1 . Directions: After reading the passage below, fill in the blanks to make the passage coherent and grammatically correct. For the blanks with a given word, fill in each with the proper form of the given word: for the other blanks, use one word that best fits each blank.

How I Turned to Be Optimistic(乐观的)

I began to grow up that winter night when my parents and I were returning from my aunt’s house, and my mother said that we     1     (leave) for America soon. We were on the bus then. I was crying, and some people on the bus were turning around to look at me. I remember I could not bear the thought of never hearing again the radio program for school children to     2     I listened every morning.

I do not remember myself     3     (cry) for this reason again. In fact I think I cried very little when I was saying goodbye to my friends and relatives. When we were leaving I thought about all the places I was going to see. The country I was leaving never to come back was hardly in my head then.

The four years that followed taught me the importance of optimism, but     4     idea did not come to me at once. For the first two years in New York I was really lost. I did not quite know what I was or what I should be. Mother remarried, and things became even     5     (complex) for me. Some time passed before my stepfather and I got used to each other. However, my responsibilities in the family increased a lot since my English was superior     6     anyone else’s at home. I translated at interviews with immigration officers, and even discussed telephone bills with company representatives.

From my experiences, I believe that my life will turn out all right     7     it is not that easy.

3 . Franz Kafka wrote that “a book must be the axe (斧子) for the frozen sea inside us. ” I once shared this sentence with a class of seventh graders, and it didn’t seem to require any explanation.

We’d just finished John Steinbeck’s novel Of Mice and Men. When we read the end together out loud in class, my toughest boy, a star basketball player, wept a little, and so did I. “Are you crying?” one girl asked, as she got out of her chair to take a closer look. “I am,” I told her, “and the funny thing is I’ve read it many times.”

But they understood. When George shoots Lennie, the tragedy is that we realize it was always going to happen. In my 14 years of teaching in a New York City public middle school, I’ve taught kids with imprisoned parents, abusive parents, irresponsible parents; kids who are parents themselves; kids who are homeless; kids who grew up in violent neighborhoods. They understand, more than I ever will, the novel’s terrible logic—the giving way of dreams to fate.

For the last seven years, I have worked as a reading enrichment teacher, reading classic works of literature with small groups of students from grades six to eight. I originally proposed this idea to my headmaster after learning that a former excellent student of mine had transferred out of a selective high school -- one that often attracts the literary-minded children of Manhattan’s upper classes -- into a less competitive setting. The daughter of immigrants, with a father in prison, she perhaps felt uncomfortable with her new classmates. I thought additional “cultural capital” could help students like her develop better in high school, where they would unavoidably meet, perhaps for the first time, students who came from homes lined with bookshelves, whose parents had earned Ph. D.’s.

Along with Of Mice and Men, my groups read: Sounder, The Red Pony, Lord of the Flies, Romeo and Juliet and Macbeth. The students didn’t always read from the expected point of view.

About The Red Pony, one student said, “it’s about being a man, it’s about manliness.” I had never before seen the parallels between Scar face and Macbeth, nor had I heard Lady Macbeth’s soliloquies (独白) read as raps (说唱), but both made sense; the interpretations were playful, but serious. Once introduced to Steinbeck’s writing, one boy went on to read The Grapes of Wrath and told me repeatedly how amazing it was that “all these people hate each other, and they’re all white.” His historical view was broadening, his sense of his own country deepening. Year after year, former students visited and told me how prepared they had felt in their first year in college as a result of the classes.

Year after year, however, we are increasing the number of practice tests. We are trying to teach students to read increasingly complex texts, not for emotional punch (碰撞) but for text complexity. Yet, we cannot enrich the minds of our students by testing them on texts that ignore their hearts. We are teaching them that words do not amaze but confuse. We may succeed in raising test scores, but we will fail to teach them that reading can be transformative and that it belongs to them.

1. Why were the students able to understand the novel Of Mice and Men?

A．Because they spent much time reading it.

B．Because they had read the novel before.

C．Because they came from a public school.

D．Because they had similar life experiences.

2. The girl left the selective high school possibly because ________.

A．she was a literary-minded girl	B．her parents were immigrants
C．she couldn’t fit in with her class	D．her father was then in prison

3. To the author’s surprise, the students read the novels ________.

A．creatively

B．passively

C．repeatedly

D．carelessly

4. The author writes the passage mainly to ________.

A．introduce classic works of literature

B．advocate teaching literature to touch the heart

C．argue for equality among high school students

D．defend the current testing system

4 . Directions: After reading the passage below, fill in the blanks to make the passage coherent and grammatically correct. For the blanks with a given word, fill in each blank with the proper form of the given word; for the other blanks, use one word that best fits each blank.

When I was in junior high school, darkness began filling my mind. I don’t know the day or the reason     1     it began. All I know is that I started feeling hopeless and worthless. I hid in my room,     2     (stare) out of the window, thinking about all my failures. I even questioned     3     being alive was worthwhile. My dark mood wasn’t constant. It would fade at times, but it always returned.

It was my parents that helped me identify the shadow     4     hung over my life — depression. Depression is     5     mental illness that drains your energy and prevents you from enjoying life. It can keep you from succeeding at school or work or from connecting with others. At its     6     (bad), depression can even lead to suicide.

When your mood is dark, how do you know whether you are depressed or just sad? Think about how long the feelings     7     (last). If they have persisted for weeks or months, get help.

No one     8     face depression alone. If you’re depressed, find someone — a friend, parent, teacher or pastor — and tell them your feelings. Consider seeing a doctor or psychologist, if they are getting worse.

When I was depressed, I was     9     (embarrass) to tell anyone. I didn’t want to seem weak or needy. But when I told my friends, they supported and encouraged me.

In fact,     10     depression affects many people worldwide, treatments are available and can bring hope and joy back into their life.

5 . Where do you go when you want to learn something? School? A friend? A tutor? These are all _________ places of leaning. But it may well be that the learning you really want _________ somewhere else instead. I had the chance of seeing this first hand on a _________.

My daughter plays on a recreational (娱乐的) soccer team. They did well this season and so _________ a tournament (锦标赛), which normally was only for more skilled club teams. This led to some _________ experiences on Saturday as they played against teams _________ trained. Through the first two games, her team did not get one serious shot on goal. As a parent, I _________ seeing my daughter playing her best, but still _________.

It seemed that something clicked with the girls between Saturday and Sunday. When they _________ for their Sunday game, they were __________ different. They had begun to apply all kinds of play and teamwork they had seen the day before to their __________. They played much better and __________ scored a goal.

It __________ me that playing against the other team was a great __________ moment for all the girls on the team. I think it is a general principle. __________ is the best teacher. The lessons they learned may not be different from what they would have gotten in school, but are certainly more personal and meaningful, because they had to work them out on their own.

1.

A．public

B．traditional

C．official

D．special

2.

A．passes

B．works

C．lies

D．ends

3.

A．trip

B．holiday

C．weekend

D．square

4.

A．won

B．entered

C．organised

D．watched

5.

A．painful

B．strange

C．common

D．practical

6.

A．less

B．poorly

C．newly

D．better

7.

A．imagined

B．hated

C．avoided

D．missed

8.

A．succeeded

B．arrived

C．defeated

D．won

9.

A．dressed up

B．showed up

C．made up

D．gave up

10.

A．slightly

B．hardly

C．basically

D．completely

11.

A．styles

B．training

C．game

D．rules

12.

A．even

B．still

C．seldom

D．again

13.

A．confused

B．struck

C．reminded

D．warned

14.

A．touching

B．thinking

C．encouraging

D．learning

15.

A．Experience

B．Independence

C．Curiosity

D．Interest

6 . 阅读下面短文，在空白处填入1个适当的单词或括号内单词的正确形式。

I can still remember the afternoon when we climbed the mountain     1     it were yesterday.

It was a sunny day. Eager to spend some time outside, I went up the mountain with my uncle. The mountain was hard    2    (climb) and had tough rocks and streams on it. In the end, exhausted and hot, I couldn’t go any further. So we went back down the mountain in the end.

On the way back down, my uncle asked me a question,     3     left me speechless for a second: “What’s your dream, young lady?”

“I have no idea,” I answered     4    thinking it for a while. Then he smiled and told me about his story. He didn’t perform well at school when he was a student. Although nobody thought he could succeed, he knew clearly     5    his dream was — to be a businessman. “I knew I wasn’t gifted when it came to studying, so I tried to buy snacks from a market and sell them after class,” he told me. After he left school, he started selling different items to find out which one was most attractive to customers. Of course, he often had no money in his pocket, but     6     tough life was, he never gave up.

“There is no doubt that a person who puts in a great deal of effort to reach his or her goal will have good luck at some point. The meaning of life is to chase your dream,” he said gently.

That night I     7     hardly fall asleep. I lay in bed tossing and turning, asking myself, “What”s my motivation?”

I once wanted to be a top student, but the hard work needed meant     8     (put) everything into following my passion. If I find myself lacking willpower, what should I do? Leaving home early the next morning, I climbed the mountain again by     9    . It made me think: If we don’t experience the climb, how can we get to see the scenery on the top of the mountain? In the end, I reached the top and     10     (fascinate) by the warm breeze and sunshine. Nothing could be more pleasant than that.

7 . The quality of patience goes a long way toward your goal of creating a more peaceful and loving self. The more patient you are, the more accepting you will be of what life is, rather than insisting that life be exactly as you would like it to be. Without patience, life is extremely frustrating.     1     Patience adds some ease and acceptance to your life. It’s important for inner peace.

    2     If you are stuck in a traffic jam, late for an appointment, being patient would mean keeping yourself from building a mental snowball before your thinking gets out of hand and gently reminding yourself to relax. It might also be a good time to breathe as well as an opportunity to remind yourself that, in the bigger scheme of things, being late is “small stuff”.

Patience is a quality of heart that can be greatly enhanced with deliberate practice.    3     They are the periods of time that I set up in my mind to practise the art of patience. Life itself becomes a classroom, and the curriculum is patience. You can start with as little as five minutes and build up your capacity for patience over time. What you’ll discover is truly amazing. Your intention to be patient, especially if you know it’s only for a short while, immediately strengthens your capacity for patience. Patience is one of those qualities where success feeds on itself. Once you reach little milestone—five minutes of successful patience—you’ll begin to see that you do indeed have the capacity to be patient, even for longer periods of time. Over time, you may even become a patient person.

Being patient will help you to keep your perspective. You will see even a difficult situation, say your present challenge, isn’t “life or death” but simply a minor obstacle that must be dealt with.     4    

A．An effective way that I have found to deepen my own patience is to create actual practise periods.

B．You are more easily annoyed and bothered.

C．It is generally believed that the quality of being patient is very difficult to develop.

D．Becoming more patient involves opening your heart to the present moment, even if you don’t like it.

E．Without patience, you will see the same scene as an emergency complete with yelling, frustration, hurt feelings and high blood pressure.

F．If you lack patience, you are destined to fail in what you are pursuing.

8 . Since quitting can start feelings such as guilt and shame, we often do everything possible to avoid it. “We’re taught from our earliest days that if you quit something, it means you’re a failure,” says the psychologist Will Meek. He, however, suggests we view quitting differently.

Quitting is like deciding to rearrange a room: you’ve grown comfortable with the status, and it can be hard to picture the end result or even see why change is necessary. And yet, there’s the upsetting feeling that you’re no longer entirely satisfied with your current circumstances, perhaps even that you’ve stopped making progress. While it’s not out of the question for feelings of regret to surface after a major refit, leaving a position, project or situation can reveal exciting possibilities, making you feel inspired and renewed.

Quitting, often happens in situations where we’re unhappy, fearful or have determined we have no other choice, factors that can have ill effects on our health. Perhaps you find your work unfulfilling, or you’ve jumped into a new relationship before you’re ready - and, as a result, you’re operating under intense pressure. “If stress is enduring and not managed well, it can start to take a toll,” says Meek. According to the American Psychological Association, long-term, ongoing stress can increase the risk for high blood pressure and heart attack, so walking away from whatever is causing it can deliver significant physical and emotional health benefits. “We often see a reduction in the stress hormone cortisol (应激激素皮质醇), which can lower blood pressure and may even decrease the heart rate,” says Dr Alex Lickerman, a GP and expert on developing mental adaptability.

Leaving situations that fail to bring you joy can leave you with sufficient time to explore where your heart is truly leading you. In a study that was published in 1999, then Harvard University professor Hermina Ibarra looked at how bankers tried different roles that required new skill sets - someone who spent a lot of time dealing with computers, for instance, was asked to take on personal interactions. Subjects (研究对象) were especially drawn to acting out a version of their future selves through ‘imitation strategies’ - an approach they compared to ‘trying on different clothes.’ Mark Franklin, the president of CareerCycles, suggests a similar approach as a way to figure out what your true desires might be in your post-quitting life and foresee your future self. “Pretend to be a certain kind of person, or go and meet others who are doing what you want to do,” he says. “Try it on, see how it feels and decide if it’s a good fit for you.” It may not feel like it at the time, but just moving on from a situation that’s not quite right can help you get back on track.

1. It can be inferred from paragraph 2 that quitting may bring us feelings of being both ______.

A．guilty and ashamed.

B．stupid and enthusiastic.

C．troubled and hopeful.

D．inspired and determined.

2. The phrase “take a toll” (paragraph 3) can be best replaced by “______”.

A．develop mental adaptability.

B．bring about changes.

C．keep up the pressure.

D．have a bad effect.

3. An approach suggested by Mark Franklin similar to ‘trying on different clothes’ is for ______.

A．helping people find what truly suits them in career.

B．telling capable employees from inadequate ones.

C．training employees to acquire different working skills.

D．providing people with opportunities to have a role play.

4. It can be concluded from the passage that ______.

A．quitting is a track that only the timid will choose to follow.

B．personal interaction can be a must for reducing emotional pressure.

C．mental adaptability can be improved by the stress hormone cortisol.

D．knowing when to stop is wise and may make dreams happen.

9 . Today’s youth seem satisfied to take the easy route and enjoy the ride of life. When ________ situations arise, they often pull a long face and complain. How you live your teen years will have a __________influence on the rest of your life. You must learn to use your _________wisely.

You may not see it now, __________developing leadership characteristics at a young age is very important. _________we get older, it becomes harder to overcome bad habits and replace them with good ones. Having leadership _________ is necessary, both in this life and in the world to come. There are certain qualities that one needs to develop in order to become a leader: justice, judgment, dependability, initiative, decisiveness, tact, integrity, enthusiasm, poise, unselfishness, courage, knowledge and loyalty. You may recognize these as good qualities to have, without realizing how they apply to leadership. The more these qualities are part of your nature, the more _________and enjoyable your life will be. All of these are qualities that one must possess to one degree or another.

________the general public believes that leadership is a natural ability, leadership is actually something that is learned. No one is born a leader. We are all capable of exhibiting(展现) the leadership qualities mentioned above — some just choose not to. Of course, not everyone can be the “top dog”, _________all the time. However, everyone does have the capacity to lead in some way — but _________is required! Understand that learning is a fact of life—learning to ride a bike, learning to drive, learning to type, learning mathematics, etc. All of these activities _________action. While we are born with many different abilities, if we do not _________and develop them, those abilities will never come to fruition.

Youth is an excellent time to start developing leadership characteristics. _________the time to study each one in detail. Put them into practice as you interact with other people. __________ which areas you are weak in, striving to always improve. Observe the leaders, and how they handle situations and carry themselves. Also, study the lives of great leaders. The results will serve you in this life — and _________!

1.

A．comfortable

B．tough

C．enjoyable

D．convenient

2.

A．limited

B．relevant

C．dramatic

D．fantastic

3.

A．intelligence

B．time

C．degree

D．challenge

4.

A．but

B．while

C．for

D．since

5.

A．Before

B．After

C．As

D．Though

6.

A．sources

B．resources

C．quantities

D．qualities

7.

A．efficient

B．effective

C．sufficient

D．productive

8.

A．While

B．If

C．Since

D．As

9.

A．let alone

B．depend on

C．start off

D．get together

10.

A．patience

B．perseverance

C．intelligence

D．action

11.

A．require

B．cause

C．profit

D．set

12.

A．increase

B．exploit

C．recall

D．use

13.

A．Spend

B．Take

C．Pay

D．Consume

14.

A．Decide

B．Determine

C．Imagine

D．Figure

15.

A．out

B．away

C．beyond

D．off

10 . Directions: Read the following passage. Summarize the main idea and the main points of the following passage in no more than 60 words: Use your own words as far as possible.

If you had a lot of money, what would you spend it on? Think twice about that new iPhone, as science now says that you'd be better off paying for an experience that lasts a little while rather than an object that lasts longer.

The idea that buying experiences is more satisfying than buying material things has been expressed for a long time by Cornell psychology professor Thomas Gilovich. In a recent journal of Psychological. Science, Amit Kumar supported the current understanding that spending money on experiences “provides more enduring happiness”, both before and after the purchase is made.

“You can think about waiting for a delicious meal at a nice restaurant or looking forward to a vacation,” Kumar said, “and how different that feels from waiting for you pre-ordered iPhone to arrive.”

You might also compare the bad behavior of people who are waiting in line to buy material items and the better behavior of those who are waiting for a concert. People might' talk to each other about what songs the band is going to play, for example, so there is opportunity to connect with other people.

Research has also found that people tend to be more generous to others when they've just thought about the purchase of an experience as opposed to a material purchase. They're also more likely to take part in social activities.

What is it about imagining experiences that's different from thinking about future material purchases? Well, one interesting idea says that you can imagine all sorts of possibilities for what an experience is going to be.

A good plan for getting the most out of purchasing an experience may be to plan it far in advance. Thinking about it for days, weeks or even years only makes the experience more valuable. So it may also be time to stop those impulse buys if you want to be happy.

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