After an absence of thirty years, I decided to visit my old school again. I had expected to find changes, but not a completely different building. As I walked up the school drive, I wondered for a moment if I had come to the right address. The dirty red brick houses had been swept away. In its place stood a bright, modern block. A huge expanse of glass extended (延展) across the face of the building, and in front, there was a well-kept lawn (草坪) where there used to be “an untidy gravel (沙石) yard”.
I was pleased to find that it was bread time and that the children were all in the playground. This would enable me to meet some members of staff. On entering the building, I was surprised to hear loud laughter coming from what appeared to be the masters’ common room. I could not help remembering the teachers in my time, all dressed in black gowns and high collars. And above all, I recalled Mr Garston whom we had nicknamed “Mr Ghastly”, the headmaster who had iron discipline on staff and pupils alike. I knocked at the common room door and was welcomed by a smiling young man who introduced himself to me as the headmaster. He was dressed casually in a sports jacket, and his cheerful manner, quickly dispelled (驱散) the image of Mr Ghastly. After I had explained who I was, the headmaster presented me to the teachers all of whom were a little younger than himself, and said he would take me round the school.
Here the biggest surprise of all was in store for me. Gone were the heavy desks of old with their deeply carved names; gone too, were the dark classrooms with their ink stained, dark brown walls, and their raised platforms for the teachers. The rooms now were painted in bright colors, and the children, far from sitting straight in their places, seemed almost free to do as they liked. I looked with envy as I remembered how, as a child, I had looked at the blackboard hardly daring to whisper to my neighbor.
1.The writer ______.
A.had no difficulty in recognizing his old school
B.found it difficult to recognize his old school
C.noticed that the building was still unfinished
D.was surprised to see an untidy gravel yard
2.Which of the following statements is NOT true?
A.He had expected that the school had completely changed.
B.In the writer’s time, all the teachers were dressed in black gowns and high collars.
C.There was a well-kept lawn in their school when he visited it.
D.An untidy gravel yard had disappeared.
3.“Mr. Ghastly” must be ______.
A.the writer’s teacher B.a serious old man
C.the strict headmaster D.a naughty boy
4.From what is said in the passage it seems clear the writer ______.
A.disapproved of all the changes that had taken place
B.felt sorry for the children in the school
C.was glad that the school was still the same
D.felt that conditions at the school had improved a lot
阅读下面短文，根据其内容写一篇 60 词左右的内容概要。
In today’s world where we have various translation apps that allow us to talk to almost anyone “in his own language”, why do we still need to make an effort to learn a foreign language ourselves? There are practical reasons, of course. For example, those who are bilingual (具备双语能力的) have a better chance in the job market. And science has proved that learning to speak more than one
language can train one’s brain to be stronger.
But there’s more to it than that. US author Rita Mae Brown once wrote: “Language is the road map of a culture.” By taking a look at the vocabulary and idioms of a language system, we get a glimpse (一瞥) at what’s held important in a certain culture. Take the Swedish word “lagom” for example. It means “just the right amount”, which doesn’t have a matching word either in English or in Chinese. From “lagom”, we can see how much the concepts of “moderation (适度)” and “balance” are valued in Swedish culture. By learning a foreign language, you also gain a better understanding of your own culture. Irish language expert Benny Lewis explained this idea in his blog with an interesting metaphor: “Trying to understand your own culture merely from within it is like trying to understand what a bus is like if you’ve only ever ridden inside it. If you want the bigger picture, you need to get off that bus and examine it from the outside.” And by opening our eyes to different
cultures, we’re able to understand better how people grow up to be different from one another. We also learn to be more tolerant and respectful to the diversity of the world.
As Trinity University professor Leonardo De Valoes wrote on the school’s website: “Foreign language study is simply part of a very basic liberal education: to ‘educate’ is to lead out, to lead out of narrowness and darkness.”
假定你是某国际高中的学生李华，得知学校正在为 2 位加拿大交换生征询寄宿家庭，你有意申请，请用英文给学校该项目负责人 Mr. Chen 写一封申请信。
内容包括：1.自我介绍；2. 家庭条件及个人优势。
注意：1. 词数 100 左右；2. 可以适当增加细节，以使行文连贯。
Dear Mr. Chen,
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Yours sincerely,
Li Hua
I had always hated playing chess. Up until a few months ago, I don’t think I ever_____ a chess game in my life. Actually, I didn’t have a______ about how to play. I knew the rules, but that’s it. I had tried to _________ playing chess most of my life, even though it _________ that it should be a great game to play.
I started playing again just as a ________ to stay in touch with my friend who moved abroad. We play ______ . But nothing has changed. He still ______ me easily every time. After six months of getting kicked all over the _______ , I decided to learn something about the game. I finally___ losing.
I _______ somebody must have made a video or a clear book on the _______ of chess, so I started looking and was astonished at how much good ______ is out there. I got some and played lots of games with my computer,______ some of the stuff I was learning. And what do you know? Not only did I start to play a lot ________ , but the game became as fun as I always ________ it should be. It’s interesting and___ . It’s just like playing a game of___ . It’s a great battle.
I’m no Grandmaster. Not even close. But the _______ between me two months ago and me now is amazing. I_____ learned a few important basic principles, and now suddenly I know the game. And that’s the first lesson I learned about chess that ______ to living life well: It really helps to learn some basics.
1.A.lost B.played C.won D.missed
2.A.clue B.question C.dream D.choice
3.A.keep B.admit C.deny D.avoid
4.A.mattered B.seemed C.happened D.proved
5.A.way B.joke C.cause D.change
6.A.indoors B.everywhere C.online D.overseas
7.A.defeated B.disappointed C.guided D.assisted
8.A.body B.world C.board D.field
9.A.made use of B.got tired of C.had fun with D.got away with
10.A.declared B.approved C.figured D.regretted
11.A.benefits B.origin C.spirit D.basics
12.A.pleasure B.culture C.interest D.material
13.A.practicing B.suspecting C.improving D.recording
14.A.worse B.less C.better D.harder
15.A.required B.thought C.decided D.discovered
16.A.relaxing B.puzzling C.touching D.challenging
17.A.war B.speed C.chance D.trust
18.A.success B.wisdom C.appearance D.difference
19.A.just B.still C.even D.seldom
20.A.leads B.applies C.objects D.adjusts
The big examination is approaching. Assignments and tests will keep many of you up late at night, and you may plan to make up for your lost sleep during the weekends.1. A study shows that the habit of sleeping in on weekends doesn’t fix the damage done by a lack of sleep during the week.2.
In the study, 36 healthy young men and women with different sleep requirements were divided into three groups. The first and second groups were asked to sleep nine hours and five hours a night respectively. The members of the third group slept for five hours on weekdays, but rested as long as they wanted on the weekend.
The researchers found that people who lacked sleep ate more snacks and gained weight quickly. 3.That could be partially due to the change of the biological clock. In order to catch up on their sleep during weekends, people in the third group would habitually eat later, changing the release of hunger hormones. “4.” explained US researcher Polotsky. And even if they tried to sleep for as long as they wanted to during weekends, it was still inadequate to meet standard sleep time because they found it difficult to fall asleep.
“5.”Polotsky told CNN. “Because short, inadequate sleep schedules will lead to an in ability to change blood sugar and increase the risk of metabolic (新陈代谢的) disease in the long term. ”
For this reason, the American Academy of Sleep Medicine recommends at least seven hours of sleep each night for adults and much more for children.
A.But is it useful?
B.Do you feel excited about it?
C.Even worse,it may damage your health.
D.And these people are more likely to fall ill.
E.However,this wasn’t the case for the first group.
F.They may feel tired even after a full night’s sleep.
G.It increases appetite,so you’re hungry and eat more.
Before the discovery of DNA profiling (分析) in the 1980s, fingerprints were the easiest way to solve serious crimes. It’s believed that each one of us has our own unique fingerprints. But did you know that our fingerprints could actually reveal a lot more about us than just our identity? According to Melanie Bailey of The Conversation, fingerprints can indicate lifestyle and environment, eating habits, possible medical problems and even the job of a person.
So how can we figure all this out from just a simple fingerprint? Well, a fingerprint is formed when a finger makes contact with a surface. Most fingerprints are invisible to the naked eye (裸眼) and require a chemical development process in order to make them visible. Stuck between the ridges (隆起的纹路) of a fingerprint, however, are substances(物质) that can tell a story about who we are. Things like traces of sweat, blood, and food reveal a lot of information about us — what we’ve touched, what we’ve eaten and even what drugs we’ve taken.
At the moment, the technique used to detect these substances are mostly used in crime detection, but its application could be much wider, according to Bailey. For example, she and her fellow researchers were able to tell what medicines people were taking from their fingerprints, which may be of great help in the future to doctors treating their patients.
A fingerprint check may also tell a doctor whether a patient is properly absorbing a drug they’ve been prescribed (开药). In the treatment of some of the most serious illnesses, it’s vital that the body is taking in these medicines. As Scientific American noted, this is particularly important for patients undergoing treatment for heart conditions and mental disease, as these people might struggle to absorb the drugs or forget or choose not to take them.
And while it’s commonly believed that our fingerprints never change, in fact, they do — and the way they change can provide a lot of very useful information. In the future, fingerprint science won’t be restricted to the crime lab but could help doctors keep us in the best possible health.
1.What is the function of Paragraph 1?
A.To make known a common sense. B.To introduce the theme of the passage.
C.To summarize the whole passage. D.To serve as a topic explanation.
2.What could a fingerprint tell according to the research?
A.How a fingerprint was formed. B.Who the criminal might be.
C.How a doctor should prescribe. D.What drug the patient had taken.
3.What can be learned from the passage?
A.The change of fingerprints is of little value.
B.We can see a fingerprint with our naked eyes.
C.Fingerprints are the easiest way to solve crimes.
D.Things stuck between fingerprints’ridges tell a lot.
4.What’s Melanie Bailey’s attitude towards the application of fingerprints?
A.Indifferent. B.Skeptical. C.Positive. D.Negative.
