I used to believe in the American Dream, which meant a job, a mortgage (按揭), credit cards, success. I wanted it and worked toward it like everyone else, all of us _________ chasing the same thing.
One year, through a series of unhappy events, it all fell _________ I found myself homeless and alone. I only had my truck and $56. I _________ the countryside for some place I could rent for the _________ possible amount. I came upon a shabby house four miles up a winding mountain road _________ the Potomac River in West Virginia. It was _________, full of broken glass and rubbish. I found the owner, rented it, and _________ a corner to camp in.
The locals knew nothing about me, _________ slowly, they started teaching me the _________ of being a neighbor. They dropped off blankets, candles, and tools, and began ____________ around to chat. They started to teach me a belief in a ____________ American Dream-not the one of individual achievement but of ____________.
What I have believed in, all those things I thought were ____________ for a civilized life, were nonexistent in this place. ____________ on the mountain, my most valuable possessions were my ____________ with my neighbors.
Four years later, I moved back into ____________ I saw many people were having a really hard time, ____________ their jobs and homes. I managed to rent a big enough house to ____________ a handful of people. There are four of us now in the house, but over time I’ve had nine people come in and move on to other places. We’d all be in ____________ if we hadn’t banded together.
The American Dream I believe in now is a ____________ one. It’s not so much about what I can get for myself; it’s about what we can all get by together.
1.A.naturally B.equally C.severely D.separately
2.A.off B.apart C.over D.out
3.A.searched B.left C.toured D.crossed
4.A.fullest B.largest C.fairest D.cheapest
5.A.at B.through C.over D.round
6.A.occupied B.emptied C.abandoned D.robbed
7.A.turned B.approached C.cleared D.cut
8.A.but B.although C.otherwise D.for
9.A.benefit B.lesson C.nature D.art
10.A.swinging B.looking C.crowding D.turning
11.A.different B.real C.wild D.steady
12.A.neighborliness B.toughness C.happiness D.tolerance
13.A.unique B.expensive C.rare D.necessary
14.A.Up B.Down C.Deep D.Along
15.A.cooperation B.relationship C.satisfaction D.appointments
16.A.reality B.town C.society D.life
17.A.creating B.quitting C.undertaking D.offering
18.A.put in B.turn in C.take in D.get in
19.A.yards B.cottages C.camps D.shelters
20.A.desperate B.shared C.complicated D.flexible
The running of the bulls is a nine-day traditional Spanish festival in honor of Saint Fermin in Pamplona. Every year, at midday on July 6th, the Mayor of Pamplona shoots a rocket. 1. The participants are usually dressed in white and wear red neckchiefs and belts. They open champagne(香槟酒) mostly used for sprinkling(撒) other people.
2. It starts every day at eight in the morning and the runners run, sometimes wildly, sometimes less. As a sign that the run has begun they shoot the first rocket. Then they shoot the second one when the bulls are out in the streets. Six bulls which are trying to attack the participants from behind run down the 900-meter-long street to the bullring with a lot of spectators. 3. All of the six bulls are going to be killed at the bullfight in the stadium.
The bullfight in the stadium begins at half past six in the afternoon. First, there comes the first bull. There is also a person called “picador”.4.That makes the bull very wild and it starts to run all over the stadium. Later when the bull is tired, there comes another person----a “matador” who kills it with an arrow. 5. At the end of the celebration, another rocket is shot as a sign that the bullfight is finished.
A. It makes the bull very nervous.
B. It is one of the greatest events in the city.
C. The main event is the running of the bulls.
D. He waves a red cloth in front of the bull.
E. This is a sign that the celebration has started.
F. The participants can get hurt or even killed.
G. The same thing happens with the other five bulls.
Mark Twain has been called the inventor of the American novel. And he surely deserves additional praise: the man who popularized the clever literary attack on racism. I say clever because anti-slavery fiction had been the important part of the literature in the years before the Civil War. H. B. Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin is only the most famous example. These early stories dealt directly with slavery. With minor exceptions, Twain planted his attacks on slavery and prejudice into tales that were on the surface about something else entirely. He drew his readers into the argument by drawing them into the story.
Again and again, in the postwar years, Twain seemed forced to deal with the challenge of race. Only a few books have been kicked off the shelves as often as Huckleberry Finn, Twain’s most widely read tale. Once upon a time, people hated the book because it struck them as rude. More recently the book has been attacked because of the character Jim, the escaped slave, and many occurrences of the word nigger.
But the attacks were and are silly—and miss the point. The novel is strongly anti-slavery. Jim’s search through the slave states for the family from whom he has been forcibly parted is heroic. As J. Chadwick has pointed out, the character of Jim was a first in American fiction—a recognition that the slave had two personalities, “the voice of survival within a white slave culture and the voice of the individual: Jim, the father and the man.”
There is much more. Twain’s mystery novel Pudd’n-head Wilson stood as a challenge to the racial beliefs of even many of the liberals of his day. Written at a time when the accepted wisdom held Negroes to be inferior (低等的) to whites, especially in intelligence, Twain’s tale centered in part around two babies switched at birth. A slave gave birth to her master’s baby and, for fear that the child should be sold South, switched him for the master’s baby by his wife. The slave’s light-skinned child was taken to be white and grew up with both the attitudes and the education of the slave-holding class. The master’s wife’s baby was taken for black and grew up with the attitudes and intonations of the slave.
The point was difficult to miss: nurture (养育), not nature, was the key to social status. The features of the black man that provided the stuff of prejudice—manner of speech, for example—were, to Twain, indicative of nothing other than the conditioning that slavery forced on its victims.
1.How do Twain’s novels on slavery differ from Stowe’s?
A.Twain was more willing to deal with racism.
B.Twain’s attack on racism was much less open.
C.Twain’s themes seemed to agree with plots.
D.Twain was openly concerned with racism.
2.Recent criticism of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn arose partly from its ________.
A.target readers at the bottom
B.anti slavery attitude
C.rather impolite language
D.frequent use of “nigger”
3.What best proves Twain’s anti slavery stand according to the author?
A.Jim’s search for his family was described in detail.
B.The slave’s voice was first heard in American novels.
C.Jim grew up into a man and a father in the white culture.
D.Twain suspected that the slaves were less intelligent.
4.The story of two babies switched mainly indicates that ________.
A.slaves were forced to give up their babies to their masters
B.slaves babies could pick up slave holders way of speaking
C.blacks social position was shaped by how they were brought up
D.blacks were born with certain features of prejudice
Chris Mazdzer won a silver medal in a men’s luge (无舵雪橇) singles event at 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics, South Korea — equaling the best finish ever for any member of the US Olympic luge team. In the luge, competitors lie flat, feet first, on a small sled (雪橇). They can travel around an icy track at speeds up to 140 kilometers an hour. The riders control the sled’s speed by changing the position of their feet or by moving their shoulders.
So why did the US luge team win a medal at the Pyeongchang Olympics? Most credit must go to Chris Mazdzer himself. The American said his win was a product of 16 years of preparation and intense training. But another reason for Mazdzer’s success could have been the 3-D printing technology, which his team used to make its equipment.
The term 3-D is short for three dimensional, meaning an object with length, width and height. In 3-D printing, 3-D models are first created as files, or documents, on a computer. The printer then uses a substance (物质) like plastic or metal to create physical objects. The process involves making one layer of material at a time until the objects reach full form.
The US luge team worked with an American company called Stratasys on the designing and manufacturing process for the sleds. First, the company made a scan, or image, of the body of every member of the luge team. Then, 3-D printing technology was used to create tools for making molds (模子) in the shape of Olympians on top of a sled. The process of designing and tooling sled parts is highly complex and can take several weeks. Officials from the US luge team say 3-D printing can greatly simplify the process, speeding up the production of parts.
Jon Owen, says the use of 3-D printing has made the team more competitive. It helps the team “continuously adjust designs and run the sleds on the track much faster than traditional processes,” he said. He added that the technology also provides a way to perfectly fit each rider to the sled, while cutting production time and costs.
1.According to the author, what mainly contributed to Mazdzer’s winning the medal?
A.His own great efforts. B.His using a new technique.
C.The cooperation with his luge team. D.The US Olympic luge team’s encouragement.
2.To make the sleds for the team, what did the company have to do?
A.To create tools for making sled parts.
B.To take some photos of the members first.
C.To create molds according to the members’ bodies.
D.To ask the Olympians to be present for several weeks.
3.From the last paragraph we learn that 3-D printing most probably __________.
A.saves plenty of competitors’ training time
B.helps competitors achieve their full potential
C.requires great skills of riders to fit the track
D.allows riders to change their sleds continuously
4.What is the text mainly about?
A.How 3-D printing usually works.
B.How we take advantage of 3-D printing.
C.How the US luge team performed this year.
D.How 3-D printing helped Team US go for gold.
My husband and I wanted desperately the instant transformation from typical consumers to eco-conscious people. We switched our light bulbs to CFL (compact fluorescent light) bulbs to conserve energy. We went about the house turning off lights and unplugging appliances that weren’t in use. But the rate of global warming exceeded our snail’s pace conversion to greenhood. So I pressed onward.
I decided to put veganism (素食主义) at the top of our agenda. Vegans refuse any animal flesh or commercial goods made from any animal byproducts such as milk or fats. All the family applauded this option except for my husband. Some kind of animal needed to sacrifice its dear life for his meal or it wasn’t his dinner. I cooked up a storm, struggling to prepare nutritious meals dominated by not — so — obvious vegan dishes like bean burritos and high-fiber vegetable stir-fry. It took a few days before he realized that he hadn’t been eating any meat.
“I feel like eating beef.” he announced. So that night, I took full advantage of a zucchini (西葫芦), cut it into chunky (粗大的) pieces and cooked them. Then I covered them with spices. My beef-starved husband had some and a curious look crossed his face.
“Where’s the beef?”
“Living peacefully somewhere on an open plain where it belongs.”
“I knew it!” he murmured. “You’ve surely made great contributions to the boom in cattle.” His taste buds were developed completely around the flavor of every kind of animal: cattle, pigs, deer, lambs, chickens and ducks. Converting him was like feeding grass to a lion.
I’m all for preserving our planet, but what good would it do to save the earth for tomorrow’s generation if today’s died of starvation? The next day, we went out for burgers. I was very careful to place the paper bag into our recycling bin.
1.Which of the following best explains “exceeded” underlined in Paragraph 1?
A.Defeated. B.Absorbed.
C.Bound. D.Distributed.
2.What do we know about the author’s husband from Paragraph 2?
A.He supported the meat-free diet.
B.He was a preserver of animals.
C.He was regarded as a meat lover.
D.He played a dominant role in cooking.
3.Which of the following is TRUE about the author?
A.She had a good sense of humor.
B.She successfully transformed her husband.
C.She advocated raising more cattle.
D.She had a perfect recipe for cooking meals.
4.What can be a suitable title for the text?
A.Greens or Lions? B.Hunger or Anger?
C.Economy or Environment? D.Discrimination or Appreciation?
Did you know that badminton is also a fast-paced competitive sport? Badminton has been a Summer Olympic sport since 1992. Para-badminton will be included in the 2020 Summer Olympic Games in Tokyo. Here is what you need to know if your child is interested in badminton.
Badminton is played on a 44-foot-long rectangular (矩形的) court that is 17 feet wide for singles and 20 feet wide for doubles. It is the only sport that has mixed doubles events in the Olympic Games. It is divided in the middle by a net placed 5 feet off the ground, like volleyball, not at ground level like tennis.
In competition, each match is a set of three games played to 21 points. There is a one-minute break when a player or team reaches 11 points, and a two-minute break in between the first and second games and the second and third games.
Age kids can start: About 6 years old.
Best for kids who: Have good skills, are patient and hardworking, and can handle the pressure of one-on-one or two-on-two competition.
Team or individual: Matches can be singles (one-on-one) or doubles (two-on-two).
Costs: Beginners are expected to pay $30 to $40 for an entry-level racquet (球拍). Badminton shoes are similar in price to other athletic shoes. Join a club or team for lessons. A one-hour group lesson for beginners should cost $20 to $25, with costs increasing as your child moves up the ranks. You will also pay entry fees for competitions.
Time commitment required: Beginners will play for just an hour or two per week.
Potential for injury: Players have a very low risk of injury. Players who wear glasses should use eye protection.
1.From the passage, we can learn that ________.
A.badminton is a fast-paced competitive sport which began in 1992
B.badminton has mixed doubles events in the Olympic Games
C.the court for singles has the same width as that for doubles
D.para-badminton has been included in the Summer Olympic Games
2.How many minutes in all will a player have for a rest in a set of three games?
A.2. B.3.
C.5. D.7.
3.According to the passage, for the beginners, they should ________.
A.wear glasses to protect their eyes
B.start to learn badminton at the age of 8
C.play for at least an hour or two every day
D.pay at least $20 for a one-hour group lesson
