My mother was a supporter of physical punishment, but for all her talking she has never spanked (打屁股) my siblings, and me only once. Instead she found ways of punishment that left a more lasting memory than giving us a spanking. One of the most memorable of these occasions occurred when I was four.
In the early 70’s my mother attended college during the day and I was in day care. One day at day care I watched an extremely tired mother attempt to pick up her daughter. The little girl asked, “Momma, are we going to McDonald’s for dinner?” The mother replied, “Honey, not tonight. Momma has to run a few errands (差事) and then we have to go home and cook dinner for Daddy.” “But I wanna go.” “Susie, I said not tonight. Maybe, if you are a good girl, we can go tomorrow.” Susie immediately dropped to the floor, kicking and screaming, “I want to go to McDonald’s.”
No amount of pleading (恳求) or scolding her mother tried stopped Susie’s tantrum (发脾气). Finally her mother gave in, “Okay, Susie, let’s go to McDonald’s.” Susie stopped yelling. With a smile on her face she grabbed her mother’s hand and they left. To say I was amazed would be inaccurate (不准确的); I was delighted that anything I wanted could be had by throwing a tantrum.
That day my mother picked me up early from day care because we were going to a store to purchase some Christmas items. I was excited by the lights and decorations, and as we walked through the toy section on the way to the counter, I saw a toy I had to have. It was a white and red telephone whose bells rang as it was pulled along on a string. Looking lovingly up at my mother I asked, “Mama, can I have that telephone? ”
She replied, “Baby, not now, but if you are a good girl, maybe Santa will bring it to you.” “But Mama, I want that telephone right now.” Her eyes narrowed and her hand tightened on mine. “Becky, you can’t have that telephone today, but if you misbehave, you can have a spanking.”
注意：
1. 所续写短文的词数应为150左右；
2. 应使用5个以上短文中标有下划线的关键词语；
3. 续写部分分为两段，每段的开头语已为你写好；
4. 续写完成后，请用下划线标出你所使用的关键词语。
Paragraph l:
By now we were standing in the long holiday line to pay the bill, and I figured it was a good chance.
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Paragraph 2:
“Mama, stop. Mama, get up,” I tearfully pleaded.
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Sophia frowned as she helped her mother and father set out the cooking supplies in the shiny steel kitchen. Her family had just moved here from San Francisco,having bought a small restaurant, which was set to open in the next few days.
“Moving here was a dumb idea," Sophia grumbled,mostly to herself. The girl had been joyless about the move, but her parents had made the decision and were now too busy getting ready for the grand opening to listen to her complaints.
The first few days at her new school hadn't been easy,either. She found it hard to talk to people she didn't know, and it seemed like the students hadn't even noticed her. Sophia sighed and got back to washing dishes.
On the day of the grand opening,Sophia' s parents were all smiling,welcoming customers into the restaurant, brightly decorated in gold and red. Even Sophia was in a good mood as she rushed around,seating guests,handing out menus,and pouring tall glasses of water. This was a big day for her family.
At one of the tables sat a family with two daughters who were about Sophia' s age. As she filled their glasses,Sophia realized the twins were in her class,Emily and Jenny. Sophia ducked her head down so her long hair covered her face,and she turned away from the table.
Sophia' s mother found her soon after, in the kitchen loading the dishwasher.
“Honey, what are you doing back here? We need you out front with the customers. ”
“Mom, I don't want to be out there. There are kids from school!”
“So?” her mother asked.“That's good! Go take them some fortune cookies and say hello!”She clucked her tongue disapprovingly at Sophia and disappeared out of the kitchen.
Sophia frowned. She grabbed a handful of fortune cookies that they gave out after every meal,but first she tore open a wrapper and cracked a cookie open for herself. She popped a sweet, crunchy piece in her mouth, and absently read the fortune paper it held.
“Many friends are found with a single smile,” it read.
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。
Sophia sighed. She put a handful of cookies into a small tray and left the kitchen.
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Sophia blushed and nodded. This girl knew her name?
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3 . Great work is work that makes a difference in people’s lives, writes David Sturt, Executive Vice President of the O.C. Tanner Institute, in his book Great Work: How to Make a Difference People Love. Sturt insists, however, that great work is not just for surgeons or special-needs educators or the founders of organizations trying to eliminate poverty in sub-Saharan Africa. The central theme of Great Work, according to Sturt, is that anyone can make a difference in any job. It’s not the nature of the job, but what you do with the job that counts. As proof, Sturt tells the story of a remarkable hospital cleaner named Moses.
In a building filled with doctors and nurses doing great life-saving work, Moses the cleaner makes a difference. Whenever he enters a room, especially a room with a sick child, he engages both patients and parents with his optimism and calm, introducing himself to the child and, Sturt writes, speaking “little comments about light and sunshine and making things clean.” He comments on any progress he sees day by day (“you’re sitting up today, that’s good.”) Moses is no doctor and doesn’t pretend to be, but he has witnessed hundreds of sick children recovering from painful surgery, and parents take comfort from his encouraging words. For Matt and Mindi, whose son McKay was born with only half of a heart, Moses became a close friend. As Sturt explains, “Moses took his innate (与生俱来的) talents (his sensitivity) and his practical wisdom (from years of hospital experience) and combined them into a powerful form of patient and family support that changed the critical-care experience for Mindi, Matt and little McKay.”
How do people like Moses do great work when so many people just work? That was the central question raised by Sturt and his team at the O.C. Tanner Institute, a consulting company specialized in employee recognition and rewards system.
O.C. Tanner launched an exhaustive Great Work study that included surveys to 200 senior executives, a further set of surveys to 1,000 managers and employees working on projects, an in-depth qualitative study of 1.7 million accounts of award-winning work (in the form of nominations (提名) for awards from corporations around the world), and one-on-one interviews with 200 difference makers. The results of the study revealed that those who do great work refuse to be defeated by the constraints of their jobs and are especially able to reframe their jobs: they don’t view their jobs as a list of tasks and responsibilities but see their jobs as opportunities to make a difference. No matter, as Moses so ably exemplifies (例证), what that job may be.
1. According to Sturt, which of the following is TRUE?| A．It’s not the nature of the job, but what you do that makes a difference. |
| B．Anyone in the world is responsible to delete poverty and change the world. |
| C．Anyone can make a difference in people’s lives no matter what kind of job he does. |
| D．Surgeons, special-needs educators and founders of organizations can succeed more easily. |
| A．By keeping optimistic and calm when facing patients and their parents at hospital. |
| B．By showing his special gift and working experience when working at hospital. |
| C．By showing his sympathy and kindness to patients when entering their rooms. |
| D．By pretending to be a doctor or nurse when entering a room with a sick child. |
| A．demands | B．advantages | C．disadvantages | D．limitations |
| A．Great work is work that makes a difference in people’s lives no matter what you do. |
| B．If a boss has trouble recognizing his employees, he can ask O. C. Tanner for advice. |
| C．Moses makes a difference through his sensitivity and his practical wisdom. |
| D．Those who do great work are never defeated by others or their jobs themselves. |
4 . 阅读下面短文，根据所给情节进行续写，使之构成一个完整的故事。
It was Christmas Day. Pappy was working alone fixing an old lantern in the backroom when he heard the ringing of his bell on the shop door. The bell, which produced a uniquely pleasant sound, had been in Pappy’s family for over a hundred years. He valued it dearly and enjoyed sharing its song with all who came to his shop. Although the bell hung on the inside of the main door, Pappy had tied a wire to the screen door so that it would ring whether the inner door was open or not. Hearing the bell, he left the backroom to greet his customer.
“And how can I help you, little lady?” Pappy’s voice was joyful.
“Hello, sir.” The little girl spoke almost in a whisper. She looked at Pappy with her big brown eyes, and then slowly scanned the room in search of something special. Shyly she told him, “I’d like to buy a present, sir.”
“Well, let’s see,” Pappy said, “who is this present for?”
“My grandpa. It’s for my grandpa. But I don’t know what to get.”
Pappy began to make suggestions. “How about a pocket watch? It’s in good condition.” The little girl didn’t answer. She had walked to the doorway and put her small hand on the door. She shook the door gently to ring the bell. Pappy’s face seemed to glow as he saw her smiling with excitement.
“This is just right,” the little girl said. “Momma says grandpa loves music.”
Just then, Pappy’s expression changed. Fearful of breaking the little girl’s heart, he told her, “I’m sorry, Missy. That’s not for sale. Maybe your grandpa would like this little radio.”
The girl looked at the radio, bowed her head, and sadly sighed, “No, I don’t think so.”
In an effort to help her understand, Pappy told her that the bell had been his only companion, for the rest of his family were all gone now, except for his estranged (疏远的) daughter whom he had not seen for nearly a decade.
注意：
所续写短文的词数应为150左右；
应使用5个以上短文中标有下划线的关键词语；
续写部分分为两段，每段开头语已为你写好；
续写完成后，请用下划线标出你所使用的关键词语。
Paragraph 1:
With a giant tear in her eye, the little girl looked up at him.
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Paragraph 2:
Later that evening when Pappy was closing up the shop, he heard a familiar ringing.
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5 . To learn to think is to learn to question. Those who don't question never truly think for themselves. These are simple rules that have governed the advancement of science and human thought since the beginning of time. Advancements are made when thinkers question theories and introduce new ones. Unfortunately, it is often the great and respected thinkers who end up slowing the progress of human thought. Aristotle was a brilliant philosopher whose theories explained much of the natural world, often incorrectly. He was so esteemed by the scientific community that even 1，200 years after his death, scientists were still trying to build upon his mistakes rather than correct them!
Brilliant minds can intimidate upandcoming thinkers who are not confident of their abilities. They often believe they are inferior to the minds of giants such as Aristotle, leading many to accept current paradigms instead of questioning them.
I, like many thinkers of the past, once believed in my mental inferiority. I was certain that my parents, my teachers-adults in general-were always right. They were like a textbook to me; I didn't question what was written on those pages. I respected them, and accepted whatever they told me. But that attitude soon changed. My mind's independence was first stimulated in the classroom.
A stern, 65yearold elementaryschool science teacher once told me that light is a type of wave. I confidently went through years of school believing that light is a wave. One day，however I heard the German exchange student mention that light could be made up of particles. As the others laughed at his statement, I started to question my beliefs.
Maybe the teachers and textbooks hadn't given me the whole story. I went to the library, did some research and learned of the lightasawave versus lightasaparticle debate. I read about Einstein's discovery of the dual nature of light and learned the facts of a paradox(悖论) that puzzles the world's greatest thinkers to this day. Light behaves as both a particle and a wave, it is both at once. I realized I had gone through life accepting only half of the story as the whole truth.
Each new year brought more new facts, and I formulated even more questions. I found myself in the library after school, trying to find my own answers to gain a more complete understanding of what I thought I already knew. I discovered that my parents and teachers are incredible tools in my quest for knowledge, but they are never the final word. Even textbooks can be challenged. I learned to question my sources, I learned to be a thinker. I once believed that everything I learned at home and at school was certain, but I have now discovered to reexamine when necessary.
Questions are said to be the path to knowledge and truth, and I plan to continue questioning. How many things do we know for sure today that we will question in the future? At this moment, I know that our sun will burn for another five billion years, and I know nothing can escape the gravity of a black hole. This knowledge, however, may change in the next 20 years-maybe even in the next two. The one thing we can control now is our openness to discovery. Questions are the tools of open minds, and open minds are the key to intellectual advancement.
1. In the first paragraph, Aristotle is taken as an example to show that ______.| A．he is the greatest and respected philosopher of all time |
| B．huge influence of great thinkers may block human thought |
| C．advancements are made when thinkers question theories |
| D．great thinkers often make mistakes and then correct them |
| A．Frighten. | B．Encourage. | C．Strength. | D．Persuade. |
| A．what he learned from textbooks before turned out to be wrong |
| B．he was inspired by the different ideas from an exchange student |
| C．he was laughed at by other students for his unacceptable statement |
| D．he was not satisfied with his life and desperate to achieve success |
| A．looks down upon great thinkers all the time |
| B．never doubts what he has learned in the textbook |
| C．always throws himself into the laboratory |
| D．determines to be a thinker and questioner |
| A．the author is not quite sure about his future |
| B．we human beings don't dare to predict future |
| C．theory of black holes will change in two years |
| D．questioning is necessary to promote advancement |
| A．Following rules. | B．Challenging yourself. |
| C．Questioning giants. | D．Predicting future. |
Good to hear from you again. Your e-mail came in just as I was chatting with another friend, Jeff. I wish I had better advice.
You know, after I left the Shenandoah Valley, my next job was in Rocky Mount. The two other sportswriters on staff, Travis and Jeff, were in their mid-20s too. Honestly, we’d come to Rocky Mount to leave Rocky Mount. We complained about our shop and envied the Charlotte Observer and the Raleigh News & Observer. What resources they had! Writers who covered only one team didn’t have to lay out pages. Talk about living the dream. If we could just get to one of those places! Then we could go somewhere else!
Travis, Jeff, and I bonded over our desire to part ways. We ate dinner together and went out to cover our games and came back to help send the final pages to the printer. On the best nights, we’d grab the news editors and play Wiffle ball, laughing and joking until almost sunrise.
We all left there within a year, as intended. Jeff became one of the most well-known NASCAR writers in the country, with almost 200,000 Twitter followers. Now he’s got his own media company that’s doing quite well. In 2017, Jeff and I went to a Charlotte Knights game, and Jeff said something about Rocky Mount that I won’t forget. “I didn’t appreciate it then, but honestly, when I look back, it’s probably the best time I’ve ever had in my career.”
Maybe success isn’t measured in achievements, or “being happy with who you are”. Goals and personal peace are selfish markers, and I don’t mean to imply selfishness is a bad thing, not at all. Selfishness is the axis of humankind, from cavemen to astronauts to saints on earth. Individual accomplishments bring worldwide accomplishments. But all of the accomplishments may not leave you feeling successful, right?
The point is, maybe success is a smaller calculation, something more like what Jeff hinted at. Maybe success is having the wherewithal (所需的物资) to be grateful at the precise moment you have something to be grateful for.
Thank you for writing, old friend.
Mike
1. When Mike went to the Rocky Mount, ________.| A．he appreciated life there |
| B．he lived the dream there |
| C．he intended to land a better job elsewhere |
| D．he got a job with all resources he longed for there |
| A．A printer. | B．A reporter. |
| C．A player. | D．An editor. |
| A．Mike believes selfishness is part of human nature. |
| B．We feel happy when we are calculating small numbers. |
| C．Mike disagrees with Jeff’s comment on their life in Rocky Mount. |
| D．Individual accomplishments are unrelated to worldwide accomplishments. |
| A．what happiness is | B．what success is |
| C．how to achieve more | D．how to land a better job |
7 . Exams never made me break out in a nervous sweat with tears threatening to ruin my already-trembling façade — but this one did. Even booking my piano exam reduced me to a blubbering mess of anxiety.
I feel permanently scarred inside churches — no longer admiring their beauty because, over the years, I have received such terrible marks from examiners hiding behind the stained-glass partitions. Despite being 15 — too old, too cool to be frightened — I remember trembling inside the bathroom stalls before my tests. I wished I never had to play in front of others.
But this time, after booking my Level 8 Royal Conservatory of Music piano exam, I went back to my normal routine. A little practice here, a little practice there. And then it happened.
My trusty, 10-year-old electric piano gave out. Middle C started to sound like an F-sharp and all other keys sounded like they were a fourth above their natural tone. Thankfully, my precious, boredom-saving buttons still worked. I could still change my piano’s settings from “piano” to “harpsichord .” I admit, it was a lot of fun banging on my wacky keys. Each note bonged like the sound on children’s TV shows when a character repeatedly runs into a wall.
Goofiness aside, I had to get my act together. I hated practicing but I really wanted a good mark. When I told my father what had happened to my piano, he only glared at me with disappointment, “When I was your age, I learned to be resourceful.”
Hmm. I had a broken piano, an exam coming up in a few months and a father who refused to buy me a new piano because he wanted to teach me a “life lesson”. I finally came upon a decision: I’d practice at school.
Going to a private school had to have its benefits, so I looked for a place to play. The school had many pianos but only a few in tune. Within a few days of searching, my piano books, my artistic best friend and I headed off to a music room at every available opportunity.
I loved finding new pianos in hidden corners of the school and I laughed at the dusty old historic pianos. They really had character. I spent hours in those music rooms while my friend honed her art skills in sketching and drawing. She suffered through my annoying, repetitive scales while I looked over my shoulder once in a while and admired her work. Not only did I become a better musician, but I also managed to gain a few subpar skills as an art critic.
As my exam drew close, all the music teachers knew to look for me in the piano rooms during recess, after school and late on Fridays. In anticipation of my assessment, one of my music teachers let me perform for her as a mini practice exam. To my surprise, she was greatly impressed.
Within a few months I went from not caring about my playing to feeling actually, maybe, kind of proud of my work. And over countless hours spent in my favorite, soundproof music room, I discovered that behind the piano, I could become anyone. Talking to other people never came easy to me, but I was able to express myself through music. I became overjoyed. It was like I had developed a sixth sense, one that only musicians could understand.
When I played, my worries about what others thought of me and how I viewed myself merged to reveal who I really am. All my adolescent musings made me feel like I was in a cage, but music gave me the key. Sitting behind a piano and creating music combined the movement of my body and the inner workings of my heart.
Music had never been the love of my life but that was changing. I loved the idea of being on a stage and creating something for others to enjoy and remember. Actually, it wasn’t a something, but rather a feeling that the audience would carry outside into a world where music wasn’t the only thing that people cared for.
When the time came to play in front of an examiner, instead of fearing my judge, I feared nothing but being unable to represent all my hard work. All the anxiety I had about going up on stage dimmed, and when the lights went on, all I could think about was the marvellous journey I’d had to get here. Trilling the keys reminded me of when I’d spent nearly two hours alone in a music room, more content than I had been anywhere else. Playing the melody reminded me of the bittersweet music experiences of past years.
Many days later, I received my mark. Not only did I earn a rarely mentioned “well done” and an 82 per cent, I had rewritten what music meant to me.
Now whenever I get caught up in the daily struggle, I remember the hard work that it took to reach my goal. Whenever I feel discouraged, I never forget to look at the gleaming keys of my new upright piano. As my father always says, some lessons are just learned the hard way.
1. What made the author so stressful inside churches these years?| A．The religious atmosphere. | B．The artistic performance. |
| C．The horrible surroundings. | D．Her colorful fantasy. |
| A．The author’s family was too poor to afford a new piano. |
| B．The father was quite angry about the author’s bad behavior. |
| C．The author showed great dissatisfaction about her father. |
| D．The father wanted the author to address the problem independently. |
| A．mixed | B．separated | C．interacted | D．exploited |
| A．Her good friend accompanied her to get through hard time. |
| B．Her teachers treated her much better than before. |
| C．Her family supported her quite well. |
| D．Her own understanding of musical value. |
| A．Nervous — disappointed — angry — calm |
| B．Curious — frustrated — hopeful — grateful |
| C．Frightened — indifferent — passionate — proud |
| D．Depressed — satisfied — disappointed — peaceful |
| A．An important Music Test |
| B．A Hard but Enjoyable Life |
| C．The Key to Happiness |
| D．My Favourite Piano |
8 . I have the bad habit of skipping to the last pages of a book to see how it ends while I’m still in the middle of it. This habit
At times I didn’t
Life has often had to
| A．concerned | B．annoyed | C．frightened | D．embarrassed |
| A．impatience | B．difficulty | C．influence | D．effort |
| A．demanding | B．carrying | C．writing | D．reading |
| A．interest | B．excitement | C．anger | D．sadness |
| A．extend | B．spread | C．limit | D．devote |
| A．bring out | B．let out | C．try out | D．figure out |
| A．fearing | B．enjoying | C．doubting | D．imagining |
| A．pages | B．things | C．reports | D．novels |
| A．Indeed | B．Still | C．Surely | D．Finally |
| A．ending | B．plot | C．outline | D．passage |
| A．happily | B．carefully | C．unwillingly | D．foolishly |
| A．counted | B．left | C．happened | D．backed |
| A．start | B．finish | C．work | D．change |
| A．touch | B．amuse | C．worry | D．surprise |
| A．allow | B．force | C．remind | D．encourage |
| A．admitting | B．returning | C．responding | D．referring |
| A．present | B．memory | C．dream | D．future |
| A．right | B．first | C．new | D．blank |
| A．more or less | B．line by line | C．one by one | D．now and then |
| A．story | B．job | C．plan | D．hope |
9 . I don’t know why I came to the decision to become a loser, but I know I made the
It wasn’t long after that I dropped out of school. Hard physical labor was the
It was September 21, 2002, when my son Blake was born. It’s funny that after a life of
It took me almost three years to learn how to read. I started with my son’s books.Over and over, I practised reading books to him until I remembered all the words in every one of them. I began to wonder if it was possible for me to go back to school. I knew I wanted to be a good role
It’s funny, growing up I always heard these great
| A．determination | B．wish | C．choice | D．dream |
| A．started | B．stopped | C．considered | D．fancied |
| A．skeptical | B．defensive | C．sensitive | D．disrespectful |
| A．consequence | B．compromise | C．compensation | D．competence |
| A．fundamentally | B．hopelessly | C．blindly | D．casually |
| A．deal with | B．go with | C．conflict with | D．meet with |
| A．led | B．stuck | C．absorbed | D．taken |
| A．However | B．Meanwhile | C．Furthermore | D．Therefore |
| A．cost | B．corner | C．term | D．point |
| A．motto | B．technique | C．conscience | D．motivation |
| A．avoiding | B．preventing | C．undertaking | D．overcoming |
| A．flexible | B．enterprising | C．authentic | D．fragile |
| A．part | B．status | C．title | D．cause |
| A．In a way | B．On the contrary | C．In addition | D．What’s worse |
| A．model | B．leader | C．scholar | D．tutor |
| A．received | B．adopted | C．attended | D．passed |
| A．flame | B．praise | C．award | D．courage |
| A．studying | B．waiting | C．beginning | D．demanding |
| A．turn-around | B．take-off | C．pull-out | D．turn-off |
| A．appealed | B．applied | C．attached | D．adapted |
1. How did the speaker feel when his father set him a task?
| A．Anxious. | B．Surprised. | C．Excited. |
| A．He had to cut grass in the same place. | B．He was found telling lies again. |
| C．He lost two dollars. | |
| A．A writer. | B．A lawyer. | C．A cleaner. |
| A．To try to be responsible from the start. | B．To do a job well the first time. |
| C．To value cooperation. | |
