I’m about to begin my fifth season of tree planting. Each year, around this time, I have mixed feelings about the job. Never have I loved a job so much while hating it with equal measure. I mainly plant trees on the coast of British Columbia and get paid about 35 cents a tree. The job can be profitable. It gives planters the opportunity to lead a roaming (漫游的) lifestyle, with a temporary duty to spend a few months filling their bank accounts. But there are many challenges.
In the early hours of the morning, we join our teams and travel along rough roads deep into the woodlands. When stepping out of the trucks, often in the pouring rain, we’re faced with a steep chunk of land that’s just been logged (砍伐). I step into the rain and fill my bags with hundreds of tiny trees. Experienced tree-planters treat this more like a sport than a job, thus lighting up the mood.
Once our bags are full, we immediately charge up that hillside before feeling reluctant to go. We jump from log to log, and if they roll out from under our feet, we grab onto whatever within reach and swing around like monkeys. We push through stinging bushes. We stumble and fall constantly, always pushing ourselves to go faster among groups of insects that we often breathe in.
While tree planting, I come across someone else, a self I thought I knew. It is a person I try to come to peace with on those hillsides, during those strange days of isolation (隔绝) and deep thinking.
Tree planting is a lab of self-examination and growth, where you face the worst and the best in your nature and push yourself as hard as you can. And, a new version of yourself awaits at the end of the experience.
1.Which of the following is true about the writer’s job?
A.It is a bittersweet job to some degree.
B.He works 12 months a year.
C.He can make a fortune with this job.
D.He is stuck in a place all year round.
2.What challenges will they meet when planting trees?
A.They feel reluctant to collect tiny trees.
B.Workers’ mood needs to be lighted up on the truck.
C.They will have to help each other when planting trees.
D.The conditions are really tough on the hillside.
3.In what way has the writer benefited most by planting trees?
A.He has smoothed away many difficulties.
B.He has discovered a whole new himself.
C.He has developed tree-planting skills.
D.He has gained lifelong friendship.
In 2009, Dr. Kathleen Wermke and her colleagues made headlines with a study showing that French and German newborns produce distinctly different “cry melodies,” reflecting the languages they heard in womb (子宫). Today, Dr. Wermke’s lab houses a collection of around a half-million recordings of babies from as far a field as Cameroon and China.
The analysis of these recordings has produced further insights into the factors that shape a baby’s first sounds. Newborns whose mothers speak tonal languages, such as Mandarin, tend to produce more complex cry melodies. Swedish newborns, whose native language has what linguists call a “pitch accent,” produce more sing-songy cries.
Hearing and imitating are fundamental to language development. By the third trimester, a fetus (胎儿) can hear the rhythm and melody of its mother’s voice — known as “prosody”. It is the defining characteristic of language for the fetus. After they are born, young babies mimic many different sounds. But they are especially shaped by the prosody they heard in the womb, which becomes a handy guide to the strange sounds coming from the people around them. Through stress, pauses and other clues, prosody cuts up the stream of sound into words and phrases – that is, into speech.
“These studies redouble the lab’s broader effort to map the typical development of a baby’s cries, as well as vocalizations like cooing and babbling.” Dr. Kathleen Wermke said. “Knowing what typical development looks like and what factors can influence it helps doctors address potential problems early on.”
1.The underlined word “mimic” in Paragraph 3 refers to ______.
A.imitate B.learn
C.hear D.gain
2.What is Dr. Kathleen Wermke’s attitude towards the studies？
A.Ambiguous B.Doubtful
C.Neutral D.Approving
3.What would be the best title for the text?
A.Mandarin is the most complex tonal language
B.Swedish newborns produce more simple cry sounds.
C.Newborn babies cry in different languages
D.Hearing is fundamental to language development
Although Kobe Bryant is no longer with us, his unbreakable will on and off the basketball court lives on. This month, it was announced that the late superstar would be accepted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame at a ceremony on Aug 29, a great honor for basketball’s best.
“His fierce competitiveness, work ethic and drive were unmatched,” Jeanie Buss, owner of the Los Angles Lakes, told ESPN. “Those qualities helped Bryant lead us to five titles — and have now brought him to the Hall of Fame. No one deserves it more.”
Indeed, it was Bryant’s unmatchable commitment and determination to be the best that elevated (提升地位) him above his peers. He called it the “mamba mentality” after the black mamba, one of the world’s deadliest snakes — and also after the top killer from the 2003 movie Kill Bill. The mamba mentality became so popular that Bryant even detailed his process in his book The Mamba Mentality: How I Play. In it, he revealed his famously detailed approach as well as his physical and mental preparation to not just succeed at the game, but to excel.
“Mamba mentality is all about focusing on the process and trusting in the hard work, which is just the competitive spirit.” he wrote in the book. “It started when someone described me like that one day, and it’s grown into something athletes – and even non-athletes – adopt as a mindset.”
Bryant took after one of the greatest basketball players, Michael Jordan, not only with regard to Jordan’s playing style, but his competitive nature. “I liked challenging people and making them uncomfortable,” Bryant once said, “That’s what leads to self-reflection and improvement. You could say I dared people to be their best selves.”
Though many were shocked and sad when the Los Angles great died in a helicopter crash in January, all signs point to Bryant’s legacy (遗产) for generations to come. Whether you’re a basketball player or not, you can’t deny the Kobe’s power to inspire you to be your best self.
1.It can be inferred from the second paragraph that______.
A.Bryant’s qualities helped him win five titles
B.Bryant was too competitive to become a great player
C.Bryant in particular deserves the honor he will receive
D.Bryant is the only qualified player in the Hall of Fame
2.According to Bryant, what is true mamba mentality?
A.It means being willing to cooperate with teammates.
B.It refers to the spirit of working hard to be the best.
C.It means reflecting on oneself from time to time.
D.It is a belief that both the process and outcome matter.
3.Why did Bryant like challenging people?
A.He found it fun to make people uncomfortable.
B.He wanted to show off his basketball skills.
C.He inspired them to develop passion for basketball.
D.He believed it could promote people’s improvement.
4.What is the text mainly about?
A.How Bryant died in a helicopter crash.
B.How mamba mentality came into being.
C.Why Bryant was inducted into the Hall of Fame.
D.Mamba Mentality—Bryant’s legacy to the world.
假如你是新华中学的学生李华，你的美国朋友Tom一周前给你发电子邮件，询问你暑假里的打算，但你因准备期末考试未能及时回复。请根据双下要点给他回封邮件：
1.未及时回信的原因；
2.你假期的打算（如做兼职、旅行、做志愿者等）
注意：1. 词数：120-150；
2 可适当增加细节，以使行文连贯。
假定英语课上老师要求同桌之间交换修改作文，请你修改你同桌写的以下作文。文中共有10处语言错误，每句中最多有两处。每处错误仅涉及1个单词的增加删除或修改。
增加:在缺词处加一个漏字符号(^),并在其下面写出该加的词。
删除:把多余的词用斜线(\)划掉。
修改:在错的词下画横线,并在该词下面写出修改后的词。
注意:1.每处错误及其修改均仅限1词;
2.只允许修改10处,多者(从第11处起)不计分。
Mr. Wang is my English teacher but I really love his lessons. He loves English so he teaches with great energy. Mr. Wang prepares his lessons very well and use things like PPT and videos to making the subject come alive. Mr. Wang is very strict at us；he works very hard and he requests us do the same. We respect Mr. Wang and do not mind him being strict because we knew he is only trying to help us learn well and speak English fluent. Mr. Wang is my favorite teachers because of his love of English makes me love it too. I know I will always have an interest on English.
I used to be a very self-centered person, but in the past two years I have really changed. I have started to think about other people _______ I think about myself. I am happy that I am becoming a _______person:
I think my _______started when I was at Palomar College. At first, I just wanted to get my _______, and be left alone. I thought I was smarter than everyone else, so I hardly ever _______to anyone in my classes. By the end of my first semester, I was really _______. It seemed as if everyone but me had made friends and was having fun. So I tried a(n) _______. I started asking people around me how they were doing, and if they were having trouble I _______to help. That was really a big _______for me. By the end of the year, I had several new friends, and two of ________are still my best friends today.
A bigger cause of my new ________, however, came when I took a part-time job at a Vista Nursing Home. One old lady there who had Alzheimer s disease became my ________. Every time I came into her room, she was so ________because she thought I was her daughter. Her real daughter never ________her, so I took her place. She let me ________. That making others feel good make me feel good, too. When she died, I was ________, but I was very grateful to her.
I think I am a much ________, person today than I used to be, and I hope I will not ________these experiences. They have ________e to care about other people more than about myself. ________who I am today, and I could not say that a few years ago.
1.A.since B.before C.or D.unless
2.A.famous B.simple C.different D.skilled
3.A.education B.career C.tour D.change
4.A.balance B.homework C.degree D.interest
5.A.talked B.wrote C.lied D.reported
6.A.careful B.lonely C.curious D.guilty
7.A.argument B.game C.experiment D.defence
8.A.dared B.offered C.hesitated D.happened
9.A.dream B.problem C.duty D.step
10.A.us B.which C.them D.whom
11.A.attitude B.hobby C.hope D.luck
12.A.friend B.partner C.guide D.guest
13.A.polite B.happy C.strange D.confident
14.A.bothered B.answered C.visited D.trusted
15.A.explain B.guess C.declare D.see
16.A.homeless B.heart broken C.bad-tempered D.hopeless
17.A.quieter B.busier C.better D.richer
18.A.forget B.face C.improve D.analyze
19.A.forced B.preferred C.ordered D.taught
20.A.miss B.like C.wonder D.expect
