1 . As a child, I was proud of my southern origin. My own voice reflected my family’s past and present-part northern Mississippi, part Tennessee, all southern. There was no sound I loved more than my grandmother’s accent: thick, sweet, warm.

While growing up, I began to realize outside of our region, southerners were often dismissed as uncultured and ignorant. I was ready to leave behind my tiny town in West Tennessee, starting a new life and jumping at big chances in some far-off cities. In that embarrassing space between “teen” and “adult”, my accent was a symbol of everything I thought I hated about my life in the rural South. I feared it would disqualify me from being a noted magazine writer. I would have to talk less “country”. So I killed a piece of myself. I’m ashamed of it, but I’m more ashamed that I tried to kill that part of someone else-change Emily’s accent.

I met Emily in college. She was determined to work for the student newspaper, which was where I spent most of my waking hours, and we became friends. She, unlike me, accepted her roots. Early in our friendship, her mother asked where I was from, assuming it was somewhere up north. Then I felt my efforts paid off and even wanted to ignore the mistake.

Emily is two years younger and she cared about my opinion. I advised her to be more like me and hide her signature Manchester accent. I stressed that throughout our college years, often by making fun of her vowel (元音) sounds. I told myself I was helping her achieve her dream of working as a reporter. Now, I see that it was actually about justifying my hiding part of myself.

Grandma Carolyn used to tell me, “Girl, don’t forget where you come from.” Now I truly understand that. Many things have faded from memory, but this sticks in my mind with uncomfortable clarity. Now that I am grown and have left the South, it’s important to me.

1. What made the author want to leave her hometown?

A．Appeal of convenience in cities.

B．Her dream of becoming a writer.

C．Outside prejudice against southerners.

D．Her desire for the northern accent.

2. How did the author feel about the mistake of Emily’s mother?

A．Upset.

B．Pleased.

C．Ashamed.

D．Surprised.

3. Why on earth did the author try to change Emily’s accent?

A．To prove herself right.	B．To help Emily be a reporter.
C．To make herself influential.	D．To protect Emily’s self-dignity.

4. What message does the text want to convey?

A．Stay true to your roots.	B．Never do things by halves.
C．Hold on to your dreams.	D．Never judge a person by his accent.

2 . I had never been more anxious in my life. I had just arrived at the airport to travel home. As I watched the bus driver set my luggage on the airport sidewalk, I realized my _________ had just begun.

This was my first visit alone to the international terminal (航站楼) of the airport, and nothing was _________. I couldn’t make sense of any of the _________. Where was the check-in counter? I felt as if I were deaf and blind and stupid. I began to _________. I had to find help!

I tried to ask a passing businessman for help, but my _________ came out wrong. He frowned and walked away. I had been in this country for a semester, but could not even remember how to ask for directions. Awful! Another _________ arrived at the terminal, and the passengers came out carrying lots of luggage. Right! I could _________ them to the right place.

I dragged my enormous suitcase, went after them and reached the elevators. Oh, no! They all fit in it, but not enough room for me. I watched _________ as the elevator doors closed. I was abandoned again! I got on the elevator when it returned and _________ all the buttons. Which one could it be? I pressed button 3 because I thought I saw those passengers pressed 3, though only a quick glance. The elevator climbed up to the third floor and stopped. A high, unpleasant noise __________ the opening of the doors, and I looked around __________.

Tears formed as I saw the empty hall and realized I would __________ my plane. Just then an elderly airport employee walked towards me. He guessed I was __________ and offered to help. He patted my shoulder to ease my anxiety. We walked up some stairs, turned a corner, and reached the check-in counter!

When I turned to thank him, he was gone. I never got an opportunity to know that man’s name, but I would always remember his unexpected __________. Without his timely help, I would have missed my plane. I hope I will be able to do the same for another traveler experiencing a(n) __________ journey.

1.

A．anxiety

B．excitement

C．curiosity

D．liberty

2.

A．special

B．wrong

C．familiar

D．perfect

3.

A．counters

B．destinations

C．regulations

D．signs

4.

A．doubt

B．panic

C．weep

D．inquire

5.

A．manners

B．instructions

C．words

D．tones

6.

A．bus

B．plane

C．businessman

D．employee

7.

A．lead

B．follow

C．guide

D．direct

8.

A．in surprise

B．in relief

C．in delight

D．in despair

9.

A．tried out

B．clicked on

C．stared at

D．sorted out

10.

A．announced

B．stressed

C．suggested

D．promised

11.

A．joyfully

B．firmly

C．calmly

D．cautiously

12.

A．aboard

B．miss

C．catch

D．abandon

13.

A．lost

B．upset

C．disturbed

D．embarrassed

14.

A．encounter

B．disappearance

C．kindness

D．guidance

15.

A．awesome

B．unforgettable

C．tiring

D．terrible

3 . It’s often the simple things in life that make the most significant impact on us. It was late one afternoon in mid-September. My three-month-old son was napping in his ______. As I wandered through our living room, I happened to _______my balcony window. Puddles (水坑) had _______the ground and the rain had slowed.

Down below _______a boy of about four. Filled with a mixture of fascination and happiness, he stomped (踩) through the puddle, mud and _______flying. He walked, stomped, splashed through that puddle ______, happily enjoying what mother nature had left for him.

Not more than ten feet away stood his mother. She didn’t scold him. _______, she watched with a pleasant smile on her face and stood _______. As for me, it was a (n)_______moment that changed the way I will forever view my role as a mother.

The little boy probably will _______each afternoon that his mother takes him outside, as he _______. He may not remember each little thing that happens each time his mother lets him _______his world. But he will remember that his mother _______him and he will know that she helps him to learn and grow in a pleasant and fun environment.

Maybe we can all learn from the innocence of _______that views a rainstorm not as something to run through or to avoid, but something meant to explore, to _______ and to love.

1.

A．desk

B．bed

C．toy

D．chair

2.

A．jump at

B．turn around

C．look out of

D．stare at

3.

A．formed

B．left

C．saved

D．collected

4.

A．waved

B．trembled

C．stood

D．slid

5.

A．birds

B．cars

C．ash

D．water

6.

A．by and by

B．up and down

C．now and then

D．over and over

7.

A．Instead

B．However

C．Therefore

D．Also

8.

A．still

B．hesitantly

C．anxiously

D．close

9.

A．embarrassing

B．confusing

C．touching

D．exhausting

10.

A．experience

B．remember

C．forget

D．recall

11.

A．grows up

B．loses heart

C．turns in

D．cries out

12.

A．visit

B．explore

C．find

D．understand

13.

A．loves

B．helps

C．scolds

D．kisses

14.

A．youth

B．childhood

C．adolescence

D．adulthood

15.

A．enjoy

B．share

C．stop

D．await

4 . My mother turned ninety. I knew I needed to find a senior _______ center. Not for her — for me. If I were at her age, I would want to stay in shape to _______ life, getting a lot of pleasure. Yes, walking in local parks was my _______, but I wasn’t so active as before.

I called a nearby center, “Do you have aerobics (有氧运动) classes _______ for seniors?” “Sure. Come and check us out! We start at 10 am,” the receptionist (接待员) replied and _______. The next morning, I went there. One part of me was _______ that the class was too easy, not doing me any good. The other part feared it was too hard for me to _______.

When I came into the room, a woman _______ me, “Oh, you’re new. Welcome.” Then the music started. The hour-long workout woke up the muscles I didn’t often _______ in daily walks, suiting me fine. I became a member there. My classmates ranged in age from fifty to ninety. Most gave the exercises their own ________, doing as much or little as they could. ________ no one kept score. Soon I learned physical well-being wasn’t the only ________ there. During breaks, people chatted happily. Whenever some people were ________ we asked around. Were they busy? Were they in hospital? Moreover, we signed cards for those who were ill.

I ________ to be in good shape now as I’ve hoped. Still, I’m grateful for things more valuable from the class — close friendships and new social ________.

1.

A．leisure

B．fitness

C．community

D．learning

2.

A．change

B．remember

C．wait

D．enjoy

3.

A．routine

B．aim

C．challenge

D．plan

4.

A．attached

B．familiar

C．appropriate

D．vital

5.

A．comforted

B．invited

C．promised

D．welcomed

6.

A．sure

B．disappointed

C．anxious

D．hopeful

7.

A．make up for

B．look down on

C．get down to

D．keep up with

8.

A．greeted

B．recognized

C．helped

D．introduced

9.

A．relax

B．stretch

C．strengthen

D．use

10.

A．improvement

B．agreement

C．interpretation

D．conclusion

11.

A．Fortunately

B．Consequently

C．Naturally

D．Surprisingly

12.

A．problem

B．contribution

C．standard

D．focus

13.

A．lonely

B．absent

C．unhappy

D．tired

14.

A．fail

B．manage

C．attempt

D．continue

15.

A．backgrounds

B．connections

C．skills

D．duties

5 . 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。

Often, when he came to visit, my grandfather would bring me a present. These were never the sorts of things that other people brought, such as dolls, books or toys. My dolls and toys have been gone for more than half a century, but many of my grandfather’s gifts are still with me.

Once he brought me a little plastic cup. I looked inside, expecting to see something special. But there was only some loose soil in it, which made me disappointed. He smiled at me affectionately. Turning around, he picked up a little teapot from my dolls’ tea set and took me to the kitchen where he filled the little cup with water. Back in the living room, he put it on the windowsill(窗台) and handed me the teapot. “If you promise to put some water in the cup every day, something may happen.” he told me.

At that time, I was only five years old. This whole thing made no sense to me at all. I looked at him doubtfully and asked, “Do I have to water it every day? What will happen?” He nodded to me with encouragement, “Yes, every day, dear.”

And so I promised. At first, curious to see what would happen, I did not mind doing this. But as the days went by and nothing changed, it got harder and harder to remember to put water in the cup. After a week, I asked my grandfather if it was time to stop yet. Shaking his head no, he said, “Every day.” The second week was even harder, and I became regretful of my promise to put water in the cup. When my grandfather came again, I tried to give it back to him, but he refused to take it, saying simply the same words, “Every day.” By the third week, I began to forget to put water in the cup during the day. Often, I would remember only after I had been put to bed and would have to get out of bed and water it in the dark. But I did not miss a single day.

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。

One morning, something amazing happened.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

This was perhaps my first lesson in the power of perseverance.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

6 . I believe almost everyone would like two things from their jobs and careers: success and happiness. They want to do relatively well financially, receive fair recognition for their accomplishments, enjoy their work as much as one can, and become happier as a person as a result. So many people, especially ambitious, hard-working people, simplify them in a logical way: They first seek success and then assume that success will lead to happiness.     1    . Chasing success has costs that can end up lowering happiness.

This is not to say that you have to choose between success and happiness.     2    . But you have to reverse (颠倒) the order of operations: Instead of trying first to get success and hoping it leads to happiness, start by working on your happiness, which will enhance your success.

Whether you are an employee or employer, it is a better investment to increase happiness at work and in life, rather than simply trying to increase measures of success.

    3    . No matter how much you enjoy your work, overwork will become an obstruction (阻碍) to well-being.

Once work quantity is under control, happiness at work requires a sense of meaning and purpose.     4    . Earned success implies a sense of accomplishment and recognition for a job well done, while service to others requires knowledge of the real people who benefit from your work.

Ultimately, although success and happiness are linked, the magic mostly works one-way — and not in the way that most people think.     5    , and may lead you to unhappiness. But working on your happiness. gives you the best chance at getting both.

A．You can obtain both

B．But this reasoning is faulty

C．It’s fairly reasonable to think this way, though

D．Working on your success to get happier is inefficient at best (充其量)

E．The first thing to remember is that happiness requires balance

F．It’s dangerous to pursue success instead of happiness

G．The two key aspects of meaningful work are earned success and service to others

7 . When Failure Is a Good Thing

Failure is an important process you can learn from.    1    

Most people view failure as something that should be avoided at all costs.    2    It may have been an “F” we received on a paper or the high expectations our parents placed upon our shoulders that stopped us from trying.

Award-winning psychologist and author, Ron Friedman, tells the story of how Sara Blakely, founder of Spanx, revolutionized the women's clothing industry and became a billionaire in his book, The Best Place To Work: The Art and Science of Creating an Extraordinary Workplace.

    3     She had zero experience in the clothing industry, lacked an education in business and raised only $5,000 to invest. When asked where she found the courage, she gave all credit to her dad. While most parents ask their kids, “How was your day?" when sitting down for dinner, Sara's parents asked her and her brother, “What did you fail at today?” each and every night.

When interviewed by CNN's Anderson Cooper, Sara said, “Instead of failure being the outcome, failure became not trying. It forced me at a young age to want to push myself so much further out of my comfort zone.”     4     It became more about learning and less about a personal weakness.

If we view failure as weakness, we avoid stepping out of our comfort zone.     5     It does not define us, but instead matures us. I 'm sure that there are many risks we would all take in our personal, professional and spiritual lives if we could get past a fear of failure.

What has been the greatest lesson you have learned when taking a chance? Please share with us.

A．And, most importantly, it means you tried.

B．Let's take a look at how Sara faced failures.

C．In reality, Sara's father had re-defined failure.

D．Early on, Sara overcame a series of difficulties.

E．Instead, we must remind ourselves that failure is an action.

F．It is important to reflect on what can be learnt from failure.

G．We tend to connect failure with a bad experience we had as a child.

8 . 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。

Almost all of my holidays were spent with my grandpa. My grandpa was a retired army officer and the years in the army had made him a very tough person, which helped him a lot in fighting with cancer for a long time. Silver and golden stars on his shoulders and medals on his chest in grandma’s old photo albums reflected the marks of his distinguished service and numerous adventures. Grandpa had fine qualities and was a real personality. He was strict with his family, me included, as well as himself.

In our ancestral house there was a big pond as was common in bygone Bengali homes with lots of trees and bushes. Both my grandparents were fond of our so-called garden. One morning our new neighbor saw my grandpa planting two trees on both sides of our main gate, which still stand tall today. Across the street our new neighbor also got the same kind of tree and planted the trees exactly on both sides of his gate too.

My grandpa didn’t often give enough amount of water to his plants and didn’t always give his full attention to them, while our neighbor gave a lot of water to his plants and looked after them too well. My grandpa’s plants were simple but looked good. But our neighbor’s plants were much fuller and greener.

Normally, during April and May, we have short but violent thunderstorms called “Kalboishakhi”. One late evening during a Kalboishakhi we had showers with strong winds, which continued right throughout that night. Next morning along with my grandparents I came out to inspect the damage to our garden. I saw our neighbor was there in his garden too, but looked upset as his plants were uprooted. But, our plants were not damaged and were standing firm on the ground.

注意：
1. 续写词数应为150左右；
2. 请按如下格式作答。
Seeing this, our neighbor was surprised and curious.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Grandpa’s explanations not only convinced the neighbor, but made me realize something.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

9 . In life, do you choose to take the road everyone has taken, or do you choose the path that is best for you? It might be ________ to choose what everyone has done, especially if it seemed to work for them. But is that what truly ________ for you?

On a recent hiking ________, my partner and I decided to take a popular trail in the ________ direction. This was an old, well-traveled trail that people had been hiking and biking from A to Z for years. For our own reasons, we chose to travel from Z to A. Going backwards made more sense with my ________. The trip would take several days and going backwards ________ that I would end the trip closer to the airport for my flight home.

As my partner and I walked, everyone crossing our path had something to say, “You're going the wrong way. Are you lost? Are you returning ________ you forgot something? Are you crazy? The path occasionally crossed a ________. When it did, even passing cars beeped to ________ us in the “right” direction.

Why did people only see one way? Because that's what everyone does? Because that's how it's always been done? We even ________ to talk to a Danish woman who said, “We have a(n)       ________ in my country: when you go backwards to everyone else, it's because you're avoiding something.” I couldn't believe it. We were just enjoying connecting with nature, hiking the way that best ________ us. Had we gone the “wrong” way? No. At least, not for us.

I decided to ________ the path I chose. ________, we had an amazing experience. Choosing the “wrong” path was right for me. When your inner ________ tells you something is right (or wrong), listen to it. It's your instinct. It's speaking to you for a reason and it knows, better than anyone, what's best for you.

1.

A．anxious

B．normal

C．awkward

D．impressive

2.

A．designs

B．plans

C．works

D．prepares

3.

A．race

B．test

C．project

D．trip

4.

A．opposite

B．wrong

C．common

D．accessible

5.

A．emotion

B．target

C．schedule

D．request

6.

A．supposed

B．ensured

C．provided

D．permitted

7.

A．if

B．because

C．while

D．yet

8.

A．plain

B．valley

C．trail

D．highway

9.

A．point

B．inspire

C．protect

D．support

10.

A．expected

B．stopped

C．agreed

D．hesitated

11.

A．saying

B．point

C．myth

D．spell

12.

A．instructed

B．confused

C．offered

D．suited

13.

A．show off

B．think over

C．pick out

D．stick to

14.

A．Probably

B．Hopefully

C．Eventually

D．Knowingly

15.

A．desire

B．feeling

C．voice

D．reaction

10 . A few years back, I planned to build a networked digital library where theses (论文) from African universities could be stored. I wanted to find a way to make these great _______ visible to the whole world. It took me months and even years to _______ build it to my taste. But finally, it went nowhere.

The other day, I was at a rest area. I observed that when one ant found food, others immediately _______ to help pull the food to their storage. I tried to _______ the pattern, which unfortunately resulted in _______ one. Quickly, they came together to rescue it. Then they reorganized and _______ in the line they had created. I saw no _______ of supervision (监督), yet they were moving pieces of food that were about 30 times their individual sizes, which is a _______ task.

As I watched them, the library plan _______ in my mind. Wouldn’t it be ________ to trust others to help you? Right there, I made the following ________. The ants cooperated with each other: I will form a(n)________, bringing professionals together. The ants trusted one another: I must ________ the notion (观念) that only by working alone can I ensure quality. The ants were ________: I will share my ideas with like-minded people.

It is about a month later now and the project is progressing well. It’s true that by ________ everyone in the organization and trusting people, we will achieve success.

1.

A．conditions

B．contributions

C．positions

D．instructions

2.

A．personally

B．similarly

C．peacefully

D．slightly

3.

A．survived

B．gathered

C．happened

D．hesitated

4.

A．memorize

B．share

C．disturb

D．match

5.

A．wounding

B．motivating

C．conducting

D．discovering

6.

A．waited

B．hid

C．continued

D．reflected

7.

A．favor

B．form

C．response

D．comparison

8.

A．regular

B．permanent

C．simple

D．massive

9.

A．weakened

B．varied

C．flashed

D．collapsed

10.

A．ridiculous

B．cruel

C．greedy

D．wonderful

11.

A．decisions

B．mistakes

C．assumptions

D．recommendations

12.

A．order

B．opinion

C．requirement

D．team

13.

A．get along with

B．keep pace with

C．get rid of

D．come up with

14.

A．efficient

B．open

C．honest

D．hard-working

15.

A．engaging

B．impressing

C．challenging

D．rewarding