1 . For a teenager whose chances of survival were slim when he was born, just making it to the starting line at the Olympics is a miraculous achievement in itself.
William Flaherty was born in Cincinnati. When he was 3, he was diagnosed with HLH. It is an often-fatal disease where the immune system attacks the body’s organs. There were days when they didn’t know if he would live through. The 17-year-old Flaherty has had more than 30 operations in his life, including a bone-marrow transplant from his older brother Charles in 2008.
At five, William skied for the first time. It helped a lot with low bone density and got him back in good shape. One year later, William moved to Puerto Rico and fell in love with the island. Puerto Rico doesn’t have snow and balancing the island and skiing life was tough. During the first few years a lot of it was pushed by his father and older brother Charles—himself a former Olympic skier. Motivated by his older brother, William wanted to give it a try himself. When he brought up to represent Puerto Rico in Alpine skiing, his friends laughed. However, he didn’t let it hold him back.
As a teenager, Flaherty had to balance his training with medical appointments and going to school. Even a cold could lay him up for two weeks, so William took extra pre-cautions over the last two years. While training, he wore an N95 mask the whole time and couldn’t ride the lift with anyone. After training, he came home directly, hid in his bedroom and stayed away from people. He managed to maintain straight A’s despite having to study on chairlifts and do final exams sometimes only days before racing. He had his English final three days before he left for Beijing.
“All my medical problems have definitely helped with my motivation. Skiing is really helpful because it forces me to focus on one thing. I really want to prove to all the other transplant survivors that you can do whatever you want in life. Move on with your life and achieve whatever you want,” he said.
1. Why did William Flaherty start skiing at the age of five?| A．To entertain himself. | B．To participate in the Olympics. |
| C．To improve his health. | D．To follow in his father’s footsteps. |
| A．His studies gave way to his training for skiing. |
| B．Puerto Rico could offer him better training conditions. |
| C．He was inspired by his older brother Charles in skiing. |
| D．He started to learn skiing when he moved to Puerto Rico. |
| A．Brave and kind. | B．Creative and generous. |
| C．Modest and shy. | D．Optimistic and hardworking. |
| A．Skiing Life of a Teenager. | B．Preparing Well for the Olympics. |
| C．Surviving from Severe Illness. | D．Defeating Disease to Deliver Hope. |
2 . Walking down a path through some woods in Georgia, I saw a small pool of water ahead on the path. I changed my direction to go around it on the part of the path that wasn’t covered by water or mud. As I reached the pool, I was suddenly attacked! Yet I did nothing for the attack. It was so unpredictable and from somewhere totally unexpected. I was surprised as well as unhurt though I had been struck four or five times. I backed up a foot and my attacker stopped attacking me. Had I been hurt, I wouldn’t have found it amusing. And I was laughing. After all, I was being attacked by a butterfly!
Having stopped, laughing, I took a step forward. My attacker rushed me again. He charged towards me at full speed, attempting to hurt me but in vain. For a second time, I took a step backwards while my attacker paused. I wasn’t sure what to do. After all, it’s just not everyday that one is attacked by a butterfly. I stepped back to look the situation over. My attacker moved back to land on the ground. That’s when I discovered why my attacker was charging at me only moments earlier. He had a mate and she was dying.
Sitting close beside her, he opened and closed his wings as if to fan her. I could only admire the love and courage of that butterfly in his concern for his mate. He had taken it up on himself to attack me for his mate’s sake, even though she was clearly dying and I was so large. He did so just to give her those extra few precious moments of life. His courage in attacking something thousands of times larger and heavier than himself just for his mate’s safety seemed admirable. I couldn’t do anything other than reward him by walking on the more difficult side of the pool. He had truly earned those moments to be with her, undisturbed.
Since then, I’ve always tried to remember the courage of that butterfly whenever I see huge barriers facing me.
1. Why did the writer change his direction while walking down a path?| A．To reach the pool. | B．To avoid getting his shoes dirty. |
| C．To escape a sudden attack. | D．To get close to a butterfly. |
| A．Not to get hurt. | B．Not knowing what to do. |
| C．Being attacked by a butterfly. | D．Stepping on a butterfly. |
| A．Horrible. | B．Amusing. | C．Aggressive. | D．Courageous. |
| A．what he should do when faced with trouble |
| B．people should show sympathy to the weak |
| C．how he should perform to protect his male |
| D．whether people should protect butterflies |
3 . Years ago, I decided to take the adventure and start working from home. I became a stay-at-home mom with two young boys. I felt lost after leaving the working world so I wanted something new to focus on.
But only weeks into my new adventure, I was trapped in the comparison game. I constantly compared my progress with that of others on my team. It seemed that this business was coming easily to everyone but me.
Then the leader of my team came to me. He gave me some advice and encouraged me to keep my blinders (马眼罩) on.
From this experience, I’ve learned that comparing myself to others truly gets me nowhere. It not only prevents my ambition, but also overshadows my successes. Whether in business or parenting, there will always be someone performing better than me.
| A．It turned out that it benefited me a lot. |
| B．But what was I going to do with the blinders? |
| C．I didn’t let others’ accomplishments lessen my own. |
| D．The weight of comparison made me close to quitting. |
| E．Do you know that horses wear blinders as they pull carriages? |
| F．And what I should hold to is that I’m not running in their race. |
| G．Preferably, it was something that had nothing to do with childcare. |
4 . Jo Land was surprised when she realized how much her youngest son’s school uniform cost. “A jumper was￡25. A polo shirt was￡15,” she says. “If it was this expensive for us, how on earth must families with three or four children manage?”
In December 2021, Land put a box outside her house, with a sign reading, “School uniform drop-off”. She set up a Facebook group and asked people to drop good-quality used uniforms into the box. The operation started to grow almost immediately. “Some weeks I give out up to 48 uniforms,“ she says. People drive up and drop the clothing: she sorts through it, keeps it in her “stock room” and posts details about donations on the Facebook group. The first parent to message her gets the items for nothing. Land puts the items in a named bag and then returns it to the box. Recipients (接受者) can come and collect at their leisure.
“Being able to access good-quality preloved school uniforms has been a lifeline,“ says Kristina, a mother of two. ”It’s just amazing.“
“Every child going to school deserves to feel smart and proud,” Land says. “We don’t want children to go to school feeling negative, because that affects their learning. Land has noticed that people rarely take without also giving. Sometimes people leave flowers on the box, or they drop off some outgrown clothes too.
Right now, Land is thinking about all the people in her community who will struggle this winter and she gets so many messages from people who are absolutely desperate, because they cannot afford uniforms for their children. Her determination to ensure children can access the uniforms they deserve grows ever stronger.
1. What inspired Land to set up the free uniform exchange?| A．Her personal experience. |
| B．The appeals on Facebook. |
| C．Poor families’ complaints. |
| D．Her youngest son’s request. |
| A．How the school uniforms are selected. |
| B．The importance of the Facebook group. |
| C．The popularity of the exchange project. |
| D．How the school uniform exchange works. |
| A．School learning is associated with fashion. |
| B．Recipients are required to give by the project. |
| C．Many people in Land’s community need uniforms. |
| D．Land is motivated to design new uniforms for children. |
| A．Brave and grateful. |
| B．Honest and energetic. |
| C．Kind-hearted and creative. |
| D．Ambitious and humorous. |
5 . When 45-year-old Randy Pausch was diagnosed with pancreatic(胰腺) cancer, he chose to focus on living rather than dying. As a computer science professor at Carnegie Mellon University, Pausch was asked to deliver a “last lecture”. This well-known campus tradition allowed professors to share worldly wisdom with students as if they were dying and had one last lecture to give.
The only difference in Pausch’s case is that Pausch really was dying, but it only motivated him more. He delivered his last lecture, “Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams” on Sept. 18, 2007.
Pausch began by sharing several of his boyhood dreams, some of which he had achieved and the others he hadn’t. He described the importance of having dreams and how anyone can still learn a lot by reaching for those dreams, even if they don’t always succeed. He shared the values(价值观) learned through experience, which he hoped to pass on to others hard work, laughter and gratitude, honesty, character.
Pausch’s last lecture received a great deal of praise and attention. It became a crazy YouTube hit, and in October 2007, he presented an abridged (删节的) version on “The Oprah Winfrey Show”. He turned the lecture into a book by the same name, which quickly became a best-seller. Readers were deeply moved by the book’s representation of Pausch’s lifelong philosophy and the way it revealed the biggest source of his motivation—his three young children.
Pausch passed away on July 25, 2008, but his voice lives on in the recorded lecture and his book. He continues to motivate us all by encouraging us to never give up our childhood dreams—a source of inspiration that can never run dry.
1. Why was Pausch asked to give his “last lecture”?| A．To teach the students. | B．To make him have a better life. |
| C．To cure his cancer. | D．To achieve his dream. |
| A．His private life in boyhood. | B．Having dreams and good values. |
| C．The reason for his success. | D．The experience learned from others. |
| A．His dreams. | B．His children. | C．His work. | D．His students. |
| A．keep on dreaming | B．know the meaning of life |
| C．enjoy life | D．give the last lecture |
6 . My dad loves his wine. One day while making a sandwich, I noticed the date on one of his wine bottles. I then took it out of the pantry (食品贮藏室) and rushed toward my father.
“Dad, Dad!” I shouted. “This wine is way past its ‘best before’ date.”
“Son, hold on,” he said.
“No, you can’t drink this any more!”
“Wait, let me tell you... ”
“Would you like me to throw it away for you?” I asked.
“Ha, ha, no. Let me explain something,” my father said cheerfully.
“But...” I didn’t want my father getting sick.
“Son. some wines get better over time. The longer you wait to drink it. the better it will be. Although this may seem strange. it is true.”
When I was young, I didn’t have any understanding of what this meant. But now, looking back, this would have been very helpful to remember as I went through my teenager years.
We are all so keen to reach the next step quickly that we will do anything to get there. This has a negative effect on our society. In a job situation, we want promotion so much that we will step on others. When trying to go to the right college, we will do anything to get in. When we rush through our homework, we may not study enough for the test, and end up failing. All these common situations have one thing in common: they could all be solved if we just took our time.
When we don’t fully prepare ourselves for the next level, we become a society of people who aren’t ready, but want the rewards of reaching the next level. This cheats others who have prepared and deserve the job. We need to be ready for whatever comes, ready for the unexpected. Just as wine gets better over time, so will the things in our paths.
1. How did the father react to the out-of-date wine?| A．He insisted on keeping it. | B．He drank it up immediately. |
| C．He checked if it was drinkable. | D．He asked his son to throw it away. |
| A．Graduating from college ahead of time. |
| B．Getting the best job as quickly as possible. |
| C．Preparing ourselves for a promotion patiently. |
| D．Doing schoolwork despite missing the deadline. |
| A．Good things come to those who wait. | B．Positive thinking results in success. |
| C．He who laughs last, laughs best. | D．Time and tide wait for no man. |
7 . Once there was a man traveling in a faraway village. As he was passing the elephants, he stopped at once. He found that these huge elephants were being held by only a small rope tied to their front legs. No chains, no cages. It was clear that the elephants could, at any time, break away from their ropes but for some reason, they did not.
He saw a trainer nearby and asked why these animals just stood there and didn’t try to get away. “Well,” the trainer said, “when they were very young and much smaller, we used the same size rope to tie them and, at that age, it was enough to hold them. As they grow up, they still believe they cannot break away. They believe the rope can hold them, so they never try to break free.”
How could it be? These animals could at any time break free from their ropes. But because they were always stuck right where they were, they believed they couldn’t.
Just like the elephants, how many of us go through life believing that we cannot do something, just because we failed in it once before?
| A．a small rope | B．a big chain | C．a long line | D．a piece of cloth |
| A．excited | B．surprised | C．angry | D．nervous |
| A．they liked their living places | B．they were too old to do it |
| C．they thought they could not | D．they got on well with the trainer |
| A．Failure is part of learning | B．We should be different from others |
| C．Helping animals is helping ourselves | D．Traveling always makes people relaxed |
| A．A Pleasant Trip | B．A Bad Trainer |
| C．Elephant Training | D．The Elephant Rope |
8 . Do you know the following expressions?
Homeric laughter
The “Homer” in this expression is the Greek poet who wrote The Iliad and the Odyssey. People laugh differently. Some laugh silently, while others tend to laugh loudly. “Homeric laughter” refers to laughter of the latter (后者) kind. It is at times uncontrollable, and the entire body shakes during the process. This kind of laughter is called Homeric laughter because this is how the gods laughed in Homer’s classics.
Faustian bargain
According to most stories, Faust was a German scholar who was rather unhappy with his life. The devil(魔鬼), Mephistopheles, promises him that in exchange for his soul, he will give Faust unlimited power and knowledge. Faust agrees and experiences all kinds of pleasures, but, in the end, his soul is condemned to the hell (下地狱). A “Faustian bargain” therefore is a deal that finally results in one’s ruin. It means a bargain made for temporary gain without taking future consequences into consideration.
A three-ring circus (马戏团)
When you refer to a situation as being a three-ring circus, you are saying that it is a situation of complete confusion. There are so many activities taking place all together that they leave you confused or annoyed. The expression comes from the world of entertainment — the circus. The area where the artists perform their acts is called the “ring”. In the past, some of the circuses were so grand that they had three acts taking place simultaneously in three different “rings”. The audience had to decide which “ring” they wanted to focus on.
In the swim (of things)
When someone is in the swim of things, the individual is actively participating in the things happening around him, as in “I’ve been ill, but soon I’ll be back in the swim of things.” In the world of fishing, fishermen use the word “swim” to refer to the section of the lake/river where fish can be found in plenty. So, if you are a fisherman and wish to catch a lot of fish, where would you be? You would be “in the swim”!
1. According to the text, Homeric laughter ________.| A．was the way Homer laughed |
| B．means nervous, silent laughter |
| C．is a way to show disagreement |
| D．comes from a Greek poet’s works |
| A．he might come to a bad end |
| B．he would be considered clever |
| C．his life would become satisfying |
| D．he would gain power and knowledge |
| A．It means having a lot of things to do. |
| B．It has nothing to do with swimming. |
| C．Originally it was used to refer to “going fishing”. |
| D．Patients use it to express their desire for health. |
9 . “Why do you have 9,632 emails in your inbox (收件箱)?”
I looked at my husband,“Um...is that a lot? How many are in your inbox?”
“About twenty,” he replied. I looked at my inbox. There were emails I had meant to deal with; emails from customers and the kids’ schools with information I needed; there were time-sensitive offers I’d never got around to investigating; endless updates from the social media platforms I subscribed to, and the rest I had kept just in case.
I realized that I had become an email hoarder (囤积者). I clearly had a problem and I needed to act. I paused my work and began to delete unwanted emails. An hour later I made little progress.
“Just delete the whole lot,” my husband strongly suggested.
Could I do that? It was appealing. But I paused. I couldn’t. I did have a problem! Then I decided to compromise. I kept the last month’s emails and deleted everything else. I looked at my almost empty inbox. Wow, it felt so good.
To be honest, I feel genuine anxiety about deleting emails, FOMO (错失恐惧症) is a real problem for many people like me with email issues. So many emails are “offers”. What if that amazing offer never comes up again? But the fact is that they do...frequently. What’s more,these great offers are often time-sensitive and so we hang on to them “just in case”, then miss the deadline anyway and still don’t delete them.
I found it useful to limit my emails to 50 and I use an email system which ensures all school emails go into a separate inbox, so I can see at a glance when “Dress like a Roman” day or “Bring an onion to school” day (yes really) is coming up! I feel more in control and organized now. I’m on top of my inbox. Now I’m off to handle the cupboard under the stairs!
1. What was the author’s immediate reaction to her husband’s suggestion??| A．She approved of it. | B．She felt annoyed at it. |
| C．She hesitated about it. | D．She was astonished at it. |
| A．The deadline that she forgot to meet. |
| B．The fact that she liked keeping emails. |
| C．The offer that she might never give. |
| D．The fear that she would miss out something. |
| A．Adopt an email system to classify all emails. |
| B．Separate unwanted emails into a new inbox. |
| C．Reply to school emails as soon as possible. |
| D．Set a restriction to the number of emails. |
| A．How the author became an email hoarder. |
| B．How the author takes her inbox in hand. |
| C．Why FOMO is a real problem. |
| D．Why emails turned out to be a headache. |
10 . Whenever I ask to go to the movies, my mom’s first response is always “No!” When I want to go dancing, she adds a firm “No! No! No!” for emphasis. She claims she is only trying to protect me from what she calls “bad elements”.
On a sunny day, Mom rejected my request to go to West Indian Day Parade and insisted I accompany her as she worked cleaning a large house. I followed her to a grand dining room, watching her apply lemon-scented polish to the furniture. I imagined my friends dressing up in fancy costumes, enjoying the celebratory time at the parade. I glared at my mother, hoping she could feel the anger I was directing her way.
But as I watched, my emotions began to change. I noticed how tenderly she rubbed her dusting cloth along a large piano in the corner. “Is this like your piano in Guyana, Mom?” I asked. “Yes. This baby grand piano is exactly like the one my Dad bought me when I was your age.” Her sigh was full of longing.
I knew that my mother had been a talented pianist. I vaguely recalled dancing under the piano when she practiced for hours every day. Now she could barely play for our church choir because her fingers were gnarled from so many days spent cleaning other people’s homes.
“Stop!” Mrs. Smithers, the homeowner, yelled, “That’s a very valuable instrument!”
“I am well aware of that.” she said slowly, “I play for my church.”
“But that’s not a church-music piano. We play classical music on that piano.”
I watched as my mother’s eyes narrowed and her face tightened. I felt the same tightening in my chest.
“You don’t know anything about us … or pianos!” I screamed. Immediately I worried I had done something wrong, but I also felt the tightening in my chest loosened.
I waited for my mother to blame me, but instead she glanced my way, smiling proudly. “That’s all I have time for today. My daughter and I are going to the parade. Come on, love.”
“But Veronica, you will return next week, right?”
“No!” said my mother, “No! No! No!”
1. The underlined word “gnarled” in paragraph 4 probably means ______.| A．rough and twisted | B．clean and swift |
| C．painful but sensitive | D．bent but flexible |
| A．She regretted being a cleaning woman. |
| B．She quit her hobby to support the family. |
| C．She refused the daughter’s request due to the tight budget. |
| D．She wished her daughter to become a well-respected pianist. |
| A．From critical to ashamed. | B．From fearful to respectful. |
| C．From pitiful to understanding. | D．From angry to sympathetic. |
| A．Don’t look down upon those inferior to you. |
| B．Reaching out for those in trouble can be rewarding. |
| C．Understanding others’ experiences helps identify with them. |
| D．Don’t abandon your idea even if one shows strong disagreement. |
