Hello, everybody. I'm Olivia. I'm glad to be here this afternoon. Do you have a friend with an interesting background? Today, I'd like to tell you about a 1.（活泼的）girl. I'll tell you a bit about her, where she's from, and why we're good friends.
You know, I didn't use to do much exercise. A few years ago, I joined a 2. (运动)club. On my fist day there, I met Raquel. After the gym, we had coffee 3.（一起）and soon became good friends. I think that's because we have a lot in common. We like to keep fit and love to 4.（尝试）different food, especially spicy food. And we love the ocean. In summer, we like to hang out at the 5.(海滩）and go surfing at least once a month. Raquel was born in Mexico, but has been here since she was 6. (十)years old. Her mother is Mexican and her father is American, so she can speak 7.（两者都）Spanish and English. That's something different about us. Although I 8.(上学;参加）a class last year, my Spanish is still terrible! Another thing that's different is her background. Raquel's from two countries and has experience and 9.（知识）of two cultures. I think that's really 10. (酷的）.
We might not live in the same city in the future, but I think we'll stay friends. Thanks for listening to me.
It was last January, when I’d just finished a charity(慈善) and was on the train back home, that I put down my phone and started writing thank-you notes to people who had helped.
When I got off the train, I felt amazingly good. The next day, I wrote more thank-yous and the same feeling of happiness hit me again. I suddenly had the idea: Why not keep on doing this for every day of the year?
To keep on task, I decided to pick out a different theme for each month. January was charity.
February would be neighbors, I decided. And I thought of a number of names right away: the owner of our local bookstore, who let me and my little son in before the store opened and offered to play his favorite songs; our babysitter, who dropped off a bag of old board games for our kids to play; …
While writing the notes, I realized how often I had spent my time on the phone moving from app to app, appreciating(欣赏) other people’s lives. Writing thank-you notes allowed me the time to do something different, paying more attention to my own life.
In the following months, I wrote to my friends, doctors, teachers and parenting role models. In July, my “food” month, I wrote to Julie, who used to cook at my favorite restaurant. It went like this:
Dear Julie,
I’ve been finding myself missing you lately. Thank you for hosting and cooking beautiful and thoughtful food. Jake and I will never forget when you sent out biscuits shaped into the number VI for our sixth anniversary (周年纪念日）. We talk about it every year.
Thank you. We miss you.
Love,
Gina
I was happy to receive a note back from her. Julie replied, “I don’t think I’ve ever received such a touching letter before. I’m going through a hard time right now, and this helps.”
On December 31, I wrote my last card — to Jake, my husband, and our two kids. And I took a picture of us, so I could remember the feeling welling up inside me. Gratitude.
1.The underlined word “this” in Paragraph 2 means ________.
A.writing thank-you notes B.putting the phone away
C.taking the train back home D.raising money for charity
2.How did Julie most probably feel after reading the note from Gina?
A.Shy and surprised. B.Pleased and relaxed.
C.Nervous and excited. D.Moved and encouraged.
3.The theme of the December notes might be “________”.
A.photos B.family C.holidays D.community
4.What did Gina get by doing her task according to the passage?
A.Many thanks from her neighbors. B.More time to appreciate her own life.
C.More help from people around her. D.Happy moments to be with her friends.
5.The best title for the passage can be ________.
A.My Thank You Year B.An Amazing Trip
C.Happiness inside Us D.Important People in Our Life
Whenever I’m invited to somebody’s house for the first time, I’ll take a close look at their bookshelves. What they keep on their shelves, in my eyes, is a reflection(反映) of their personal tastes and interests. The books on a bookshelf tell the story of a life.
My own shelves are a kind of roadmap through my life, telling a chronological tale. First up come my favorite childhood reads, like Watership Down and His Dark Materials. The collection then moves on to teenage things I read in school — Nineteen Eighty-Four, The Handmaid’s Tale and A Clockwork Orange. Finally, we come out of full-time education and enter the real world, and this part is a reflection of my professional(职业的) life, from the first exciting days of work experience to the present.
If you pointed to any book on my shelves, I could name the year I got it, where I was working, and probably where I was living at the time.
__▲ It is an easy way to get to know about his hopes, dreams and interests. And a big part of that story is how we arrange(排列) our books, and get on with them. It’s such a personal thing, different from each other. Some want to be with their books in every room, others have them on shelves, behind glass or simply lining their floors. Each home has a story to tell through the way they live with their books.
It’s often said that what we read says something about who we are. The way we fill our bookshelves might also send a message about ourselves. From the pile of books on your bedside table to your well-organized shelves, whether we notice it or not, our book collections are telling a story before a single page has been turned.
1.The books on the writer’s own shelves are organized according to _________.
A.their prices B.their writers
C.his personal interests D.the periods of his life
2.Which of the following is the best sentence to fill in the blank in Paragraph 4?
A.Every book is worth reading. B.Each bookshelf holds a special dream.
C.Book collections tell so much about a person. D.The books a person reads depend on his choices.
3.The writer seems to agree that ____________.
A.we’d better not put our books on the floor
B.the way we arrange our books shows our tastes
C.the books at our bedside are usually more important
D.we can know about a person by reading the message he sends
4.It can be learned from the passage that the writer is probably__________.
A.a book lover B.a story teller C.a shelf collector D.a fashion designer
It's late evening in the middle of the winter. The snow is deep, but off I go into the wild.
Suddenly, I hear it: the howl（嚎叫)of wolves. Excitedly, I walk faster in the direction of the howling.
I've been working as a volunteer wolf tracker in Yellowstone National Park for over a year It's my job to follow wolves to record information about them. Like wolves, however, I don't work alone. I'm one of a team of people who have been in a project to help reintroduce wolves to the park.
Humans have always feared wolves. From fairy tales to movies, the wolf is always the bad guy —a danger to humans and other animals. In the 1920s, the organizers of the park shared this view about wolves and made the decision to drive them away from the park. As a result, the number of elk （麋鹿）in the park increased. The elk started looking for food near river banks since they didn't have to worry about wolves. This, in turn, stopped trees from growing along the rivers, doing great harm to the environment there.
The return of wolves has already made a big difference. To begin with, the elk soon learned to stay away from the rivers, so new trees have been able to grow there. The trees become home to new wildlife, such as birds, and provide food for more animals.
The park is now becoming more and more popular with those who want to see wolves in their natural environment. It has also helped the local people make more money. Tourists visit the area, stay in the local hotels, and eat in the local restaurants.
Looking at the wild animals and the beautiful sceneries around me, I am amazed at the changes the wolf has made to Yellowstone. And happily, it is playing a good guy in this story.
1.According to the passage, one of a wolf tracker’s jobs is to________.
A.catch wolves in the park B.feed wolves in the wild
C.stop wolves from killing elk D.collect information about wolves
2.Why did the organizers drive the wolves away from the park in the 1920s?
A.The wolves were always howling at night.
B.The elk in the park were in danger of dying out.
C.The wolves had done great harm to the environment.
D.The park was thought to be unsafe with wolves around.
3.Paragraphs 4 and 5 are mainly about the _______ that wolves have brought to Yellowstone.
A.risks B.troubles C.changes D.competitions
4.What does the writer mean by the underlined sentence in the last paragraph?
A.Wolves are important to Yellowstone. B.Yellowstone has been home to wolves.
C.The wolf and the elk live in peace now. D.The number of wolves is growing fast.
Is there a connection between music and language? According to recent studies, the answer is yes: Music helps develop certain language abilities in the brain.
A study from Northwestern University shows that playing a musical instrument can improve a person's hearing ability. As a part of the study, two groups of people listened to a person talking in a noisy room. The people in the first group were musicians, while those in the second group had no musical training. The musicians were found to be able to hear the talking person more clearly.
Musicians hear better, says study leader Nina Kraus, because they learn to pay attention to certain sounds. For example, when the violinists play in an orchestra（管弦乐队）, they must listen closely to what they are playing and ignore(忽视)the other sounds. In this way, musicians can hear certain sounds better, even in a room with lots of noise.
Gotfried Schlaug, a doctor at Harvard Medical School, works with stroke(中风)patients.
Because of their illness, these people cannot say their names, addresses, or other information normally However, they can till sing. Dr. Schlaug was surprised to find singing words helped his patients finally speak. Why does this work? Schlaug isn't sure. Music seems to be able to make different parts of the brain active, including the bad parts. In some way, this helps patients use those parts of the brain again.
So music is not only enjoyable, but also good for us in many other ways. Playing an instrument or singing, says Nina Kraus, can help us do better in school and keep our brain sharp as we get older.
1.What were the people in the first group asked to do in the study of Northwestern University?
A.Listen to different kinds of music. B.Make some noise in an empty room.
C.Give the second group musical training. D.Find out what the talking person was saying.
2.The writer uses the example of violinists in Paragraph 3 to explain________.
A.how musicians play in an orchestra B.how musicians ignore certain sounds
C.why musicians have better hearing ability D.why musicians are not afraid of loud noise
3.Gottfried Schlaug helps his stroke patients speak by________.
A.playing music for them B.getting them to sing words
C.teaching them to play instruments D.joining the bad parts of their brain
4.What is the main purpose of the passage?
A.To introduce different ways of playing music.
B.To give some advice about making our brain active.
C.To show the relationship between music and language abilities.
D.To share the results of recent studies on treating stroke patients.
| FUTURE VIEW |
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It will be great if there is some kind of fuel(燃料）we can use in cars that won’t produce any pollution. I guess there are scientists right now trying to do that, and I hope they’ll succeed because the world would be a much cleaner place, wouldn’t it? Charlie | ||||
I think it will be great if they invent something so that we only have to sleep for one or two hours every day. Then we’d all have much more time to do things and to enjoy ourselves. Life would be better, I think, and everyone would do a lot more with their lives. Miguel | ||||
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If I could choose anything, I’d go for a time machine so that I could go back and do some things differently. Of course, It will be great if there that’s impossible— but wouldn't it be great if it was possible? I wish I could go back in time to when I was a kid and say some of the things in a different way! Hannah | ||||
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Well, of course, the best thing is medicine for rally bad diseases（疾病）.A lot of scientists are working very hard to stop diseases like Ebola, a terrible disease that has killed many thousand people in Africa. So if they found a special treatment for Ebola, or a way of completely preventing it, life would be easier in so many places. Isabella | ||||
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I wish there was a machine that did homework! Wouldn’t tat be fantastic? But I guess teachers wouldn’t be very happy. Georgina | ||||
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1.Why does Hannah want to go back in time?
A.To be young again. B.To live a better life.
C.To do something for Africans. D.To say some words differently.
2.Who might be worried about the pollution of the world?
A.Miguel. B.Isabella. C.Charlie. D.Georgina.
3.In which part of a newspaper may this passage appear?
A.Health. B.Science. C.Travel. D.Education.
