1 . I was born with facial differences. My first surgery was when I was 3. That same year, I started _______ lessons when my mom signed me up to learn ballet. My mom said, “When you’re on stage, no one _______ your face,” and what I think she _______ was, “When you’re on stage, people can look past your difference and _______ you for who you are.”

I’ve had nine surgeries. I am forever _______ to my family for trying to give me every chance at a “normal” life. _______, what I would have really wanted was for that ”normal“ life to be a result of a culture where typical _______ weren’t a requirement for full participation in society.

It’s a daily experience for people with facial differences to get _______ questions like, “What happened to your face?”— that’s very _______, which I think is so messed up. I see ________ a lot when strangers are asking these questions.

I want people to examine their deeply held beliefs about what they ________ is beautiful and worthy of adoration and ask why? Why do we devalue people based only on what they ________?

The next time you see someone with a(n) ________, take a moment before asking annoying questions. You can help reduce your bias (偏见) by just ________ a person’s humanity — not through a lens (镜头) of pity, but by recognizing them as someone who is probably more ________ than different from yourself.

1.

A．piano

B．dance

C．acting

D．violin

2.

A．notices

B．shows

C．values

D．anticipates

3.

A．affected

B．predicted

C．chose

D．meant

4.

A．see

B．help

C．need

D．change

5.

A．equal

B．resistant

C．awesome

D．grateful

6.

A．Instead

B．Therefore

C．Otherwise

D．However

7.

A．families

B．faces

C．chances

D．lives

8.

A．exciting

B．amusing

C．disturbing

D．astonishing

9.

A．complex

B．important

C．common

D．practical

10.

A．hope

B．pity

C．panic

D．pain

11.

A．think

B．recall

C．demand

D．obtain

12.

A．rely on

B．decide on

C．put aside

D．look like

13.

A．expression

B．personality

C．difference

D．background

14.

A．recognizing

B．announcing

C．improving

D．classifying

15.

A．unique

B．similar

C．obvious

D．desperate

2 . As a writer, I miss rejection slips. Not that I enjoyed receiving those pre-printed slips of paper, but at least when I got one, I was pretty sure that a flesh-and-blood _______ had put it in the envelope. And there was always the chance I might see a handwritten sentence on the bottom, _______ the piece almost made it. When an editor at McCall’s wrote, “I’m afraid I have to say no on this _______ piece, but try me again on another, would you?” It was almost as _______ to me as if she had said, “We’ll _______ it and here is an advance for you”.

Nowadays, rejection slips seem to have disappeared with the use of online submissions. Most editors don’t feel it a must to _______ they have received, read, or considered your work because they receive so many _______ each day.

For me, there are three _______ of rejection slip pain. The first is _______ brought on by finding a flat “no” on a ________ piece of paper, then followed by anger (how could they ________ a piece that is obviously so much ________ than most of the stuff they print), and, finally, rebirth: I will live to ________ a new piece another day.

Learning to ________ rejection seems like part of growing up as a writer. Despite the many letters of acceptance I have received, my folder of “Noteworthy Rejection Slips” is far ________ than that of “Noteworthy Acceptances”, which indicates to me the fact: I still have some growing up to do.

1.

A．writer

B．reader

C．mailman

D．editor

2.

A．demanding

B．indicating

C．suspecting

D．arguing

3.

A．boring

B．novel

C．lengthy

D．particular

4.

A．thrilling

B．upsetting

C．embarrassing

D．amusing

5.

A．buy

B．reject

C．check

D．substitute

6.

A．prove

B．determine

C．explain

D．acknowledge

7.

A．proposals

B．drafts

C．contributions

D．instructions

8.

A．meanings

B．stages

C．wonders

D．rewards

9.

A．relief

B．frustration

C．anger

D．hesitation

10.

A．valueless

B．expensive

C．characterless

D．shiny

11.

A．make up

B．put away

C．turn down

D．insist on

12.

A．easier

B．better

C．shorter

D．longer

13.

A．print

B．revise

C．download

D．submit

14.

A．accept

B．criticize

C．judge

D．evaluate

15.

A．thinner

B．fatter

C．older

D．newer

3 . A mistake made six years ago has turned into a holiday tradition. A grandmother who mistakenly _________ a stranger to attend the family’s Thanksgiving dinner in 2016 ended up making a _________, and now the pair have _________ the holiday together every year since. This year is no exception.

In 2016, Wanda Dench tried to text her grandson about the family’s Thanksgiving dinner plans, but she _________ added a stranger to the message. Jamal Hinton was on the receiving end of the holiday text and jokingly accepted her _________.

“You’re not my grandma,” Hinton wrote back, including a selfie to _________ he was not the grandson Dench thought she was texting. “Can I still get a plate though?”

Dench, ever the _________ grandmother, replied, “Of course you can. That’s what Grandmas do… _________ everyone.” Hinton posted about the funny mix-up and it went viral (疯传). And on Thanksgiving day, he _________ drove from Tempe, Arizona to Mesa to __________ the Dench family for the holiday. And every year since, Hinton and Dench have got together for the holiday.

In 2020, he informed followers of some sad news—Dench’s husband, Lonnie, had died from COVID-19. So last Thanksgiving, __________ Lonnie, the family held a small, pared-down (精简的) __________the day after the holiday to keep the __________ alive.

This year, Hinton tweeted, “We are all set for year 6!”, __________ a screenshot of their text exchange as usual. Dench’s name is saved in his phone as “Grandma Wanda”. The story of __________ went viral again—spreading some holiday cheer on social media.

1.

A．reminded

B．invited

C．forced

D．allowed

2.

A．friend

B．deal

C．decision

D．story

3.

A．planned

B．organized

C．celebrated

D．booked

4.

A．carefully

B．purposefully

C．secretly

D．accidentally

5.

A．gift

B．idea

C．offer

D．apology

6.

A．argue

B．pretend

C．show

D．announce

7.

A．generous

B．strict

C．patient

D．caring

8.

A．forgive

B．feed

C．remember

D．understand

9.

A．casually

B．hardly

C．nearly

D．actually

10.

A．disturb

B．join

C．greet

D．congratulate

11.

A．in honor of

B．in search of

C．in praise of

D．in place of

12.

A．conversation

B．conference

C．competition

D．gathering

13.

A．mistake

B．news

C．tradition

D．holiday

14.

A．taking

B．enjoying

C．collecting

D．sharing

15.

A．honesty

B．kindness

C．generosity

D．toughness

4 . We moved to Washington, D.C. in 2016. The first few months were ______; my daughter cried her eyes out almost every night. Luckily, we found a dog and named it Luna. Every day after dropping my daughter off at school, I ______ Luna at the nearby dog park, where I met a crew of other mums. With Luna by our side, we survived the hard times.

The end of our ______ in the US was accompanied by the outbreak of COVID-19. Several days before our departure, we ______ the call saying that all pet travel on flights had been ______.

We were ______. Who could take Luna? Unbelievably, those dog-park mums came to help, ______ to look after Luna for as long as it would take. Leaving our adopted home during COVID-19 was ______. Unable to say a proper ______ to the city or our friends, our departure felt open-ended. We left Luna behind, and with her a part of ourselves.

We ______ the hole as best as we could and fell to the work of settling in. When the wheels of her ______ started turning 16 months later, our excitement built up. We counted down the days and ______ ourselves for the reunion. After a journey through six cities, Luna finally ______. With Luna home, our life has changed. She ______ a circle of unsaid goodbyes and ______ with her the imprint of friends and loved ones far away. We felt complete.

1.

A．brief

B．fantastic

C．beneficial

D．tough

2.

A．met

B．helped

C．walked

D．remembered

3.

A．time

B．service

C．performance

D．interview

4.

A．followed

B．rejected

C．ignored

D．received

5.

A．canceled

B．arranged

C．enjoyed

D．completed

6.

A．patient

B．shocked

C．honest

D．tired

7.

A．demanding

B．happening

C．offering

D．hesitating

8.

A．impossible

B．satisfying

C．amusing

D．unnatural

9.

A．hello

B．goodbye

C．sentence

D．plan

10.

A．surrounded

B．dug

C．repaired

D．entered

11.

A．return

B．search

C．growth

D．recovery

12.

A．rewarded

B．readied

C．forgave

D．treated

13.

A．survived

B．arrived

C．replied

D．continued

14.

A．needed

B．noticed

C．closed

D．chose

15.

A．shared

B．played

C．compared

D．carried

5 . Sadness and regret often go hand in hand, but we can’t let them hold us back. We must find peace and move forward.

Ever since I was young, it had been my greatest dream to attend Harvard, “the best” university in my eyes. I studied hard and maintained (保持) my good grades so that one day I could get into Harvard.     1     After all, I had always passed exams with flying colors.

However, my whole world fell apart when I got my rejection (拒绝) letter from Harvard. Everyone, including me, had gotten their hopes up so high that it was a long way down.

I gave in to my disappointment. I couldn’t understand what went wrong.     2     I cried all day and night, letting my disappointment and sadness eat me away.

Each time I tried to regain (重获) control, the feeling of rejection would come back and hit me hard. I knew that I couldn’t continue like this.     3     Though it was hard, I started rebuilding myself little by little every day because it’s okay to lose and to fail.

It doesn’t matter how many times or how hard you fall.     4     .

Even if it was painful at first, I went to Yale and attended my classes with a heavy heart. Over time the wound healed (愈合) itself up.     5     I fell but got back up. I didn’t let my disappointment silence me or control my actions.

A．I regretted that I hadn’t studied hard.

B．Everyone has different ideas about success.

C．It is how quickly you get back up that matters.

D．I knew that the news was hard to accept, but I had to face it.

E．Even if my future might be different from what I expected, I considered it a victory.

F．All my friends and families believed I would be able to get into my dream university.

G．Even greeting to Yale, which I considered a “second best” university, couldn’t revive me.

6 . 阅读下面材料，根据其内容和所给段落开头语续写两段，使之构成一篇完整的短文。

It was a summer afternoon a long time ago. I was a little boy watching my favourite rerun(重播) on our tiny little television set. All that was about to change, however. CRACK! BOOM! The lightening and thunder sounded. I was so frightened that I sat up on the sofa immediately. There was a line of snow flashing across the TV screen.

Suddenly my mum ran into the living room, unhooked the antenna(天线) wire and dropped the metal claws(钳子) into a glass jar by the TV. Seeing this, I started to complain but knew that Mum wasn’t going to risk lightening hitting our antenna, running through the wire, and blowing up our only TV set. Since there was no way she was going to let me go outside and play either, I settled into my chair and reread a book for the tenth time while she placed empty coffee cans under the leaks in the roof which my dad hadn’t had a chance to fix yet.

After a while, my mum walked to me and asked me if I could play cards with her. As I had no natural interest in the game of bridge, I refused her without hesitation. She looked at me with her imploring(恳求的) eyes. But I said nothing and buried my head in the book again even though there was no other attractions to me in it. She walked away quietly with a sigh(叹息).

Later after the lightening and thunder had passed and only a gently falling rain remained, I saw my mum walk out onto our back porch(门廊), sit down on our old porch swing and watch the rain. She loved watching it water the flowers, forests and gardens. She enjoyed seeing it swell(使膨胀) the river down the hill from our house. She knew it would be providing water to drink and wash and clean and live. She had told me all this many times too, but my young mind was too selfish then to take all in. All I knew was that rainstorms meant no TV and no playing outside.

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。

This time, though, I took the time to watch it fall.

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

The next time it rains, I’ll turn off my TV, computer, and phone.

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

7 . 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.

2. What made the picked fiddlehead ferns different?

A．The fresh leaves.	B．The input of labor.
C．The rich nutrition.	D．The help from Mother-in-law.

3. What does the author want to show by quoting her 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.

4. How does the author sound when telling the story?

A．Humorous.

B．Anxious.

C．Satisfied.

D．Tolerant.

8 . 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.

2. How did the author feel about the mistake of Emily’s mother?

A．Upset.

B．Pleased.

C．Ashamed.

D．Surprised.

3. Why on earth did the author try to change Emily’s accent?

A．To prove herself right.	B．To help Emily be a reporter.
C．To make herself influential.	D．To protect Emily’s self-dignity.

4. What message does the text want to convey?

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.

9 . Traveling itself is an experience hard to be described in words.     1     Especially the solo (独自) traveling experience is so transforming that it lives with you forever. Here I am sharing some lessons.

    2     Thinking how I would manage my entire day among strangers on campus, I pretended to be sick. Then I had the same feeling when I was planning to travel alone. Exploring a city on my own was a big fear for me but I successfully managed it all and now, I seek out new opportunities and experiences. I love to push myself.    3    

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.    4     I met a few very interesting people with whom I could feel an instant connect and got some new friends for life.

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.    5     During my solo travels I have explored my inner self and have expanded my boundaries which people around me have acknowledged at times.

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.

10 . Many years ago, I was living with my best friend and we had many happy moments together. But there was one night that ________ our lives forever.

On the night of November 25, 2011, I got into a fistfight with my best friend in our kitchen. It all started because I was trying to help him. He was drinking a lot, arguing with everyone and ________ himself from others by keeping silent most of the time. This had been going on for weeks and finally I decided it was time for a(an) ________ I told him that he needed to stop drinking so much and tried to ________ his alcohol and he got angry and started ________ with me. It was scary, but by the end of the night, we were able to calm down and talk to each other.

I thought alcohol ________ was his main problem. But he was just using alcohol to ________ himself through. He was lonely, heartbroken and struggling to connect with people. So during the Christmas season a few weeks later, I gave him a ________ that I didn’t even know I had.

That Christmas my friend didn’t have any place to go, so I invited him home to my parents’ house in Lancaster. They ________ cleaned up our guest room for him and even bought him some Christmas gifts. I’ll never forget the night we arrived at my home. My parents were already ________, but my mom had prepared dinner for us, baked some cookies and left us a note. My parents are known for their ________, so I wasn’t surprised by this warm welcome. But when my friend read my mom’s note and saw all that she had prepared, he broke down and cried. That’s when I ________ how much I took my loving family for granted.

That year my friend and I both received gifts that we would ________ forever. I gave him the gift of a warm, loving, safe place to spend Christmas. And he gave me the gift of a new ________ on life. If I hadn’t shared my home with him, I wouldn’t have understood how ________ I am.

1.

A．defined

B．inspired

C．created

D．changed

2.

A．defending

B．separating

C．protecting

D．locking

3.

A．communication

B．investigation

C．exploration

D．promotion

4.

A．put up

B．take away

C．break out

D．call off

5.

A．talking

B．crying

C．fighting

D．laughing

6.

A．access

B．addition

C．abuse

D．affection

7.

A．look

B．break

C．drive

D．carry

8.

A．time

B．holiday

C．gift

D．family

9.

A．happily

B．generally

C．formally

D．hurriedly

10.

A．awake

B．asleep

C．available

D．absorbed

11.

A．generosity

B．curiosity

C．ability

D．creativity

12.

A．admitted

B．realized

C．recognized

D．accepted

13.

A．exchange

B．present

C．treasure

D．appreciate

14.

A．day

B．test

C．skill

D．eye

15.

A．kind

B．grateful

C．blessed

D．healthy