Attention from strangers is nothing new to me. Questions about my height is the center of almost every public interaction. My friends say my height is just a physical quality and not a personality aspect. However, when I reflect on my life, I realize that my height has shaped my character in many ways and has helped to make me who I am.
I learned how to be kind. When I was younger, some parents in my neighborhood regarded me kind of dangerous because I was so much larger than other children of my age. I had to be extra welcoming and gentle simply to play with other children. Of course, now my coaches wish I weren’t quite so kind on the basketball court.
I learned the quality of not being too proud about myself. At 7 feet tall, everyone expects me to be an amazing basketball player. They come expecting to see Dirk Nowitzki, and instead they might see a performance more like Will Ferrell (successfully starred a professional basketball player). I have learned to be modest and to work even harder than my fellows to meet their (and my) expectations.
I developed a sense of lightheartedness. When people playfully make fun of my height, I laugh at myself too. On my first day of high school, a girl dropped her books in a busy hallway. I got down to her level and gathered some of her notebooks. As we both stood up, her eyes widened as I kept rising over her. Astonished, she dropped her books again. Embarrassed, we both laughed and picked up the books a second time.
All of these lessons have defined me. Looking back, I realize that through years of such experiences, I have become a confident, expressive person. Being a 7-footer is both a blessing and a curse (诅咒), but in the end, accepting who you are is the first step to happiness.
1.Why does the author often draw attention from strangers?
A. He is interested in public interaction. B. He has a unique personality.
C. He is physically strong. D. He is extremely tall.
2.When he was young, the author intended to be more friendly just to _____.
A. gain extra favor B. play with other children
C. prove his kindness D. please his coach
3.It can be inferred from Para. 3 that _____.
A. Dirk Nowitzki was an awful basketball player
B. the author seldom disappointed his basketball fans
C. the author expected to make something better of himself
D. Will Ferrell was better at playing basketball than Dir Nowitzki
Dreaming of summer picnics filled with family and fun? We’ve come up with 4 of the top picnic areas across the US.
Cumberland Islands, Georgia
Just a few hours south of Savannah, this national seashore is a picnic paradise. It’s an unspoiled place in the Deep South with over 50 miles of hiking trails (小径). Covered in Spanish moss, the trails are lined with trees and since it’s still a rural area, the stars line up for a spectacular show at night and create the perfect evening starlit picnic opportunity.
Grant Park, Chicago
If you are looking for delicious food in Chicago, go for a taste of a 20-day, lake-front, foodie festival that happens in October each year. Grab a spot near the fountain to enjoy your picnic, appreciate the city scenery and lake views and relax with family and friends. If you are there on July 4th, be sure to plan the day to include the fireworks display at the Navy Pier.
Cranberry Islands, Maine
Here, you’ll enjoy natural picnics with island views. The islands are a delightful group of islands about 20 minutes offshore from Acadia National Park. You can visit the islands by private boat or ferry (渡船) service. Bring a picnic basket along for the ride as it’s a romantic picnic area to take your special someone or go for a family outing to visit the islands.
Big Sur, California
The Point Lobos State Reserve is a small gem. Besides the coastal wildlife there are rare plant communities, and unique geological formations. It’s good to have a picnic there. We recommend bringing a telescope, because much of the wildlife can be seen only at a distance.
1.What are Cumberland Islands like?
A. They are just next to Savannah.
B. They haven’t lost their naturalness.
C. They are almost covered in Spanish moss.
D. They have a spectacular show every night.
2.Where can you enjoy observing wildlife with a telescope?
A. At the Navy Pier. B. In the Deep South.
C. At Acadia National Park. D. At the Point Lobos State Reserve.
3.Why does the author write this passage?
A. To introduce some picnic areas.
B. To share personal stories about picnics.
C. To tell readers some good ways to relax.
D. To offer readers tips for winter holiday.
4.Where can we most probably read this passage?
A. In a personal dairy. B. In a science report.
C. In a travel magazine. D. In a geography textbook.
你校英语社团要组织一次英语辩论赛，就“是否应该缩短中学生在校时间为8小时”的论题进行辩论，请你作为正方代表，写一份辩论稿，内容要点如下：
（1）保证充足睡眠；
（2）提高学习效率；
（3）增加自主时间。
注意：
（1）词数不少于100；
（2）可以适当增加细节，以使行文连贯；
（3）辩论稿的开头已给出，不计入总词数。
As a senior high student, I strongly recommend that___________________________________________
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阅读短文，按照题目要求用英语回答问题。
My dad is a kind, gentle man, and a man of few words. Throughout my life, he offered advice rarely. But the words were always appropriate to the situation I was facing.
As a teen when I struggled with making sense of the world around me, he said, “All things are relative.” He taught me the right view of the world. When I was offered the opportunity to be a manager of an organization as an undergraduate student, I asked him for advice because he was a senior manager of a large company. His advice was simple, “Only when you become the manager can you have a vision for how you can make the organization better; management isn’t about power and it’s about leadership.” I learned what I needed was not only to be responsible for my team but also to have leading ability. When I was feeling down, he explained, “Think that you make the wrong choices in life, sometimes.”
My dad is 86 now, living on his own and enjoying life while struggling with the challenges that aging brings. He keeps a positive attitude despite long pain and the losses that come in life. Although we live quite far away from each other, we talk daily on the phone, and he shares the joys of my young family. As I tell him how we’re heading off cycling or on a trip or out to play tennis, now his typical response is, “Do it while you can.” This is very important. We can’t be sure of the future. My father’s advice is like the ancient dictum（格言）of “ carpe diem”— seize the day and enjoy it to the fullest.
My dad rarely “lectured me”. He trusted me, and helped me when I needed help. His patience and wisdom have been true gifts in my life. As I doubt my ability and my motivation, I recall his most recent gift of wisdom, “Do it while you can”. It’s enough to “just get me started”.
1.Why did the author’s dad tell him “All things are relative.”? (No more than 10 words)
2.What qualities should a manager have according to the author? (No more than 5 words)
3.What is the purpose of the author’s father talking with him on the phone every day? (No more than 10 words)
4.How do you understand the underlined sentence in the last paragraph? (No more than 10 words)
5.How do you feel about the ancient dictum of “carpe diem”? (No more than 20 words)
It is one of the oldest magic tricks in the book—a magician locks a woman in a box, with her head and feet sticking out from either end, and saws (锯) it in half. But when she finally jumps out of the box, the woman is unharmed.
This trick was introduced nearly a century ago. It has been around for some time, but it never goes wrong. Why is it so successful? The answer is simple: the human mind is easily fooled.
Our brain processes the world around us based on information that sensory organs, including the eyes, pick up. For instance, when we see a cow or a horse standing behind a tree, we automatically “fill in” the part of the animal’s body that is hidden from our sight. “So the brain is taking this kind of very sparse (匮乏的) information about the world and it’s generating this rich world by filling in information,” Stephen Macknik, a scientist at the Barrow Neurological Institute in Arizona, US, told Science magazine.
But since our brains are filling in the gaps, sometimes they get it wrong. They tend to be driven by our previous experiences and we expect things to go as they have in the past even if sometimes they do not.
This tendency explains magicians’ success in fooling people with well-known coin tricks. For example, when you see a magician throw a coin up and down in one hand and then fake a coin thrown to the other hand, you would naturally believe that the coin is in the other hand.
Apart from the information gaps, magicians also use the “blind spots” theory when doing their shows.
The most well-known experiment demonstrating this theory is called the “invisible gorilla (大猩猩)”, in which volunteers watch a video of two basketball teams. They are asked to count how many times the teams wearing white shirts pass the ball. In the meantime, a person dressed as a gorilla walks onto the court. But shockingly, half of the viewers don’t notice the gorilla, even when they appear to be looking directly at it.
Magicians employ this tactic (招数), what they call “misdirection”, in almost every one of their acts. They direct our attention somewhere else using comedy and music, which can make us miss stuff during the performance.
1.The magic trick is mentioned in the first paragraph to ________.
A. introduce the steps of the magic trick
B. prove magic tricks seldom go wrong
C. reveal how magic tricks are designed
D. get us to wonder how magicians trick the mind
2.We can conclude from the passage that the human mind is easily fooled because our brain ________.
A. may have difficulty remembering what we just saw
B. fills in information about the magic world
C. is influenced by our previous experiences
D. processes far more information than our sensory organs pick up
3.What does the underlined word “invisible” in paragraph 7 refer to?
A. Unnoticed. B. Unimportant.
C. Unpleasant. D. Unprepared.
4.During the “invisible gorilla” experiment, people watching the video ignore the “gorilla” because ________.
A. they don’t look directly at it
B. they are not interested in it
C. they are too focused on counting
D. they consider it to be a distraction
5.Why do magicians usually use comedy and music when they play magic tricks?
A. To get viewers to stay focused on the show.
B. To make the show more fun and exciting.
C. To draw viewers’ attention away from a secret action.
D. To create information gaps between magicians and viewers.
British writer John Donne once said: “No man is an island; every book is a world.” As an enthusiastic reader, I can’t agree with the latter part of the sentence more. Every summer, I endeavor to find some peaceful places where I can attack some classics without being disturbed. Thomas Hardy wants to live far from the madding crowd. I am no friend to chaos, either.
I read George Orwell’s 1984 in a New England beachside cottage with no locks on the doors, no telephones or televisions in the rooms. 1984 is a good book that needs deep reflection. Attempting Sound and Fury lying on the bed of a poorly-occupied motel, however, was less fruitful: I made it through one and a quarter volumes, but then my eyelids were so heavy that I couldn’t keep them open.
But this summer I find myself at a loss. I’m not quite interested in J.D.Salinger, say, or Frankenstein. There’s always War and Peace which I’ve covered some distance several times, only to get bogged down in the “War” part, set it aside for a while, and realize that I have to start over from the beginning again, having forgotten everyone’s name and social rank. How appealing to simply fall back on a favorite—once more into The Call of the Wild or Alice in the Wonderland, which feels almost like cheating, too exciting and too much fun to properly belong to serious literature.
And then there’s John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath. This title does not amaze but confuse. We’re never short of sour grapes, but we’ve never heard of angry grapes. Anyway grapes are my favorite fruit of summer. These stone fruits can always make me feel cheerful and peaceful all at once.
1.What can we infer from Paragraph 2?
A. The author has a cottage in New England.
B. 1984 is a book that needs careful thought.
C. Both of the reading attempts were not fruitful.
D. Sound and Fury was set in a poorly-occupied motel.
2.What does the underlined phrase “get bogged down” in paragraph 3 refer to?
A. Get confused. B. Be carried away.
C. Be interpreted. D. Make no progress.
3.Why does the author say reading his favorite books feels like cheating?
A. He finishes them quickly. B. He should read something serious.
C. He barely understands them. D. He gets amazed by their titles.
4.What can we know about the author from this passage?
A. Thomas Hardy is his friend. B. He shows talent for literature.
C. He is quite forgetful. D. He is a literary-minded man.
5.What’s the author’s purpose in writing the passage?
A. To share his reading experience.
B. To encourage readers to read books.
C. To introduce good books to readers.
D. To condemn the chaotic world we live in.
