1 . “Hey, lady! You can move your ugly car up now!” The silver-haired driver behind me in a fancy truck rudely yelled at me. Without much thought, I yelled back at the man, “What? Are you in a rush or something?”

I was waiting in line at the drive-through to order our breakfast on a Sunday morning. There were only 12 inches or so between me and the car in front of me. There were also three additional cars in front of that one. We were getting nowhere fast. What was he hoping to gain by yelling at me?

I wanted to let my own anger go after this ridiculous exchange. But the more I thought about it, the angrier I got. I was angry that he yelled at a mother in front of two kids. My daughter and my son were both confused and saddened by what they had just witnessed. We were on our way to a soccer tournament, and we had a bonus day free from school and work. Probably, there was nothing in the world to be upset about. Then this man let his anger out.

I told my kids I was so mad that I had to roll my window up so that I wouldn’t keep yelling at this guy. Then, I stopped and looked back. I had moved up the 12 or so inches at his “suggestion”, while he hadn’t moved an inch. Suddenly, I felt sympathy for him. He must have been suffering in some way. As my kids and I slowly made our way to the pick-up window to pay for our order, I had an idea.

“I heard how rude that man was to you, and I wanted to apologize to you for having to put up with that. He isn’t worth paying for,” the cashier said to me. “My kids support me in doing that,” I answered the cashier, adding that hate cannot drive out hate.

1. Why was the driver angry with the author?

A．Her car cut in.

B．She screamed at him.

C．She held up his truck.

D．Her car stopped suddenly.

2. What does the author mainly tell us in paragraph 3?

A．What her kids’ reaction was.	B．Why her anger kept growing.
C．How she calmed herself down.	D．Why she ordered the breakfast.

3. What was the author’s final decision?

A．She taught her kids a lesson.	B．She apologized to the driver.
C．She paid for the driver’s food.	D．She gave the cashier some advice.

4. What does the author intend to convey in the text?

A．Respond to hate with kindness.	B．Deal with a man as he deals with you.
C．Put distance between your car and another.	D．Never go to the drive-through at rush hours.

2 . Novels. Why do I read them? I was most ____ to read when I was a kid. I suspect this was because my only purpose was ____ and escapism. From all 21 Famous Five stories — in order, naturally — to Anna Karenina, ____ into a basket on a cycling holiday, I was ____ to another world. Then, for A-levels and a degree, I read to pass ____. Slowly, tellingly, the joy ____. And I was no good at the exams either. When those last exams were done, more than 30 years ago, I was done with novels. I had ____ love.

Gradually, it has come back, but it’s all ____ now. I find I’m reading whole novels mainly to ____ intelligence to help understand what I’ve been feeling; feelings that I’ve been ____ to express myself. For some reason I ____ The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Bronte. The _____soon starts to fade, and all you are left with is how it made you feel. This is nice, but what makes it all worthwhile is those specific ____ that I make sure to harvest and go back to. ____, Helen says of her new life in the big city: “At first, I was ____ with the novelty and excitement of our London life, but soon I began to be tired of its ____.”

A few months later, I ____ Anne Bronte’s resting place in Scarborough. Standing there, I____ this little passage and appreciated anew how ____ it resonated (产生共鸣) with my own feelings about London. And there the poor young woman lay, gone 173 years and still making ____ friends. That’s quite something.

1.

A．surprised

B．eager

C．qualified

D．welcome

2.

A．education

B．judgment

C．enjoyment

D．family

3.

A．divided

B．turned

C．rolled

D．stuffed

4.

A．transported

B．limited

C．admitted

D．followed

5.

A．inspection

B．exams

C．messages

D．time

6.

A．declined

B．arose

C．remained

D．gathered

7.

A．sought for

B．suffered from

C．fallen out of

D．broken away from

8.

A．different

B．wrong

C．difficult

D．normal

9.

A．prove

B．unearth

C．explain

D．untie

10.

A．unwilling

B．unhappy

C．unprepared

D．unable

11.

A．identified

B．selected

C．wrote down

D．took back

12.

A．plot

B．memory

C．reputation

D．vision

13.

A．fruits

B．happenings

C．insights

D．characters

14.

A．In addition

B．In short

C．At random

D．For instance

15.

A．content

B．familiar

C．bored

D．occupied

16.

A．misfortune

B．beauty

C．authority

D．unrest

17.

A．lost sight of

B．sorted out

C．chanced upon

D．kept track of

18.

A．let out

B．made up

C．edited out

D．looked up

19.

A．intensely

B．simply

C．possibly

D．gradually

20.

A．lifelong

B．personal

C．new

D．local

3 . At the beginning of graduate school, I knew that if I wanted to get tenure (长期聘用), I had to be productive. However, when my first three papers were rejected by major journals, a leading expert told me my projects were hopeless, and I wondered if I should drop out.

We all get rejected at work, whether it’s having our suggestions shot down or getting fired from a job. It causes pain. Neuroscientists (神经系统科学家) have scanned the brains of people who have cruelly been excluded from an online game. The physiological (生理学的) response looks fairly similar to processing physical pain.

Apparently, this was adaptive in our evolutionary past. If rejection didn’t hurt, you might have been perfectly comfortable leaving your tribe, which would not be good for your survival. But it’s left us nervous and likely to overreact to everyday rejections. If you’ve ever given a presentation and felt upset by the one unfriendly face in a room full of smiles, you know what I mean.

That’s the bad news. The good news is that we can learn to accept rejection calmly. “When you’re insecure in one, you rely on the other one that’s doing better at that time. Pliability (柔韧性) is the definition of strength,” said filmmaker M. Night Shyamalan.

When my work got rejected early in my academic career, pliability became my source of strength. My identity as a researcher was under threat, but that wasn’t what had drawn me to graduate school in the first place. I had another, stronger identity: I wanted to be a teacher. However, I hadn’t had the chance: The first two years of my program were supposed to focus entirely on research.

I realized that if I wanted to bounce back from the research rejections, I had to find a way to teach. I convinced an adviser to sign off on independent study projects for a group of students, and I started meeting with them weekly to teach my own little class. The conversations with the students gave rise to my first two major papers, which gave me a head start toward tenure.

1. What was the author’s reaction to the leading expert’s words?

A．He took his advice.	B．He felt discouraged.
C．He paid no attention.	D．He consulted another expert.

2. What have neuroscientists found out?

A．Rejection really hurts.

B．Rejection is important to survival.

C．People tend to overreact to rejection.

D．Physical pain grows because of rejection.

3. What does the author advise us to do when facing rejection?

A．Find out the reasons behind it.

B．Forgive those who reject us.

C．Turn to our stronger identity.

D．Learn a lesson from past failures.

4. What happened to the author at last?

A．He left graduate school.

B．He turned into a middle school teacher.

C．He worked on practicing his physical pliability.

D．He accomplished some research work successfully.

4 . 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。

As an educator, I have discovered that the life lessons that students bring with them to school are the ones that I truly need to learn.

One story that describes this awesome responsibility starts with a second year college student. Every day, he would come into my math class, sit in the very back and avoid eye contact. When I would ask the class questions, I could hear a deep voice coming from his direction saying the correct answer every single time. I immediately began to investigate and found that he had high standardized test scores but his report card in school did not match his performances. I knew something had to change.

Through our school mentoring (辅导制) program, I asked him if he would like to be a part of a support team that was specifically designed to help him graduate on time with his classmates. This program required me to visit all of his classroom teachers, help him complete every assignment, provide him with materials to finish projects, and constantly remind him that success could be achieved if he stayed on this path. In his senior, he was able to make the Honor Roll (光荣榜).

This student had been living with his great-grandfather instead of living with his mother and six siblings (姊妹). The concept of family had not been demonstrated in his life. However, at school, this program provided him with a team that focused on his academic needs as well as celebrated his successes. The idea of family, where he was cared for and was seen as important, was able to become a reality.

Unfortunately, during his senior year, his great-grandfather passed away, which terribly influenced his newly positive view of life. But because of the bond that was established over the past two years through the program, I was able to keep him focused on what he could control to achieve his goal. He showed determination and perseverance, and he became a senior with his original class and had the opportunity to graduate with his friends.

注意：
1. 续写词数应为150个左右；
2. 请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。

Sadly, when graduation day approached, he refused to attend the ceremony.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

I can still remember his smile face as he walked across that stage to receive his diploma.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

5 . How long will it take you to read this article? On average, adults read about 240 words a minute, but I always take longer. I should probably feel embarrassed-but instead, I take joy in it.

I got the habit of reading for pleasure from my mum. Reading is what I do first thing in the morning and last thing at night. But it’s always taken me a long time. When I started reviewing books, I was averaging 20 pages an hour. I have improved to about 30 pages, but that’s still slow, according to some literary critics.

Book reviewers aren’t the only ones under pressure to read quickly. Pictures of “all the books I read this month” are all over social media. And reading has become a way of keeping up with the world. It is understandable that we try to make sense of events, but it can also fuel the idea that reading is a chore (苦差事), which it absolutely is not.

Why would pleasure be equal to pace? My slow reading seems to be down to a combination of slower processing speeds, and “subvocalising” — sounding out words as I read them. But especially when it comes to the latter, I wouldn’t want to train myself to go faster. It was news to me that not everyone subvocalises, because one of my favourite things about reading is hearing the language in my mind. Without subvocalising, I wouldn’t have caught the music of those words.

Recently, I finished a book of poetry. For two years, I read the poems each morning in the four minutes it took my coffee to be ready. It was a wonderful reminder that reading is never about quantity and always about the quality of time you spend with a text.

So when you read, don’t stick a number on it ---- resolve to read for pleasure, not as a chore.

1. Why does the author like slow reading?

A．It wins her fame online.	B．It is a delightful practice.
C．It comes from her mom.	D．It helps her reach goals.

2. What do fast readers focus on?

A．Quantity.

B．Quality.

C．Content.

D．Sound.

3. What do the underlined words “the latter” in paragraph 4 refer to?

A．Slower processing speeds.

B．Learning language.

C．Combining speeds and sounds.

D．Reading words out.

4. What would the author agree with?

A．Reading is a demanding task.

B．Pace equals reading pleasure.

C．Beauty of words needs tasting.

D．Poetry takes no effort to digest.

6 . Seven years ago, my wife bought me a terrific birthday present. For $70, she   _________ me two garden plots of land 20 feet by 20 feet from the Skokie Park District, which come with free _________ to fresh water from faucets, no _________. The football field of garden is a true place of beauty, costing the Park District very little to _________, with the water pipes being the only _________ capital investment.

My _________ is that gardening is good exercise accessible to people far into late middle age and beyond, deeply beneficial and _________ by couples and groups of friends. My garden neighbors and I, once _________, share ideas and encouragement. My daughter loves to help me _________ the wild weed, and the whole family loves the good fresh food, some of which I give to friends and neighbors.

I __________ about $300 to $400 a year but harvest literally 10 times the __________ of fresh produce—and I’m far from the best gardener!

We need to __________ one another while respecting each other as individuals, as carriers of subcultures, as positive people. Human difference is easier to accept with __________ when we know each other and are building something together.

And who doesn’t need to have __________ and get some exercise and eat great food? Community gardening is a wholly __________ activity.

1.

A．sold

B．offered

C．guaranteed

D．rented

2.

A．use

B．access

C．storage

D．entrance

3.

A．comment

B．difference

C．charge

D．way

4.

A．measure

B．decorate

C．design

D．operate

5.

A．initial

B．risky

C．heavy

D．wise

6.

A．responsibility

B．qualification

C．ambition

D．experience

7.

A．occupied

B．divided

C．beloved

D．possessed

8.

A．lecturers

B．strangers

C．farmers

D．competitors

9.

A．harvest

B．irrigate

C．grow

D．classify

10.

A．waste

B．collect

C．earn

D．invest

11.

A．habit

B．value

C．room

D．time

12.

A．calm down

B．appeal to

C．connect with

D．believe in

13.

A．doubt

B．curiosity

C．care

D．dignity

14.

A．fun

B．money

C．fame

D．fortune

15.

A．tolerant

B．specific

C．positive

D．convenient

7 . 假设你是红星中学高三学生李华。日前，你的英国笔友Jim来信与你交流思想，话题是“如果你未来的人生是一本书，你会起一个什么书名”。请你用英文回信，内容包括：
1. 拟定书名；
2. 解释理由。
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

8 . When The Greatest Gift by Philip Van Doren Stern begins, we meet George Pratt the day before New Year. ______, George finds himself on a bridge outside his small hometown considering his life a complete waste. Suddenly, a ______ man appears. The two characters ______, and we learn that George believes he is just an ______ banker with a family doing the same thing every day, and wishes he had never been born at all. Hoping to teach him a ______, the man grants George his wish.

After the man ______, a confused George Pratt travels back to town. Nothing appears ______ until he walks by Hank Biddle’s tree. The tree should have been damaged from the time George ran his car into it. But in this moment, the tree looks ______. Soon, George discovers the town he knows so well doesn’t know him at all.

As George walks around town, he notices he is a ______ to everyone. Not only that, George learns that the lives of his family have taken a turn for the ______.

First George learns that his beloved brother ______ because George was not there to save him. The loss of George’s brother continues to bring enormous sorrow to their ______ parents. Later George finds out that Mary, his wife, ends up in a difficult ______ to someone else.

George realizes these dark changes may stay forever unless he does something. He returns to the ______ to find the man and ______ for his life back. Once again, his wish is granted. The story closes with George racing back home to embrace Mary and their children on the New Year.

1.

A．Depressed

B．Bored

C．Merciful

D．Sensitive

2.

A．easy-going

B．warm-hearted

C．mysterious

D．committed

3.

A．comment

B．talk

C．complain

D．whisper

4.

A．dominant

B．important

C．incomplete

D．insignificant

5.

A．chance

B．gift

C．family

D．lesson

6.

A．disappears

B．emerges

C．remarks

D．remains

7.

A．out of nowhere

B．out of date

C．out of control

D．out of place

8.

A．awesome

B．awful

C．whole

D．broken

9.

A．acquaintance

B．stranger

C．friend

D．colleague

10.

A．worse

B．tougher

C．more colorful

D．more smooth

11.

A．left

B．returned

C．died

D．resigned

12.

A．growing

B．saddening

C．aging

D．hard-working

13.

A．mistake

B．marriage

C．message

D．mindset

14.

A．bridge

B．town

C．tree

D．home

15.

A．prays

B．begs

C．adjusts

D．applies

9 . How I Freed Up Time to Daydream

I enjoyed Twitter. I genuinely did.     1    . I’d find myself checking it when I should be working, running late to my daughters’ school events because I tried to fit in a quick glimpse or staying up far too late surfing vast oceans of information, tired and barely interested but unable to resist the glowing undertow (漩涡) pulling me in.

So I blocked Twitter. I went from being on it nearly every day to being off it for two months now.

Being offline didn’t make my life a land of meditative happiness. I still have three young loud kids, a job, a church, a spouse and a messy house.     2    . The times when I checked Twitter were often the transition points in my day: when I finished a task, waiting in line or going to the bathroom, the few minutes before I fell asleep. Leaving these small moments of my day unfilled changed how I walk through time.

    3    : Guard the margins — those seemingly unimportant parts of our day and time. We need moments when we get no news, no videos, no opinions. We need moments when we daydream, when our minds go blank.

My friend Timothy is a studied musician. I asked him about the function of small breaks in music — of rests.     4    . They help guide and change the course of a song.

Our days, which are so full of work and thinking, of arguing and learning, of disappointments and confusion, of striving and creating, must have moments when nothing much is happening.     5    . Play the rests. Guard the margins. They matter.

A．My new motto born of this experience is

B．The problem is that I loved it a little too much

C．He said that music, like a living creature, needs to breathe

D．But there is one way that leaving Twitter has benefited my life and my mind

E．He said that rests in music, even short ones, create rhythm, variety and narrative

F．Leaving these small moments empty is what makes the difference between noise and music

G．I enjoyed connecting with others and hearing what people were talking about all over the world

10 . I was struggling 11 months after I left China to pursue a Ph.D. in England. In the daytime, I kept myself _________ in my research. But at night I had to fight increasing _________. I turned to social media and even tried “talking” to Chat GPT, which _________ me for a few days. But when the novelty _________ I was back where I started.

When colleagues invited me for a coffee chat or lunch, I _________ to feel the urgency to get back to my long list of research _________, not taking time to build relationships. Eventually, my loneliness hit a breaking   _________. When I talked to my tutor about my feeling, she helped me see that _________ with the people around me would improve my state of mind. I began to chat with friends more and realized we were all dealing with _________, professionally and personally. Life isn’t about convincing colleagues that I can do everything   ____________, but about teaming up with friends on common goals and challenges.

These days, I’m working not only on my research, but also try to book ____________ with my friends for research discussion, and share ____________ into social issues through coffee chats. I feel much more ____________ when I come home with concrete memories and measurable milestones. And cooperating with my colleagues has helped me overcome some ____________ research challenges.

The nights are sill as ____________ as before, but I have seen the bright light in the day. I feel content to lie down and rest so I’m prepared for tomorrow’s new adventure.

1.

A．charged

B．filled

C．buried

D．defined

2.

A．calmness

B．excitement

C．anger

D．loneliness

3.

A．detected

B．delighted

C．facilitated

D．integrated

4.

A．wore off

B．came off

C．got over

D．turned over

5.

A．hesitated

B．demanded

C．declined

D．tended

6.

A．editions

B．tasks

C．strategies

D．consequences

7.

A．occasion

B．reputation

C．point

D．reference

8.

A．negotiating

B．standing

C．responding

D．engaging

9.

A．challenges

B．principles

C．conflict

D．freedom

10.

A．stubbornly

B．responsibly

C．independently

D．innocently

11.

A．benefits

B．appointments

C．tickets

D．settlements

12.

A．relief

B．criticism

C．investigations

D．insights

13.

A．sensitivity

B．perfection

C．inspiration

D．assessment

14.

A．tough

B．subjective

C．outward

D．flexible

15.

A．boring

B．long

C．remarkable

D．agreeable