1 . Not every man is cut out to be a father. If the thought of fatherhood fills you with fear, maybe it isn’t for you or maybe it’s a sign that you take the responsibility of fatherhood seriously.
As a parent, you are always going to have to trust your instincts (本能). There’s no comprehensive rule book on parenting. You’ll screw up sometimes. (Hopefully, your husband or wife will be there to nudge (用肘推) you in the right direction. ) And, as in many other aspects of life, doing the right thing will rarely make you popular. Your kids will need limits and discipline, and some days they will get angry with you for it. But the kids know on some level that they need limits and that the responsible parent who is setting and enforcing them is doing so because he or she cares. It’s the children whose parents allow them to do anything they want who often harbor doubts about whether they are really loved.
Certainly, we can find meaning in a lot of places in life. But for most of us who have seen the emergence of a small baby, fatherhood gives life unparalleled meaning. Parenthood, for a lot of us, may well be an antidepressant—not because you always feel good, but because you no longer have any time to sit around feeling bad. Your kids will always need you in one way or another—first for bottle-feeding, then as fellow pretend superheroes and to apply Band-Aids to skinned knees, and then, when they are teenagers, as a free personal Uber service or, once in a great while, for unexpected deep talks about the meaning of life.
I know what I did with my kids day after day, night after night, year over year, mattered so much. I won’t pretend to have everything figured out about life, but I did figure out the immeasurable value in being one link in a great chain of family, stretching back to our ancestors and continuing into the future, into whatever the world throws at us next.
1. What does the underlined phrase “screw up” in paragraph 2 mean?| A．Mess up. | B．Feel down. | C．Stay strong. | D．Get inspired. |
| A．Parenting books are essential for parents. |
| B．Strict parents are popular with their kids. |
| C．Disciplining kids is a way to show love. |
| D．Kids seldom understand parents’ intentions. |
| A．To share some parenting tips. |
| B．To stress the difficulty of parents. |
| C．To recall the growth of his kids. |
| D．To show the value of being a parent. |
| A．Fearful. | B．Stressed. | C．Proud. | D．Amused. |
It was a chilly morning in spring. Only a few people were around as I jogged through the park. Ahead was an elderly gentleman sitting on a wooden bench a few feet off the path. I was ready for a break to catch my breath and check my pulse. I sat next to him, looked at my watch, and started counting my heartbeats. After a few seconds, he interrupted my focus by asking how often I jogged. I responded without making eye contact, “Two or three times a week.” He attempted to engage me in the small talk that one engages in with a stranger.
His genuineness and comfortable smile eventually won me over, and soon we were talking about everything under the sun. We first discussed our favorite television programs, great places we had visited, meaningful moments in our lives, paths taken and not taken. Unexpectedly, we began revealing our politics, exchanging our different experiences as parents. He mentioned that his daughter and her ten-year-old son were coming to visit him in a couple of weeks; he hadn’t seen them for two years. How he looked forward to their visit! We chatted as if we had been friends for decades.
I think it was the chill that broke the moment between us. I looked down at my watch. What seemed like a half-hour had actually been three hours! We were totally unaware of time and place. We who were strangers had somehow become soul mates. We said our gentle farewells, “See you around,” smiling and waving as we parted. We knew we probably wouldn’t meet again.
Several days later, while putting newspapers into a recycling bin, I chanced to see the old man’s picture on the back page, in the obituaries (讣告): “Mr. – passed away yesterday… Please send donations to the Canadian Heart and Stroke Foundation.” Tears welled up in my eyes and trickled down my cheeks as I drove home. I was also weeping for his daughter and her not having had that moment of closeness with him that I just had on that Sunday morning.
注意：
1. 续写词数应为 150 左右；
2. 请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
Arriving home, I sat down and wrote her daughter a brief letter.
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It was almost eight months later when an envelope arrived.
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3 . My smartphone gave me access to music, information and videos. I would repeatedly refresh my email, shop online and look through the latest bad news. I’d often complain. I felt trapped by it.
I am more connected in my relationships.
Earlier, while texting with a friend who had moved, I finally got frustrated (懊丧的) and called her. I realized I hadn’t spoken to her since her move.
I consume news on my own.
During the lock-downs, I filled boredom by visiting stores sending newsletters to my email. I found myself repeating lines from department store copywriters. Every time I clicked “buy”, I’d get a dopamine (多巴胺) hit. Now I’m online about 10 times less, I’m more thoughtful about what I need and I’ve had the time to take up knitting and needling—making what I once would have “added to cart”.
I am calmer.
When I first quit using my phone, I’d search for it at times. I went through withdrawals. Thankfully, that sense of dependence is false. I’ve found you can find other ways to do all the things.
| A．I shop less online. |
| B．So I decided to change. |
| C．I spend my time with my family. |
| D．But over time, I became worried about its role in my life. |
| E．I worried that I would miss out important discussions of the day. |
| F．It made a difference to hear both the awe and sadness in her voice. |
| G．It’s not always convenient, but I’m much calmer without my smartphone. |
4 . My mother-in-law asked me to climb a mountain in her rural village. We went through tall and weedy expanse of grass, pulling ourselves up with the help of smooth bamboo trees. Weathered gray rocks dotted tracks only visible to an experienced hiker. The view we were rewarded with halfway up the mountain, fixing our eyes upon the colorful pieces of fields and whitewashed homes set against the deep green hills and a sky so blue that it looked digitally polished, was a side benefit of being there.
Our eyes were mostly on the wild eatable plants that grew on the mountainside. We first came upon the wild mountain bamboo, a plant that was the main part in my mother-in-law’s salted bamboo shoots that, once preserved, could be used all year long in cooking. Along the way, we also encountered another precious wild food — fiddlehead ferns (蕨菜). Those delicate leaves, when stir-fired, were a tasty treat. Once I had purchased fiddleheads at a market in the US. Yet there we were, picking this prized vegetable on our own, with only our labor as the cost.
What we had collected that afternoon looked the same as any other wild mountain bamboo shoots and fiddlehead ferns I had seen before in my mother-in-law’s kitchen. And yet, they felt different to me because I had used my own hands to help pick them and carry them back down the mountain. Spending time and energy gathering these wild plants gave me a deeper appreciation for the food that ends up on the dinner table.
“Many generations have kept this natural lifestyle. We depend on the mountains for our life,” my mother-in-law says. Those mountains and rivers supporting her life aren’t some abstract concept. They are right there, outside her door and within her rural village. Once I saw them through her angle that afternoon, I realized they are closer to me than I ever imagined.
1. Why was the author asked to climb a mountain?| A．To pull some bamboo trees. | B．To enjoy its beautiful scenery. |
| C．To get some wild vegetables. | D．To lake some digital pictures. |
| A．The fresh leaves. | B．The input of labor. |
| C．The rich nutrition. | D．The help from Mother-in-law. |
| A．Nature feeds villagers and sustains their life. |
| B．City people want to settle down in mountains. |
| C．Rural areas are inaccessible to some outsiders. |
| D．Farmers dream of changing the natural lifestyle. |
| A．Humorous. | B．Anxious. | C．Satisfied. | D．Tolerant. |
By good fortune, I was able to drift down the Motu River in New Zealand
The first journey
The guide on the second journey was very softlyspoken. It seemed that it would be
6 . Everyone knows that the choices we make affect our future. Suppose I am an intelligent student with good marks. However, being lazy, I do badly in my examinations. I am refused entry to university and cannot find a good job. The golden future will never be.
However, your choices affect your future in a way that is more complicated.
However, we do have some power of choice, and we do control the most important thing of all: how we respond to circumstances.
| A．Some will argue this is not true. |
| B．All these are from a bad choice! |
| C．Too many choices can be confusing. |
| D．This ability to choose how we behave is a great gift. |
| E．We can choose to keep struggling in hard times, or to give up. |
| F．Your character is being made by you, bit by bit, choice by choice. |
| G．This is because nearly all the choices you make affect your character. |
7 . As a child, I was proud of my southern origin. My own voice reflected my family’s past and present-part northern Mississippi, part Tennessee, all southern. There was no sound I loved more than my grandmother’s accent: thick, sweet, warm.
While growing up, I began to realize outside of our region, southerners were often dismissed as uncultured and ignorant. I was ready to leave behind my tiny town in West Tennessee, starting a new life and jumping at big chances in some far-off cities. In that embarrassing space between “teen” and “adult”, my accent was a symbol of everything I thought I hated about my life in the rural South. I feared it would disqualify me from being a noted magazine writer. I would have to talk less “country”. So I killed a piece of myself. I’m ashamed of it, but I’m more ashamed that I tried to kill that part of someone else-change Emily’s accent.
I met Emily in college. She was determined to work for the student newspaper, which was where I spent most of my waking hours, and we became friends. She, unlike me, accepted her roots. Early in our friendship, her mother asked where I was from, assuming it was somewhere up north. Then I felt my efforts paid off and even wanted to ignore the mistake.
Emily is two years younger and she cared about my opinion. I advised her to be more like me and hide her signature Manchester accent. I stressed that throughout our college years, often by making fun of her vowel (元音) sounds. I told myself I was helping her achieve her dream of working as a reporter. Now, I see that it was actually about justifying my hiding part of myself.
Grandma Carolyn used to tell me, “Girl, don’t forget where you come from.” Now I truly understand that. Many things have faded from memory, but this sticks in my mind with uncomfortable clarity. Now that I am grown and have left the South, it’s important to me.
1. What made the author want to leave her hometown?| A．Appeal of convenience in cities. |
| B．Her dream of becoming a writer. |
| C．Outside prejudice against southerners. |
| D．Her desire for the northern accent. |
| A．Upset. | B．Pleased. | C．Ashamed. | D．Surprised. |
| A．To prove herself right. | B．To help Emily be a reporter. |
| C．To make herself influential. | D．To protect Emily’s self-dignity. |
| A．Stay true to your roots. | B．Never do things by halves. |
| C．Hold on to your dreams. | D．Never judge a person by his accent. |
8 . Something interesting happened at my home recently. In a hillside suburb, I am lucky to be
One of those birds is called the laughing kookaburra, a big kingfisher, which certainly does like to
The kookaburra’s head and chest are white
I was inside my home when there was a loud
| A．blocked | B．surrounded | C．caught | D．attracted |
| A．picture | B．kind | C．variety | D．story |
| A．catch | B．track | C．bury | D．choose |
| A．since | B．while | C．because | D．unless |
| A．approves | B．remembers | C．proves | D．describes |
| A．relationship | B．common | C．chorus | D．cooperation |
| A．spreads | B．turns | C．disappears | D．falls |
| A．voice | B．knock | C．laugh | D．shout |
| A．figured | B．worked | C．walked | D．pointed |
| A．waiting | B．flying | C．sleeping | D．grounding |
| A．stood | B．pushed | C．sat | D．looked |
| A．excited | B．frightened | C．desperate | D．annoyed |
| A．spelt out | B．broke out | C．burst out | D．spoke out |
| A．familiar | B．hopeful | C．ridiculous | D．wonderful |
| A．lift | B．shake | C．clear | D．fill |
“Why can’t I just get a dog, Mum!”
“Because of your allergies (过敏)! How many times do I have to tell you, Violet!”
Violet was filled with anger. The rain started to fall. Large raindrops slid down the window, just like the tears on her face. There was violent anger in Violet’s eyes. She walked angrily to her room and threw herself onto the bed. Her anger was now like an angry bull.
She screamed into her pillow as loud as she could and threw it onto the ground with all her strength. She dialed her best friend Darla, who happened to also be her neighbor.
Darla picked up in an instant.
“I could hear everything.” Darla immediately chuckled. “I’ve known you and your mum since primary school. She’s not letting you get a dog.”
“Was I that loud?” Violet questioned herself in disbelief.
“You’ve been asking for a dog since you were seven! There’s no chance she was going to just give it to you. Plus, you have so many allergies that I’ve even lost count.”
“It’s just not fair. You get two dogs and I’m stuck with my younger sister who has basically a rat.” Violet announced unappreciatively.
“You have to be grateful for what you have. Anyway, I’ve got to have dinner with my family. I can call in half an hour, see you later.”
After the call disconnected, the words from Darla’s mouth about being grateful sunk into Violet like a dry sponge (海绵) filled with water, She remembered the countless times that she was admitted to the hospital for an allergic reaction while her family stayed and cared for her. Violet never really thought about the things she had, she only thought about the things she didn’t have. Violet had a tamily which accounts for more than everything, even a dog. Family love is stronger than any love. Violet knew she was blessed to have this love.
注意：
1.续写词数应为150左右；
2.请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
From that day onwards, Violet stopped asking for a dog.
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The allergies were disappearing with age.
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10 . Traveling itself is an experience hard to be described in words.
Having grown up and lived all my life in a single place, I had a small set of friends since my school days which continued till my college days.
I totally agree that traveling with family and friends is fun and enjoying. But traveling alone is satisfying too. It’s among those few things that you do for yourself and nobody else.
| A．I want to experience more. |
| B．But all this changed with my first solo trip. |
| C．I never thought I would travel alone in my life. |
| D．I was so scared when I went to school first time. |
| E．Every journey prepares you for the journey of life. |
| F．The farther you travel, the more independent you become. |
| G．After all you need to take care of yourself a bit too at times. |
