Albino Power
I was born an albino（白化病患者） in Scranton, Pennsylvania, in 1945. No one in my family had ever known what an albino was, what it meant to be an albino, what had to be done differently because I was an albino.
My parents and friends treated me just like they treated everybody else. They was just about the best thing they could have done. It gave me a leg up on trusting myself, so when troubles came along, I could deal with them.
Truly, my schoolbook photo always looked like a snowball with two pieces of coal for eyes. Like most albinos, I had terrible eyesight, but the fact that I could hardly see didn’t worry me all that much.
Kids laughed at me, calling me “Whitey”. People stared at me when I held reading material right at the tip of my nose so I could see it well enough to read. Even when I was eight or nine, movie theater workers started asking me to pay adult prices because I “looked older”.
The worst part for me was that because my eyesight was so bad that I couldn’t play sports very well. but I didn’t give up trying. I practiced playing basketball every day. And I studied harder.
Finally, I got better at school and loved it. By the time I got to college, I was double majoring（专业）, going to summer school and taking part in every kind of after-class activity I could find. I had learned to be proud of being an albino. I tried my best to make “albino” positive work. And I decided to make my living with my eyes—and in sports.
I couldn’t see well enough to play sports, but with a good and long-lasting education and the drive to do it, I could make a living involved in the area I loved. I’ve done it now for more than thirty years in print and in video, and now in cyberspace. People make jokes about how I’m the only “blind editor（编辑）” they know, but the jokes are friendly smiles now, and some of them are signs of respect. And I make jokes about being an albino. I have even developed an all-white routine, if you could call it that.
I was just a proud albino kid from the coal country of Pennsylvania. I now realize that being born an albino helped me to get over difficulties, become confident, and be proud of my personal achievements.
1.How did the writer’s parents and friends treat him?
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2.Why couldn’t the writer play sports very well?
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3.What was the writer doing by the time he got to college?
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4.What does the writer think of the “blind editor” jokes now?
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5.What does “Albino Power” mean to the writer?
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The Art of the Elephants
If your cat walked across something you were painting and left footprints behind, would you consider your cat an artist? What if your bird held a colored pencil in its beak（喙） and painted on a piece of paper? Most people may think of animal art as a joke, but some people have been taking it very seriously.
Elephants were used for hundreds of years in Thailand’s logging industry(伐木业). They moved wood from forests in areas where there were no roads. At the beginning of this century, when the forests of Thailand began to quickly disappear, the government put a stop to logging. All of a sudden, many elephants in Thailand no longer had a way to make a living.
Some elephants were treated badly. Others had to try to live on their own and couldn’t find enough food to eat. There were once tens of thousands of elephants in Thailand. Today, there are less than five thousand. When two Russian American artists, Vitaly Komar and Alex Melamid, first heard about the troubled elephants in Thailand, they knew that something had to be done to forever change the way people treated Thai elephants. Then, they came up with an idea to help these elephants.
Komar and Melamid visited elephant camps in Thailand and began to show the elephant trainers how to teach the elephants to paint. At first, the trainers had to guide the elephants’ trunks. The elephants became more comfortable doing this with practice—and lots of sweet snacks—and finally started to paint on their own. The strange idea that Komar and Melamid had to save the elephants actually began to work. They even helped found several elephant art schools in Thailand and in other Asian countries. The elephants and their trainers go there to learn about painting and get supplies they need.
Today, people begin to buy elephant artworks from galleries(画廊) all around the world. Some are even willing to pay more than ＄2,000 for the works of the elephant artists! Some people compare the cheerful, brightly-colored artworks to the works of some great abstract(抽象地) painters. Some people are just happy to buy these special and original(原创地) artworks. Others think they are helping the troubled elephants in this way. The next time you see a piece of colorful abstract art, find out who the artist is. You just may be surprised at what you learn!
1.What may most people think of animal art?
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2.What did elephants do in Thailand’s logging industry?
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3.How many elephants are there in Thailand today?
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4.What was Komar and Melamid’s idea to help the elephants in Thailand?
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5.Please list one reason why people buy elephant artworks.
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书面表达
本周六，一些大学生将来镇中心进行社会实践活动。根据以下要点提示，用英语写一个布告通知居民，词数70个左右。通知开头已给出，不计入总词数。
1．有些大学生擅长教书(teach)，孩子们的功课可以得到帮助；
2．有的对电脑很了解，可以教你怎样更好地使用电脑；
3．其他人将拜访老人们，提供清洁服务；
4．如有其他问题，他们也将乐意提供帮助。
Notice
Some college students will come to our town centre this weekend．
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Garden Community Centre
首字母填空
I'm Wilson. My d1. home isn't very large, but it is near the sea and has a beautiful b2., I can play with my friends there. We can look out at the b3. and the sea. There are always a lot of people there.
I want to have bunk (双层) beds in all the bedrooms. It means (意味着) many people can be with me, and it also m4. I can sleep in any one of them. I will ask my friends to s5.the weekends with me and then we can have great fun in the house, on the beach o6. in the sea. I don't need a kitchen because I don't like c7. We can eat at restaurants. There are always many good ones n8. the sea. I like flowers and trees, so I want to have two beautiful gardens, one is in front of the house and the other is at the b9.. My pet dog likes to sleep and play in them. Of course, my house must have many showers. And each bedroom has a TV. I will put a
c 10. in the living room. We all like playing computer games. That's my dream home.
Since May 1, 2015, Beijing started to allow blind people to take guide dogs (导盲犬) onto the subway(地铁). How much do you know about guide dogs? What can they do to help blind people?
Not every dog can become a guide dog. The most common guide dog breeds (品种) are Labrador Retrievers (拉布拉多猎犬) and Golden Retrievers (金毛猎犬). That’s because they are smart and have a good temper.
To help blind people, dogs need to learn many skills, such as finding and following a clear road, moving around obstacles (障碍物), and stopping when they reach a curb (路牙) beside a road. Of course they should pass tests. They also need to learn an important lesson known as “intelligent disobedience (智能抗命)”. For example, blind people ask the dog to go forward when crossing a road. But if the dog knows that a car is coming, it will not move until it is safe.
At about 10 or 12 years old, guide dogs retire(退休). Some of them stay at their owner’s home and become their pets. Others may go back to training schools and live there.
What can a guide dog do to help blind people?
• Follow a direct road, paying no attention to other things such as smells, animals and people.
• Keep a steady (稳定的) pace and just ahead of the owner.
• Stop at all curbs until the handler tells them to move forward.
• Stay quiet when the owner is sitting down.
• Help the owner to move around buses, subways and other public transportation.
1.What can blind people in Beijing do when they go out by subway?
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2.Why do people choose Labrador Retrievers and Golden Retrievers as guide dogs?
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3.What important lesson should guide dogs learn?
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4.How many things can guide dogs do to help blind people according to the passage?
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5.What is the passage about?
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完成句子
1.老师总是站在讲台前。
The teacher always _______________________ the teacher’s desk.
2.请让你妈妈给我回个电话。
Please ask your mother ______ ______ ______ ______.
3.我想邀请我的朋友来吃饭。
I want to ______ my friends ______ have dinner.
4.我希望将来有一天能住在山脚下。
I hope to live _______________ a hill some day.
5.我们想邀请我们的老师参加我们的时装秀。
We want to invite our teachers to take part in our fashion show.
6.等我长大了，我想拥有一幢自己的带有一个大花园的房子。
When I ___________，I want to _____________________ with a big garden.
