If it really is what’s on the inside tha...

    One day last summer, watching the boys and girls trying to catch butterflies I remembered something happened when I was young. When I was a boy of 12 in South Carolina, something happened to me that cured me forever of wanting to put any wild creature in a cage.

We lived on the edge of a wood, and every evening the mockingbirds would come and rest in the trees and sing. No musician can sing more beautiful than the birds. I decided that I would catch a young bird and keep it in a cage and in that way would have my own private musician.

I finally succeeded in catching one and put it in a cage. At first, the bird flew about the cage, but eventually it settled down in its new home. I felt very pleased with myself and looked forward to some beautiful singing from my tiny musician.

I had left the cage out, and on the second day my new pet’s mother flew to the cage with food in her mouth. The baby bird ate everything she brought to it. I was pleased to see this. Certainly the mother knew better than I about how to feed her baby.

The following morning when I went to see how my bird was doing, I discovered it on the floor of the cage, dead. I was shocked! What had happened! I had taken good care of my little bird.

Arthur Wayne, the famousornithologist, happened to be visiting my father at the time. Hearing me crying over the death of my bird, he explained what had occurred. “A mother mockingbird, finding her young in a cage, will sometimes bring it poisonous (有毒的) berries(干果). She thinks it better for her young to die than to live in cage.”

Never since then have I caught any living creature and put it in a cage. All living creatures have a right to live free.

1.Why did the writer catch a mockingbird when he was a boy of 12?

A.He had just got a new cage.

B.He liked its beautiful feather.

C.He wanted a pet for a companion.

D.He wanted it to sing for him.

2.The mockingbird died because it ______.

A.drank the poisonous water by mistake

B.was frightened to death

C.ate the poisonous food its mother gave it

D.refused to eat anything

3.What is the most important lesson the writer learned from the incident?

A.Freedom is very valuable to all living things.

B.All birds put in a cage won’t live long.

C.You should keep the birds from their mother.

D.Be careful about food you give to baby birds.

Study Books

Basic Study Manual Hardcover (精装书): $ 37

Future success depends on the ability to learn. Here are the answers to the questions most often asked by parents, teachers, business trainers and by students themselves. Read this book and learn:

●What the three barriers (障碍) to study are and what to do about them.

●What to do if you get tired of a subject you are studying.

●Twenty-six simple drills to help you learn how to study easily, rapidly and with full understanding.

Buy and read Basic Study Manual and use it do dramatically improve your ability to study.

Study Skills for Life Hardcover: $32

L. Ron Hubbard’s study technology for children opens the door to their future success by giving them the ability to study and learn. Fully illustrated (说明，阐明) for easy comprehension.

Learning How to Learn Hardcover: $25

The basics of effective study for 8 to 12-year-olds, fully illustrated. Children who read and apply the materials in this book regain their liking for study and their ability to apply this knowledge in life. Get this book for a child you want to see win at his studies!

How to Use a Dictionary Picture Book for Children Hardcover: $36

In spite of billions of dollars spent on “educational research”, children are not taught the most basic skills of learning, even the most basic of these: how to use a dictionary. In fact, a research of educational books for children found no book that told them how to use a dictionary or that one should. Written for children 8 to 12-year-olds, this fully illustrated book will teach your child:

●How to find words in a dictionary.

●The different ways that words are used.

●What the different marks and symbols that are used in a dictionary mean.

●How to use a dictionary to correctly pronounce words.

It includes a section for parents and teachers showing you how to use this book with children. Buy this book and give it to your children to unlock their education. What’s more, you will just pay 50% for it before May 1, 2014.

1.According to the advertisements, the four books are all intended for ____.

A.teachers B.children C.adults D.women

2.Some of the four books were illustrated in order to _______.

A.persuade foreigners to buy all of them

B.reduce the cost of them

C.help readers understand them and make a better choice

D.make them suitable to different reader.

3.If you buy the four books on April 30, 2014, you will have to pay ______ for them.

A.$130 B.$112 C.$65 D.$18

4.The purpose of the passage is to _______.

A.show readers how to use the four books

B.help children to learn English

C.enrich students knowledge about nature

D.sell the four books to students.

Christmas Traditions

The Origin of Christmas

Since about 400 AD, Christmas Day has been celebrated on 25th December. This date was the old mid-winter festival in pre-Christian times, around the time of the longest night and the shortest day. Christmas in the 21st century has many traditions: Christmas trees, cards and presents.

Presents and shopping

Shops can make about 60 percent of their year’s income in the three months before Christmas. So most shops get ready for it in October. The shopping centres are beautifully decorated and stay open late at night. The first time this happened was in 1867 when Macy’s, a famous shop in New York, stayed open until midnight on Christmas Eve (24th December).

Trees

By mid-December, almost every house, shop and street has a Christmas tree. This tradition was started by the Germans as early as 700 AD. In the northern countries of the world, winter is cold and dark and most trees lose their leaves. The beautiful green trees decorated with lights and coloured glass balls give people hope that spring will come again.

Cards

The tradition of sending cards to friends was started in 1840 in the UK and now millions of Christmas cards and emails are sent all round the world. Cards are a good way of keeping in touch with family and friends who live far away.

Father Christmas

Father Christmas is known across the world with his white hair, red coat and big bag of toys. Young children are told that he lives in the north of Finland and makes toys for them. By tradition, he brings the toys to children at midnight, on the night before Christmas.

Food

On Christmas day a traditional meal is eaten, usually turkey (like a big chicken) and a rich, spicy cake. Some people hate Christmas. Others feel it is a magical and exciting time. They love seeing family and friends; they also love the traditions. Love it or hate it, Christmas is a time to look back over the old year — and forward to the new one.

1.Christmas has been celebrated ______.

A.for over 3000 years B.since the start of the 21st century

C.for about 1600 years D.for about 2400 years

2.Christmas is important for shops because ______.

A.much of their income is made around Christmas time

B.they can stay open later

C.they are beautifully decorated

D.they can prepare for it long before Christmas

3.Christmas trees are popular because ______.

A.they make people think of Germany B.they make people think of winter

C.they make people think of spring D.they are beautiful and colourful

4.Father Christmas is ______.

A.a magical story for small children B.a character in a film

C.a real person who lives in Finland D.an old man who bring toys to children

请阅读下面文字, 并按照要求用英语写一篇 150 词左右的文章。

Recently, several chat screenshots of a Wechat group spread rapidly online. The contents of chat are as follows. The property management company (物业公司)of a community in Zhengzhou, capital of Henan province, organized the residents to take a vote in the Wechat group to decide whether two medical staff who lived in this community should be forbidden to enter their homes.

Most of the group members voted for their isolation, supporting the company to deny the two residents entry. Their reason was that the two persons could be carriers of various viruses.

（写作内容）

1. 用约 30 个单词概述上述信息的主要内容；

2. 用 120 个单词就此物业公司的做法发表你的看法，并用 2-3 个理由或论据支撑你的观点。

（写作要求）

1. 阐述观点或提供论据时，不能直接引用原文语句；

2. 作文中不能出现真实姓名和学校名称；

3. 不必写标题。

（评分标准）

内容完整，语言规范，语篇连贯，词数适当。

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请认真阅读下面短文, 并根据所读内容在文章后表格中的空格里填入一个最恰当的单词。注意：请将答案写在答题卡上相应题号的横线上。每个空格只填一个单词。

China Using Mobile Apps to Follow Spread of Coronavirus

People in China are using apps on mobile phones to follow and perhaps help slow the spread of the new coronavirus, COVID-19. Some of the apps provide the latest information about areas hit by the virus, while others collect data on infected persons.

The Chinese government is working with two of the country’s largest technology companies to keep track of the disease. The two, Alibaba Group and Tencent Holdings, created color-based systems that record the health of individuals and identify carriers of the coronavirus.

In February, Alipay, a payment app operated by Alibaba, released a system that uses colored QR Codes to show the health of people in the city of Hangzhou. A QR code is a sign a smartphone    can read with its camera. Once the sign is recognized, the phone takes the user directly to an internet link with information about a subject.

After completing the questionnaire, users receive a mobile phone message. It includes a color-based QR Code that relates to the health situation they described. Users with a red code are told to quarantine themselves for 14 days and continue reporting their condition by using Alibaba’s DingTalk messaging app. Users with a yellow code are told to stay in quarantine for 7 days, while those with a green code can travel freely.

Chinese state media said the Alibaba system would be deployed at train stations, along major roads and other travel checkpoints. They added that the system is also being used in some neighborhoods. People are asked to show QR Codes when entering their apartment buildings. Customers are asked to do the same before entering the local supermarket. Alipay said it was working with the government to expand the system nationwide.

Tencent, which operates China’s popular messaging app WeChat, reported the launch of a similar QR Code-based tracking system. Tencent developed the system with help from China’s National Development and Reform Council, which is currently in use in the southern city of Shenzhen. Officials said they expected it to be deployed to other parts of Guangdong province soon.

Even before the latest systems were announced, many Chinese were already using mapping and travel apps in an effort to avoid areas with coronavirus infections. One of the apps, developed by WeChat, uses official reports to identify places in the cities of Shenzhen and Guangzhou where coronavirus cases have been confirmed.

One user of the apps told Reuters she finds the maps can provide “psychological comfort.” The woman, who did not want her full name reported, said: “You can’t guarantee there won’t be fresh cases, but you can avoid an area that’s already hit.”

The technology website Abacus reported that citizens can request location data from their mobile phone carrier to show they had not been in affected areas. The report said that if requested, China’s state-owned telecommunication companies will send users a message listing all the areas they had visited within the past 14 days.