Poet William Stafford once said that we are defined more by the detours(绕行路)in life than by the narrow road toward goals. I like this image. But it was quite by accident that I discovered the deep meaning of his words.
For years we made the long drive from our home in Seattle to my parents’ home in Boise in nine hours. We traveled the way most people do: the fastest, shortest, easiest road, especially when I was alone with four noisy, restless kids who hate confinement(限制)and have strong opinions about everything.
Road trips felt risky, so I would drive fast, stopping only when I had to. We would stick to the freeways and arrive tired.
But then Banner, our lamb was born. He was rejected by his mama days before our planned trip to Boise. I had two choices: leave Banner with my husband, or take him with me. My husband made the decision for me.
That is how I found myself on the road with four kids, a baby lamb and nothing but my everlasting optimism to see me through. We took the country roads out of necessity. We had to stop every hour, let Banner shake out his legs and feed him. The kids chased him and one another. They’d get back in the car breathless and energized, smelling fresh from the cold air.
We explored side roads, catching grasshoppers in waist-high grass. Even if we simply looked out of the car windows at baby pigs following their mother, or fish leaping out of the water, it was better than the best ride down the freeway. Here was life. And new horizons.
We eventually arrived at my parents’ doorstep astonishingly fresh and full of stories.
I grew brave with the trip back home and creative with my disciplining technique. On an empty section of road, everyone started quarreling. I stopped the car, ordered all kids out and told them to meet me up ahead. I parked my car half a mile away and read my book in sweet silence.
Some road trips are by necessity fast and straight. But that trip with Banner opened our eyes to a world available to anyone adventurous enough to wander around and made me realize that a detour may uncover the best part of a journey----and the best part of yourself.
1.Why did the author use to take freeways to her parents’ home?
A. She needn’t stop on the way.
B. It would be faster and easier.
C. Her kids would feel less confined.
D. She felt better with other drivers nearby.
2.What does the author discover from the trip according to Paragraph 6 ?
A. Freeways are where beauty hides.
B. Getting close to nature adds to the joy of life
C. Enjoying the beauty of nature benefits one’s health
D. One should follow side roads to watch wild animals
3.Why did the author ask the kids to get out of the car on their way back home
A. To give herself some time to read
B. To order some food for them
C. To play a game with them.
D. To let them cool down
4.What could be the best title for the passage
A. Charm of the Detour
B. The Road to Bravery
C. Creativity out of Necessity
D. Road trip and Country Life
Beaches are not only great for lying on and doing water sports, and in fact one of the best ways of enjoying them is a classic beach walk. Here at iWantSun. Co. Uk, we’ve been searching the globe to find you the world’s best and most glorious beach walks, and here’s our pick of the top.
The Footpath of the Gods, Amalfi Coast, Italy
The name says it all really and you truly do feel up there to walking along this wonderful mountain coastal path, which offers some of the most striking views on the planet. The path begins at town of Bomerano to charming Positano along the UNESCO World Heritage area of the Amalfi Coast. The whole walk will take you approximately four and a half hours to complete and pass over narrow rocky paths, past sheer cliffs and shining blue bays.
Sydney’s Great Coastal Walk, Australia
Sydney’s coastline is one of the most beautiful and diverse in the world. Here you have national parks, historic sites, steep cliffs, sparkling beaches and quiet bays all in one place. Sydney’s Great Walk runs all the way from Barrenjoey in the north to Royal National Park in the south and takes an incredible seven days to complete. However, if you’re not up to doing the full walk, then there are many different parts of the walk that you can do right in the city. Walking from the city’s famous Bondi Beach to the sweeping curve of Bronte Beach takes just an hour, which takes in some top scenery.
Great Ocean Walk, Australia
The Great Ocean Walk stretches 104 km along Victoria’s famous Great Ocean Road, located on the southern coast of Australia, from the resort town Apollo Bay to the magnificent Twelve Apostles. The Twelve Apostles are the area’s famous stone landmarks which stand out like giants from the sea. The walk passes through a range of landscapes and sights, from national parks, famous surfing spots and deserted beaches, to wild coastlines, cascading waterfalls, lush forests, historic lighthouses and ghostly shipwrecks. Day walks and shorter three-hour walks such as the Wreck Beach Walk or the Lighthouse Cemetery and Lookout Walk can also be enjoyed.
So next time when you’re looking for a beach holiday don’t just think about the resorts and the sand, but consider a more active sun holiday, discovering some of the best beaches in the world.
1.The author intends to tell us ____________.
A. the world’s best places for beach walks
B. the wonderful beaches in the world
C. the ideal tourism resort for health
D. the beautiful beaches in Australia
2.When you arrive at the Amalfi Coast _______________.
A. you must be disappointed at the footpath
B. you will be fascinated by the scenery
C. you can start walking from Positano
D. you may be trapped in narrow rocky paths
3.What is special about Sydney’s Great Coastal Walk?
A. It takes about more than five hours to complete.
B. It starts from Royal National Park in the north.
C. It provides visitors a variety of great landscapes.
D. It really has the longest coastline in the world.
4.According to the fourth paragraph we can know that __________________.
A. Apollo Bay is at the end of the Great Ocean Walk
B. the Twelve Apostles exists below the surface of the sea
C. the Wreck Beach Walk can also give visitors pleasure
D. most visitors can finish the 104 km walk in three hours
Christian Eijkman, a Dutch doctor, left the Netherlands for the island of Java. Many people on the island had a disease called beri-beri. He was going there to try and find a cure.
At first, Eijkman thought some kind of germ (细菌) caused beri-beri. He raised some chickens. He didn’t eat them, but made experiments on them. The local people were quite surprised at that. One day he noticed that his chickens became sick when they were fed the food most Javanese ate — refined white rice (精炼米). When he fed them with unrefined rice, also known as brown rice, they recovered. Eijkman realized that he had made an important discovery — that some things in food could prevent disease. These things were named vitamins. The Javanese were not getting enough vitamins because they had actually removed the part that contains vitamins. Later, other diseases were also found to be caused by the lack of vitamins in a person’s food.
Today many people know the importance of vitamins and they make sure they have enough vitamins from the food they eat. If they don’t, they can also take vitamin pills.
1.Christian Eijkman went to the island of Java to ______.
A. help the Javanese with their illness
B. find ways to grow better crops
C. do some research about the island
D. spend his holiday
2.Why did Christian Eijkman raise some chickens?
A. To eat them.
B. To make money by selling them.
C. To give the Javanese a surprise.
D. To carry out his experiments.
3.If a person doesn’t get enough vitamins in his diet, he’d better ______.
A. eat more rice B. eat vitamin pills
C. eat some chicken D. eat more meat
完形填空
阅读下面短文，掌握其大意，从每题所给的A、B、C、D四个选项中，选出最佳选项，并在答题卡上将该项涂黑。
While attending a conference, I returned to my hotel room late one evening. The overhead light outside my door was burned out and I had ________ finding the keyhole. When I _______ to open the door, I _______ around the wall for a light switch. I found a plate where a switch was_______ installed... but no switch!
Not discouraged easily, I remembered _______ a lamp by the bed when I laid my luggage _______ in the day. I found the bed in the _______ and then the lamp, but when I switched it on, nothing _______ ! I thought that perhaps if I opened the curtains I might be able to use whatever light comes in from the_______ to find another lamp. So I _______ my way slowly across the room to the curtains and... no drawstring! I finally stumbled（跌跌撞撞地走）around _______ I found a desk lamp which actually _______!
That evening I discovered in a whole new way just how dark the world _______ be and how necessary light is! But even more necessary than _______ light is the light that shines from people — the light of _______ and faith. Because, for many people, the world is a dark and _______ place. For someone today just may be stumbling in discouragement or sadness or fear and in _______ of some light. So let your light shine. Whatever light you _______ may be a beacon of hope and encouragement. And if you feel that your light is _______ a candle in a forest remember — there isn’t enough darkness in all the world to _______ the light of one small candle.
1.A. confidenceB. respect C. admiration D. difficulty
2.A. managed B. failed C. wished D. meant
3.A. touchedB. felt C. sensed D. looked
4.A. already B. never C. still D. once
5.A. equipping B. producing C. seeing D. removing
6.A. later B. earlier C. lower D. upper
7.A. lightB. dark C. room D. corner
8.A. happened B. operated C. fired D. developed
9.A
. machine B. street C. room D. car
10.A. wound B. forced C. made D. lost
11.A. after B. until C. while D. since
12.A. helped B. affected C. worked D. inspired
13.A. can B. shall C. will D. must
14.A. scientific B. manual C. electrical D. physical
15.A. substance B. loveC. truth D. wisdom
16.A. lonely B. colourfulC. friendly D. fortunate
17.A. short B. favourC. face D. need
18.A. make B. offer C. take D. afford
19.A. not more than B. other than C. no more than D. rather than
20.A. put out B. give out C. get over D. set up
根据短文内容，从短文后的选项中选出能填入空白处的最佳选项。选项中有两项为多余选项。
If you are like most international students, you are probably pretty comfortable reading and writing in English, but not as comfortable with listening and speaking in the language. 1.
Make friends with American students. Many international students end up making friends with a lot of — or only — other international students. 2. Hanging out with natives not only naturally pushes you to improve your spoken English, but also helps you pick up cultural and social information.
Learn from American friends. Tell your American friends that you are trying to improve your listening and speaking skills, and would like them to help you. If you pronounce a word incorrectly, or misuse an idiom, you want them to tell you. 3.
Increase your knowledge. 4. If you have known about the topics that are likely to be discussed in conversation, you have a much better chance of understanding people when they talk, and of being able to express yourself well.
5. If you have to explain something to someone, you have a strong desire to pronounce everything as well as you can, and find other ways to explain yourself. Finally, this becomes a good habit. Many people have asked me how I learned to speak English fluently, and I think it is because of my being a math teacher in college for years.
A. I don’t think this is a good idea.
B. You will learn much faster this way.
C. If possible, become a teacher at your school.
D. It’s a win-win opportunity for international students.
E. Read books, keep up with news and watch popular shows and movies.
F. It’s a good way to make some extra cash while improving your English.
G. Below are some tips to help you to improve your conversational skills.
In the Internet age, speed reading is a necessary and important skill. We skim over articles and e-mails to try to get key words and the main idea of the text. With so much information through our electronic devices (电子设备), it would be impossible to get through everything if we read word by word, line by line. However, a new trend calls on people to enjoy reading slowly.
A recent story from The Wall Street Journal reported on a book club in Wellington, New Zealand, where members meet in a café and turn off their smartphones. They sit back in comfortable chairs and read in silence for an hour.
Unlike typical book clubs, the point of the slow reading club isn’t to exchange ideas about certain books, but to get away from electronic devices and read in a quiet, relaxed environment. According to the story, the Wellington book club is just one example of a movement started by book lovers who miss the traditional way of reading.
Traditional readers, like Maura Kelly, say a regular reading habit sharpens the mind, improves concentration, reduces stress levels and deepens the ability to understand others. Some of these benefits have been backed up by science. For example, a study of 300 elderly people published by the journal Neurology last year showed that adults who take part in activities that use their brain, such as reading, suffer less memory loss as they get older. Another study published last year in Science showed that reading novels helps people understand others’ mental states and beliefs — a key skill in building relationships.
Yet technology has made us less careful readers. Computer and phone screens have changed our reading patterns from the top-to-bottom, left-to-right reading order we traditionally used, to a wild skimming pattern as we hunt for important words and information. Reading text online that has many links to other web pages also leads to weaker comprehension than reading plain text. The Internet may have made us stupider, says British journalist Patrick Kingsley, only half joking. Because of the Internet, he says we have become very good at collecting a wide range of factual tidbits (花边新闻), but we are also gradually forgetting how to sit back, think and connect all these facts with each other.
1.Speed reading is a necessary and important skill in the Internet age because people ______.
A. no longer read word by word, line by line
B. have to get the meaning faster
C. have much more information to read
D. must use their smartphones more frequently
2.Members of the Wellington book club are expected to ______.
A. make coffee for the other members
B. read peacefully for an hour
C. regularly exchange ideas about books
D. turn off their smartphones for sleeping
3.According to the Neurology study, who is most likely to suffer memory loss?
A. A 79-year-old woman who reads regularly.
B. A 17-year-old middle school student who seldom reads.
C. A healthy 24-year-old university graduate who often plays games.
D. A 65-year-old man who rarely reads.
4.The last paragraph is written to ______.
A. explain the secrets of others’ minds
B. describe the problems caused by electronic reading
C. call on people to read more about science
D. encourage people to read as slowly as possible
