In the hyper-competitive world, having a child with average (普通的) grades is considered a serious problem by some parents. ___, a student with average grades in high school doesn’t ___ he or she won’t succeed in college.
My son was a (n) ___ high school student, graduating with a GPA that was just shy of 3.0. There were a number of ___ for his poor performance in high school. Among other things, we ___ tutors, including one English teacher. ___ I listened each week, I could see how bored my son was, despite the ___ way the teacher explained the text.
And yet, when it came to sports, my son was ___ knowledge. I wondered how he could know so much ___ On the other hand, we felt the life lessons he learned by playing football in high school would be of great ____ to him. We hoped that his love for learning about ____ would someday translate into his academic pursuits (爱好) as well.
The belief that ____ a top 50 university is the only path to success is not only untrue, but ____ for the 95% of high school students. My son was fortunate to be ____ to one of those universities.
Parents of average students might want to consider doing things ____ from what we did. In my son’s case, when he went to college and found something that ____ his attention, he was able to earn the ____ we always knew he could get. He succeeded ____ being an average high school student — and without ____ from his parents. He did it on his own, which for me is the most ____ thing of all.
1.A.Moreover B.However C.Therefore D.Besides
2.A.know B.doubt C.mean D.realize
3.A.amazing B.average C.hardworking D.naughty
4.A.signs B.reasons C.cases D.causes
5.A.selected B.visited C.hired D.adopted
6.A.Although B.As C.Unless D.Until
7.A.interesting B.boring C.strange D.informal
8.A.proud of B.lack of C.full of D.aware of
9.A.recognition B.information C.education D.operation
10.A.service B.concern C.comfort D.value
11.A.debates B.fame C.sports D.English
12.A.visiting B.attending C.applying D.affording
13.A.useless B.necessary C.impossible D.obvious
14.A.appointed B.admitted C.chosen D.agreed
15.A.similar B.different C.opposite D.familiar
16.A.overcame B.destroyed C.caught D.directed
17.A.wages B.honors C.grades D.incomes
18.A.except B.beyond C.despite D.about
19.A.support B.blame C.pressure D.praise
20.A.disappointing B.surprising C.amusing D.satisfying
Directions: Write an English composition in 120-150 words according to the instructions given below in Chinese.
假设你是明启中学高三学生李青，将在主题为“我的家乡变美了”的班会上发言。请撰写一篇演讲稿，内容必须包括：
▪ 家乡变美了的具体表现；
▪ 你对家乡未来的畅想。
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Directions: Translate the following sentences into English, using the words given in the brackets.
1.艺术节开幕式上学生的演出真是太棒了！（performance）
2.图书管理员提醒新生，杂志阅毕要放回原处。（where）
3.只有耐得住寂寞，并不断挑战自我，才能更好地为未来做准备。（Only）
4.做自我介绍时，不必面面俱到，而要突出你的与众不同之处。（distinguish）
Directions: Read the following passage. Summarize the main idea and the main point(s) of the passage in no more than 60 words. Use your own words as far as possible.
Social media and teens’ anxiety
From cyber-bullying to cruel comments, social media can be a land mine for kids. Issues parents never worried about are now a risk for many teens. With kids’ digital well-being a concern, researchers are exploring potential links between social media and the rise in teen suicide rates, tech addiction, and loss of real-life social skills. Many parents are wondering: Is social media causing my kid to have anxiety?
It’s a question that worried parents. Some research has observed a relationship between social media use and anxiety in kids, but it’s difficult to know if and when social media causes anxiety or whether kids who are anxious turn to social media as a way to seek support. How kids use social media matters, too. Social comparison and feedback-seeking behaviors have been associated with depressive symptoms, which often co-occur with anxiety.
How can parents keep social media a positive for kids?
1. Seeing photos of a trip to the beach your friends didn’t invite you to can really be upsetting. If your kid is tired of digital drama, suggest they take a break from social media for a while. In fact, if they post a status update that they’re taking a break, their friends might be very accepting because they’ve had similar feelings.
2. People post stuff that makes their lives look perfect — not the homework struggles, or the fight they had with their dad. Remind kids that social media leaves the messy stuff out — and that everyone has ups and downs.
3. In a world where kids could spend their days lying around looking at Wechat, it’s doubly important for them to feel as though they’re cultivating their inner lives. Prompt them to balance social media with soul-nourishing activities such as hobbies, exercise, reading, and helping others. Otherwise, what are they going to show off about on social media?
Directions: Complete the following passage by using the sentences given below. Each sentence can be used only once. Note that there are two more sentences than you need.
Vitamin D3 Improve Heart Function
A daily dose of vitamin D3 improves heart function in people with heart failure, a five-year University of Leeds research project has found.
Dr. Klaus Witte, from the School of Medicine and Consultant Cardiologist at Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, led the study. He said: “This is a significant breakthrough for patients. It is the first evidence that vitamin D3 can improve heart function of people with heart muscle weakness –known as heart failure.” 1.
Vitamin D3 can be boosted by exposure to sunlight, but heart failure patients are often deficient in it even during the summer because older people make less vitamin D3 in response to sunlight than younger people. Vitamin D3 production in the skin is also reduced by sunscreen.
The study, which was funded by the Medical Research Council, involved more than 160 patients from Leeds who were already being treated for their heart failure using proven treatments including beta — blockers, ACE-inhibitors and pacemakers. 2. Those patients who took vitamin D3 experienced an improvement in heart function which was not seen in those who took a placebo.
3. Heart specialists measure heart function by taking an ultrasound scan of the heart and measuring how much blood pumps from the heart with each heartbeat, known as ejection fraction. The ejection fraction of a healthy person is usually between 60% and 70%. In heart failure patients, the ejection fraction is often significantly impaired — in the patients enrolled into the study the average ejection fraction was 26%.
In the 80 patients who took Vitamin D3, the heart’s pumping function improved from 26% to 34%. 4. This means that for some heart disease patients, taking vitamin D3 regularly may lessen the need for them to be fitted with an implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD), a device which detects dangerous irregular heart rhythms and can shock the heart to restore a normal rhythm.
A. Heart failure can by all means be cured by Vitamin D3.
B. Changes in heart function were measured by ultrasound.
C. In the others, who took placebo, there was no change in cardiac function.
D. Participants were asked to take vitamin D3 or a placebo tablet for one year.
E. Sunscreen will prevent people from absorbing more Vitamin D3 to a great extent.
F. The finding could make a significant difference to the care of heart failure patients.
Though the spread of good reproduction (复制品) of works of art can be culturally valuable, museums continue to promote the special status of original work and highlight the authenticity (真实) of its exhibits. Unfortunately, this seems to place severe limitations on the kind of experience offered to visitors.
One limitation is related to the way the museum presents its exhibits. Art museums are often called “treasure houses”. We are reminded of this even before we view a collection by the presence of security guards who keep us away from the exhibits. In addition, a major collection like that of London’s National Gallery is housed in numerous rooms, where a single piece of work is likely to be worth more than all the average visitor possesses. In a society that judges the personal status of the individual so much by their material worth, it is therefore difficult not to be impressed by one’s own relative “worthlessness” in such an environment.
Furthermore, consideration of the “value” of the original work in its treasure house setting impresses upon the viewer that since these works were originally produced, they have been assigned a huge value in terms of money by some person or institution more powerful than themselves. Evidently, nothing the viewer thinks about the work is going to alter that value, and so today’s viewer is discouraged from trying to extend that spontaneous, immediate, self-reliant kind of interpretation which would originally have met the work.
The visitor may then be struck by the strangeness of seeing such a variety of paintings, drawings and sculptures brought together in an environment for which they were not originally created. This “displacement effect” is further heightened by the huge volume of exhibits. In the case of a major collection, there are probably more works on display than we could realistically view in weeks or even months.
This is particularly distressing because time seems to be a vital factor in the appreciation of all art forms. A fundamental difference between paintings and other art forms is that there is no prescribed time over which a painting is viewed. Operas, novels and poems are read in a prescribed time sequence, whereas a picture has no clear place at which to start viewing, or at which to finish. Thus art works themselves encourage us to view them superficially, without appreciating the richness of detail and labor that is involved.
Consequently, the dominant critical approach becomes that of the art historian, a specialized academic approach devoted to “discovering the meaning” of art within the cultural context of its time. This is in harmony with the museum’s function, since the approach is dedicated to seeking out and conserving “authentic”, “original” readings of the exhibits.
1.The writer mentions London’s National Gallery to illustrate ______.
A.the undesirable cost to a nation of maintaining a huge collection of art
B.the conflict that may arise in society between financial and artistic values
C.the negative effect a museum can have on visitors’ opinion of themselves
D.the need to put individual well-being above large-scale artistic schemes
2.The writer says that today viewers may be unwilling to criticize a work because they ______.
A.lack the knowledge needed
B.fear it may have financial implications
C.have no real concept of the work’s value
D.feel their personal reaction is of no significance
3.The writer says that unlike other forms of art, the appreciation of a painting does not ______.
A.involve direct contact with an audience
B.require a specific location for performance
C.need the involvement of other professionals
D.call for a specific beginning or ending
4.Which of the following might be the best title of the passage?
A.Original work: killer of artistic appreciation
B.Original work: reduction to value of art works
C.Original work: substitute for reproduction
D.Original work: art historians’ bread and butter
