I was 18 when Tim and I began to date. Shy and quiet, I’d met his parents once before but hadn’t ventured to say more than “ Hello”. This particular evening, however, we were taking them out to dinner for their anniversary and I wanted to make a good impression.
Tim and his parents arrived and I was out the door in a flash. My good impression began with “ punctual”. I sat in the backseat beside Tim nervously watching his father’s eyes glance into the rearview mirror to examine me.
Tim and his parents had already decided on their favorite Mexican restaurant and that was fine with me; the dim lighting would hide the rising flush of my cheeks, and if anyone noticed, I could blame it on the peppers. With proper table manners I managed to survive halfway through dinner without making any unforgivable mistakes. However, in the midst of conversation I reached for my iced tea, raised the glass to my lips and very quickly discovered I had picked up the wrong glass.
I quickly lowered the glass and set it back but it was too late; I had burnt my eyebrows, the hair in my nose, and curl over my forehead! I looked up slowly, praying no one had seen me, but all eyes at the table had seen and each face stared at me in shocked silence. Excusing myself, I ran to the restroom.
I would have hidden there forever but I’d barely gotten in the door when Tim’s mother arrived. “ Ah, honey,” she said, holding out her arms to me. “ Everything will be just fine.”
Tim and I eventually married. We had a small ceremony and a family reception afterwards held at the very restaurant where this incident occurred. This time, however, I didn’t drink any candles… only a Margarita（一种鸡尾酒名）; they were served in different glasses.
1.It can be inferred from the passage that___________.
A. the author had never met her parents-in-law before dinning together
B. Tim and the author took the bus to get to the restaurant
C. Tim’s father was curious to know about the author
D. Tim’s mother was not satisfied with the author’s behavior
2.According to the passage, the author______________.
A. felt very sorry for being late meeting Tim’s parents
B. mistook wine for drinks and got drunk
C. had her eyebrows burnt because of her nervousness
D. left a bad impression on Tim’s parents
3.What would be the best title of the passage?
A. Please Don’t Drink the Candles
B. Please Don’t Light the Candles
C. Please Behave Yourself
D. You Can Never Make a First Impression for a Second Time
If you bought some candy months ago but never ate it, how can you tell whether it’s still safe to eat? The easiest way is to check the “expiration date (保质期)” printed on the wrapper. If that date has already passed, you’re likely to throw the candy away. But is that really necessary?
According to a new report from the US Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), tons of food is wasted each year, largely because people don’t fully understand what expiration dates, or “use-by dates”, actually mean.
Food dating was introduced in 1970s because customers wanted more information about the things that they were eating. When they first showed up, use-by dates were only supposed to indicate freshness because producers wanted their products to be tasted in their best conditions.
But the truth is that these dates aren’t related to the risk of food poisoning or food-born illness, according to Time News. However, most customers misinterpreted use-by dates and related them to the safety of the food, and they still largely do now.
Eggs, for example, can still be eaten three to five weeks after purchase even though the use-by date is much earlier. When their use-by dates pass, strawberry juice may lose its red color and biscuits may lose their crunch（松脆的口感）, but they are not harmful.
“It’s a confusing subject, the difference between food quality and food safety,” said Jena Roberts, vice president of National Food Lab, a US food testing company. “Even in the food industry I have colleagues who get confused.”
This is why scientists are calling for a standard explanation to be printed following the use-by dates. “We want this to be clearly communicated so customers are not misinterpreting the date and contributing to a lot of waste,” said Dana Gunders, a staff scientist with the NRDC.
But this won’t be a mistake that is easy to correct since people have believed it for so long. Another problem is that the quality levels of different foods change differently-some are still eatable long after their use-by date while others are not.
As a result, food industry officials are now thinking of changing the use-by date to a date indicating when food is most likely to throw away.
1.According to the text, use-by date was first intended to ________.
A. reduce the waste of food
B. show whether the food was fresh
C. show the safety of food
D. give a warming of food poisoning
2.Which of following is TRUE?
A. Most customers understand what use-by date mean.
B. Biscuits can’t be eaten when not as crunchy as they were bought.
C. “ Use-by dates” have existed for more than 50 years.
D. Even after their use-by dates pass, some food are still safe to eat.
3.Scientists are calling for a standard explanation to be printed together with the use-by dates because________.
A. Most consumers often misunderstand use-by dates
B. use-by dates are not helpful or reliable
C. more consumers get worried about food safety
D. the quality level of different foods changes differently
书面表达
请阅读下面短文,并按照要求用英语写一篇150词左右的文章。
Cleanliness is important to academic success at one Chinese university where compulsory labor is part of a program designed to award class credits while teaching students with proper moral values.
During winter, the sky is still dark at 6:30 a.m. when the first-year students in Trade and Management College in Zhengzhou begin sweeping the 165-acre campus and it can take up to an hour.
Mr. Sun, the university official, said labor is good for building character and promotes “the spirit of hard work.” Some students also claim that they are always proud of the clean campus. They never litter because they’ve been through the labor and understand that they should respect the fruits of labor of others.
Some students, however, are against it because they feel the demands of the cleaning program are a distraction. Some often show up late and hungry to their morning classes after rushing to sweep the campus and clean their rooms.
【写作内容】
1. 用约30个单词写出上文概要；
2. 用约120个单词发表你的观点，内容包括：
(1) 支持或反对这个学校的做法；
用2-3个理由或论据支撑你的观点。
【写作要求】
1. 可以支持文中任一观点，但必须提供理由或论据；
2. 阐述观点或提供论据时，不能直接引用原文语句；
3. 作文中不能出现真实姓名和学校名称；
4. 不必写标题。
【评分标准】
内容完整，语言规范，语篇连贯，词数适当。
任务型阅读
请认真阅读下列短文，并根据所读内容在文章后表格中的空格里填入一个最恰当的单词。
注意：请将答案写在答题卡上相应题号的横线上。每个空格只填1个单词。
Simon Sinek is naturally shy and doesn’t like speaking to crowds. At parties, he says he hides alone in the corner or doesn’t even show up in the first place. He prefers the latter. Yet, with some 22 million video views under his belt, the optimistic ethnographer also happens to be the third most-watched TED Talks presenter of all time.
Sinek’s unlikely success as both an inspirational speaker and a bestselling author isn’t just dumb luck. It’s the result of fears faced and erased, trial and error and tireless practice, on and off stage. Here are his secrets for delivering speeches that inspire, inform and entertain.
Don’t talk right away.
Sinek says you should never talk as you walk out on stage. “A lot of people start talking right away, and it’s out of nerves,” Sinek says. “That communicates a little bit of insecurity and fear.”
Instead, quietly walk out on stage. Then take a deep breath, find your place, wait a few seconds and begin. “I know it sounds long and tedious and it feels excruciatingly awkward when you do it,” Sinek says, “but it shows the audience you’re totally confident and in charge of the situation.”
Show up to give, not to take.
Often people give presentations to sell products or ideas, to get people to follow them on social media, buy their books or even just to like them. Sinek calls these kinds of speakers “takers,” and he says audiences can see through these people right away. And, when they do, they disengage.
“We are highly social animals,” says Sinek. “Even at a distance on stage, we can tell if you’re a giver or a taker, and people are more likely to trust a giver — a speaker that gives them value, that teaches them something new, that inspires them — than a taker.”
Speak unusually slowly.
When you get nervous, it’s not just your heart beat that quickens. Your words also tend to speed up. Luckily Sinek says audiences are more patient and forgiving than we know.
“They want you to succeed up there, but the more you rush, the more you turn them off,” he says. “If you just go quiet for a moment and take a long, deep breath, they’ll wait for you. It’s kind of amazing.”
Turn nervousness into excitement.
Sinek learned this trick from watching the Olympics. A few years ago he noticed that reporters interviewing Olympic athletes before and after competing were all asking the same question. “Were you nervous?” And all of the athletes gave the same answer: “No, I was excited.” These competitors were taking the body’s signs of nervousness — clammy hands, pounding heart and tense nerves — and reinterpreting them as side effects of excitement and exhilaration.
When you’re up on stage you will likely go through the same thing. That’s when Sinek says you should say to yourself out loud, “I’m not nervous, I’m excited!”
Say thank you when you’re done.
Applause is a gift, and when you receive a gift, it’s only right to express how grateful you are for it. This is why Sinek always closes out his presentations with these two simple yet powerful words: thank you.
“They gave you their time, and they’re giving you their applause.” Says Sinek. “That’s a gift, and you have to be grateful.”
Passage outline | Supporting details |
1.to Simon Sinek | ●He is by2.shy and dislikes making speeches in public. ●Through his3.effort, he enjoys great success in giving speeches. |
Tips on delivering speeches
| ●Avoid talking 4.for it indicates you’re nervous. ●Keep calm and wait a few seconds before talking, which will create an 5.that you are confident. |
●Try to be a giver rather than a taker because in6.with a taker, a giver can get more popular and accepted. ●Teach audience something new that they can7.from. | |
●Speak a bit slowly just to help you stay calm. ●Never speed up while speaking in case you8.the audience. | |
●Switch nervousness to excitement by 9.the example of Olympic athletes. | |
●Express your 10.to the audience for their time and applause to conclude your speech. |
Mum, it’s me. Hopefully, this Mothering Sunday you will get to hear those three words. I will, of course, try to phone you. I hope we will be able to speak for the allowed 10 minutes. But I suspect many inmates will be using the phone, so if I don’t call and if we don’t speak, then this is what I would have said:
It’s not your fault that I am here. I know that deep in your heart you have questioned whether my current circumstance is somehow your fault, if the reckless stupidity of my past is somehow a failure on your part. It is not. Only one person is to blame, only one person should hurt — me. You have always taught me that when the room goes dark, you can wait for the lights to be switched back on or you can search in the dark and turn the light on yourself. You are my light. You always have been and always will be. There is nobody I admire more, nobody I have strived harder to please in my life, which is why my current failure hurts me so much.
I am so sorry that I will not be there to see you, but I want you to know that now, as always, you are here with me. In my darkest hours, and in the coldest loneliness of my past few months, my mind has so often wandered to the past, to when it was you and me — and I have been able to smile. Yours is the strength that I draw upon.
A parent’s job is to make sure that they pass on the best of themselves to their children. You have done that. It is the inner you in me that will get me through this.
I have failed you so epically, but you have never failed me. If I think back to the tears I shed when Dad left, all those years ago, I see you through their misty glaze. You holding me and you telling me we’d be OK, and we will be. We are and always will be the best team.
Childhood heroes such as footballers, actors and rock stars are clichéd. If the job’s done right, a child’s heroes should be their parents — you are mine. The strength you showed after the divorce from Dad to find your biological parents, to go to university and get your teaching qualifications, to begin your life again, is the strength that I draw on now. It is the belief in myself, it is the belief you have in me, that tells me that once I am released I can and will rebuild my life. I will make you proud again. I will make you happy to have me as your son. Yours is the will that gets me through every day.
I don’t believe you can judge a person for the mistakes they make, as we all make them, but you can judge them for what they do afterwards. And after this, when it is all over, you will still have a son with the same hopes and dreams. They have not diminished. If you can dream it, then you have to believe it can happen — right?
So this Mothering Sunday, please think back to that morning in the 80s, the first Mother’s Day without Dad, when a six-year-old me got up early and made breakfast for you. Do you remember it? Could you ever forget? A slice of bread a doorstep thick and a wedge of cheese equally dense. You didn’t have to eat it, but you did, chewing every dry mouthful. I know now why you forced yourself — because it had been made with love. Well, things don’t change this year — this letter is that bread and cheese (it sure has plenty of the cheese!).
I love you so much. I am sorry I have let you down, but you have taught me that we will always pick ourselves up and become better than we were before. Thank you for everything and this year, more than ever:
Happy Mothering Sunday.
Love, your son
1.According to the passage, what made the author most upset at present?
A. Losing his freedom temporarily.
B. Being unable to phone his mother.
C. Failing to live up to his mother’s expectations.
D. Having no chance to spend the weekend with mother.
2.What does the underlined word “this” in Paragraph 4 refer to?
A. Mothering Sunday. B. Dark time.
C. His mistake. D. Near future.
3.What did the author do in the loneliness of his past months？
A. He summed up the causes of the failure in his life.
B. He planned to help his mother find her birth parents.
C. He recalled the fond memories of being with his mother.
D. He prepared himself to go to university for further studies.
4.Which of the following is closest in meaning to the underlined word “clichéd” in Paragraph 6?
A. Ridiculous. B. Liberal.
C. Explicit. D. Common.
5.Which of the following can best describe the author’s mother?
A. Selfless but stubborn. B. Guilty but determined.
C. Selfish but responsible. D. Caring but envious.
Exercise seems to be good for the human brain, with many recent studies suggesting that regular exercise improves memory and thinking skills. But an interesting new study asks whether the apparent cognitive benefits from exercise are real or just a placebo effect — that is, if we think we will be “smarter” after exercise, do our brains respond accordingly? The answer has significant implications for any of us hoping to use exercise to keep our minds sharp throughout our lives.
While many studies suggest that exercise may have cognitive benefits, recently some scientists have begun to question whether the apparently beneficial effects of exercise on thinking might be a placebo effect. So researchers at Florida State University in Tallahassee and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign decided to focus on expectations, on what people anticipate that exercise will do for thinking. If people’s expectations jibe (吻合) closely with the actual benefits, then at least some of those improvements are probably a result of the placebo effect and not of exercise.
For the new study, which was published last month in PLOS One, the researchers recruited 171 people through an online survey system, they asked half of these volunteers to estimate by how much a stretching and toning regimens (拉伸运动) performed three times a week might improve various measures of thinking. The other volunteers were asked the same questions, but about a regular walking program.
In actual experiments, stretching and toning program generally have little if any impact on people’s cognitive skills. Walking, on the other hand, seems to substantially improve thinking ability.
But the survey respondents believed the opposite, estimating that the stretching and toning program would be more beneficial for the mind than walking. The estimates of benefits from walking were lower.
These data, while they do not involve any actual exercise, are good news for people who do exercise. “The results from our study suggest that the benefits of aerobic exercise are not a placebo effect,” said Cary Stothart, a graduate student in cognitive psychology at Florida State University, who led the study.
If expectations had been driving the improvements in cognition seen in studies after exercise, Mr. Stothart said, then people should have expected walking to be more beneficial for thinking than stretching. They didn’t, implying that the changes in the brain and thinking after exercise are physiologically genuine.
The findings are strong enough to suggest that exercise really does change the brain and may, in the process, improve thinking, Mr. Stothart said. That conclusion should encourage scientists to look even more closely into how, at a molecular level, exercise remodels the human brain, he said. It also should encourage the rest of us to move, since the benefits are, it seems, not imaginary, even if they are in our head.
1.Which of the following about the placebo effect is TRUE according to the passage?
A. It occurs during exercise.
B. It has cognitive benefits.
C. It is just a mental reaction.
D. It is a physiological response.
2.Why did the researchers at the two universities conduct the research?
A. To discover the placebo effect in the exercise.
B. To prove the previous studies have a big drawback.
C. To test whether exercise can really improve cognition.
D. To encourage more scientists to get involved in the research.
3.What can we know about the research Cary Stothart and his team carried out?
A. They employed 171 people to take part in the actual exercise.
B. The result of the research removed the recent doubt of some scientists.
C. The participants thought walking had a greater impact on thinking ability.
D. Their conclusion drives scientists to do research on the placebo effect.
4.What might be the best title for the passage?
A. Is it necessary for us to take exercise?
B. How should people exercise properly?
C. What makes us smarter during exercise?
D. Does exercise really make us smarter?
