. In fact, the grown-up elephant could run away at any time. But it didn't run away just because it believed it couldn't. As a result, it was stuck right there.
We have such problems in our life. Sometimes we don't think we can deal with the problems. Sometimes we fail to deal with them. It's not wise to stop struggling. See? Failure is part of learning. We should never give up the struggle.
1. The farmer held the elephant by ________.| A．making a chain to tie the elephant | B．making a cage for the elephant |
| C．tying a rope to the elephant's front leg | D．tying a rope around the elephant's body |
| A．a stronger rope | B．a smaller rope |
| C．the same size rope | D．a longer rope |
| A．no one came to save it | B．the elephant couldn't run fast |
| C．it was not strong enough | D．it believed it couldn't |
| A．not to stop struggling | B．to give up the struggle in life |
| C．to learn from the farmer | D．to learn from the elephant |
6 . Last weekend, I was talking about winter vacation plans with a friend when I suddenly realized that this year I should start up an old plan of learning how to skate again.
I’ve always wanted to learn skating. But I didn’t have a proper chance to learn it. When I was young, the small coastal city where I lived had no ice rink (溜冰场). My parents signed me up for classes at a skating school out of town, but I had to catch the early bus on weekends to get there, and it took two hours to go and come back, so I gave it up pretty quickly.
Now is my chance to fulfill my childhood dream! Excited, I started calling skating rinks in Beijing, hoping to sign up for lessons. But some said they only had classes for children. Some said it was too much trouble to teach adults. One receptionist paused after my question and said strangely, “You never learned this as a child?”
I understand if they don’t get many adult learners, but to say that adults are harder to teach than children is such a slap in the face. I thought I lived in a society that encourages people to take on lifelong learning. Is there some unspoken rule that says after one reaches a certain age, he or she is not allowed to learn systematically with a trainer anymore? Are adults not allowed to pursue new hobbies?
There were many things I didn’t have time to properly learn when I was young. I failed to see how important hobbies were, and I was sick of my parents nagging (唠叨) me to do after-school activities. Today, when I want to go out with friends, I find I have so few activities to do with them. And now I’m being told that I can’t even make up for my childhood mistake. It seems that I’ve missed my chance. I missed it 20 years ago. Now, I can only go on being ordinary.
1. The author gave up learning skating when she was young because _____________.| A．she wasn’t interested in it |
| B．her parents didn’t allow her to learn it |
| C．her parents couldn’t find any skating schools |
| D．it was inconvenient for her to take the lessons |
| A．Positively. | B．Anxiously. |
| C．Flexibly. | D．Disappointingly. |
| A．It’s never too late to learn. |
| B．It’s understandable that adults don’t like learning. |
| C．Adults are harder to teach than kids. |
| D．Adults had better not pursue new hobbies. |
| A．fear of going on being ordinary |
| B．determination to learn skating well |
| C．regret for losing the chance of pursuing hobbies |
| D．blame on her parents’ nagging her to do after-school activities |
7 . The Day My Father Almost Drowned Me
Dad used to be a devoted fisherman. He tried to get me interested as well, but it never seemed much fun to me. The line always seemed to tangle（缠结），the worms（虫）would not hold still, the hooks （挂钩）were sharp, and Dad always seemed to want to go someplace far away, so that you had to get up in the middle of the night.
One time when I was about ten years old, my dad took me fishing to the American Falls reservoir （I think that's where it was. Our neighbor Wayne Booth had built a kayak （皮船），which was painted bright blue, and Dad thought we could row out onto the reservoir（划到水库）and catch some fish. I don’t remember whether we caught any fish or not. I think I was having more fun rowing the kayak, which is rowed facing forward with a double-ended oar（船桨）,unlike an ordinary row-boat, which I never liked because you couldn't see where you were going. But mid-afternoon the wind came up a little. We were maybe a hundred feet from shore, when the wind caught my hat and blew it into the water just a few feet away. Dad said, “Don't worry. I'll get it!" and reached out for the hat.
Now, a kayak is a very skillfully balanced thing, and Dad's reaching for the hat was just enough to upset the balance and tip us over. I didn't know how to swim yet, and thought I was a goner. Dad did, too, I think, because he was grabbing for me madly until we realized that the water was only about four feet deep.
Mother was not too pleased when we got home, soaking wet, and I think she thought Dad was creating the story a little so that it wouldn't sound like he had really almost drowned（溺死）me.
1. How many people are mentioned in the passage?| A．Two. | B．Three. |
| C．Four. | D．Five. |
| A．He was good at swimming. |
| B．He was hard on the writer. |
| C．He was into making up a story. |
| D．He was a man fond of fishing. |
a. Dad grabbed for me madly. b. Our neighbor built a kayak.
c. Dad and I fell into water. d. My hat was blown into the water.
| A．a, b, c, d | B．b, d, c, a | C．c, d, a, b | D．b, a, d, c |
| A．He was going to be saved. | B．He was going to be drowned. |
| C．He was going to be beaten. | D．He was lucky to leave. |
8 . Tom was a clever boy, but his parents were poor, so he had to work in his spare time and during his holidays to pay for his education. In spite of this, he managed to get to the university, but it was so expensive to study there that during the holiday he found it necessary to get two jobs at the same time so as to make enough money to pay for his studies.
One summer he managed to get a job in a butcher’s shop(肉店)during the day-time, and another in a hospital at night. In the shop, he learnt to cut meat quite nicely, so the butcher often left him to do all the serving while he went to the back room to do the accounts(账目). In the hospital, on the other hand, he was, of course, allowed to do the simplest jobs, like helping to lift people and to carry them from one part of the hospital to another. Both at the butcher’s shop and at the hospital, Tom had to wear white clothes.
One evening at the hospital, Tom had to carry a woman from her bed to the place where she was to have an operation. The woman was already feeling frightened at the thought of the operation before he came to get her, but when she saw Tom, that finished her. “No! No!” she cried．“Not my butcher! I won’t be operated on by my butcher!” and fainted away(昏厥).
1. Tom made enough money by ________.| A．doing two jobs |
| B．working in a butcher’s shop |
| C．cutting meat well |
| D．studying in the university |
| A．a butcher and a doctor |
| B．a manager and a doctor |
| C．an assistant |
| D．a manager |
| A．he was wearing white clothes |
| B．he was going to operate on her |
| C．he was now working in the hospital |
| D．he had sold meat to her |
| A．plunged her into deep sorrow |
| B．took all her strength and courage away |
| C．broke her heart |
| D．made her decide to have an operation |
9 . When I was four years old，I got stung(螫) by a bee－twice in one week！After that，I had a fear of bees.That's when my parents suggested that I learn about bees instead of being frightened. I read picture books and watched videos about bees，and I learned that bees help make the food we eat because of their pollination(授粉). Take pizza，for example. If we didn't have bees to pollinate tomato plants，we wouldn't have tomatoes for sauce. And we wouldn't have cheese without pollination，either.
The bad news is that bees are struggling to survive. Many are dying. Some scientists think it might be because of chemicals that are used to kill other insects. What would happen if there were no more bees? I wanted to help. I thought, “What if I make lemonade，sell it，and raise money to help bees?” I talked to my grandmother Helen. She gave me her recipe(调制法) for lemonade. It came from a cookbook from 1940.
I added honey to her old recipe. That way，I could sell the lemonade and donate some of the money to groups that are helping to save bees. I could also support local beekeepers by using their honey in my product. And I would be educating others on the importance of bees and helping to save them.
My dad showed me how to work out what supplies I needed to buy. At first，I sold lemonade at a stand at a kids' business event. But I wanted to help bees all year round. We talked to a pizza place near where I live. They said they wanted to sell it. Now more than 30 stores sell it，too. This year we sold about 140,000 bottles. I love helping to save bees. It's the sweetest feeling ever.
1. After learning about bees，the author ________.| A．discovered their importance to people | B．developed an interest in insects |
| C．knew how to deal with them | D．became afraid of them |
| A．Bees’ worrying condition. | B．A cookbook from 1940. |
| C．Helen's special recipe. | D．Her parents' words. |
| A．Careful and polite. | B．Kind and caring. |
| C．Brave and smart. | D．Strong and patient. |
| A．From lemon to lemonade. | B．A kid and her bees. |
| C．A healthy heart. | D．A sweet idea. |
10 . Katie always knew she wanted to be a performer. She was crazy about musicals and Disney movies from an early age and would often watch them singing along with her mom, Karen. When Katie was nine years old, her happy childhood took a turn when her mother was diagnosed with cancer. Then they made a decision. Disney World had been a longtime dream vacation for Karen. So in November 1997, the family packed up and headed to Disney World.
They spent their days in the parks, seeing the sights, greeting characters, and watching Karen’s face light up with joy. They all shared the joy of experiencing the park for the first time with Karen. Katie says she’ll never forget the moment that changed her life on that trip: After a long day, the Whetsells decided to see one of Disney World’s nightly light shows. While watching, a Disney cast member performing in the parade came up to her mom and rested her hand on Karen’s shoulder. This was the day Katie decided she wanted to work for Disney.
Sadly, Katie’s mom Karen lost her battle with cancer on June 2, 2003. Katie went on to pursue her dream.
After Katie received her degree in musical theatre, Katie struggled for years, trying to make it as an actor. Her hard work and passion finally paid off when she was hired to work on Disney Cruise Lines in 2009 and later as a performer in Disney on Classic.
Since then, Katie has had many opportunities to play with some of her favorite Disney characters, but Katie’s favorite friend is Dory in Finding Nemo at Disney World’s Animal Kingdom. Several times a week, Katie can be found voicing lovable, forgetful Dory. She says that Dory has taught her the value of living in the present moment and to “just keep swimming”.
1. Why did the family decide to visit Disney World?| A．To spend Katie’s dream vacation. | B．To help Katie be a performer. |
| C．To make Karen’s dream come true. | D．To enjoy the last family trip. |
| A．Karen was diagnosed with cancer. |
| B．The family shared the joy together in the park. |
| C．They saw a Disney World’s nightly light show. |
| D．A Disney performer had some interaction with Karen. |
| A．Because Dory taught her some life lessons. |
| B．Because Katie enjoyed voicing lovable Dory. |
| C．Because Dory played with a Disney character. |
| D．Because Katie had opportunities to swim with Dory. |
| A．Humorous and honest. | B．Hardworking and determined. |
| C．Optimistic and serious. | D．Outgoing and patient. |
