B
My Left Foot (1989)
Imagine being a prisoner of your own body, unable to make any movements except to move your left foot. The main character in My Left Foot, based on the real story of cerebral palsy (大脑性麻痹) sufferer Christy Brown, can barely move his mouth to speak, but by controlling his left foot, he’s able to express himself as an artist and poet. For his moving performance of Brown, Daniel Lewis won his first Academy Award for best actor.
Shine (1996)
Do you have a talent you’re afraid to share with the world? David Helfgott seemed meant from childhood to be “one of the truly great pianists,” but the pressures of performing (and pleasing his father) resulted in a complete breakdown. Ten years in a mental institution didn’t weaken Helfgott’s musical gift: When he was rediscovered, he was playing concertos in a bar. Shine received s even Oscar nominations (提名), and Geoffrey Rush won best actor for his performance of Helfgott. Life Is Beautiful (1997)
Nothing’s more powerful than the love between a parent and a child. In this heartbreaking Italian film, a father (Roberto Benigni) makes an unbelievable sacrifice for his 4-year-old son: trapped in a Nazi concentration camp in 1945, the Jewish man convinces his boy that they are playing a complicated game. He manages to spare him the horror of the terrible war, and even in his final moments of life, keeps his son smiling and hopeful. Benigni won the best actor Oscar.
Stand and Deliver (1988)
Few people can inspire us more than a good teacher. Jaime Escalante (Edward James Olmos got Oscar nomination for best actor) is a great one. Employed at a high school where kids are expected to fail, Escalante challenges his math students to struggle for better things, like getting good grades in the AP exam. Despite the obstacles in their lives, the classmates accomplish their goals, thanks to Mr. Escalante’s support. The real Jaime Escalante, the Best Teacher in America, says that Stand and Deliver is “ 90% truth, 10% drama.”
1.The underlined part in the passage means _________.
A. The main character in My Left Foot is a prisoner
B. The main character in My Left Foot is a disabled person
C. The main character in My Left Foot is trapped by others
D. The main character in My Left Foot can’t control his whole body
2.If you want to watch a movie about wars, which may be one of your choices?
A. My Left Foot. B. Life Is Beautiful.
C. Shine. D. Stand and Deliver.
3.Jaime Escalante has a talent for _________.
A. teaching B. drawing and writing
C. making stories D. playing the piano
4.What do the four movies have in common?
A. They are all based on real stories.
B. The main characters all won Academy Award for Best Actor.
C. They are all inspiring stories that make a difference.
D. The main characters are all sick to some degree but succeed.
A
As an old-fashioned explorer, Paul Salopek sets out on foot to circle the world. He is also a modern-day explorer. On top of a few clothes, a small first-aid kit and notebooks, he is carrying a recorder, a video camera, a small computer and a satellite phone — a telephone that connects to a satellite and can be used in many places where cell-phones don’t work.
The journey is long: 21,000 miles! It will take seven years to complete it.
Salopek was born in California and spent his childhood in Mexico. He says he has always liked to travel and doesn’t like to rush. At the age of fourteen, he climbed Mount Whitney in California and crossed the state’s Sierra Nevada Mountains alone. When he was fifteen years old, he walked the length of Death Valley. He once rode a mule 2,000 miles through mountains in Mexico.
A longtime reporter, Salopek has reported from Africa, Asia and Mexico. Now 51 years old, he plans to keep writing. As he travels around the world, he is writing stories about the people he meets and the way they live. He looks for how people find local solutions to big problems such as lack of food and water. He also records the sounds he hears and takes photos of the sky and the Earth’s surface.
The long walk started in the Rife Valley in Ethiopia in East Africa. Many consider East Africa to be home to the first humans, who lived 160,000 years ago.
Salopek is retracing the paths our ancestors took as they left Africa and settled in parts of the Middle East, Europe, Asia and the Americas. As Salopek is walking, he is learning more about himself and all of humankind.
1.The underlined phrase “on top of” in the first paragraph can be replaced by _______.
A. on the top of B. in contrast to
C. in addition to D. on the basis of
2.The author develops the third paragraph mainly by ________.
A. providing examples
B. making comparisons
C. making a careful analysis
D. following the order of time
3.According to the passage, Paul Salopek is a ________.
A. doctor who likes carrying the small first-aid kit
B. journalist who likes traveling, exploring, writing and studying
C. writer who likes traveling, exploring and studying
D. photographer who is good at using satellite communication equipment
4.What’s the best title for the passage?
A. Paul Salopek: Following Man’s First Footsteps
B. Paul Salopek: Reflecting People’s Real Lives
C. Paul Salopek: Going for a Seven-year Study
D. Paul Salopek: Looking back upon the Childhood
B
Some people think if you are happy, you are blind to reality. But when we research it, happiness actually every single business and educational outcome for the brain. Why do people have this social about happiness? Because we assumed you were average.
Many people think happiness is genetic. That’s only half the story. When we stop studying the average and begin positive outliers — people who are above average for a positive aspect like optimism or intelligence — a different picture appears. Our daily decisions and habits have a huge impact upon both our levels of happiness and success.
, happiness is a choice. It is a choice about where your single processor brain will devote its limited resources as you process the world. If you scan for the first, your brain really has no resources left over to see the things you are grateful for or the meaning embedded (嵌入) in your work. But if you scan it the other way round, you start to acquire an advantage.
1.A. rises B. arises C. arouses D. raises
2.A. faith B. concept C. misunderstanding D. tradition
3.A. discovering B. researching C. observing D. finding
4.A. wildly B. hardly C. mildly D. crazily
5.A. Fortunately B. Gradually C. Strangely D. Scientifically
6.A. positive B. negative C. active D. passive
7.A. annoying B. interesting C. amazing D. Embarrassing
A
On my way to work every day, I drive down a street lined with pine trees. One tree in particular my attention. It must have suffered some . Part of its trunk grew nearly parallel to the ground, and then in an effort to its own course of life, the trunk took a 90 degree turn to stand tall and stretch toward the sun.
Each day as I drove by, I saw this bent but determined tree and I would be . It was a reminder to me that I may not have had the best start in life, I could change in the parts of my life at any time.
I was planning to stop one day to get a perfect of my kindred-spirit (志趣相同的) tree. But that week I was busy. After that week, I still didn’t take any action. Every time I drove by the tree I would myself, “Tomorrow, I’ll stop tomorrow to take one.” Then one day, as I drove by “my” tree, I glanced over, and much to my , I found a sawed-off stump (树桩) where that tree had stood. I had my plan until “tomorrow” and tomorrow proved to be too .
What have you been putting off? What would you do today if you knew you would have the opportunity to do it again? Why not do those things that you have been putting off until tomorrow?
1.A. caught B. paid C. fixed D. escaped
2.A. experience B. influence C. defeat D. damage
3.A. change B. design C. follow D. imagine
4.A. applying B. attempting C. learning D. happening
5.A. satisfied B. interested C. encouraged D. educated
6.A. even though B. as if C. in case D. if only
7.A. habit B. direction C. plan D. purpose
8.A. review B. picture C. glance D. knowledge
9.A. call B. help C. tell D. warn
10.A. regret B. pleasure C. happiness D. surprise
11.A. cut off B. taken off C. put off D. called off
12.A. sad B. far C. good D. late
13.A. never B. ever C. surely D. almost
— How do you find your trip to Sanya during the three-day New Year Holiday ?
—________ I can’t speak too highly of it.
A. Oh, wonderful indeed!
B. It’s awful!
C. Don’t mention it.
D. You said it.
The Small Goose Pagoda in Xi’an, one of the 22 Silk Road relics located in China, _______ back in 707 during the Tang Dynasty.
A. dated B. was dated
C. dates D. is dating
