It was a dark and stormy night. The ferocious wind shook the windows wildly, as though someone outside were beating on the glass. It was also New Year’s Eve. We were having our annual party and had a house full of people just starting to celebrate.
Suddenly, we heard loud explosions. Looking outside and up into the hills, we saw sparks(火花) flying from electrical transformers(变压器). One area after another went dark up in those hills. Then there was the loudest explosion of them all and our house went dark too. I tried to find every candle we had and lit them. The candles made everything look lovely. But we had problems. We had fifteen people standing around and we still had to cook dinner. How would we do that without electricity?
The barbecue! Why not cook on the barbecue? We men went outside, some holding flashlights and others cooking. We did a wonderful job. The women stayed inside and got the salads ready. Everything was delicious. There were still a few hours to go before the beginning of the new year, so we all sat around the dining room table and sang up until a few minutes before midnight. We couldn’t watch the ball drop in Times Square on television but that wouldn’t stop us from celebrating. I stood on a chair and, with the help of someone’s watch to tell us the time, we all counted down and I dropped a tennis ball! We all screamed Happy New Year. We didn’t need electricity for that!
Nowadays, we still get together with the same group to celebrate the New Year and we still talk about that special night. I don’t think we have ever laughed so much as we did on that New Year’s Eve.
1. What does the underlined word mean in Paragraph 1? (1 word)2. What made dinner preparation difficult according to Paragraph 2? (no more than 6 words)
3. How did the people celebrate on New Year’s Eve according to the passage? (no more than 10 words)
4. How does the author feel about that particular New Year’s Eve? (no more than 8 words)
5. What do you think is the most necessary quality when dealing with an unexpected difficult situation? Please explain why. (no more than 25words)
2 . For most people, having things stolen feels like an offence. Robbie Pruitt admitted that he got
For Pruitt, a keen bicyclist, the first thing to do was
With that thought in mind, Pruitt
The day the post went live, Pruitt received thirty
Pruitt tries to give his donations to families that are
In addition to
"It's a really great
A.amazed | B.mad | C.curious | D.frightened |
A.emotions | B.career | C.opinions | D.route |
A.ever | B.together | C.instead | D.yet |
A.ride | B.lock | C.repair | D.replace |
A.lack | B.variety | C.increase | D.quality |
A.instruction | B.qualification | C.transportation | D.permission |
A.came up with | B.stuck to | C.gave up | D.broke away from |
A.remembered | B.refused | C.hesitated | D.offered |
A.by accident | B.in advance | C.for free | D.on credit |
A.profit | B.budget | C.courage | D.excuse |
A.shared | B.used | C.expensive | D.modern |
A.enquiries | B.advertisements | C.notices | D.announcements |
A.exported | B.sold | C.lent | D.returned |
A.hardly | B.slightly | C.truly | D.instantly |
A.Without | B.Beyond | C.Upon | D.Among |
A.practical | B.commercial | C.mathematical | D.social |
A.Otherwise | B.However | C.Somehow | D.Meanwhile |
A.promise | B.celebration | C.comfort | D.experience |
A.competition | B.service | C.ceremony | D.suggestion |
A.compromise | B.impression | C.impact | D.progress |
3 . Last year I decided to do some volunteer work. I began to
I was sent to the Coronado National Forest for my first 8-day
My job was to
Three days later, a beautiful stairway came into being. The
But on the last night we were
A.calculate | B.negotiate | C.advertise | D.research |
A.imagined | B.introduced | C.enjoyed | D.found |
A.annoyed | B.surprised | C.scared | D.excited |
A.arriving | B.sleeping | C.thinking | D.walking |
A.confident | B.friendly | C.energetic | D.curious |
A.funny | B.good | C.lucky | D.easy |
A.tour | B.project | C.campaign | D.course |
A.drop | B.make | C.carry | D.buy |
A.nice | B.safe | C.long | D.quick |
A.build | B.test | C.clean | D.guard |
A.helped | B.ended | C.allowed | D.meant |
A.hunted | B.trained | C.seen | D.fed |
A.satisfaction | B.ambition | C.expectation | D.intention |
A.work | B.memory | C.record | D.story |
A.left | B.caught | C.attacked | D.separated |
A.boiling | B.average | C.normal | D.freezing |
A.tidy | B.dry | C.new | D.soft |
A.By the way | B.Regardless of that | C.Needless to say | D.In either case |
A.survived | B.resisted | C.escaped | D.recovered |
A.smarter | B.stronger | C.happier | D.busier |
4 . About five weeks ago, I noticed the skin of our pet lizard was growing dusty. It worried me. I reported the strange surface on the skin of the lizard to my husband and children the next morning. Seconds later, our lizard emerged from its tank with its old skin flowing behind it.
I didn't think about it much until a morning last week when I knocked my favorite teapot off the table. It burst into hundreds of pieces. As I swept up the mess, I wondered why we had been breaking so many things over the months.
The destruction started three months ago. It was my husband's birthday. He had just lost his job. The uncertainty was starting to wear on us, so I wanted to do something special.
“Let's make a cake for Dad!” I cried.
My kids screamed with joy. We baked, iced and sprinkled for most of the day. Candles on the cake! Balloons on the walls! Flowers on the table!
Two hours before my husband came back home from another job interview, my daughter climbed up to grab a glass vase from a high shelf. It fell and crashed beside the cake. Tiny pieces of glass were everywhere. She sobbed loudly as I threw the cake away. My husband had banana pudding for his birthday.
Three days ago, the light in our living room suddenly went out. After several frustrating hours of unsuccessful attempts to fix it, my husband suggested watching the Michael Jordan documentary series The Last Dance.
The poignancy of Jordan retiring from his beloved basketball to play baseball and what had pushed him to make such a tough decision took me by surprise. As I watched him take off his basketball uniform and replace it with a baseball uniform, I saw him leaving behind the layer that no longer served him, just as our lizard had. Neither of them chose the moment that had transformed them. But they had to live with who they were after everything was different. Just like us. I realized that we have to learn to leave the past behind.
Humans do not shed skin as easily as other animals. The beginning of change is upsetting. The process is tiring. Damage changes us before we are ready. I see our lizard, raw and nearly new.
Jordan said that no matter how it ends, it starts with hope. With our tender, hopeful skin, that is where we begin.
1. What can we learn about the pet lizard from Paragraph 1?A.Its tank grew dirty. | B.Its old skin came off. |
C.It got a skin disease. | D.It went missing. |
A.The birthday cake was ruined. | B.The author made good puddings. |
C.Pudding was his favorite dessert. | D.They couldn't afford a birthday cake. |
A.To prove a theory. | B.To define a concept. |
C.To develop the theme. | D.To provide the background. |
A.letting go of the past | B.looking for a new job |
C.getting rid of a bad habit | D.giving up an opportunity |
A.Love of family helps us survive great hardships. | B.It's not the end of the world if we break things. |
C.We should move on no matter what happens. | D.Past experiences should be treasured. |
5 . I was in the middle of the Amazon (亚马逊) with my wife, who was there as a medical researcher. We flew on a small plane to a faraway village. We did not speak the local language, did not know the customs, and more often than not, did not entirely recognize the food. We could not have felt more foreign.
We were raised on books and computers, highways and cell phones, but now we were living in a village without running water or electricity It was easy for us to go to sleep at the end of the day feeling a little misunderstood.
Then one perfect Amazonian evening, with monkeys calling from beyond the village green, we played soccer. I am not good at soccer, but that evening it was wonderful. Everyone knew the rules. We all spoke the same language of passes and shots. We understood one another perfectly. As darkness came over the field and the match ended, the goal keeper, Juan, walked over to me and said in a matter-of-fact way, “In your home, do you have a moon too?” I was surprised.
After I explained to Juan that yes, we did have a moon and yes, it was very similar to his, I felt a sort of awe (敬畏) at the possibilities that existed in his world. In Juan’s world, each village could have its own moon. In Juan’s world, the unknown and undiscovered was vast and marvelous. Anything was possible.
In our society, we know that Earth has only one moon. We have looked at our planet from every angle and found all of the wildest things left to find. I can, from my computer at home, pull up satellite images of Juan’s village. There are no more continents and no more moons to search for, little left to discover. At least it seems that way.
Yet, as I thought about Juan’s question, I was not sure how much more we could really rule out. I am, in part, an ant biologist, so my thoughts turned to what we know about insect life and I knew that much in the world of insects remains unknown. How much, though? How ignorant (无知的) are we? The question of what we know and do not know constantly bothered me.
I began collecting newspaper articles about new species, new monkey, new spider…, and on and on they appear. My drawer quickly filled. I began a second drawer for more general discoveries: new cave system discovered with dozens of nameless species, four hundred species of bacteria found in the human stomach. The second drawer began to fill and as it did I wondered whether there were bigger discoveries out there, not just species, but life that depends on things thought to be useless, life even without DNA. I started a third drawer for these big discoveries. It fills more slowly, but all the same, it fills.
In looking into the stories of biological discovery, I also began to find something else, a collection of scientists, usually brilliant occasionally half-mad, who made the discoveries. Those scientists very often see the same things that other scientists see, but they pay more attention to them, and they focus on them to the point of exhaustion (穷尽), and at the risk of the ridicule of their peers. In looking for the stories of discovery, I found the stories of these people and how their lives changed our view of the world.
We are repeatedly willing to imagine we have found most of what is left to discover. We used to think that insects were the smallest organisms (生物), and that nothing lived deeper than six hundred meters. Yet, when something new turns up, more often than not, we do not even know its name.
1. How did the author feel on his arrival in the Amazon?A.Out of place. | B.Full of joy. | C.Sleepy. | D.Regretful. |
A.He learned more about the local language. |
B.They had a nice conversation with each other. |
C.They understood each other while playing. |
D.He won the soccer game with the goal keeper. |
A.The question was too straightforward. |
B.Juan knew so little about the world. |
C.The author didn’t know how to answer. |
D.The author didn’t think Juan was sincere. |
A.To sort out what we have known. |
B.To deepen his research into Amazonians. |
C.To improve his reputation as a biologist. |
D.To learn more about local cultures. |
A.They shifted their viewpoints frequently. |
B.They followed other scientists closely. |
C.They often criticized their fellow scientists. |
D.They conducted in-depth and close studies. |
A.The Possible and the Impossible . |
B.The Known and the Unknown . |
C.The Civilized and the Uncivilized . |
D.The Ignorant and the Intelligent. |
6 . When most of us get a text message on our cell phone from an unknown person, we usually say "sorry,
On March 19, Dennis got a group text
"Congratulations! But I think someone was mistaken," Dennis
Much to the family’s surprise, Dennis stuck to his
Teresa
A.unlucky | B.secret | C.new | D.wrong |
A.received | B.translated | C.copied | D.printed |
A.reasonable | B.special | C.necessary | D.practical |
A.convincing | B.reminding | C.informing | D.warning |
A.wake-up | B.recovery | C.growth | D.arrival |
A.responded | B.interrupted | C.predicted | D.repeated |
A.coming in | B.setting out | C.passing down | D.moving around |
A.opinion | B.anxiety | C.excitement | D.effort |
A.comparing | B.exchanging | C.discussing | D.sharing |
A.accept | B.know | C.believe | D.bother |
A.parents | B.doctors | C.patients | D.visitors |
A.dream | B.promise | C.agenda | D.principle |
A.bearing | B.collecting | C.opening | D.making |
A.discouraged | B.relaxed | C.astonished | D.defeated |
A.admit | B.need | C.appreciate | D.expect |
A.found | B.selected | C.developed | D.posted |
A.confirmed | B.simplified | C.clarified | D.accompanied |
A.pity | B.blessing | C.relief | D.problem |
A.smart | B.calm | C.sweet | D.fair |
A.sympathy | B.attention | C.control | D.trust |
I’ve always been creative since I was a little girl. My childhood was filled with arts, crafts (手工) and music, and every day was an exciting adventure of creation.
Somewhere along the way, however, I lost touch with my creative self. At 21, I landed a job at a big insurance company out of my business degree. I would go to the office, sit at my desk and repeat the same work five days a week 9 to 5. The days were long and tedious. Working this way for one year was painful enough, let alone a lifetime. Before long I decided to make a change.
One thing I had developed an interest in was sewing, so I took a sewing course at a community college. It was only a five-week course but it awakened my interest and got my confidence up.
As I dreamt bigger, I began looking into college courses for Fashion Design and three months later I signed up for a part-time design course. I attended classes two nights a week. Although exhausting, it gave me energy, enthusiasm and happiness.
As it became clearer that fashion was what I wanted to do full time, the reality of my day-to-day work at the insurance company became harder. I felt bored. No energy, no motivation and zero fulfilment (满足感).
I knew I needed to make a bigger change. After struggling for quite a while, I made a difficult decision—leaving my job and studying my design course full time. Two years later I got my diploma.
The last few years have been exciting because I’ve been following my heart to do what I love. Today I am living a creative life as the designer of my own fashion brand.
Sometimes it’s hard to make a change, but I’m so glad I set the wheels of change in motion with that very small first step because it has led me to where I am today.
1. What was the author interested in when she was a little girl? (no more than 10 words)2. What does the underlined word in Paragraph 2 mean? (1 word)
3. How did the author feel when she was taking the part-time design course? (no more than 10 words)
4. What did the author do to get back to her creative life? Give two of the facts. (no more than 15 words)
5. Do you consider the author as your role model? Please explain. (no more than 20 words)
8 . Regardless of the weather or the distance, Paul Wilson will make sure low-income students in his neighbourhood arrive at their college classes on time.
A retired engineer, 76-year-old Wilson has been
Tina Stern
Wilson first worked as a driver through a student-support programme of the non-profit organisation. On Point for College. Although the
For many students, Wilson’s help is not only appreciated, it’s also entirely
A.linking | B.sending | C.offering | D.distributing |
A.donating | B.lending | C.delivering | D.volunteering |
A.paved | B.covered | C.measured | D.wandered |
A.arguments | B.interviews | C.negotiations | D.conversations |
A.met | B.driven | C.addressed | D.greeted |
A.even | B.ever | C.once | D.already |
A.earned | B.received | C.assessed | D.demanded |
A.transportation | B.style | C.time | D.communication |
A.forced | B.awkward | C.ridiculous | D.suspicious |
A.selects | B.recites | C.guesses | D.remembers |
A.act on | B.settle on | C.check on | D.agree on |
A.club | B.league | C.college | D.programme |
A.far | B.around | C.beyond | D.forwards |
A.assist | B.watch | C.urge | D.warn |
A.expects | B.attempts | C.manages | D.hesitates |
A.extra | B.unusual | C.necessary | D.adequate |
A.share | B.fuel | C.repair | D.exchange |
A.required | B.allowed | C.reminded | D.convinced |
A.experience | B.arrangement | C.appreciation | D.employment |
A.effort | B.ambition | C.privilege | D.convenience |
9 . “They tell me that you’d like to make a statue(塑像) of me-is that correct, Miss Vinnie Ream?”
The deep, gentle voice helped calm the nervous girl. Asking a favor of the President of the United States was no casual matter, especially for a seventeen-year-old girl.
“Yes, sir,” she replied, her dark eyes meeting his. “I wouldn’t have duo ask you, but my teacher, Mr. Mills, says I am ready. I plan to make it in an admirable manner. “
President Lincoln smiled. “Painters, sculptors-they’ve all tried to make the best of this ordinary face, but I’m afraid there’s not much hope. What did you have in mind, Miss Ream? A bust(半身像)?”
Before Vinnie could say yes, the President hurried on, a shade of apology in his voice.
“Of course-I shouldn’t have asked. A full-length pose would be much too big a project for a young woman your size. “
Vinnie’s face turned red. She realized she looked like a child, with her tiny figure. “Small does not mean weak, sir,” she defended herself. “I was born in the country of Wisconsin. I’ve driven teams of horses and carried water. Making a full-length clay(粘土) figure would not exhaust my strength-and that is what I intend to do!”
The President’s eyes, brightened at her show of spirit. “Sorry, madam, I have underestimated you as I didn’t know your background.”
But his smile faded as he rubbed his beard with bony fingers, in thought. “Miss Ream,” he sighed, “I’d like to let you do it, but as you know, we are in the middle of a war. How could I possibly take the time to pose for a sculpture now? I hardly have a minute to myself.”
Vinnie glanced around and noted the size of his office. “I work quickly,” she said. Her voice was soft but confident as she pointed to the corner near the windows. “If I were to bring my clay here and work for three hours every afternoon, I could complete most of the project while you are at your desk.”
The President seemed to consider her idea seriously. He got up and shook Vinnie’s hand warmly, “I’ve heard that you are a talented young woman, and I have found you charming and intelligent as well. I cannot make my decision immediately, but you will hear from me soon.”
The very next day, Vinnie received an invitation from the President.
1. What gave Vinnie confidence to make her request of President Lincoln?A.Her aggressive personality. |
B.Mr. Mills’s encouraging remark. |
C.President Lincoln’s gentle voice. |
D.Her interest in a challenging job. |
A.Pleased. |
B.Thrilled. |
C.Regretful. |
D.Doubtful. |
A.her experience from other projects |
B.her innocent childhood in the country |
C.the heavy labor she had done before |
D.the skill she picked up in Wisconsin |
A.achieve effects of natural lighting |
B.keep all her tools within easy reach |
C.observe the President at a right angle |
D.avoid disturbing the president’s work |
A.A strong-willed soul can reach his goal. |
B.Experience helps to promote excellence. |
C.Ups and downs make one strong. |
D.Devotion requires enthusiasm. |
10 . No one is born a winner. People make themselves into winners by their own
I learned this lesson from a(n)
It was a tradition for the school’s old team to play against the
I started doing anything I could to help them build a little
Six months after suffering our
From the experience I learnt a lot about how the attitude of the leader can
Winners are made, but born.
1.A.luck | B.tests | C.efforts | D.nature |
A.experiment | B.experience | C.visit | D.show |
A.operating | B.editing | C.consulting | D.coaching |
A.successful | B.excellent | C.strong | D.new |
A.cheer for | B.prepare for | C.help with | D.finish with |
A.believe | B.agree | C.describe | D.regret |
A.realize | B.claim | C.permit | D.demand |
A.reacting to | B.looking for | C.depending on | D.caring about |
A.decision | B.attitude | C.conclusion | D.intention |
A.pride | B.culture | C.fortune | D.relationship |
A.leaders | B.partners | C.winners | D.learners |
A.rewards | B.vacations | C.health | D.honor |
A.risked | B.missed | C.considered | D.practiced |
A.defeat | B.decline | C.accident | D.mistake |
A.relax | B.improve | C.expand | D.defend |
A.shame | B.burden | C.victory | D.favor |
A.chances | B.thrills | C.concerns | D.offers |
A.surprise | B.serve | C.interest | D.affect |
A.encouraged | B.observed | C.protected | D.impressed |
A.honestly | B.individually | C.calmly | D.differently |