1 . Winter in Syria can be cold. With over 11 million people made homeless since the beginning of the war in 2011, many people are without enough heating or shelter during the cold winter months. A group of MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) students has set out to change that.
The team of six, led by MIT Sloan School of Management undergraduate Vick Liu, created TravlerPack, a light sleeping bag that can stand up to temperatures as cold as -10℃, with the goal of sending the bags to Syrian refugees (难民).
During a freshman exercise last year, Liu was among a group of students discussing startup ideas when he realized he was interested in creating something that would help people. He wrote the idea for TravlerPack on a piece of paper and put it in his pocket so he wouldn’t forget it.
With fuel (燃料) and shelter hard to come by, refugees have few ways to keep warm during the Syrian winters. But a sleeping bag doesn’t require fuel. “It’s a simple solution to a big problem,” said Liu.
Liu and his team spoke directly with refugees to find out what additions to the bag they might need. They found that refugees had no way to store valuables, especially at night, so each TravlerPack contains one outside storage pocket and five inside storage pockets. When not being used, TravlerPack can be pressed down into a small bag, which can be worn as a backpack, allowing refugees to keep both hands free.
After reaching out to around 80 producers, the team officially partnered with one in April to make the sleeping bags.
The team reached out to many non-profits (非盈利性机构) and, luckily, NuDay Syria, a non-profit with experience of sending goods to Syrian refugees, signed on to send the packs to Northwestern Syria.
In September, the group started a GoFundMe movement to raise $15,000 to send TravlerPacks to Syrian refugees, and quickly reached their goal. Now the team is raising more money to send 1,000 bags overseas.
“We’ve been really lucky the whole way through,” Liu said. “This has been a journey of luck and a lot of planning.”
1. Why did Vick Liu create TravlerPack?| A．To sell sleeping bags to travelers. |
| B．To solve a big problem at his school. |
| C．To meet the needs of Syrian refugees. |
| D．To complete a task given by his team. |
| A．To check if they were receiving TravlerPacks. |
| B．To see how many sleeping bags they needed. |
| C．To try their best to improve TravlerPacks. |
| D．To deal with their money problems. |
| A．They have received great support. |
| B．They will put TravlerPacks to the test soon |
| C．They plan to advertise TravlerPacks worldwide |
| D．They found it easy to send sleeping bags to refugees. |
| A．Kind and strict. |
| B．Intelligent and sensitive. |
| C．Creative and thoughtful. |
| D．Humorous and talkative. |
2 . 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. |
3 . 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 |
4 . 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. |
5 . Najib is an Afghan who grew up in Iran. He led a tough life. When he found his children would be in the same situation, his family initially returned to Afghanistan. But with the country filled with conflicts, they decided to leave for Indonesia.
“When we first came here, we were in a bad situation. Its language, culture and even weather were different. We had moved away from friends and family,” says Najib. “I was in a tough position but I acted strong because there were no other choices.”
Refugees (难民) cannot work in Indonesia and there are limited choices for refugee children to attend local schools. Determined to avoid such a fate, a group of refugees in Puncak took action and scraped together (东拼西凑) their resources to set up a school—the Refugee Learning Center (RLC).
“Our only goal and task is to provide basic education, and prepare the refugee children for their future,” says Abdullah Sarwari. “We’re also trying to provide a normal life as much as possible for them.”
The RLC has also started offering Bahasa Indonesia classes to the refugee community. “Between the refugee and the local community, I feel like there’s a language barrier which stops the refugee from having an honest and open interaction with Indonesians,” says Abdullah.
“If you try your best, to learn the language of a particular place or country, it really helps make things easier,” says Najib. He is among those who signed up for classes, although he admits progress has been slow. But life has improved in some ways for him and his family.
Najib says, “The centre is an opportunity for refugee to show that they are not a burden. If they have the opportunity, they can accomplish big and great things like this.”
1. Why did Najib decide to leave for Indonesia?| A．To escape the conflict in Afghanistan. |
| B．To experience Indonesian culture. |
| C．To help refugees in Indonesia. |
| D．To get equal rights to vote. |
| A．To help them learn English. |
| B．To make them stay away from bad luck. |
| C．To provide them with chances to live in Indonesia. |
| D．To make them have access to receiving basic education. |
| A．He is the leader of refugees. |
| B．He founded the RLC himself. |
| C．He studies Indonesian in the RLC. |
| D．He lives a wealthy life in Indonesia. |
| A．The Goal of Founding a School |
| B．A School for Refugees by Refugees |
| C．A Reason for Leaving for Indonesia |
| D．The Benefit of Learning a New Language |
6 . I wanted a change of pace, a break from routine. The past few years found me working long hours at my marketing job while my husband, Steven, put in equally full days as a physics tutor. We were both burned out from the constant boredom.
Vacation experiences at first glance seem a little difficult for us. How do you find comfort in an ever-changing environment? And I, someone who enjoys more planned fun, had to adapt.
But I was surprised at how easily I was able to adapt to a new mode of operation, a more relaxed version of myself who wasn’t worried where we’d park and sleep each night. The fact that we both became so accustomed to sleeping in the back of a cargo van is another surprise we experienced on this journey. The van was our main transportation and, with a full-size bed in the back, it also provided us with a bit of comfort that made us continue. At first, every sound outside was foreign, and we both took longer to fall-and stay-asleep. But, after a couple of weeks into van life, we let the sounds fade into soft background music.
Over the course of our seven- month trip, one of our big goals was to come away from each park with one spectacular image. That shared goal placed us on the same team: It brought us together, even more than before, gave us more to talk about, and encouraged us to motivate each other along the way.
By this point, you’re probably wondering how we paid for all of this, or maybe you’re assuming we come from wealthy backgrounds. The truth is, we actually managed this entire adventure on a middle-class budget. Steven did part-time remote work about 10 hours per week for his employer from the road. I ended up finding some temporary jobs through the trip. We also continued our photography business, setting up an online shop to sell our landscapes.
We only visited some parks in the 48 states. And the experience would still be worth every penny. It is really a chance to lose and find ourselves in our nation’s park lands.
1. Why did the author want to change?| A．Because she wanted a rest from daily routine. |
| B．Because she was interested in travelling. |
| C．Because she fell ill with long working hours. |
| D．Because she didn't like her marketing job. |
| A．Exciting. | B．Helpful. |
| C．Doubtful. | D．Boring. |
| A．The couple visited 48 states during the trip. |
| B．The couple tried different jobs to maintain their trip. |
| C．The husband worked harder than the wife. |
| D．The couple came from a middle-class family. |
| A．Introducing a couple’s daily life. |
| B．Sharing a couple’s travel experience. |
| C．Showing the importance of traveling. |
| D．Advising some travel plans to readers. |
7 . The Faroe Islands, located between Norway and Iceland, is a country made up of 18 tiny islands. It doesn’t even appear on some world maps. But now its roads are on Google Street View, part of Google Maps.
When the islands’ tourism board decided that it wanted to get the company’s attention, it knew it would need an unusual plan. It also knew that its rough land would not be easily travelled by those cars Google used to take photos. So it put solar-powered, 360-degree cameras onto the backs of a few Faroese sheep and began sending very breathtaking images to Street View itself.
Durita Dahl Andreassen worked for the tourism board. “My crazy idea was to use sheep as my very own camera operators,” she said. The board called Andreassen’s plan “Sheepview 360”.
Sheep are a big deal in the Faroe Islands. And although all the sheep are owned, they walk freely - usually. “It’s not very easy putting cameras on sheep,” Levi Hanssen, the manager for visitfaroeislands.com, said. “We would just stand there, and they would stand there and look at us. You have to, in some way, get them to move.”
The sheep did move after a while. Hanssen put videos and maps on the website. It didn’t take long for the story to make its way to Google. In 2017, the company visited the islands and lent out some 360-degree cameras for human use. Locals and tourists attached the cameras to sheep, bikes, backpacks and ships.
“We, obviously, couldn’t map the whole country with sheep,” Hanssen said. Street View now shows the Faroe Islands. Most images ended up being shot by humans, and they included all public roads. But Hanssen said the tourism board decided to leave some spots out to preserve a bit of the islands’ mystery.
Sheepview was charming, and it had a value we could never have bought ourselves. Hotel reservation rates are up at least 10 percent this year. Visitors tend to be outdoorsy types, but the islands are also increasingly attracting food lovers who come for really good, locally sourced food.
As for the sheep that made Street View happen? They retired from filming, Hanssen said. He wasn’t sure, however, whether any ended up as someone’s dinner. “Their job,” he said, “was done.”
1. What is the purpose of Sheepview 360?| A．To guide foreign tourists. |
| B．To attract Google’s attention. |
| C．To promote the life in the Faroe Islands. |
| D．To raise awareness about sheep protection. |
| A．The land in the islands was rough. |
| B．There were few sheep in the islands. |
| C．Cars were not allowed in small islands. |
| D．Sheep with cameras on them tended not to move. |
| A．It was fairly effective. |
| B．It benefited the Faroese sheep. |
| C．It was mostly completed by the sheep. |
| D．It covered the whole area of the Faroe Islands. |
| A．How sheep got the Faroe Islands onto Google Street View. |
| B．How Google Street View mapped some small islands. |
| C．Google helped the Faroe Islands solve a mystery. |
| D．Sheep with cameras drew global attention. |
8 . When Liberia was my home, they called it sweet. Sweet was the word I remembered the most during the war. When I was five, my father, two sisters and I fled from Monrovia, the capital city of Liberia, and headed north on foot among panicked masses of criers - a journey that ended in a village where we hid from flying bullets (子弹). Every dawn, my sisters and I joined my father and covered the pages of his small journal with words. My favorite word to write was “sweet,” one that had the power to numb the reality of our 6-month abandonment by peace and civilization.
Eventually, we were considered the lucky ones: part of the wave of refugees who left Liberia in 1990 to settle in America. My mother studied at Columbia University at the time, and we made our new home in her dormitory while awaiting her graduation. My father who left early in the mornings looked for work or news of a possible return to Liberia, only to return home with nothing to give us but new words to write in notebooks. He quickly found that the education he received in Liberia was not good enough for an engineering job in the United States. So he took whatever job he could find to make sure we always had food on the table - and books.
In 2011, I founded a children’s book publishing company: One Moore Book. It provides children’s literature for the children of countries with low literacy (识字) rates and underrepresented cultures by publishing culturally relevant books that have something meaningful to say to them. My hope is to give children the peace I was given through the words of my father, by allowing them to see themselves in literature. I also think it is important to provide books about foreign countries to children in the United States, to increase the overall awareness of the world outside them.
I will never be able to give my father back the twenty years he spent working to educate us, or the home and life in Liberia he lost. I repay his sacrifice (牺牲) by honoring the education he fought for and offering my art to the world, with stories that make the histories of my people come alive, and with words to live by.
1. What was the author’s family’s life like in Liberia?| A．Sweet and peaceful. |
| B．Frightening but positive. |
| C．Comfortable but boring. |
| D．Adventurous and exciting. |
| A．He was crazy about reading. |
| B．He regretted moving to America. |
| C．He worked hard to raise his family. |
| D．He tried to receive a higher education. |
| A．To meet poor children’s growing demands. |
| B．To provide multicultural books for children. |
| C．To support her father’s books about Liberia. |
| D．To help immigrants understand American culture. |
| A．Her pity for her father’s suffering. |
| B．Her thanks to her father’s devotion. |
| C．Her pride in working for her people. |
| D．Her disappointment over the life in Liberia. |
9 . I have a neighbor who is a capable, fashionable, seventy-year-old, single woman. Her name is Grace. Grace was laid off from her job a little over two years ago and has been living off her savings ever since but not officially “retired”. Grace called me up one day about this time last year and asked if I had a ladder. She needed to clean out her gutters (水槽) on the roof and wanted me to hold the ladder.
She didn’t want me to climb up and clean the gutters. She just wanted me to hold the ladder. As it happened I did have a ladder. I said: “The leaves are going to fall off the trees in a month, why don’t we wait till they finish and do it then?” She agreed and naturally we didn’t talk about it again until spring. Spring in Tennessee is wild and we talked about it over the course of three weeks in which it rained nearly every day, then I got busy and Grace went into seclusion (隐居).
A couple of weeks ago, she told me she’d been spending too much money and decided to apply for a bar tending job at a local hotel. “Now I don’t know about you all but I’d never considered what it would be like to apply for and begin a new job at the age of seventy. I’m fifty-three and the older I get, the more I think about how great it’ll be if I can just get out of bed when I’m seventy.” Anyway, she got the job, serving the bar and tending banquets at the hotel.
The day when she left for her training at 6 am, I walked across the street with my ladder and cleaned out her gutters.
1. When did the author advise Grace to clean her gutters?| A．In early spring. | B．In rainy season. |
| C．In time of leaves falling. | D．In time of few leaves on trees. |
| A．Working at a hotel. | B．Training for her job. |
| C．Cleaning out her house. | D．Walking with the author. |
| A．Valuable. | B．Impossible. |
| C．Reasonable. | D．Unbelievable. |
10 . When Stephen Mills spotted a dusty old safe (保险箱) in a museum in Canada, he thought he’d try to crack the code (破解密码), “just like in the movies”. But when he began turning the dial, he wasn’t expecting a Hollywood ending.
For years, anyone who visited the Vermillion Heritage Museum in Alberta would have passed by a large, black metal box. Staff knew it had come from the long-gone Brunswick hotel and was donated to the museum in the 1990s, but its code and contents remained a mystery for decades — until Mills unexpectedly cracked the code.
Mills, who lived in Fort McMurray, Alberta, was visiting the museum with his family last month over a holiday weekend. As they wandered around the exhibits with the museum guide, Tom Kibblewhite, they spotted the safe.
Kibblewhite told the family what he told all other guests: the 900kg black box with a silver dial had remained closed for generations. For years, the safe has confused volunteers at the museum. The manufacturer was unable to provide advice on how to open its thick door.
A locksmith (锁匠) once suggested that years of inactivity might have slowed down the gears, making it inoperable. But Mills, who is a “mechanically-minded person”, asked whether he could give it a try. “Kibblewhite kept saying no one had opened it and that it was a mystery what was inside,” Mills said. “I thought this would be a great thing to do for a laugh for the kids. Maybe they can find some interesting historical things in it — like a time capsule.”
After pressing his ear against the cool metal, he began spinning the dial. With numbers ranging from zero to 60, he turned clockwise (顺时针方向地) three times to 20, counter-clockwise two times to 40, and then clockwise one time to 60. He was astonished to hear a click. “I jumped up and told everyone I’m buying a lottery ticket (彩票),” he said.
1. What does the underlined sentence in the first paragraph mean?| A．He didn’t think he would open the safe. |
| B．The museum trip was like a Hollywood film. |
| C．He didn’t want to turn the dial in the beginning. |
| D．It was unbelievable for him to win a lottery ticket in the end. |
| A．The dial on the safe was broken. |
| B．It was a donation from a rich businessman. |
| C．It was one of the most valuable exhibits in the museum. |
| D．It has been long closed since it was brought to the museum. |
| A．To tell people how fast time flies. |
| B．To remind visitors of the time limit. |
| C．To indicate the safe’s special meaning. |
| D．To explain the content of the safe. |
| A．Mills won a prize for cracking the code. |
| B．Mills had plenty of luck to break the code. |
| C．Mills knew what the code was in advance. |
| D．Mills tried a dozen times until he cracked the code. |
