1 . I didn’t quite know what I was looking for when I flew to Mongolia for a term abroad. I just needed something different, far from the late-night libraries of my college town. Most different, I hoped, would be my rural homestay: two weeks in central Mongolia with a family of nomadic(游牧的) herders.
I was studying Mongolian at the time, but still, there was so much I couldn’t say or understand. As we walked in the snow behind the goats, my host mom would ask me if I was cold, then giggle (咯咯地笑) and copy a big shiver to make sure I understood. In the evenings, she showed me how to make dumplings with her fingers. My host siblings would talk with me, speaking too fast for me to understand, as we explored the rocks around our tent; I’d listen and nod.
This verbal(言语的) barrier was strangely freeing. In the crowded dining hall at home, meeting new people made me anxious. I’d stay quiet, measuring out my words, struggling for something to say that wouldn’t expose me as unfunny or boring. In Mongolia, I couldn’t perfect my words. I could only smile, and try out one of the phrases I’d mastered: “May I help?” “Where is the dog?” “Are you tired?” My host family laughed at my pronunciation, at the way I threw up my hands and eyebrows in a frequent gesture of confusion. But in their laughter, I felt safe, unembarrassed.
With my Mongolian family on the grassland, I found a feeling of ease I’d never felt before. We were so different, they and I, and not just in language. Their skin was hardened and darkened by sun; I’d been hidden under hats and sunscreen since birth. My host siblings(兄弟姐妹) grew up drawing water from frozen streams and jogging behind herds of sheep; I spent summers at tennis camp.
For me, these gaps made all the difference. Without shared social measures, I wasted no time wondering how I was measuring up. Only real things—kindness, helpfulness—mattered.
1. Why did the author go to Mongolia for a term abroad?| A．She dreamed of living a nomadic life. | B．She was tired of studying late at night. |
| C．She had to study Mongolians’ normal life. | D．She was collecting information for libraries. |
| A．Hug. | B．Smile. | C．Attack. | D．Shake. |
| A．She felt at ease in the crowd. | B．She usually weighed her words. |
| C．She asked a lot of funny questions. | D．She often made others laugh with jokes. |
| A．You are judged wherever you go. | B．Nature makes humans feel insignificant. |
| C．Appearance reflects one’s standard of life. | D．Being kind is the common social standard. |
Last summer vacation, I traveled to Sanya in Hainan, China. When my dad told me one of the items on the journey would be one of the highest water slides (水上滑梯) in Asia, I asked my dad repeatedly whether I could stay at home. But my dad said that I would love it and we should go together.
Three days later, I was standing in front of that water slide in Atlantics Waterpark. The slide was located in a building. When I looked up at the tens of thousands of stairs leading to the peak of the building, I thought to myself, “If I fall from that place, I will definitely die.”
As we started climbing the stairs, I saw three words on the wall: Leap of Faith. I had never heard of these words, and at that time they reminded me of Road to Death. Five meters, ten meters ... I looked down and thought, “I am going to die today.” Fifteen meters, twenty meters ... I thought about the many things I hadn’t done and asked my dad whether I had life insurance. Twenty-five meters, thirty meters ... and we were finally at the top, ready to jump into the slide. I looked at the three people next to me and thought, “These are the last three people I will see in my life.”
Suddenly, the teenage boy ahead of me stopped in front of the slide and turned around, “Look down there. If we fall into the shark tank, we will be eaten by those hungry sharks.” We all paused and looked down at the shark tank above the slide tunnel. Just then, a younger boy next to me said, “Excuse me, if you don’t want to go now, I will go first.” Then he walked past the teenage boy and me and jumped into the slide, disappearing in an instant.
My father said to me jokingly, “Look, that boy is not even half of your height. Come on, Selina. You can do it.” The teenager turned and stared at me too, “Now, you go first.”
Paragraph 1:With a deep breath, I stepped closer to the edge of the slide.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Paragraph 2：
A moment later, my father came down.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________3 . When we think about lives filled with meaning, we often focus on people whose grand contributions benefited humanity. Abraham Lincoln,Martin Luther King and Nelson Mandela surely felt they had a worthwhile life. But how about us ordinary people,struggling in a typical existence?
There is an important element to consider. Think about the first butterfly you stop to admire after a long winter or imagine the scenery at the top of a hill after a fresh hike. Sometimes existence delivers us small moments of beauty. When people are open to appreciating such experiences, these moments may enhance how they view their life. This element is defined as EA (experiential appreciation) by Joshua Hicks, a psychological professor at Texas A &M University.
Recently, he and his research team set out to figure out whether EA was related to a person’s sense of meaning in a series of studies that involved more than 3,000 participants. At an initial test, researchers had participants rate their agreement of different coping strategies to relieve their stress. They found people who managed stress by focusing on their appreciation for life’s beauty also reported experiencing life as highly meaningful.
Researchers then conducted a series of experiments, in which they gave participants specific tasks and, once more, asked them to report how strongly they identified with statements linked to purpose, etc. In one case, participants who watched an awe-inspiring video reported having a greater sense of EA and meaning in life, compared with those who watched more neutral videos. After reflecting on the results collected from the participants, researchers confirmed their original theory.
But applying that insight can be difficult.Our modern, fast-paced, project-oriented lifestyles fill the day with targets and goals. We are on the go, and we attempt to maximize output both at work and at leisure.
This focus on future outcomes makes it all too easy to miss what is happening right now. Yet life happens in the present moment. We should slow down, let life surprise us and embrace the significance in the everyday life.
1. Why are the butterfly and the scenery on a hill mentioned in paragraph 2?| A．To introduce a concept. |
| B．To attract readers’ interest. |
| C．To demonstrate the beauty of nature. |
| D．To show the necessity of protecting nature. |
| A．By designing different strategies to reduce stress |
| B．By studying previous research data. |
| C．By shooting videos starring the participants. |
| D．By analyzing the response from the participants. |
| A．A person who always gets her life well-organized. |
| B．A person who often hears motivating speeches. |
| C．A person who leads a fast-paced life |
| D．A person who always expects future results. |
| A．No pains, no gains. |
| B．Those who believe in their ability can do anything. |
| C．Live your life one day at a time. |
| D．Being on sea, sail; being on land, settle. |
4 . As a university professor, I have been buried in theory for so long that it recently struck me: I don’t know how to do anything. By “do” I mean something concrete, something done with my hands that produces an actual product.
The trades come to mind. Whenever I call an electrician, or a mason, or a carpenter, I look on in wonder as they smoothly employ their skills. For example, I recently had a new kitchen sink fixed by a young man. He hummed (哼曲子) as he worked at the pipes, with every confidence in his abilities. When he was done, he turned on the water and it flowed forth without any leak. Is this not a minor wonder?
All of this brought me to a decision: I signed up for an adult evening course at a local technical school. The title: Basic Electricity and Wiring. When we began, I felt immediately at a loss. In an instant I was a student again in all respects: The anxiety, the self-doubt, the wondering if I had made a mistake. So I worked my way through my basic wiring course. My initial impulse (冲动) to jump ship gradually disappeared, because I came to realize that I was, indeed, acquiring a useful new skill.
Later, each student would be offered a switch and a lighting fixture (固定装置). The task was to fix them in a door frame and wire them, but not turn on the switch until the instructor was present. There I was, a professor, standing like a fresh-faced schoolboy before my setup. When I was done, I raised my hand. The instructor, a master electrician, came over to look over my job and glanced at me. “Hit the switch,” he said.
It’s hard to describe that moment. But I did feel that something bigger than myself was at risk — I’m sure that learning is not something that is completed early in life, from which point we simply move on, constantly recycling what we already know. The horizon is broader than that, and the broader the horizon, the more opportunities there are to learn something new.
1. Why did the author attend an adult evening course?| A．He was frequently troubled by the repair work. |
| B．He needed to strengthen his theoretical knowledge. |
| C．He was very eager to improve his hands-on abilities. |
| D．He wanted to learn the secrets of working wonders. |
| A．Work hard. | B．Drop out. | C．Calm down. | D．Give in. |
| A．nervous and uncertain | B．frightened and excited |
| C．confident and relaxed | D．annoyed and depressed |
| A．All roads lead to Rome. | B．It’s never too late to learn. |
| C．Many hands make light work. | D．The early bird catches the worm. |
5 . Emest Owusu was 13 in 1980 when he was given the opportunity to appear in the audience of a BBC show, and ask Thatcher how she felt about being called the Iron Lady. This encounter re-emerged in a BBC’s programme recently.
At the time of their meeting, Owusu was on free school meals, living on a public estate in Brixton, south London, where he and his sister were being raised by their mother Rose, a struggling hairdresser.
Now 57, Owusu looks remarkably similar even with a greying beard. But his life has been transformed. The father of three is a human resources director, and the first black captain of the Addington golf club in its 110-year history. As a black guy, it is about breaking the glass ceiling. Speaking in its clubhouse, Owusu describes his rise in social status (地位) as a “Thatcherite Journey”. And he says it began by asking the woman herself. “To this day it still has an impact. My confidence changed from that sliding-door moment. Something about her connected with me.”
Thatcher told Owusu she enjoyed being called the Iron Lady. “I think it’s rather a praise, don’t you?” she said, “Because so often people have said to me if you’re in your job you’ve got to be soft and warm and human, but you’ve got to have a touch of steel.” Owusu recalls the moment, “I just remember her eye contact. She was answering me, not the camera. She welcomed the question saying you’ve got to be firm in this world. And that stuck with me.”
After the show was broadcast, Owusu said he became “a little hero in Brixton for a good three months”. Owusu added, “It all gave me extra confidence. Doors might not have opened so quickly. It was one of those key moments to make you do things maybe you wouldn’t otherwise have done.”
1. What do we know about Owusu when he was 13?| A．He met with Thatcher twice. |
| B．He joined a famous golf club. |
| C．He hosted a BBC’s programme. |
| D．He lived at the bottom of society. |
| A．Turning point. | B．Important decision. |
| C．Social status. | D．Remarkable achievement. |
| A．Others’ treating him equally at work. |
| B．Others’ voting him a hero in Brixton. |
| C．Thatcher’s efforts to preserve his dignity. |
| D．Thatcher’s faith in the necessity of toughness. |
| A．The Art of Dialogue | B．The Power of Confidence |
| C．A Life-changing Meeting | D．A Status-improving Tale |
6 . I finally climbed into bed at 1:20 in the morning after my 31th birthday celebration. I was about to fall asleep when I was awakened by the sound of
It has to be from a burst pipe in the
I
I came close to drowning that day. But rather than dwell on (沉湎于) that in my head, I prefer to
| A．rushing | B．horrible | C．interesting | D．running |
| A．thrilled | B．amazed | C．puzzled | D．shocked |
| A．bedroom | B．living room | C．bathroom | D．hallway |
| A．turned on | B．turned up | C．turned down | D．turned off |
| A．Still | B．Therefore | C．Yet | D．Instead |
| A．breaking | B．keeping | C．suffering | D．challenging |
| A．realized | B．recognized | C．admitted | D．admired |
| A．amazement | B．fear | C．gratitude | D．anxiety |
| A．due to | B．up to | C．added to | D．related to |
| A．shadow | B．garden | C．darkness | D．lightening |
| A．floating | B．swimming | C．flying | D．diving |
| A．designed | B．buried | C．destroyed | D．burnt |
| A．prevented | B．stretched | C．saved | D．followed |
| A．recall | B．recommend | C．experience | D．ignore |
| A．spotted | B．flooded | C．failed | D．lost |
7 . In 1967, my husband and I graduated from college with financial challenges. We struggled to make both
Later we got involved socially with a community of couples. They
One summer, the group
Decades have passed. Now, as my husband and I approach retirement with our grown son, that picnic remains
That day, the feast symbolized a(n)
| A．terms | B．routes | C．ends | D．sides |
| A．allowed for | B．sorted out | C．resulted in | D．added to |
| A．challenged | B．shared | C．reflected | D．acknowledged |
| A．hopefully | B．originally | C．consistently | D．occasionally |
| A．encouraged | B．restricted | C．refused | D．facilitated |
| A．advertised | B．funded | C．delivered | D．organized |
| A．relieved | B．satisfied | C．astonished | D．convinced |
| A．Instead | B．Therefore | C．Moreover | D．However |
| A．Depressed | B．Disappointed | C．Embarrassed | D．Worried |
| A．return | B．fortune | C．difference | D．reform |
| A．available | B．fresh | C．distant | D．untouched |
| A．evaluated | B．calculated | C．influenced | D．defined |
| A．innovation | B．cooperation | C．royalty | D．generosity |
| A．debt | B．favor | C．advance | D．investment |
| A．chance | B．motive | C．reminder | D．turn |
8 . My faith in human nature has never been so great as it was last weekend after our family get-together in the town of Vail.
On Saturday, we all went to the market right in the middle of the town. Near the end, we all met at the fountain near the bridge and the kids waded (蹚水) around in the fountain until we
After we returned to the hotel late in the afternoon, my 7-year-old Ponder
Ponder has never
He was upset, not about the Gameboy, but about the watch. “But Dad,” he said, through massive
Our dinner reservation was at a restaurant just on the other side of the bridge, so I
As we exited from the parking garage, we could see the fountain as we walked down the long staircase. I saw something black
”See it, Dad?“ Ponder shouted. ”Don’t get too excited because that may not be it,“ I said. But that was it. It had been five or six hours since we left the fountain, and it was still there. There was no ID in it, and it looked like someone had looked through it and then set it right out where all could see it.
I literally
What a charmed life, eh? I believe this was a perfect lesson for a child in losing something important... to lose it and feel the full
| A．landed | B．left | C．settled | D．slept |
| A．responded | B．recognized | C．realized | D．recalled |
| A．contained | B．combined | C．comprised | D．covered |
| A．preparation | B．checkup | C．revision | D．search |
| A．wasted | B．lost | C．sought | D．deserted |
| A．emotion | B．time | C．money | D．stuff |
| A．tears | B．fists | C．reliefs | D．outbreaks |
| A．hesitant | B．curious | C．sad | D．eager |
| A．promised | B．informed | C．warned | D．taught |
| A．worn out | B． caught up | C． put away | D． turned in |
| A．hiding | B．sitting | C．swinging | D．flowing |
| A．assess | B．declare | C．tell | D．predict |
| A．panicked | B．exploded | C．collapsed | D．cried |
| A．dreams | B．claims | C．efforts | D．passions |
| A．range | B．pressure | C．weight | D．harvest |
9 . Lewis B. Smedes once said, “To forgive is to set a prisoner free and discover that the prisoner was you.” For years Tom Anderson’s life was withered (枯萎) by the memory of his
One day he told me what had changed his life, “I used to think nothing could
It is only through forgiveness of our mistakes that we gain the
| A．act | B．part | C．conduct | D．behavior |
| A．resulted in | B．called for | C．brought up | D．drew on |
| A．ran out | B．set up | C．broke up | D．took off |
| A．presented | B．promoted | C．guaranteed | D．earned |
| A．reflect | B．confirm | C．strengthen | D．undo |
| A．consequence | B．survival | C．guilt | D．sympathy |
| A．wall | B．reminder | C．distance | D．defeat |
| A．insignificant | B．unexpected | C．irreplaceable | D．unbearable |
| A．Thus | B．If | C．While | D．Unless |
| A．oddly | B．humbly | C．sincerely | D．generously |
| A．permission | B．determination | C．passion | D．inspiration |
| A．valuable | B．precious | C．worthy | D．noble |
| A．strategy | B．freedom | C．attempt | D．wisdom |
| A．denying | B．assuming | C．clarifying | D．protesting |
| A．emotionally | B．instantly | C．entirely | D．realistically |
When I was a kid, I came across a basic series of questions every time I was introduced to a person. Most were easy: “How old are you?” “What grade are you in?” “What do you want to be when you grow up?” But there was one question that troubled me: “What do your parents do?”
Dad was a computer programmer, so that one was easy enough. “My dad works on computers,” I would say. But mom’s job was hard to explain. She called herself a “nurse practitioner”. Mom explained it easier to make me understand. “You can say I teach nursing,” she said. “My mom teaches nurses,” I would repeat what she had said to me.
When that answer led to even more questions, my response became simpler, “My mom is a nurse,” though I was finally left wondering what it was she actually did. It definitely demanded a lot of time and energy and was important to the injured. I got my first clue about what mom actually did when having a late-night trip with her to the hospital in Central Phoenix.
Mom was called in to make rounds unexpectedly that night. It was dark outside and almost time for me to go to bed, so I was shocked when she asked if I wanted to come along with her. I loved the way the light from the streetlamps passed through the car. Being amazed at the view from the front seat, I didn’t say much. Some soft music was played on the radio in the car, which made me feel relaxed. When we arrived at the hospital, mom guided me through the parking garage and led me to a small emergency waiting room. There was only a row of white chairs along each wall and a TV which weighed roughly three hundred pounds.
注意：续写词数应为75左右。My mom handed me a bag of chocolate and left the emergency room to make her rounds.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________On the drive home, I asked mom if she had seen a man whose arms were injured badly. She gave me a positive response and told me that the man would be fine after an operation. I felt proud of her when I realized that my mom or one of her students would be there when the man woke up. And I realized mom was a real-life superhero, who devoted all her energy to her work in the hospital. She was a nurse practitioner—an educator and a caretaker. And what she did made a difference, which even a kid could see.
