1 . There is a song by the great Jamaican singer Bob Marley called So Much Trouble in The World. Marley understood that part of the reason why there are so many problems in the world is the lack of tolerance between people. The UN understands this too— that is why it made November 16th “International Day for Tolerance”.
But first, what is tolerance? According to French philosopher Voltaire, “Tolerance is the consequence of humanity. We are all formed of frailty (脆弱) and error; let us pardon each other’s fool— that is the first law of nature.”
Very often, people do not realize that they are intolerant. This is because intolerance has a lot to do with ignorance. For example, the UN’s campaign is in part about the treatment of females by males. But often, the behavior of men toward women is intolerant because men do not put themselves in the shoes of women.
It is worth thinking a little about the words “tolerance” and “intolerance”. Are they the best words to describe the evils of which we are speaking here? To agree to be “tolerant” of someone is not necessarily a very respectful thing. When someone is tolerated, it implies that there is something wrong with them.
Still, what Voltaire said stands: We humans are not perfect and this weakness is something that we all share. That is the reason we should be tolerant. It is a little like generosity. We can give things to another person, and we can also give our forgiveness.
1. What is the purpose of the UN “International Day for Tolerance”?| A．To celebrate the founding of the UN. |
| B．To solve the problem of global warming. |
| C．To change people’s opinion towards globalization. |
| D．To arouse the awareness of tolerance among people. |
| A．Because men do not realize the purpose of the UN. |
| B．Because men are physically stronger than women. |
| C．Because men are not willing to understand women. |
| D．Because men do not appreciate the shoes of women. |
| A．Because they cannot be used in a respectful way. |
| B．Because they are hard to pronounce in English. |
| C．Because they cannot be translated into other languages. |
| D．Because they do not express the exact meaning people refer to. |
| A．Humans tend to find faults in others. |
| B．Humans need to give something to others. |
| C．Humans are advised to treat others better. |
| D．Humans change their attitudes towards others. |
I moved to a new place. After the first day at my new school, I walked home alone. Mom told me she had to work. I was still hoping she’d meet me after the bell.
I opened the door. I was hungry. I wandered into the kitchen, tearing tape from the packed boxes while I searched for a clean plate. My fingers slipped, and something went crashing to the ground.
“Benjamin!” cried Mom from the doorway. I didn’t hear her come in. “What just broke?” she asked, bending to pick up the shards (碎片). In her hands, I recognized the pieces. It was Grandma’s bowl, the one Mom put out for special occasions.
“Why couldn’t you have waited for me to unpack? I couldn’t believe you broke this,” she said.
Words burst from my mouth and spilled across the room. “Well, I can’t believe we have to live here now! I can’t believe I have to switch schools when there are only a few weeks left before summer!” I ran into my room, shutting the door behind me violently.
The broom (扫帚) swept across the kitchen floor. Then the click of Mom’s bedroom door closed behind her. I stole out into the kitchen and picked out the shards in the dustbin. There were so many pieces in here, but maybe I could put them back together.
“I’ m sorry I yelled,” said Mom, as she opened her door. “Please just throw out the pieces. We can’t make a fresh start with broken things.”
As I wandered down the hall, Mr. Sato, my neighbor, was emptying his garbage.
“Are you sure you want to throw that out?” he asked, gesturing towards the bowl.
“It’s broken,” I whispered. “This is all my fault.”
“Things break, Benjamin. That isn’t anyone’s fault. Besides, this is a simple repair. Come. I’ll show you.” Taking a thin knife, Mr. Sato started to repair the bowl. After a long time, Mr. Sato said to me, “This needs to dry. Come back on Saturday, and we will finish it.”
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。
Saturday morning, I stole out early and knocked on the Satos’ door.
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I was a little nervous to show Mom the bowl, but that night I brought it into her room.
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It was 8 a.m. Kathy, a 25-year-old nurse, had just finished a 12-hour night shift at a hospital. She was tired, but glad to be sailing along the highway to where she lived. Although the local government had posted a snow alert（预警）, the calm grey sky convinced Kathy the drive would be safe. “I figured I’d be in bed in an hour,” she says.
Snow began when she was halfway home. Listening to the radio, Kathy learned the highway was closed because a tractor had slid off the road. She texted some friends and her mom, and tried not to sleep as she waited.
After a couple of hours, however, conditions worsened. Strong winds began rocking Kathy's car. She couldn't see anything outside, and snow was drifting up her doors. It was, she says, "a total whiteout and rows of cars and trucks".
Late in the afternoon a police officer came and asked if she was in any difficulty. She said she was fine. She asked the police officer if there was any way to get past the trucks. "No, ma'am,” he answered. “You're not going anywhere.”
As it got dark, Kathy began to worry. She texted her brother Cris, telling him to drive his snowmobiling buddy to get to the highway and find her.
As Cris rode slowly alongside the rows of cars and trucks, people would roll down their windows and ask for help. "I was the first person they'd seen in six hours." He explained he was picking up his sister. He told them, "Nobody's coming and I can't take you."
Near 10 p.m. Cris reached Kathy. He directed Kathy to pull her car onto the shoulder (紧急停车带)and asked her to get into his snowmobiling buddy.
As they headed home, the fun started. About five kilometres into the journey, Cris made a mistake. What he thought was a shallow ditch (浅沟) turned out to be a deep trough (水槽). Instead of coming out of the other side, they just kept going down. They were trapped. And feathery snow was over their heads.
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。
At that moment, they had to take action and get out.
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When Kathy arrived at her home, her mother was waiting for her.
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4 . I’m an American-born Chinese. I wouldn’t say I’m more American than Chinese or vice versa. My character was equally molded by both cultures. For a long time, I was comfortable with being from two cultures. I was fluent in “Chinglish”.
However, as I grew up, something unexpected rose, causing a parallel tension between the two corresponding cultures. During Chinese events when I was in China, the host would sometimes make fun of America. My relatives would look at me and laugh, asking me how I felt. But how could I respond to a question like that? If I said I was uncomfortable, it would just make me seem even more American in their eyes. But I couldn’t pretend to laugh either. So, I often just stayed quiet and smiled.
Sometimes, I’d leave China feeling less Chinese than when I went in.
This past summer, on my way back to Rochester, a man at the airport kept asking my father and I where we were from. When I told him I was from the United States, he didn’t seem to believe me.
He then went on to ask the terrible question, “But like where are you really from, like, where were you born?” And no matter how specific our answers were, the man still seemed a little doubtful. He then went on to ask us if we knew where Tampa, Florida was and if we knew anything about it. It’s moments like these when I realize that sometimes my appearance makes it hard for me to seem fully American.
These experiences made me question if I was more Chinese or American.
I felt like I was neither. So, if I wasn’t completely one culture or the other, what was I? In China, I would feel more American, while in America, I would feel more Chinese. There was no balance between my two cultures.
But this doesn’t mean that I don’t embrace (拥抱) both my identities. I love both my Chinese cultural identity and my American one. I just need to learn to love them together.
1. How did the author feel about his identity at the very beginning?| A．Special. | B．Confident. | C．Confused. | D．Ridiculous. |
| A．Because he found it hard to remain quiet and have a big smile. |
| B．Because he was unable to speak fluent Chinese at his hometown. |
| C．Because he had lost face in front of his relatives and friends. |
| D．Because he was treated as an American by his Chinese relatives. |
| A．His cultures. | B．His experience. | C．His look. | D．His air tickets. |
| A．Being Culturally Homeless | B．A Boy with Two Identities |
| C．A Chinese Boy Born in American | D．Better Chinese than American |
Being a single parent can be extremely difficult. I recently went through a rough time while raising my four daughters on my own. Things had not been going well for me ever since we decided to take care of ourselves. My financial situation was not great since I had four growing girls to feed on my own. As a result of that, my family car was left in bad shape. As it broke down from time to time, I only used the car when it was absolutely necessary to do so.
But one rainy night, we desperately needed groceries so the five of us went for a quick run to the store. Once we had loaded groceries to the car, it wouldn’t start no matter how I tried. I was helpless in the parking lot with my four daughters aged 9, 5, 2 and a 6-weeks old. To make matters worse, I was not able to call anyone because my phone was disconnected.
One of my girls had mistakenly left a light on, and my battery was dead. I had no family to speak to and was on my own. I must have asked more than twenty people for help during the two hours. They all ignored me. Not even a no. They just acted like I didn’t exist. My 5-year-old was melting down. My newborn screaming, my two-year-old crying she was hungry, and my oldest desperately trying to help. I was crying and felt like the worst mom ever
When everything seemed hopeless, an elderly man, most probably in his 70s, came over and gave me a plate of chicken strips, biscuits and some water. He asked me to feed my girls and myself. He also said that he arranged for a tow truck to come get my car and his wife was on the way to fetch us back home. The tow truck came, the old man’s wife arrived to fetch us and we were finally back home.
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。
The next morning, the old man appeared at my front door along with a mechanic （修理工）.
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________After the mechanic left, I tried to find the old man.
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________6 . A group of graduates, successful in their careers, got together to visit their old university professor. Conversation soon turned into complain about stress in work and life.
Before offering his guests coffee, the professor went to the kitchen and returned with a large pot of coffee and a variety of
When all the students had a cup of coffee in hand, the professor said: “If you
Now consider this: Life is the coffee; the jobs, money and
| A．tools | B．materials | C．cups | D．gifts |
| A．cheap | B．simple | C．beautiful | D．valuable |
| A．invite | B．allow | C．help | D．adapt |
| A．noticed | B．admitted | C．accepted | D．relaxed |
| A．sold out | B．taken up | C．broken | D．abandoned |
| A．normal | B．unfair | C．selfish | D．painful |
| A．way | B．value | C．judgement | D．source |
| A．Why | B．Although | C．Unless | D．What |
| A．ordinary | B．best | C．special | D．strange |
| A．using | B．washing | C．eyeing | D．introducing |
| A．position | B．kindness | C．character | D．temper |
| A．improve | B．contain | C．mix | D．limit |
| A．way | B．pace | C．direction | D．quality |
| A．concentrating | B．relying | C．keeping | D．holding |
| A．drink | B．enjoy | C．share | D．boil |
7 . This is a true story about a boy who, the world might say, was a terrible underachiever. While in the eighth grade, he failed subjects repeatedly. High school wasn’t much better; he flunked Latin, algebra, English, and received a grade of zero in physics. The boy managed to make the school golf team, but he lost the most important golf match of the season.
It’s not that his peers (同龄人) disliked this boy; it’s just that they never really seemed to notice him much. Even “Hellos” in the hall were a rarity. Out of all the failures in his life, there was something that did hold great importance to this boy, his love of drawing. Although in high school, the cartoons he submitted to the yearbook were rejected, once out of school, the boy was so sure of his artistic talent that he approached Walt Disney Studios with drawing works. I wish I could say the studios loved his work and immediately hired him, but such was not the case; another huge rejection.
Despite his lack of successes, this boy did not give up. He then decided to write his own autobiography in cartoons, about a little boy who was regarded as a loser and a nobody.
The name of this boy was Charles Schulz, the creator of the famous Charlie Brown and comic dog Snoopy.
In life, it is sometimes easy to feel like a nobody. We pass hundreds of people on the street on our way to work, or walk through a faceless crowd in a mall, and no one seems to notice or care. Deep inside, we may know we are special and unique and have lots to offer, but unless someone takes the time to look our way and give us a chance, we may feel worthless, just like Charlie Brown who couldn’t even manage to fly a kite or kick a football properly.
Just as Charles Schulz had faith in his artistic talent, so too, we must realize that nobody is a nobody. We all have special gifts and talents, and every human being is deserving and capable of being loved and appreciated.
1. The underlined word “flunked” in Paragraph 1 is closest in meaning to ________.| A．failed | B．learned |
| C．achieved | D．misunderstood |
| A．He was hated by his peers. |
| B．He achieved great success in drawing in high school. |
| C．His work was refused by Walt Disney Studios. |
| D．He earned the praise from Walt Disney Studios. |
| A．gave up his dream finally |
| B．wrote some articles in magazines |
| C．he turned to others for help |
| D．he wrote himself as a loser in cartoons |
| A．to open up our eyes |
| B．to believe we can make some difference |
| C．to learn more skills for development |
| D．to ask for more appreciation and love |
| A．Nobody Is a Nobody. |
| B．A Hard-working Boy Is Successful. |
| C．We Should Turn Failure into Success. |
| D．One Cannot Succeed without Talents. |
