1 . On a summer morning, I woke up early, herded my three-and five-year-old daughters into the car, packed my friend and her two daughters into the car, and drove two hours to the New Jersey Shore, where we spread our towels on the beach by 10 a.m.
Out of nowhere, the girls took off running. About 50 yards from us, a man—maybe in his late 50s—was fishing with gigantic poles. The girls stood next to him and watched with their little mouths hanging open as he cast the lines. He smiled at them. They ran back to us — all except my three-year-old, Drew.
My brain immediately shot into Mama Bear mode: human trafficker (人贩子).
“Drew! Come here! Play with your friends!” I yelled, very aware that my speeches about not talking to strangers weren’t working. Good moms should be cautious. Good moms should teach their daughters that the world is a dangerous place. So I felt relieved when Drew trotted over to me and grabbed a shovel. Then she looked me in the eye, “I want to be with that man.” She ran back, sat down next to him, and started digging.
As I was thinking about what she was saying to him, she ran back to us, waving something very shiny and slimy. “A toy fish!” This must have been what he was using for bait. And he’d given it to Drew. The three other girls were impressed, and they all longed for the fish. Drew looked at me for help, then at the man, then back at me.
“My friend gave me that fish!” she protested. The sand turned into a preschool cage match with a yellow rubber fish flipping through the air. Tears were fast approaching. I felt like I might cry myself.
Suddenly, there he was. He was holding three more rubber fish and handed them to each of the girls. By their faces, you would have thought he was actually the really cute Jonas brother. “Thank you,” they said, without prompting.
“Thank you,” I said, realizing that yes, there is evil in the world... but there is also good, and kindness in strangers, and lessons for mothers to learn that only a three-year-old could teach them.
1. The author thought a good mom should ______.| A．allow her kids to relax | B．care about her kids’ safety |
| C．take her kids to explore nature | D．encourage her kids to share with others |
| A．The man letting Drew sit next to him. | B．The man teaching the kids how to fish. |
| C．The man handing a rubber fish to Drew. | D．The man handing extra rubber fish to the kids. |
| A．There is goodwill in the world. | B．Children have their own blessings. |
| C．Everything comes to those who wait. | D．Watch out for people with bad intentions. |
2 . Running with Heart
My name was missing from the list. All my friends had made the cheer-leading team. But somehow my name was not there. I felt lost and embarrassed. Knowing that next year would bring a new round of try-outs, I began practicing routines on my own, hoping to become a cheerleader the next year. But my dad suggested that I get involved in running track — just to try it out for a year. I had always been the fastest kid to run a mile in gym class, so I figured that I might as well sign up for running for just one season.
I had no idea what I was getting myself into. In the first race on the track team, I took the last place. Race after race, I continued to place last and I felt my lungs burning from the effort. I wanted to quit, feeling like a failure. But my dad reminded me that once you are committed to something, you should always follow through. So I finished my first track season, placing last in every race.
The next year came. Although running was not a popular activity, like cheer-leading was at our school, I signed up again to run the long-distance races. I wanted to challenge myself. Within one year, I became the fastest female cross-country runner on our school’s team. A few years later, I placed 3rd in the Ohio State meet. Not only that, but I was offered an athletic scholarship for college.
Classmates may have laughed at me for choosing running over cheer-leading, but I didn’t care. I wasn’t running track to be cool or to prove anything to anyone else. Running made me proud of who I was. When I chose to be a runner, I chose to be true to myself. We all make that choice every day — we can be who we were born to be or we can simply follow the crowd. For me, I am happiest to be...just me.
1. After failing to make the cheer-leading team, the author ________.| A．wanted to quit |
| B．blamed her father |
| C．turned to her friends |
| D．continued to practice |
| A．wanted to prove herself |
| B．was inspired by her father |
| C．got an athletic scholarship |
| D．performed well in the races |
| A．Confident and honest. |
| B．Creative and ambitious. |
| C．Generous and committed. |
| D．Hardworking and determined. |
| A．follow others’ opinions |
| B．try out for popular activities |
| C．appreciate who we really are |
| D．help those who are in trouble |
3 . I still remember the day when I came home from work at two o’clock one afternoon. Imagine my
I told Joann to go home because I needed to speak to Megan
Well, she wasn’t very
Although the teacher gave her a
| A．joy | B．shock | C．relief | D．shame |
| A．believed | B．realized | C．admitted | D．predicted |
| A．privately | B．carefully | C．equally | D．normally |
| A．encouraged | B．blamed | C．warned | D．controlled |
| A．comforting | B．punishing | C．changing | D．annoying |
| A．when | B．why | C．where | D．how |
| A．truth | B．plan | C．advice | D．wish |
| A．surprised | B．worried | C．scared | D．pleased |
| A．hard | B．lucky | C．boring | D．free |
| A．opportunities | B．responsibilities | C．suggestions | D．advantages |
4 . A farmer owned an old mule(骡子) One day the mule
After carefully thinking about the situation, the farmer
At first, the old mule was mad! But as the farmer and the neighbors
This he did, blow after blow. “Shake it off and step up…shake it off and step up…shake it off and step up!” He repeated to
It wasn’t long before the old mule, tired out, stepped
That’s life! We should face our problems and respond to them
| A．flowed | B．felt | C．fell | D．flew |
| A．protesting | B．talking | C．singing | D．crying |
| A．failed | B．refused | C．escaped | D．succeeded |
| A．decided | B．imagined | C．requested | D．pretended |
| A．However | B．Therefore | C．Moreover | D．Otherwise |
| A．situation | B．house | C．wall | D．well |
| A．disaster | B．order | C．control | D．prison |
| A．stopped | B．suggested | C．continued | D．finished |
| A．replied | B．got | C．turned | D．occurred |
| A．pain | B．dirt | C．fear | D．pity |
| A．encourage | B．experience | C．expect | D．explore |
| A．painless | B．possible | C．hopeless | D．useful |
| A．slightly | B．suddenly | C．secretly | D．successfully |
| A．hurt | B．helped | C．punished | D．controlled |
| A．obviously | B．positively | C．curiously | D．necessarily |
5 . Long time ago in a small, faraway village, there was a place known as the House of 1,000 Mirrors. Mirrors were on the top of a couple of stairs, reflecting everything.
A small, happy little dog learned of this place and decided to visit. When he arrived, he bounced happily up the stairs to the doorway of the house. He looked through the doorway with his ears lifted high and his tail wagging as fast as it could. To his great surprise, after getting to the top, he found himself staring at 1,000 other happy little dogs with their tails wagging just as fast as his. He smiled a great smile, and was answered with 1,000 great smiles just as warm and friendly. As he left the house, he thought to himself, “This is a wonderful place. I will come back and visit it often.” And he told every friend about this fantastic house when he came back to the village.
Hearing the news, another little dog in this same village, who was not quite as happy as the first one, decided to visit the house, too. With serious look on his face, he slowly climbed the stairs and hung his head low as he walked into the door of the house. After getting to the top, he was out of breath. That is when he saw the 1,000 unfriendly looking dogs staring back at him. He growled (恶狠狠地咆哮) at them at once and was frightened to see 1,000 little dogs growling back at him. As he left, he thought to himself, “That is a horrible place, and I will never go back there again.”
All the faces in the world are mirrors, what kind of reflections do you see in the faces of the people you meet? In fact, if you take a look around, you will find changing reflections in their faces. From these reflections, you can understand yourself better.
1. What does the first paragraph serve as?| A．Giving examples. |
| B．Introducing a new idea. |
| C．Providing background information. |
| D．Explaining the meaning of the story. |
| A．Villagers loved to go to this house. |
| B．The mirrors in this house are broken. |
| C．There were few mirrors in the house. |
| D．Mirrors were lying on the top of the stairs. |
| A．The first dog made many friends in the house. |
| B．The first dog intended to go back to the house. |
| C．The second was pleased when he left the house. |
| D．The second dog was treated unfriendly by the dogs in the house. |
| A．Love me, love my dog. |
| B．Doing is better than saying. |
| C．You are what the reflections are. |
| D．Never judge a book from its cover. |
It was a few years ago. A friend sent me a restaurant gift card for Christmas and I picked a pretty, sunny Sunday afternoon to use it. It felt good taking my two grown sons and daughter to a nice sit-down restaurant instead of the fast food places we usually ate at. The meal was delicious and we all had a good time. When the waitress brought the check, I looked down at it. The gift card covered almost all of it. I reached into my wallet to get enough cash to cover the rest. I saw two bills in my wallet. The first would cover the rest of the bill and give the waitress a nice tip. The second bill was much larger, so I reached down to pick out the first one.
At that moment, my mind flashed back to 30 years ago. I was working as a waiter in a restaurant much like the one we were in now. It was long hours of hard work for low pay. I went home just only making enough to feed my young family. I also remembered how more than once I saw the waitresses counting their meager tips while worrying about how they were going to pay the rent and buy their kids things they needed. I remembered the pain in their eyes and sadness in their faces at the end of the day.
I blinked (眨眼) and was back in the present again. My fingers touched the smaller bill in my wallet. I smiled, pushed it back down, and picked out the much larger bill. I folded it around the gift card and covered both of them with the check. As we all got up from the table, I handed them to the hard-working waitress. “You keep the change,” I said with a smile and a happy heart.
We are all one family in this world. We live together, laugh together, and suffer together. Do your best to be a good person and love others. Replace the suffering with joy.
1. Why did the author initially want to use the first bill to pay? (no more than 15 words)2. How do you understand the underlined word in Paragraph 2? (no more than 5 words)
3. What does Paragraph 3 mainly talk about? (no more than 10 words)
4. Which word would you use to describe the author’s personality or character? (1 word)
5. What can you learn from the story? Please explain. (no more than 20 words)
7 . I’ve been having trouble concentrating on one thing. It made school difficult for me. When everyone else in the class was focusing on tasks, I could not.
In my first literature class, Mrs. Smith asked us to read a story and then write on it, all within 45 minutes. I raised my hand right away and said, “Mrs. Smith, you see, the doctor said I have attention problems. I might not be able to do it.” She looked at me through her glasses, “You are not different from your classmates, young man.”
I tried, but I didn’t finish the reading when the bell rang. I had to take it home.
In the quietness of my bedroom, the story suddenly all became clear to me. It was about a blind person, Louis Braille. He lived in a time when the blind couldn’t get much education. But Louis didn’t give up. Instead, he invented a reading system of raised dots (点), which opened up a whole new world of knowledge to the blind. Wasn’t I the “blind” in my class, being made to learn like the “sighted” students? My thoughts spilled out and my pen started to dance. I completed the task within 40 minutes. Indeed, I was not different from others; I just needed a quieter place. If Louis could find his way out of his problems, why should I ever give up?
I didn’t expect anything when I handed in my paper to Mrs. Smith, so it was quite a surprise when it came back to me the next day — with an “A” on it. At the bottom of the paper were these words: “See what you can do when you keep trying?”
Inspired and touched, I began to keep trying hard in my study and struggled against attention problems. I believe one can find his way out of difficulty with determination (决心) and efforts.
1. Why didn’t the author finish his reading in class?| A．He missed several classes before. | B．He was not interested in literature. |
| C．He always did his homework at home. | D．He was unable to concentrate on his task. |
| A．He was creative. | B．He was shallow. |
| C．He was tricky. | D．He was well-educated. |
| A．Impatient. | B．Careless. | C．Disappointing. | D．Encouraging. |
| A．You can never be too old to learn. | B．Do not judge a book by its cover. |
| C．Where there is a will, there is a way. | D．Only study and no play makes Jack a dull boy. |
8 . My aunt came to my home with her six-year-old daughter Alice this morning. While my aunt was talking with my mom at home, my cousin felt a bit
Later, we sat down on a bench, looking at the gardens. As we were
Many people wait for their “best days”. But I think today is our
We often hear the expression that we should live in the
| A．tired | B．bored | C．hungry | D．sleepy |
| A．birds | B．presents | C．kites | D．planes |
| A．laughing | B．crying | C．complaining | D．running |
| A．willingly | B．truly | C．faithfully | D．hopefully |
| A．wonder | B．suggest | C．dream | D．admit |
| A．eating | B．jumping | C．sitting | D．walking |
| A．beautiful | B．great | C．warm | D．long |
| A．thinking about | B．looking for | C．aiming at | D．dreaming about |
| A．brave | B．strange | C．common | D．interesting |
| A．memorable | B．special | C．important | D．perfect |
| A．money | B．energy | C．time | D．experience |
| A．parents | B．teachers | C．relatives | D．children |
| A．morning | B．present | C．past | D．future |
| A．mood | B．home | C．family | D．life |
| A．reason | B．book | C．gift | D．tool |
9 . As a clueless freshman, I waltzed into my first creative writing course by accident, thinking it was a literature class on how to read stories, not how to write them.
When the teacher introduced the course, I realized my mistake. The credits I earned from the course wouldn’t count toward my major. By the end of the session, however, I decided that I had to be a part of the course. Perhaps, as a lifelong reader, I was eager to understand how stories worked their magic.
But taking the class would be impossible: I wasn’t even on the waitlist. That’s when the teacher asked for a volunteer to submit the first workshop story.
Silence blanketed the room. No one risked eye contact. Whoever volunteered would have to write a whole story in a week. Perhaps they, like me, had never written one before.
Seizing my chance, I raised my hand and asked, “If I go first, will you give me a spot in the class?” He said he would.
So, instead of keeping my head down and avoiding eye contact, I did the opposite.
Years later, I’d completed a degree in creative writing and was working on a novel when a literary agent (经纪人) asked to read the first 50 pages of my draft. But I wasn’t comfortable showing her anything; the novel was far from done.
Throughout graduate school, I’d been advised many times not to contact agents until I have a complete draft. In the meanwhile, I knew the beginning of my story was attractive and that the agent might not remember me after a year.
So, once again, instead of keeping my head down and avoiding eye contact, I did the opposite. I sent her the first three chapters. A month later, she signed me on the strength of those chapters alone. She has since seen me through the publication of three novels.
Determination, focus, perseverance—the qualities that I consider crucial in getting me into Stanford no doubt helped me become the novelist I am today. And yet if I’d trained my gaze only on the path ahead, I would have missed so many happy accidents, so many beautiful opportunities to look up, raise my hand, and say yes.
1. What made the author finally decide to take the course?| A．The popularity of the course. |
| B．Her curiosity about story writing. |
| C．Her confidence in her writing skills. |
| D．The need to get credits for her degree. |
| A．challenge herself | B．impress the teacher |
| C．display her talent | D．win a place in the class |
| A．her friends advised her to do so |
| B．her story was attractive to readers |
| C．the agent asked her to turn in the work |
| D．she wanted to get the chance of publication |
| A．Action speaks louder than words. |
| B．Chance favors only the prepared mind. |
| C．Success comes to those who will and dare. |
| D．Confidence leads to growth and fulfillment. |
10 . Yes Day
My friends and I were having breakfast at a Mexican holiday resort (旅游胜地) while enjoying the cool sea breeze. It promised to be another
We were looking over the list of the resort’s activities. After we
I hate
My friend Katie, who didn’t want to do karaoke, also had to face her
We still talk about our magical Yes Day! When we see the photos from that magical time, we are so happy. In fact, we may miss so much if we only
| A．interesting | B．relaxing | C．inspiring | D．rewarding |
| A．failed | B．agreed | C．managed | D．decided |
| A．help | B．relieve | C．challenge | D．appreciate |
| A．sports | B．changes | C．surprises | D．heights |
| A．did | B．had | C．got | D．won |
| A．pride | B．pain | C．anxiety | D．excitement |
| A．shame | B．fear | C．regret | D．loneliness |
| A．even | B．just | C．almost | D．still |
| A．put off | B．give up | C．stick to | D．turn to |
| A．want | B．need | C．enjoy | D．remember |
