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.
College admission season is upon us. With the ever-increasing competition among college applicants, writing an effective and sincere college recommendation letter is one way high school teachers can help students stand out among the competition. Here are a few things I have learned how to write a recommendation for my students.
Try beginning your letter with something the person tasked with screening hundreds of recommendation letters will remember. I like to start with an amusing story that illustrates who the student is and how others perceive them. Make sure to use the student’s full name for the first reference and then just the first name after that. My favorite strategy is to end the paragraph with a single sentence that highlights the student’s strongest characteristics.
In the body of the letter, focus on who the student is rather than what the student has done. What college reps want to know is how the student will fit into their environment. Give specific examples of how the student achieved--did they overcome obstacles or tackle any challenges to reach their goals? I usually write two short paragraphs for the body. Sometimes the first relates character to academics, and the next relates character to extracurricular activities. Other times, I use the student’s characteristics as the main focal points.
Conclude with a sincere statement of recommendation for the student to the college of their choice. When sending the recommendation to a single college, use the college’s name in your recommendation. Lastly, I return to using the student’s full name in my final reference to him in the letter.
My last statement encourages the college to contact me with any further questions. I’ll be surely delighted to receive any of their inquiry, meaning my student is under their consideration!
Directions: Read the following passage. Fill in each blank with a proper sentence given below. Each sentence can be used only once. Note that there are two more sentences than you need.
Five-year-old Albert Einstein stared at his hand as if it held magic. Cupped in his palm was a small, round instrument with a glass cover and a jiggling needle. Albert's father called it a compass. Albert called it a mystery. No matter how he moved the compass, the needle always pointed to the north. Quietly Hermann Einstein watched his son. Albert was a chubby little boy with pale, round cheeks and thick, black hair that was usually messy. His bright brown eyes were wide with discovery.
Something was in the room with him, Albert realized—something he couldn't see or feel, but that acted on the compass just the same. Deeply attracted, Albert listened to his father explain magnetism, the strange force that made the compass needle point north. 1.To many children the compass would have been just another toy. To Albert the compass was a miracle he would never forget.
But then Albert had always been different from other children. Born March 14，1879, in Ulm, Germany, Albert hadn't been looked like other babies. As she cradled（摇） her new son in her arms, Pauline Einstein thought the back of his head looked strange. 2.Was something wrong with Albert? Although the doctor told Pauline everything was fine, several weeks passed before the shape of Albert's head began to look right to her.
When Albert was one, his family moved to Munich，where his sister, Maja, was born a year later. Looking down at the tiny sleeping bundle, Albert was puzzled. Where were the baby's wheels? Albert had expected a baby sister to be something like a toy, and most of his toys had wheels.
3.But any response at all would have delighted them. At an age when many children have lots to say, Albert seemed strangely backward. Hermann and Pauline wondered why he was so late in talking. As Albert grew older, he continued to have trouble putting his thoughts into words. Even when he was nine years old, he spoke slowly, if he decided to say anything at all.
But Albert was a good listener and a good thinker. Sometimes when he went hiking with his parents and Maja, he thought about his father's compass and what it had showed to him. The clear, open meadows (草地) were filled with more than the wind or the scent of flowers. 4.The very thought of it quickened Albert's pulse.
A.Other babies didn't have such large, pointed skulls.
B.But nothing his father said made the invisible power seem less mysterious or wonderful.
C.There was so much curiosity about the world that Albert was always by himself thinking hard.
D.They were also filled with magnetism(磁性).
E.Albert was ahead of his peers in different aspects.
F.Albert's parents were amused by his confusion.
ON AUGUST 2nd Magdalena Luczak and her partner, Mariusz Krezolek, were jailed for life for the murder of her four-year-old son, Daniel. The pair starved him for months, locked him in a small unheated room, and left him there to die. As with the deaths of Victoria Climbié in 2000 and Peter Connelly in 2007, the boy’s fate has prompted questions about how the authorities missed the abuse (虐待). Attention has again focused on social workers. Recent years have seen numerous attempts to reform and revitalize the profession. In May, a new fast-track training programme, Frontline, was launched in the hope of improving things. It is inspired by Teach First, which sends bright graduates into tough schools for at least two years.
Participants will attend an intensive five-week summer school before taking on two years of closely supervised work in local-authority children’s services. If they measure up, they will qualify as social workers at the end of the first year and gain a master’s degree after the second. Funding will come from private donors, the Department for Education and local authorities. Recruitment(招募)for a pilot scheme, targeting leading universities, begins in September.
Its founders want to boost the status of this profession. “We are dealing with a crisis,” says Lord Adonis, chair of Frontline’s board. Both recruitment and keeping staying on the job are problems: the expected working life of a social worker is eight years, compared with 14 for nurses. Last year some local authorities reported that a third of their positions were unfilled.
Unsurprisingly, given the blame often heaped on the profession, ambitious graduates tend to steer clear. Of the 2,765 people who began master’s courses in social work in 2011, just five had completed undergraduate degrees at Oxford or Cambridge. And too many courses fail to give sufficient practical grounding in hard child-protection work. Frontline recruits will work in small teams with dedicated supervisors in council children’s services.
Reactions to the initiative have been mixed. Some in the profession are angry that it has been set up by outsiders. Boosters, such as Donald Forrester of Bedfordshire University, think the newcomers will bring in much-needed fresh thinking. Another worry is that the programme is too specialized and too short. Focusing just on children’s services is like training doctors only in pediatrics(儿科).
Teach First was set up on the basis that participants would teach first and then go on to other jobs. In fact, over half stay in education. There is no “first” at Frontline. At the end of their course, recruits will be offered the opportunity to pursue further professional training, or encouraged to move up the ranks. But Mr MacAlister hopes that many will stay. This year 9% of all final-year students from Oxbridge applied for Teach First. Frontline hopes to achieve a similar result for social work.
1.The author presents the topic of this article by ______.
A.giving cases of child abuse
B.urging us to care for children
C.attracting our attention to child abuse
D.showing concern for the abuse of children
2.Which of the following about social workers is true?
A.Their training lasts for 8 years.
B.They are prospective in the future.
C.They receive little practical grounding.
D.They should graduate from top universities.
3.The expression “steer clear” in the 5th paragraph means _____.
A.be involved B.stay away
C.touch on D.clear out
4.What is probably the best title of the passage?
A.A topic which starts heated debates.
B.An uncertain fate of a much-needed market.
C.A promising field with strong supporters.
D.An initiative to revive an unfavorable profession.
There are several ways of retelling “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory”. In 2005 Hollywood focused on Willy Wonka, the factory’s owner, portraying him as a purple-gloved man-child. A new musical production of Roald Dahl’s children’s story at the Theatre Royal in London concentrates on the up-from-poverty fortune of Charlie Bucket, the boy who finds the golden ticket.
Tales of upward social mobility attempted or achieved are crowding the London stage. “Billy Elliott”, the story of a miner’s son who strives with the death of family strikes to make it as a ballet dancer, recently celebrated its four-millionth visitor. “Port”, an account of a Stockport girl’s attempts to escape her depressing origins, was a success at the National Theatre this spring. Last year “In Basildon” described strivers in the typical upwardly-mobile Essex town.
It is a respectable theatrical (and literary) theme, but it is being handled in a different way. John Osborne’s 1956 play “Look Back in Anger” showed a working-class man’s anger at the middle class he had married into. By the 1970s and 1980s writers were looking down their noses at social climbers, in plays like “Top Girls” and “Abigail’s Party”, in which a middle-class arriviste (暴发户) serves inferior snacks and the wrong kind of wine.
Social mobility moved away as a topic for a while, as playwrights like David Hare turned to examine carefully the state of the nation. Now it has returned—and is described much more sympathetically. Dominic Cooke, who directed “In Basildon” at the Royal Court Theatre, says this may be a delayed reaction to the collapse of state socialism in Europe.
A possible reason for the sympathetic tone is that upward mobility can no longer be taken for granted. In 2011 researchers at the London School of Economics concluded that intergenerational social mobility, assessed by income for children born between 1970 and 2000, had suspended. Another study, by Essex University academics, found matters had not improved during the crisis.
So it is fantastic fun to see people make it. Charlie Bucket does so spectacularly(壮观地). At the end of “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” he is a pint-size entrepreneur(企业家), with an immigrant workforce of Oompa-Loompas to ensure he does not fall back down the social ladder.
1.What are the versions of “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” mentioned in the passage?
A.Magic and ballet. B.Movie and musical.
C.Drama and painting. D.Novel and documentary.
2.What does “It” in Paragraph 3 refer to?
A.The story of a miner's son.
B.The topic of upward social mobility.
C.An account of a Stockport girl's attempts.
D.A striver in the upwardly-mobile Essex town.
3.According to the author, ______ may attribute to(归因于) being classified as middle-class.
A.gaining by dishonest means
B.serving others what they like
C.being involved in social climbing
D.marrying the one sharing your background
4.How does the author feel about social mobility in reality?
A.Curious. B.Optimistic.
C.Pessimistic. D.Concerned.
Welcome to Iceland! I hope that your trip will be pleasant and that __________ will help you during your stay. It includes very important information you might find useful for your travel and we hope you will enjoy it.
Iceland is becoming a very popular place to visit all year round and we are not surprised. The country with its spectacular, unspoiled, fragile and raw nature, hot springs, icebergs and waterfalls is a feast for the eyes both during summer and winter. Our history and culture is young compared to most other countries. We speak our own language, Icelandic, which due to the country’s isolation in the past, has been very well preserved.
Driving in Iceland can be a bit different from many other countries. We do have a number of gravel roads, single lane bridges, narrow roads, rough mountain roads with unbridged rivers, animal stock near or on the road and weather conditions can change quickly. Therefore driving in Iceland needs your full care during your stay because we want you back safe and happy.
We kindly ask you to help us improve our quality by giving us feedback on how we are doing and what we can do better. Not less importantly, we ask you to help us preserve the Icelandic nature which can be very fragile. Off-road driving is strictly forbidden and please do not litter.
In case of trouble, accident or breakdown please don’t hesitate to contact our emergency phone numbers 840-6010 for south and west Iceland, or 840-6000 for north and east Iceland or one of our many locations around the country and we will do our very best to help you to safely continue your journey.
I trust that your travel in Iceland will be comfortable and pleasant. I wish you a safe journey.
1.Which of the following statements might be most suitable for the blank in Paragraph 1?
A.our travel agency magazine B.this newspaper article
C.the traffic regulations D.police travel guides
2.Which of the following is TRUE about Iceland?
A.Travelling in Iceland is only popular in summer and winter.
B.The country is not much visited because of its special language.
C.Travelers can enjoy nice food when travelling in Iceland.
D.A traveler can both have hot and cold experiences in Iceland.
3.What can a traveler do if his car suddenly breaks down in west Iceland according to the passage?
A.He may have his car repaired.
B.He may call 840-6010 for help.
C.He may push his car off the road.
D.He may drive in the other direction.
Over the centuries Shakespeare’s plays have gained a reputation for being difficult to understand. But if his work is experienced on stage as Shakespeare intended, then it can become much clearer. In fact 95% of the words used in Shakespeare’s plays are the same words we use today.
The meanings of some words have altered significantly, _________, because Shakespeare was writing at a time of great linguistic change. This gave him a certain amount of _________ license in his language.
So what can Shakespeare’s plays tell us about how people really spoke at this time? And did anyone really speak like his characters? The lines spoken by Corin to Rosalind and Celia in As You Like It probably weren’t _________ of an Elizabethan shepherd.
The first thing to remember about Shakespeare’s work is that he wrote plays to entertain. They are _________ works, and the dialogue was exploited to suit the stage. Therefore his characters’ language did not always _________ how real people would have spoken.
For instance, in As You Like It when Corin, the shepherd, talks of love, his lines are beautiful and poetic – but _________ unrealistic. The lines Shakespeare gave Corin probably wouldn’t have been used by an Elizabethan shepherd – instead they _________ to highlight the drama.
Another example of how the theatrical style enriched Shakespeare’s text can be seen in the structure of his lines. According to the practice of the time, Shakespeare wrote his poems in iambic pentameter(抑扬格五音步) so it was _________ for his actors to learn. When Shakespeare was writing, new plays were performed every day so this 10-beat structure was a great help for anyone having to learn a lot of lines for the next day’s play.
_________ this structure meant that, on occasion, Shakespeare made up or adapted words to fit. __________, on several occasions Shakespeare changed the word “vast” to “vasty” when “vast” did not fit the __________ of the line. But if we look beyond the dialogue to the words themselves we can find out a little of how people really spoke.
We can come close to this thanks to “original pronunciation” which is a system of __________ that reproduce how the Elizabethans are believed to have spoken. Today it sounds like a West Country accent, with echoes of other parts of the country. When we __________ this to Shakespeare’s dialogue, rhymes and puns(押韵与双关) that are not heard in modern English are suddenly revealed.
So through Shakespeare’s plays we can __________ a great deal about how people really spoke. His dialogue was on the whole representative of the language of the time and area and now provides us with invaluable insight into a(n) __________ language.
1.A.otherwise B.furthermore C.however D.hence
2.A.creative B.significant C.limited D.practical
3.A.critical B.typical C.proud D.afraid
4.A.valuable B.outstanding C.efficient D.dramatic
5.A.reflect B.mean C.sign D.signal
6.A.luckily B.essentially C.generally D.naturally
7.A.construct B.produce C.function D.illustrate
8.A.easier B.worse C.wiser D.slower
9.A.Falling into B.Varying from C.Agreeing to D.Sticking to
10.A.By contrast B.For example C.What’s more D.In consequence
11.A.structure B.style C.rhythm D.form
12.A.speech B.writing C.communication D.symbol
13.A.fit B.devote C.apply D.input
14.A.keep up B.find out C.take on D.bring about
15.A.lost B.difficult C.ongoing D.global
