短文改错
假定英语课上老师要求同桌之间交换修改作文，请你修改你同桌写的以下短文。短文中共有10处错误，每句中最多有两处。错误涉及一个单词的增加、删除或修改。
增加：在缺词处加一个漏字符号(∧), 并在此符号下面写出该加的词。
删除：把多余的词用斜线（＼）划掉。
修改： 在错的词下划一横线, 并在该词下面写出修改后的词。
注意：1、每处错误及其修改均仅限一词；
2、只允许修改10处, 多者(从第11处起) 不计分。
With the development of people’s living condition, more and more people possess their own cars. Some of us think it is good to own a car. For instance, it’s convenient, fast and comfortable means of transportation. Moreover, it shows that people are becoming richer and the country is much more stronger. It also made relative businesses and industries develop faster.
However, others have different opinions, thinking that cars give up waste gases and pollute the environment around. Too much cars will have some bad effects, such as more accidents and crowdedness. Besides, lack parking lots is another big problem.
As far as I’m concerned, we ought to think careful before buying cars. As if we have cars, we may use it less.
单词拼写
1.It astonishes me that the book i______________ for children under 12 is now being used to educate adults.
2.Energetic and relaxed people are less l____________ to catch a cold than those who are nervous or angry.
3.At first, we were suspected, but we finally c___________ them of our honesty.
4.After moving into the beautiful house, she often e___________ her friends at weekends.
5.With New Year’s day a__________, our class decided to throw a party to celebrate this important occasion for a new start.
下面文章中有5处 （第1～5） 需要添加小标题。请从（A、B、C、D、E和F）中选出符合各段意思的小标题， 并在答题纸上将相应选项的标号涂黑。选项中有一项是多余选项。
A. Decide to settle when growth is guaranteed.
B. Follow other people's paths.
C. Blame others for the fault.
D. Have faith in overnight success.
E. Only pay attention to the dreams themselves.
F. Believe someone else has the answers for you.
FIVE WAYS TO KILL YOUR DREAMS
I dedicated the past two years to understanding how people achieve their dreams. When we think about the dreams we have, and the footprint we want to leave in the universe, it is striking to see how big of an overlap there is between the dreams that we have and projects that never happen. So I'm here to talk to you today about five ways how not to follow your dreams.
1.______
You know the story, right? The tech guy built a mobile app and sold it very fast for a lot of money. You know, the story may seem real, but I bet it's incomplete. If you go investigate further, the guy has done 30 apps before and he has done a master's on the topic, a Ph.D. He has been working on the topic for 20 years. This is really interesting. I myself have a story in Brazil that people think is an overnight success. I come from a humble family, and two weeks before the deadline to apply to MIT, I started the application process. And, voila! I got in. People may think it's an overnight success, but that only worked because for the 17 years prior to that, I took life and education seriously. Your overnight success story is always a result of everything you've done in your life through that moment.
2.____
Constantly, people want to help out, right? All sorts of people: your family, your friends, your business partners, they all have opinions on which path you should take: "And let me tell you, go through this pipe." But whenever you go inside, there are other ways you have to pick as well. And you need to make those decisions yourself. No one else has the perfect answers for your life. And you need to keep picking those decisions, right? The pipes are infinite and you're going to bump your head, and it's a part of the process.
3.______
So when your life is going great, you have put together a great team, and you have growing revenue, and everything is set — time to settle. When I launched my first book, I worked really, really hard to distribute it everywhere in Brazil. With that, over three million people downloaded it, over 50,000 people bought physical copies. When I wrote a sequel, some impact was guaranteed. Even if I did little, sales would be okay. But okay is never okay. When you're growing towards a peak, you need to work harder than ever and find yourself another peak. Maybe if I did little, a couple hundred thousand people would read it, and that's great already. But if I work harder than ever, I can bring this number up to millions. That's why I decided, with my new book, to go to every single state of Brazil. And I can already see a higher peak. There's no time to settle down.
4._____
I constantly see people saying, "Yes, I had this great idea, but no investor had the vision to invest." "Oh, I created this great product, but the market is so bad, the sales didn't go well." Or, "I can't find good talent; my team is so below expectations." If you have dreams, it's your responsibility to make them happen. Yes, it may be hard to find talent. Yes, the market may be bad. But if no one invested in your idea, if no one bought your product, for sure, there is something there that is your fault. Definitely. You need to get your dreams and make them happen. And no one achieved their goals alone. But if you didn't make them happen, it's your fault and no one else's. Be responsible for your dreams.
5.______
Once I saw an ad, and it was a lot of friends, they were going up a mountain, it was a very high mountain, and it was a lot of work. You could see that they were sweating and this was tough. And they were going up, and they finally made it to the peak. Of course, they decided to celebrate, right? I'm going to celebrate, so, "Yes! We made it, we're at the top!" Two seconds later, one looks at the other and says, "Okay, let's go down." Life is never about the goals themselves. Life is about the journey. Yes, you should enjoy the goals themselves, but people think that you have dreams, and whenever you get to reaching one of those dreams, it's a magical place where happiness will be all around. But achieving a dream is a momentary sensation, and your life is not. The only way to really achieve all of your dreams is to fully enjoy every step of your journey. That's the best way.
Some of the world’s most significant problems never hit headlines. One example comes from agriculture. Food riots （暴动）and hunger make news. But the trend lying behind these matters is rarely talked about. This is the decrease in the growth in production of some of the world’s major crops. A new study by the University of Minnesota and McGill University in Montreal looks at where, and how far, this decline is occurring.
The authors take a vast number of data points for the four most important crops: rice, wheat, corn and soyabeans. They find that on between 24% and 39% of all harvested areas, the improvement in production that took place before the 1980s slowed down in the 1990s and 2000s.
There are two worrying features of the slowdown. One is that it has been particularly sharp in the world’s most populous countries, India and China. Their ability to feed themselves has been an important source of relative stability both within the countries and on world food markets. That self-sufficiency (自给自足) cannot be taken for granted if productions continue to slow down.
Second, production growth has been lower in wheat and rice than in corn and soyabeans. This is problematic because wheat and rice are more important as foods, accounting for around half of all calories consumed. Corn and soyabeans are more important as feed grains. The authors note that “we have preferentially focused our crop improvement efforts on feeding animals and cars rather than on crops that feed people and are the basis of food security in much of the world.”
The report also states the more optimistic findings of another new paper which suggests that the world will not have to dig up a lot more land for farming in order to feed 9 billion people in 2050, as the Food and Agriculture Organisation has argued.
Instead, it says, thanks to slowing population growth, land currently ploughed（犁）up for crops might be able to revert (回返) to forest or wilderness. This could happen. The trouble is that the prediction assumes continued improvements in productions, which may not actually happen.
1.What significant problem does the writer think we should pay more attention to?
A. The decline of the grain production growth
B. News headlines in the leading media.
C. Food riots and hunger.
D. The food supply in populous countries.
2.Why does the author mention India and China in particular?
A. Their big populations are causing worldwide concerns.
B. Their food yields have begun to decrease sharply in recent years.
C. Their self-sufficiency is vital to the stability of world food markets.
D. Their food self-sufficiency has been taken for granted.
3.What does the new study by the two universities say about recent crop improvement efforts?
A. They fail to produce the same remarkable results as before the 1980s.
B. They contribute a lot to the improvement of human food production.
C. They play a major role in guaranteeing the food security of the world.
D. They focus more on the increase of animal feed than human food grains.
4.What does the Food and Agriculture Organisation say about world food production in the coming decades?
A. The growing population will greatly increase the pressure on world food supplies.
B. The optimistic prediction about food production should be viewed with caution.
C. The slowdown of the growth in yields of major food crops will be reversed.
D. The world will be able to feed its population without expanding the area of farmland.
5.How does the author view the argument of the Food and Agriculture Organisation?
A. It is built on the findings of a new study.
B. It is based on a doubtful assumption.
C. It is backed by strong evidence.
D. It is open to further discussion.
My father had always been an alert observer of human character. Within seconds of meeting someone, he could sum up their strengths and weaknesses. It was always a challenge to see if any of my boyfriends could pass Dad’s test. None did. Dad was always right—they didn’t pass my test either. After Dad died, I wondered how I’d figure it out on my own.
That’s when Jack arrived on the scene. He was different from any other guy I’d dated. He could sit for hours on the piano bench with my mother, discussing some composers. My brother Rick loudly announced that Jack wasn’t a turkey like the other guys I’d brought home. Jack passed my family’s test. But what about Dad’s?
Then came my mother’s birthday. The day he was supposed to drive, I got a call. “Don’t worry,” he said, “but I’ve been in an accident. I’m fine, but I need you to pick me up.”
When I got there, we rushed to a flower shop for something for Mom. “How about gardenias（栀子花）?” Jack said, pointing at a beautiful white corsage (胸花). The florist put the corsage in a box.
The entire ride, Jack was unusually quiet. “Are you all right?” I asked. “I’ve been doing a lot of thinking,” he said. “I might be moving.” Moving? Then he added, “Moving in with you.” I nearly put the car on the sidewalk. “What?” I asked. “I think we should get married,” he said. He told me he’d planned his proposal in a fancy restaurant, but after the accident, he decided to do it right away. “Yes,” I whispered. We both sat dumbfounded, tears running down our cheeks. I’d never known such a tender moment. If only Dad were here to give his final approval.
“Oh, let’s just go inside.” Jack laughed. My mother opened the door. “Happy Birthday!” we shouted. Jack handed the box to her. She opened it up. Suddenly, her eyes were filled with tears. “Mom, what’s wrong?” I asked. “I’m sorry,” she said, wiping her eyes. “This is only the second gardenia corsage I’ve ever received. I was given one years ago, long before you kids were born.” “From who?” I asked. “Your father,” Mom said. “He gave me one right before we were engaged.” My eyes locked on Jack’s as I blinked away(眨掉) tears. Dad’s test? I knew Jack had passed.
1.According to the text, we know the writer’s father was __________.
A. interested in observing things around
B. good at judging one’s character
C. strict with her boyfriend
D. fond of challenges
2.What is the main idea of Paragraph 2?
A. Jack got the family’s approval except Dad’s.
B. Jack was different from any other boy.
C. Jack was getting on well with Mother.
D. Jack knew a lot about piano.
3.The underlined word “proposal” in Paragraph 5 means __________.
A. piece of advice B. wedding ceremony
C. celebration of birthday D. offer of marriage
4.On hearing “moving in with you”, the writer felt .
A. pleased B. worried
C. surprised D. disappointed
5.Why did the writer’s mother cry?
A. The gift was the same as the one her husband gave her.
B. She had never received such a beautiful gift.
C. Her daughter found her life partner at last.
D. The gardenia corsage was too expensive.
Have you ever made contact with the creative spirit, that certain something hard to describe, but full of good—and sometimes great—ideas? It is more than an occasional great thought. When we feel the moving of the creative spirit, it brings to life a style of being: a lifetime filled with the desire to invent, to explore new ways of doing things, and to turn dreams into reality.
That flash of inspiration is the final moment of a process marked by unique stages—the basic steps in creative problem-solving. The first stage is preparation, when you look for any information that might be important. It's when you let your imagination run free.
But one barrier(障碍) is the inside voice of judgment that locks up our creative spirit within the limits of what we think acceptable. It's the voice that whispers to you, "They'll think I'm foolish," or "That will never work." But we can learn to recognize this voice of judgment and have the courage to discount its unhelpful advice.
Once you have thought about all the relevant(相关的) pieces and pushed your mind to the limits, you can let the problem remain and take in all you have gathered. It's a stage when much of what goes on occurs outside your focused awareness. As the saying goes, "You sleep on it."
We are more open to creative thoughts from the unknowing mind when we are not really thinking of anything. That is why daydreams are so useful in the search for creativity. Anytime you can just daydream and relax is useful in the creative process: a shower, long drives, a quiet walk, etc.
With luck, daydreaming will lead to a light turning on above your head, when all of a sudden the answer will come to you as if from nowhere. This is the popular stage—the one that usually gets all the glory and attention, the moment that people sweat and long for, the feeling "This is it!" But the thought alone is still not a creative act. The final stage is translation, when you take your creative thought and transform it into action; it becomes useful to you and others.
1.In Paragraph 1, “the moving of the creative spirit” probably means ________.
A. preparation B. exploration
C. problem-solving D. inspiration
2.According to the article, what keeps us from creativity?
A. Having less information to form a good idea.
B. Relying on others during the creative process.
C. Caring about other people’s opinions about us.
D. Thinking about too many ideas at the same time.
3.What can we learn from the fifth paragraph?
A. The unknowing mind is very difficult for us to understand.
B. Creativity arrives when we aren’t focused on anything.
C. Daydreaming is useless and has nothing to do with creativity.
D. Showers, long drives and quiet walk are good for our bodies.
4.When does creativity become useful to us and others?
A. When thought is turned into action.
B. When people understand our ideas.
C. When the popular stage is reached.
D. When we think “This is it!”.
5.Which of the following would the author probably support?
A. The creative spirit means an occasional great thought.
B. Others’ voice of judgment allows us to ignore barriers.
C. Creative problem-solving calls for barrier-free imagination.
D. Daydreaming is sure to bring a sudden answer to a problem.
