In the fall of 1985, I was a bright-eyed girl heading off to Howard University, aiming at a legal career and dreaming of sitting on a Supreme Court bench somewhere. Twenty-one years later I am still a bright-eyed dreamer and one with quite a different tale to tell.
My grandma, an amazing woman, graduated from college at the age of 65. She was the first in our family to reach that goal. But one year after I started college, she developed cancer. I made the choice to withdraw from college to care for her. It meant that school and my personal dream would have to wait.
Then I got married with another dream: building my family with a combination of adopted and biological children. In 1999, we adopted our first son. To lay eyes on him was fantastic---and very emotional. A year later came our second adopted boy. Then followed son No. 3. In 2003, I gave birth to another boy.
You can imagine how fully occupied I became, raising four boys under the age of 8. Our home was a complete zoo---a joyous zoo. Not surprising, I never did make it back to college full-time. But I never gave up on the dream either. I had only one choice: to find a way. That meant taking as few as one class each semester.
The hardest part was feeling guilty about the time I spent away from the boys. They often wanted me to stay home with them. There certainly were times I wanted to quit, but I knew I should set an example for them to follow through the rest of their lives.
In 2007, I graduated from the University of North Carolina. It took me over 21 years to get my college degree！
I am not special, just single-minded. It always struck me that when you’re looking at a big challenge from the outside it looks huge, but when you’re in the midst of it, it just seems normal. Everything you want won’t arrive in your life on one day. It’s a process. Remember: little steps add up to big dreams.
1.When the author went to Howard University, her dream was to be __________.
A. a writer B. a teacher
C. a judge D. a doctor
2.Why did the author quit school in her second year of college?
A. She wanted to study by herself.
B. She fell in love and got married.
C. She suffered from a serious illness.
D. She decided to look after her grandma.
3.What can we learn about the author from Paragraphs 4 and 5?
A. She was busy yet happy with her family life.
B. She ignored her guilty feeling for her sons.
C. She wanted to remain a full-time housewife.
D. She was too confused to make a correct choice.
4.What does the author mostly want to tell us in the last paragraph?
A. Failure is the mother of success.
B. Little by little, one goes far.
C. Every coin has two sides.
D. Well begun, half done.
5.Which of the following can best describe the author?
A. Caring and determined.
B. Honest and responsible.
C. Ambitious and sensitive.
D. Innocent and single-minded.
Since the 1970s, scientists have been searching for ways to link the brain with computers. Brain-computer interface(BCI) technology could help people with disabilities send commands to machines.
Recently, two researchers, Jose Milan and Michele Tavella from the Federal Polytechnic School in Lausanne, Switzerland, demonstrated a small robotic wheelchair directed by a person’s thoughts.
In the laboratory, Tavella operated the wheelchair just by thinking about moving his left or right band. He could even talk as he watched the vehicle and guided it with his thoughts.
“Our brain has billions of nerve cells. These send signals through the spinal cord （脊髓）to the muscles to give us the ability to move. But spinal cord injuries or other conditions can prevent these weak electrical signals from reaching the muscles,” Tavella says. “Our system allows disabled people to communicate with external world and also to control devices.”
The researchers designed a special cap for the user. This head cover picks up the signals from the scalp(头皮) and sends them to a computer. The computer interprets the signals and commands the motorized wheelchair. The wheelchair also has two cameras that identify objects in its path. They help the computer react to commands from the brain.
Prof. Milan, the team leader, says scientists keep improving the computer software that interprets brain signals and turns them into simple commands. “The practical possibilities that BCI technology offers to disabled people can be grouped in two categories: communication, and controlling devices. One example is this wheelchair.”
He says his team has set two goals. One is testing with real patients, so as to prove that this is a technology they can benefit from. And the other is to guarantee that they can use the technology over long periods of time.
1.BCI is a technology that can ________.
A. help to update computer systems
B. link the human brain with computers
C. help the disabled to recover
D. control a person's thoughts
2.How" did Tavella operate the wheelchair in the laboratory?
A. By controlling his muscles.
B. By talking to the machine.
C. By moving his hand.
D. By using his mind.
3.Which of the following shows the path of the signals described in Paragraph 5?
A. scalp→computer→cap→wheelchair
B. computer→cap→scalp→wheelchair
C. scalp→cap→computer→wheelchair
D. cap→computer→scalp→wheelchair
4. The team will test with real patients to ________.
A. make profits from them
B. prove the technology useful to them
C. make them live longer
D. learn about their physical condition
5.Which of the following would be the best title for the text?
A. Switzerland, the BCI Research Center
B. New Findings About How the Human Brain Works
C. BCI Could Mean More Freedom for the Disabled
D. Robotic Vehicles Could Help to Cure Brain Injuries
书面表达：共35分
感恩，是我们生活中永恒的话题。学会感恩，学会热爱生活，我们将会感受到更多快乐。假设你将参加主题为“感恩”的演讲比赛，请你根据以下要点写一篇英语演讲稿。要点：
1.感恩对象(父母、老师、朋友…)；
2.为何感恩；
3.如何感恩。
注意：
1.只能选择一个感恩对象；
2.词数120左右。开头和结尾已写好，不计入总词数。
Good morning, everyone,
It’s a great honor to have the opportunity to be with you today. The topic of my speech is “Thank you,
_________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________
Thank you for listening.
语法填空：共10题 每题1分 共10分
Isalella: Mathew, do you know much about body language in countries around the world?
Mathew: Sure. I’ve picked up a few things from travelling around1.business. What’s up?
Isalella: Well, I had a meeting today with a woman from Japan and she wouldn’t stop 2.(bow)! I didn’t know what to do.
Mathew: Do you bow back?
Isalella: No, I tried to shake her hands, but her hand was so limp(无力的).
Mathew: Well, Japanese typically(典型地))bow 3.greet) each other. She might4. (offend) by your strong hand-shake.
Isalella: But she was in America! Shouldn’t she have known that strong handshakes in America show 5.(confident) and respect?
Mathew: Things are different in Japan. You know, in some countries, making eye contact with others 6. (consider) rude.
Isalella: Is that why she wouldn’t look at me in the meeting?
Mathew: I think it’s7. (high) possible.
Isalella: The meeting really didn’t go down well at all. I think I need to study intercultural communication(跨文化交流))8.I have another meeting with someone from9. country.
Matthew: That’s a good idea. When you don’t know much about other cultures, even the 10.(simple) thing can offend someone.
Isalella: That’s so true. It’s great that we see eye to eye on this.
七选五：共5题 每题2分 共10分
In the world nothing is more important than health. If people took away our money, houses, cars, or even our clothes, we could still survive. 1.Then how can we keep healthy?
First of all, we should eat healthily. I usually avoid eating food high in fat, like French fries or cookies, which are junk food. 2.I only eat little meat. 3.It helps us build a strong body. Regular exercise is an important part of keeping me healthy. In addition, I think friends are an important part of one’s health. 4. I always feel better when I am with friends than when I am alone. When I am with my friends, I always laugh. Laughing is also an important part of health. It is good to stay with my friends.
By eating properly and exercising regularly, I can keep my body at a proper weight and keep healthy. By spending time with my friends, I can keep my mind as well as my body happy. These things sound easy to do, but not many people can manage them. 5.
A. What’s more, taking exercise is very important.
B. Some people appear fat because they often eat too much.
C. I think a strong will is necessary if we want to keep fit.
D. I eat a lot of vegetables and fresh fruits which are full of vitamins.
E. There are some people who like staying alone, but they keep healthy.
F. But if our health were taken away, we could surely die.
G. Many studies show that people with few friends often get sick.
Mr. Johnson, aged twenty-three, battled for half an hour to escape from his trapped car yesterday when it landed upside down in three feet of water. Mr. Johnson took the only escape route—through the boot (行李箱).
Mr. Johnson’s car had finished up in a ditch (沟渠) at Romney Marsin, Kent after skidding on ice and hitting a bank. “Fortunately, the water began to come in only slowly,” Mr. Johnson said, “I couldn’t force the doors because they were jammed against the walls of the ditch and dared not open the windows because I knew water would come flooding in.”
Mr. Johnson, a sweet salesman of Sitting Home, Kent, first tried to attract the attention of other motorists by sounding the horn and hammering on the roof and boot (汽车行李箱). Then he began his struggle to escape.
Later he said, “It was really a half penny that saved my life. It was the only coin I had in my pocket and I used it to unscrew(拧开…的螺丝) the back seat to get into the boot. I hammered desperately with a hammer trying to make someone hear, but no help came.”
It took ten minutes to unscrew the seat, and a further five minutes to clear the sweet samples from the boot. Then Mr. Johnson found a wrench(扳钳) and began to work on the boot lock. Fifteen minutes passed by. “It was the only chance I had. Finally it gave, but as soon as I moved the boot lid, the water and mud poured in. I forced the lid down into the mud and scrambled (move with difficulty) as the car filled up.”
His hands and arms were cut and bruised (擦伤). Mr. Johnson got to Beckett Farm nearby, where he was looked after by the farmer’s wife, Mrs. Lucy Bates. Huddled in a blanket, he said, “The thirty minutes seemed like hours.” Only the tips of the car wheels were visible(can be seen), police said last night. The vehicle had sunk into two feet of mud at the bottom of the ditch.
1.What is the best title for this newspaper article?
A.The Story of Mr. Johnson, A Sweet Salesman
B.Car Boot Serve As The Best Escape Route
C.Driver Escaped Through Car Boot
D.The Driver Survived A Terrible Car Accident
2.Which of the following objects is the most important to Mr. Johnson?
A.The hammer. B.The coin.
C.The screw. D.The horn.
3.“Finally it gave”(Paragraph 5) means that ________.
A.luckily the door was torn away in the end
B.at last the wrench went broken
C.the lock came open after all his efforts
D.the chance was lost at the last minute
4.It may be inferred from the passage that __________.
A.the ditch was along a quiet country road
B.the accident happened on a rainy cold day
C.Mr. Johnson’s car stood on its boot as it fell down
D.the police helped Mr. Johnson get out of the ditch
