1 . If I have a goal in life, it isn’t to be driving a Rolls-Royce. It’s to be giving away more than $1,000,000 a year and having an impact on people’s lives. I have the success today because I always had to work for what I wanted. I grew up accustomed to risks and disappointments, so I was used to moving forward, no matter what.
In 2008, I went to Los Angeles where I tried to get hired as an agent, an analyst and a financial broker. Unfortunately, all these doors slammed in my face. The world’s economy was in a bad state, so I knew I would have to do a little spinning of my own.
Youth involves a certain innocence but also perseverance. The word “can’t” wasn’t in my vocabulary. I partnered with a friend buying distressed multifamily properties around Houston. Even though we were enthusiastic and backed with start-up sums, I didn’t make a deal work. My friend moved on to other projects. Alone, I put all my money into the next real-estate project. I put the time in, I dreamed it, but once again the deal fell through. Two months later, though, the deal came back around. That was when the path opened, luck changed, and I was ready to form my own company. I haven’t looked back. Only ahead.
I’m now able to give back to communities and causes. I donate about $500,000 a year, much of that going to research to cure rare diseases. We also support a lot of services for disadvantaged children in Houston and other places.
I have always been someone who can see the big picture and have never been distracted by things that get in the way. There are lessons to be learned, and the biggest of those is to keep going. You may have to change the path, but always keep that vision in front of you.
1. Which of the following about the author is true?| A．He donated a lot of money to improve his company’s image. |
| B．He often encountered difficulties in the process of growing up. |
| C．He started his own company together with a friend. |
| D．He changed jobs several times while in Los Angeles. |
| A．look for a part-time job independently | B．make his contributions to the economy |
| C．give in to the disappointing reality | D．be self-employed to develop his career |
| A．Perseverance. | B．Optimism. | C．Innocence. | D．Kindness. |
| A．Saying No to “Turning Back” | B．Tips for a Successful Business |
| C．Jumping over Economic Downturns | D．A Life-time Pursuit of Dream |
2 . The day I met Hani Irmawati, she was a shy, 17-year-old girl standing alone in the parking lot of the international school in Indonesia, where I teach English. She asked if I could help her improve her English. I could tell it took immense (巨大的) courage for the young Indonesian girl to approach me and ask for help.
“I want to go to a US university,” she said with confidence. I was surprised.
I agreed to work with her on a volunteer basis. For several months, Hani woke each morning at five and caught the city bus to her public high school. During the ride, she studied for her regular classes and the English assignments I had given her. At four o’clock in the afternoon, she arrived at my classroom, exhausted but ready to work.
Hani lived in a two-room house with her parents and two brothers. When I met them at their house, I realized they would never be able to afford the expenses of a US university. Hani’s enthusiasm was increasing with her language ability, but I was becoming more and more discouraged.
One day I received the announcement of a scholarship opportunity for a major US university. After reading the requirements, I knew Hani couldn’t meet the qualifications. I told her that there was only a slim chance of her getting the scholarship and encouraged her to be more “realistic” about her dream. But she remained determined.
“Will you send in my name?” she asked.
I couldn’t turn her down. I completed the application, with the painful truth about her academic life, but also with my praise of her courage and perseverance.
In the weeks that followed, I arranged for her to take the Test of English Fluency in Jakarta. The entire test would be an enormous challenge for someone who had never touched a computer before. For two weeks, we studied how a computer works. Then, just before Hani went to Jakarta, she received a letter from the scholarship association. She had been accepted.
I leaped around the room, overjoyed and shocked. Hani stood by, smiling. I realized that it was I who had learned something Hani had known from the beginning: It is not intelligence alone that brings success, but also the drive to succeed, the commitment to work hard and the courage to believe in yourself.
1. What did the author think of Hani when he first met her?| A．She’s intelligent. |
| B．She’s unrealistic. |
| C．She’s courageous. |
| D．She’s diligent. |
| A．Hani’s slow improvement in English. |
| B．Hani’s family’s financial situation. |
| C．Hani’s choice of universities. |
| D．Hani’s overconfidence in her ability. |
| A．The author encouraged her to apply. |
| B．The author spoke highly of her academic performance. |
| C．She insisted on having a try despite her disadvantages. |
| D．She stood out because of her computer skills. |
| A．English opens doors to new opportunities. |
| B．It is important to dream big and aim high. |
| C．Confidence and determination are the key to success. |
| D．A supportive teacher means a lot to students. |
3 . Before the break of dawn, Simon was already standing on the shore watching the sea intensely for any signs of a coming storm. Despite learning from the weather forecast the likelihood of a violent storm, he didn’t change his mind about starting his weekly fishing trip. After checking for the third time that he had brought with him what he needed, Simon got onto his boat and sailed into the vast blue sea. Before long, he was anchoring(固定)his boat in the middle of the sea. Satisfied with the spot, he cast his net, hoping for a good catch.
Simon then relaxed on the deck and watched the sun rising slowly above the horizon. “One can never trust the weather station,” he said, but he had said it too soon. At that moment, there was a sudden strike of lightning, followed by a shout of thunder. The entire sky was suddenly filled with dark clouds. Wave after wave rolled up, hitting his boat and sending it rocking violently sideways. A sense of hopelessness drowned him but when images of his family flashed across his mind, he knew what he had to do. In double-quick time, he cut off the fishing lines and dumped his fishing equipment into the sea. Eventually, the storm eased and the waves died down.
To make matters worse, the boat engine died. As he was many kilometres offshore, the only likely rescue was to be spotted by a boat. But who would be out at sea in such horrible weather except him? That made Simon regret his earlier decision again.
Exhausted, Simon soon drifted off to sleep. When he awoke, the sun had already risen. Simon had lost track of time and location. Sighing, he stood on the deck, staring out hopefully. Then he spotted it. He dived into the water and swam towards the island a few metres ahead of him. When Simon reached land, he was too weak to stand on his legs. Fortunately, a kind-hearted man helped him up and contacted his family. Though Simon emerged from the nightmare unhurt, the fateful day remained forever in his mind. Neglecting the weather forecast, he paid a heavy price. He then learnt that everyone should respect science and be more mindful of his decision.
1. Which of the following statements is TRUE according to the passage?| A．Not informed of the weather forecast, Simon went fishing as planned. |
| B．Simon lost his fishing equipment because it was blown off by the wind. |
| C．Love for his family made him take action trying to save himself. |
| D．Though he was finally saved, he was hurt badly. |
| A．Another boat ready to drag his boat. | B．A rescue team sent by his family. |
| C．A new boat engine to be equipped on his boat. | D．An island not far from his boat. |
| A．He was too confident of his ability to deal with the rescue team. |
| B．He ignored storm forecast and went fishing anyway. |
| C．His fishing equipment was too heavy for his boat. |
| D．He positioned his boat in a wrong location in the sea. |
| A．A smooth fishing trip a fisherman used to have. |
| B．A terrible accident a fisherman experienced and how he survived. |
| C．The hardships a man has to handle when going fishing. |
| D．Ways to seek help in dangerous situations in life. |
4 . When I was growing up, my family kept chickens. We always had about a dozen of them at any given time and whenever one died off—taken away by hawk or fox or by some obscure chicken illness—my father would replace the lost hen.
He’d drive to a nearby poultry farm and return with a new chicken in a sack. The thing is, you must be very careful when introducing a new chicken to the general flock. You can’t just toss it in there with the old chickens, or they will see it as an invader. What you must do instead is to slip the new bird into the chicken coop in the middle of the night while the others are asleep. Place her on a roost beside the flock and tiptoe away. In the morning, when the chickens wake up, they don’t notice the newcomer, thinking only, “She must have been here all the time since I didn’t see her arrive.” The clincher of it is, awaking within this flock, the newcomer herself doesn’t even remember that she’s a newcomer, thinking only, “I must have been here the whole time...”
My arrival in India does likewise.
My plane lands in Mumbai around 1:30 AM. It is December 30. I find my luggage, then find the taxi that will take me hours and hours out of the city to the Ashram, located in a remote rural village. I doze on the drive through nighttime India, sometimes waking to look out the window, where I can see strange haunted shapes of thin women in saris walking alongside the road with bundles of firewood on their heads. At this hour? Buses with no headlights pass us, and we pass oxcarts. The banyan trees spread their elegant roots throughout the ditches.
1. What’s the function of the first paragraph?| A．To tell readers her family background. | B．To work up reader’s appetite for the text |
| C．To introduce the following paragraphs | D．To make a summary of her childhood. |
| A．8:00PM. | B．1:00AM. | C．7:00A.M. | D．3:00P.M. |
| A．shelter | B．group | C．farm | D．chicken |
| A．The writer takes a nap in the taxi. | B．The writer knows how to raise chickens. |
| C．Indian women work on their own. | D．Daily life in India surprises the writer. |
5 . A twenty-three-year-old Dutch student has enjoyed a short but unexpected holiday in Dubai. Mr Frank Vreede, a business student, had taken a part-time job at Schiphol Airport to help pay for his studies. He worked as a baggage handler and was responsible for loading the suitcases into the hold of passenger planes.
Last Friday night, after an exhausting day in the university library preparing for his final exams, Frank was loading a plane at the airport. He was waiting for the next baggage truck to arrive and he felt tired. He decided to have a quick rest, so he sat down in the hold of the plane and shut his eyes—just for a moment.
However, while he was sleeping, the plane took off. An hour later, Frank woke up and was frightened to discover that the plane was in the air. There was a terrible noise from the engines, and he tried not to be afraid. Frank knew the flight would be long because it was an airline from the Middle East. He also knew he could not survive the freezing temperature. It was an impossible situation.
He decided to make as much noise as possible. He banged on the ceiling of the baggage hold and shouted at the top of his voice. Luckily, a passenger heard the noise and told the pilot. Once the captain understood what was happening, he ordered hot air to be pumped into the hold.
When the plane arrived at Dubai International Airport, doctors examined him but he was unhurt. The managing director of one of Dubai’s top hotels offered him a free room for the weekend.
Frank explained that he was very lucky because it is possible to die of cold in the hold of an aircraft. He apologized to his boss for sleeping at work instead of working, and promised it would not happen again. “During the flight I was petrified. I thought I was going to die!” said Mr Vreede. “I wouldn’t want to do it again. Next time, I’ll catch a regular flight!”
1. Which of the following statements is the explanation of “It was an impossible situation” (in paragraph 3)?| A．The long flight might not end as scheduled. |
| B．It was too cold to survive in the hold of the plane. |
| C．Frank was too tired to let others know what happened. |
| D．The noise would keep Frank awake during the journey. |
| A．He was found seriously hurt. |
| B．He was sent back home immediately. |
| C．He stayed in a hotel for the weekend. |
| D．He apologized to his manager for his mistake. |
| A．shocked | B．bored | C．worried | D．terrified |
| A．A Free Flight to Dubai |
| B．A Short but Pleasant Journey to Dubai |
| C．A Successful Flight |
| D．A Smart but Unlucky Baggage Handler |
6 . Smith had to drive across the Sahara Desert. It was a journey across hundreds of miles of empty desert.
After he had been driving for a few hours, there was a sandstorm. His car left the road and then broke down.
Smith began walking north across the hot sand under the scorching sun. He hoped he would soon reach the road again. Soon, his tongue was thick with thirst. He needed water, but everywhere he looked there was nothing except sand.
Smith kept walking. Then, about an hour later, a man riding a camel came into sight. Smith waved to him. The man on the camel rode up to him and stopped. “Please,” Smith said, “I am dying of thirst. Let me have some of your water.” The man slowly shook his head. “You can’t have any water,” he said, “but I’ll sell you a necktie.” “I don’t want a necktie,” Smith shouted at him furiously. “I need water.” But the man turned away quickly and rode off.
Smith continued walking. Two hours later, he met another man riding a camel. This time he asked if he could buy some water, but the man refused, saying, “No, but I’II sell you a necktie.” Angrily, Smith turned away from him and continued walking.
Three hours later, by which time he was near death, Smith saw a large luxury hotel in the distance. It stood alone in the middle of the desert, surrounded by palm trees.
Smith managed to reach the main entrance. He was about to enter the hotel when the doorman stopped him. “Hey!” he said. “This is a first-class hotel. You can’t come in here without a necktie.”
1. What happened to Smith at the very beginning of the sandstorm?| A．He became thirsty. | B．He saw two men riding a camel. |
| C．He lost his necktie. | D．There was something wrong with his car. |
| A．slowly. | B．politely. |
| C．angrily. | D．painfully. |
| A．He was thirsty. | B．He was not properly dressed. |
| C．He had no money. | D．He was very sick and near death. |
| A．We’d better not go to the Sahara Desert. |
| B．Your car should be maintained before a journey. |
| C．It’s a good idea to buy neckties during the journey. |
| D．When looking backwards, you can connect many events. |
7 . People always regret asking me and my wife how we got together. It's a long story, involving other relationships and several countries, and to be honest, it's not that interesting, so I'll spare you the details. We were at a restaurant in Tuscany on our summer holiday last year though, when we met another English couple who had a far more interesting story than us. Lynn and Andy had actually met online before they got together, or at least they thought they had. After a few casual conversations through an online dating agency, they decided to meet for real. Lynn arrived at the restaurant first, and shortly after was approached by Andy, who thought she was someone else. It turns out they'd both arranged to meet different people, but liked the look of each other, and that was that!
And they're not alone. It seems there are all sorts of places you might meet that special someone. Lukas met Sofia for the first time when he crashed into her car — on his bicycle. It was raining and I was coming downhill really fast, so I couldn't really see where I was going. Sofia opened her car door and I went straight into it, and off my bike,explains Lukas. I was unconscious for a few seconds, and when I came round there was this beautiful young woman asking me "Are you OK?" Well, after that, she went to the hospital with me and was just really kind, really caring, and we hit it off. ”
Every cloud has a silver lining, so they say, and Nick McKiddie would most likely agree. He was leaving the office late one night when he got robbed by a group of young men. He wasn't hurt, but they stole his phone and wallet, so he called the police. Susan Harris, a young police officer at the time, attended the call. Nick explains, I don't know whether I was in shock because of what had happened, but I think it was love at first sight. I would never usually be so confident, but I just asked if she wanted to go for a drink sometime, and to my surprise, she said yes! Nick and Susan got married last December.
Animals don't have the same social inhibitions (抑制；顾虑) as humans do, and this was certainly the case when Ri took her dog, Ben, to the local dog park. “As soon as I took his head off, he ran straight to another dog on the other side of the park, and started getting very friendly indeed,” she laughs. “I actually had to pull him away, and that was when I met Ben, the other dog's owner. We had a good laugh about it all, especially when we realised he had the same name as my dog. We became friends after that, and well, the rest is history.”
1. According to the passage, Lynn and Andy .| A．first met in a restaurant in Tuscany |
| B．regretted talking to each other online. |
| C．were arranged to see other people at first. |
| D．preferred casual conversations to real meeting |
| A．The author and his wife | B．Lukas and Sofia |
| C．Nick and Susan | D．Ri and Ben |
| A．every day is good beginning |
| B．good luck comes with misfortunes |
| C．what you value matters in your life |
| D．people do not always behave as usual |
| A．The methods of joining animals and us. |
| B．The places where people get together. |
| C．The weird ways people meet. |
| D．The special cases of dating. |
8 . 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. |
