1 . The bus screamed to a stop in Nazareth, Israel. Five Australian backpackers boarded and struck up a conversation with me. They asked typical travelers’ questions—where was I going and why was I traveling alone? My plan was to travel with a friend of a friend, I explained, but when I called her that morning, she didn’t pick up and I had no other way to reach her. My stomach was in knots, but I decided to head out anyway, thinking I might run into her if I traveled to Tiberius, where we had planned to go together.

“Why don’t you travel with us?” one of the backpackers offered. They were experienced adventurers who would work for a few months, save, then travel for as long as they could. Their current plan was to explore the Middle East and Europe in three months while working in London.

It seemed risky to travel with strangers, but my instinct said yes. For the next two weeks, I explored Israel with the backpackers and learned to trust my instincts in all types of new and interesting situations. When they hook a ride, I took the bus, but when they wanted to steal into the King David Hotel’s swimming pool, I led the way. The world opened up to me because I chose to travel alone. I joined complete strangers, who become close friends. Years later, one couple from the backpacking group even flew from Sydney to Phoenix to be in my wedding. The trip was such a special experience that it gave me confidence in all areas of my life. Since then, I’ve backpacked alone across South Africa, sky-dived from 12,000 feet in New Zealand and even moved across the U.S. with no job lined up.

On my third day wandering in Israel with my new friends, I bumped into the woman I was supposed to meet. Though I was happy she was all right, I was grateful she hadn’t picked up the phone.

1. By “My stomach was in knots” (in paragraph 1), the author most likely means that she was ______.

A．sick of riding on a bumpy bus	B．nervous of meeting strangers
C．upset about the sudden change	D．sorry about the impractical plan

2. Which of the following best describes the backpackers the author met?

A．Courageous but disrespectful.	B．Jobless and poorly educated.
C．Warmhearted and trustworthy.	D．Homeless but lighthearted.

3. The author’s sixth sense told her that ______.

A．she would get along with the backpackers	B．it might cause trouble to have a swim
C．she ought to stay away from the backpackers	D．it could add excitement to get a free ride

4. What can be inferred from the passage?

A．Most of the backpackers became the author’s lifelong friends.

B．The author gathered the courage to be a fulltime backpack traveler.

C．The woman missed the phone call with the purpose of traveling alone.

D．The author considered it the best decision of her life to travel on her own.

2 . Many of China’s ancient architectural treasures smashed to dust before Lin Huiyin and Liang Sicheng began documenting them in the 1930s. The husband and wife team were among the first preservationists to operate in China, and by far the bestknown. Their efforts have since inspired generations of people to speak out for architecture threatened by the rush toward development.

Becoming China’s best architectural historians was no easy accomplishment. The buildings they wanted to save were centuries old located in distant parts of the country.In many cases, they had to journey through dangerous conditions in the Chinese countryside to reach them. Exploring China’s remote areas during the 1930s meant traveling muddy, poorly maintained roads by mule（骡子）or on foot. Inns were often dirty food could be polluted, and there was always risk or violence from rebels, soldiers and robbers.

Their greatest discovery was the Temple of Buddha’s Light, in Wutai County, Shanxi Province. The breathtaking wooden temple was built in 857 A. D., making it the oldest building known in China at the time.

Liang and Lin crawled into the temple’s most forbidding, forgotten areas to determine itsage, including one hideaway inhibited by thousands or bats and millions of bedbugs, covered in dust and littered with dead bats. “In complete darkness andamong the awful smell, hardly breathing, with thick masks covering our nosesand mouths, we measured, drew, and photographed with flashlights for several hours. When at last we came out to take a breath of fresh air, we foundhundreds of bedbugs in our bag. We ourselves had been badly bitten. Yet the importance and unexpectedness of our find made those the happiest hours of myyears hunting for ancient architecture.” Liand wrote of the experience in anaccount included in “Liang and Lin; Partners in Exploring China’s ArchitectualPast.”

1. On their way to the ancient buildings in 1930s,Liang and Lin faced following risks EXCEPT ________.

A．accommodations	B．personal security
C．road conditions	D．vehicles

2. Liang and Lin raised public awareness of ________.

A．documenting smashed historical buildings

B．rebuilding historically valuablebuildings

C．saving the oldest temples in China

D．Protecting historical buildings.

3. While exploring the Temple of Buddha’s Light,________

A．Liang and Lin caught insects with awful smell.

B．Liang and Lin were forbidden to breathe inside

C．Liang and Lin were pleased at something unhoped for

D．Liang and Lin determined its age by studyingbedbug’s hideaway

4. Which of the following is the best title for thepassage?

A．Creativeness results in discovery	B．Difficulty produces achievement
C．Efforts contribute to happiness	D．Responsibilities make development

3 . Directions: After reading the passage below, fill in the blanks to make the passage coherent and grammatically correct. For the blanks with a given word, fill in each blank with the proper form of the given word; for the other blanks, use one word that best fits each blank.

I teach a course in marine biology at a college in central Maine. In order to give each student the individualized attention he or she     1    (deserve), I cap the class size at 15. Some years back, while calling out names from the roster (花名册) on the first day, I noticed a gray-haired woman of about 70. She     2    (hang) about at the door, with her new books like a schoolgirl.

“I’m not on the roster,” she volunteered, clearly self-conscious about all the     3    (seat) 18-year-olds looking her over. “But I was wondering if I     4    just sit in on the first class, to see what it’s about.”

There were already 15 in the class, but this woman’s eagerness impressed me, so I invited her to have a seat.

I began by chatting informally with the class to get a feel for how much knowledge they were bringing to     5    course. The result of open admissions is that professors are faced with very uneven crops of students, many of     6     know relatively little about the world around them.

In marine biology I like to see if they know the difference between fishes and seagoing mammals (哺乳动物). I often hold up a sponge (海绵) in the hope     7     someone will recognize it as an animal rather than a plant. I talk about the difference between a sea and an ocean.

    8     I questioned, most of my new students remained silent. But Natalie, the older woman, was on the edge of her seat,     9    (volunteer) answers with the quickness of a game show contestant. In time, I felt as if it were just she and I engaged in a private conversation. At the end of class, she came up to me and apologized for being the “extra” student. “I certainly wish I could take this course,’’ she said. “Will you offer it next week?” Alarmed at the prospect of losing her, I acted quickly to relieve     10    concern. “I’ll see you next class,” I said.

4 . To Be a Deaf DJ

I was born in England with perfect hearing. In 1990, when I was five, my family moved to the United States. I started getting ear infections every three months or so. We didn’t have health insurance at the time, and when I got a third infection, my parents couldn’t afford the treatment. I went deaf in my right ear and was left with 50 percent hearing in my left. Over time, my remaining hearing dropped to 20 percent, where it is today. My doctors predicted that I would be thoroughly deaf by now, and I think I’m doing pretty well.

There was always music on in my house in my childhood. I loved listening to Metallica, Led Zeppelin, Michael Jackson. My dad was a DJ, so he played disco, folk, rock, and music from other countries. For my 18^th birthday, my dad asked me to deejay at the restaurant. After doing that for a few weeks, I was interested in it. I desired to learn more. I e-mailed DJ Shiftee, a distinguished New York City DJ, “I know you like a challenge. How about teaching a deaf person to deejay?” He wrote back the next day, “Challenge accepted.” He tutored me twice a week for two years, helping me develop correct technique. I practiced four hours a day.

Now when I’m performing, muscle memory takes over. When I started, I wouldn’t tell the club managers that I was deaf. I would just show up, introduce myself, and start playing music. At the end of the night, someone would say, “Oh, here’s the check.” And I’d say, “What? Oh, I can’t hear.” They were always so astonished. Sometimes I would bring doctor’s notes because they wouldn’t believe me. It was reassurance that they were giving me opportunities to perform because I was brilliant, not out of sympathy. Eventually people started calling me “that deaf DJ,” and the name stuck.

What fascinates me about deejaying is the creativity. I use software that turns the music into lines of color on a computer screen. I’m visually hearing the music. The next time you go dancing, cover your ears, and you’ll start seeing that you’re able to hear the music in a different way. Music is not all about hearing. I pay all sorts of get-togethers now, from college parties to corporate events. I also go to elementary schools for the deaf and talk to the students about motivation and believing in themselves. I tell the parents, “My advice to you is let your kids chase their dreams. I’m a deaf DJ, so why not?”

1. Which of the following might result in the author’s hearing loss?

A．Monthly ear infection.	B．Moving to the U. S.
C．Family financial hardship.	D．The doctors’ prediction.

2. How did DJ Shiftee help the author during his youth?

A．He taught him correct skills.	B．He discovered his talent for DJ.
C．He played at the restaurant for him.	D．He cultivated his taste for foreign music.

3. The underlined expression in Paragraph 3 “the name stuck” probably means that ________.

A．the author was in low spirits	B．the author impressed people deeply
C．the audience felt disappointed by the player	D．the audience looked down upon the player

4. We can conclude from the passage that the author loves deejaying because ________.

A．working as a DJ involves creating	B．music helps him to see the world virtually
C．he motivates the kids to realize their dream	D．he desires to challenge something impossible

5 . McCoy was looking for a safe place to do drugs when something clearly out of place caught his eye: a luxurious brown leather handbag.

McCoy, 36, could relate all too well. One of his few possessions, the sleeping bag he used in an abandoned house, had recently been stolen. Remembering how angered he’d been by his own loss, he resolved to return the purse to its owner.

He began right away, starting with the address on the bill found in the handbag. After traveling much of the day and finally approaching the address on the bill, he was stopped by a woman, who asked whether she could buy the purse. McCoy refused, saying he was searching for its owner. “But I am the owner,” the woman said. “That’s my purse.”

A month earlier, Kaitlyn Smith, 29, a sales representative for a medical device company, had woken up to find her apartment broken into and her purse stolen. Now she came across a tall, messy-looking man holding it tightly. She could instantly tell he wasn’t in good shape.

At Smith’s urging, McCoy told her his story. He’d been in charge of a landscaping business until 2012, when a car accident left him addicted to drugs.

Smith, amazed this stranger had gone to such great lengths to return her bag, asked whether there was anything she could do to help. “I’m a drug addict,” McCoy warned. “I don’t want to intrude on your life; I’m probably gonna let you down.”

Unafraid, Smith gave him her phone number, saying, “If you want to go to rehab (戒毒所), call me.” She then drove him back to his neighborhood and left, thinking that would be the end of it. Two days later, she got a call.

Smith realized that McCoy was serious about getting better, so she dug into her savings account and bought McCoy a plane ticket to Florida. While there, he would call her to let her know how he was doing. “We were getting to know each other,” Smith says. “His scared, desperate voice turned into a healthy, lively one.” After 28 days at a rehab program at Johns Hopkins Hospital, McCoy is drug-free. He lives at a residential recovery center in Baltimore, and a GoFundMe page set up by Smith has covered his rent, groceries, and incidentals. His life is back on track, all because one crime victim could understand another’s loss.

1. What drove McCoy to look for the owner of the handbag?

A．The urge to find a business partner.	B．The resolution to recover his sleeping bag.
C．His own unfortunate experience.	D．His anger over the poor living condition.

2. What was McCoy’s initial reaction towards Smith’s intention to help?

A．Enthusiasm.	B．Resistance.
C．Hostility.	D．Gratitude.

3. Which of the following is TRUE according to the passage?

A．McCoy was a victim of an identity theft.

B．Smith offered McCoy a ride home at his request.

C．McCoy looked unhealthy when he bumped into Smith.

D．Smith covered McCoy’s living expense in the recovery centre.

4. Which of the following might be the best title for the passage?

A．Drug-abuse Can Heal.	B．Lost and Found.
C．Mutual Communication Matters.	D．Good Deeds Repaid.

6 . Directions: Complete the following passages by using the words in the box. Each word can only be used once. Note that there is one word more than you need.

A. overnight 　　　B. flash 　　　C. share 　　　D. enormous　　　 E. endured　　　 F. rise G. lengthy 　　　H. places　　　 I. pursue 　　　J. reflected 　　　K. plentiful

Robert Frost had aimed to be a poet since he was a teenager. But the American literary icon would not publish his first book of poetry until he was 39, and his best works would not follow until he was well into middle and old age. “Young people are good at discovering. They have a     1     here and there. It is like the stars coming out in the early evening,” he     2     at age 63, but “it is later in the dark of life that you see forms, patterns”

Frost’s     3     journey to fame during the dark of life, however, is far from the road less taken. Despite science society and silicon valley’s common belief that creativity, innovation and excellence are the near-exclusive province of the young, a surprising number of late bloomers mark the records of human history — women and men who     4     years of hardship, failure and missed opportunities before making an impact in the later stages of life. And once you move past the impressive stare of history’s Mozart-like geniuses, you find that late bloomers are quite     5    : in fact, there are many more roads to becoming an old master than a young prodigy.

Sometimes you don’t discover your passion in life until you’ve done some other things first. Sometimes you don’t get the opportunity to make the most of your experiences until relatively late in life. Ray Kroc, the founder of McDonald’s, didn’t start building his business empire until he was 53 years old. Until that point, the former Red Cross ambulance driver was a traveling salesman, peddling milk shake machines and paper cups. “I was a(n)     6     success all right,” Kroc wrote in his autobiography, “but 30 years is a long, long night.”

Sometimes, instead of opportunities, life     7     obstacles on the road to success. It wasn’t until Laura Ingalls Wilder turned 65 that her epic Little House on the Prairie series was published. By then, she had already devoted decades to being a farm wife and mother, schoolteacher, loan officer and newspaper columnist, and she had endured more than her fair     8     of hardship, from droughts to house fires. Another influential writer, Miguel de Cervantes, wrote Don Quixote in his late 50s after an eventful life in which he spent years behind bars and as a captive of Barbary pirates.

Therefore, unlike the youthful genius, whose rocket-fast     9     impresses as well as depresses the rest of the world, the late bloomer demonstrates what is possible as people     10     their own versions of full bloom.

7 . 第三部分阅读理解(共20小题；
阅读下列短文，从每题所给的四个选项(A、B、C和D)中，选出最佳选项。
A
　　After my husband died suddenly from a heart attack, my world crashed around me. My six children were all under 10, and I was burdened with the responsibilities of earning a living, and caring for the children. I was fortunate to find a wonderful housekeeper to care for the children during the week, but from Friday nights to Monday mornings, the children and I were alone.
　　One Friday evening I came home from work to find a big pretty German Shepherd（牧羊犬）on our doorstep. This dog seemed to intend to enter the house. The children liked“German”immediately and begged me to let him in. I agreed to let him sleep in the basement. That night I slept peacefully for the first time in many weeks.
　　The following morning we made phone calls and checked lost-and-found ads for German’s owner, but with no results.
　On Sunday I had planned to take the children on a picnic. Since I thought it best to leave German behind in case his owner came by, we drove off without him. When we stopped to get gas, we were amazed to see German racing to the gas station after us. No way was he going to be left behind.
Monday morning I let him out for a run. He didn’t come back and we were all disappointed. We were convinced that we would never see him again. We were wrong. The next Friday evening, German was back on our doorstep. Again he stayed until Monday morning, when our housekeeper arrived.
This pattern repeated itself every weekend for almost 10 months. We grew more and more fond of German. We took comfort in his strong, warm presence, and we felt safe with him near us. As German became part of the family, he considered it his duty to check every bedroom to be sure each child was cozy in bed.
　　Each week, between German’s visits, I grew a little stronger, a little braver and more able to handle; every weekend we were no longer alone and enjoyed his company. Then one Monday morning we patted him on the head and let him out for what turned out to be the last time. We never saw German again.
1. The dog first came to the family when _______________.

A．it was needed most

B．the writer became strong enough

C．the writer was away on a business trip

D．the writer was busy on the weekday

2. The family planned to go on a picnic without the German Shepherd because ____________.

A．it was too wild to control

B．it was too young to walk so far

C．the owner might come by to pick it up

D．it might spoil the trip

3. The writer was ____________ the German Shepherd.

A．afraid of	B．grateful to
C．cruel to	D．annoyed with

4. Which of the following can’t be used to describe the dog？

A．Loyal	B．Beautiful
C．Lovely	D．Wild

8 . Directions: After reading the passage below, fill in the blanks to make the passage coherent and grammatically correct. For the blanks with a given word, fill in each blank with the proper form of the given word; for the other blanks, use one word that best fits each blank.

Discovering a Lost Brother

Kieron Graham always knew he had an elder brother named Vincent. His adoption papers,     1     (sign) when he was three months old, listed a brother named Vincent but no last name. Though Kieron spent years thinking about Vincent, he could never track him down.

That changed in December 2017, when Kieron’s adoptive parents gave him an DNA test as a Christmas gift. When his results came back, he was surprised     2     (find) he had a lot of DNA matches for relatives who had also taken the test. Most were distant connections, but one match was so strong that it     3     (label) “close family.” His name was Vincent Ghant. Kieron looked for him on Facebook and soon made a possible connection.

When they connected, it was     4     they had known each other their whole lives. As they talked, the brothers realized they lived about 20 minutes from each other.     5    (surprisingly), they attended the same university and majored and minored in the same subjects.

Vincent was nine when Kieron was born and remembers caring for his baby brother. But times were tough, and Shawn, who worked 15-plus hours a day as a nurse, decided that     6    (place) Kieron for adoption would give him the best chance to succeed.

“She was very emotional about that time, to the point     7     it was hard for her to put into words anything about what happened,” Vincent says.

Now the brothers had the chance to make up for lost time. They decided to meet at a local tea shop that week. One of Vincent’s concerns was that Kieron     8     hate his birth family for placing him for adoption. He was relieved Kieron didn’t, and     9     he’d grown up in a loving family. After that first meeting, the brothers played football together and celebrated Christmas with their families. “We’ll keep growing our relationship     10     it’s time to leave this planet,” says Vincent. That shouldn’t be hard. As Kieron says, “We’ve got years and years to catch up on.”

9 . When she was ten years old, Isadora Duncan dropped out of school to teach people dance. If that job was left to any other ten-year-old, it would have turned out frustrating, difficult, and a little discouraging.

But Duncan was different. Not only was she already talented enough to earn money even at that age, but she also had a rare kind of confidence that helped her treat troubles as fuel —something to elevate the fire that is already burning inside of her.

It’s no surprise, then, that when she moved to New York to join a theatre company, she found herself restricted. The existing dancing style, their way of operating—all of this seemed to her the work of a misguided past. Duncan was very direct about what she wanted, confidently telling people she had a different vision of dance that she was going to spread in the world. This, naturally, led to ridicule and laughs early on, but as she built up her work, these instances became less frequent. Today, she is remembered as “The Mother of Dance,” with much of the modern art owing its expressive style to her influence. Inspired by the ancient Greeks, she brought the style to life.

In her autobiography (自传), one of the things Duncan frequently refers to as the basis of her expressive spirit is the fact that she had a childhood where she wasn’t constantly watched. The expectations of her mother (who raised her) were open-ended. It was the freedom of this lifestyle that drove her to see what she could do.

Growing up, before she left school, she was told one of two things: that she was either completely useless or that she was a genius. There was nothing in between. Even when she started working, people either bowed to her or they basically ignored her. But there wasn’t one moment Duncan doubted her own genius.

There is an old quotation “if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.” And it captures an important truth. At school, Isadora Duncan was a failure. In the dance hall, she gave form to brilliance.

1. What does the underlined phrase “treat troubles as fuel” mean?

A．Duncan used troubles to push her forward towards her dream.

B．Duncan was good at burning away everyday troubles.

C．Troubles turned Duncan into a confident girl.

D．Troubles lit the fire of dancing in Duncan.

2. Which of the following is TRUE about Duncan?

A．Her experience in New York was the foundation of her career.

B．Her teaching job when she was little destroyed her confidence.

C．Her dancing style was not very well received at the beginning.

D．Her mother set higher expectation on her than she could bear.

3. What does the author try to tell the readers in the last paragraph?

A．It is useless climbing a tree to catch fish.

B．Everybody is a genius in his own way.

C．Miseries come from human stupidity.

D．Teachers can impact students greatly.

4. What is this passage mainly about?

A．Isadora Duncan’s childhood and her achievements today.

B．Duncan’s career development and other dancers’ opinions of her.

C．Isadora Duncan’s early experiences and the reasons for her success.

D．Duncan’s high status in the dancing world and her unique expressive style.

10 . 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

2. The author gasped in amazement because        .

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

3. What can be inferred from the story?

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.

4. What lesson did the author learn from this trip?

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.